Article: Relax. Have a Cold One. The Bullpen is Fine.

[Kyle Ginsbach]

For the last half decade fans and analysts alike have listed the Brewers bullpen as an area of strength, and potential catalyst of their success. Without much of a second thought, this expectation carried into the current season. The results have been mixed. But fans shouldn't worry. 

Prior to Wednesday's game against the Phillies, the Brewers pen was at 10th overall in both ERA and WHIP, and in that same area for home runs and walks surrendered. Statistically speaking, this may sound like business as usual for the Brewers. But if you had to pick two adjectives to describe the relief performances this year, both “strong” and “inconsistent” may come to mind.

 In terms of volume, manager Craig Counsell’s usage of the bullpen has been lower than most might expect, even with all the injuries to starters. In fact, they’ve only logged 200.2 innings as of June 8th, which places the Brewers bullpen usage in the bottom third of the league. 

Early in the season, the Crew took a big blow to the middle relief core when Jake Cousins went down with an elbow injury, where he currently sits on the 60-Day IL. Players like Jandel Gustave and J.C. Mejía (see below) failed to provide the value the Brewers hoped for one way or another, and neither currently find themselves on the big league roster. When more innings were demanded from the bullpen, Trevor Kelly and Peter Strzelecki earned unexpected call-ups, and produced undesirable results. Even Brewers veteran Brent Suter, who the Brewers have relied on in the past to eat innings, has been shaky, posting an earned run average north of 5. 

Unsurprisingly though, the backend of the bullpen has remained as strong as ever. Josh Hader has continued his historical dominance, converting 18/19 save chances, all while only surrendering runs in one of those appearances. And even though his outings have been stressful, Devin Williams and the aptly named “airbender” have continued to lock up the 8th inning. Even Brad Boxberger, the Brewers leader in innings the past season, has pitched well in his 7th inning role. Newcomer Trevor Gott has also turned in solid work at points. 

Is there any reason for worry here? Probably not. There truly hasn't been any real cause for concern. Injuries and bad relief appearances happen. And although the bullpen is still a strength, it isn’t in the same way it was 4 years ago. You aren’t going to see 5+ innings of scoreless relief anywhere near the commonality that there was 2018. The 2022 Brewers team can rely on their starters to go into the 6th and 7th inning, and shouldn’t have to rely on overwhelming depth. The strength isn't in quantity, it's in the quality.

In case you need more proof, take a look at Josh Hader’s statcast statistics compared to his previous seasons. If you ever needed any proof of his dominance, these could easily serve as evidence for his best season ever.

Statistics via Baseball Savant, accessed 6/08/2022

So, you can scratch the 9th inning off your worries. Heck, you can probably safely scratch off the 7th and 8th inning while you're at it, as both  Devin Williams and Brad Boxberger's work over the past year and a half should speak for itself. If you do this, the big picture becomes clear. Whether it's Burnes, Woodruff, Peralta, Lauer, Ashby, or Houser starting on any given night, if they can turn in 5-6 innings of quality work, the team is left with a maximum of 3 outs to worry about from the other 4 relievers in the pen. So you wanted to know what to make of the Brewers pen? I wouldn't worry, It's fitting right where it needs to.

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[BruisedCrew]

The timing of this article is unfortunate.

Especially this sentence:

”The 2022 Brewers team can rely on their starters to go into the 6th and 7th inning and shouldn’t have to rely on overwhelming depth”.

With Peralta out for at least a couple more months, and Woodruff’s stay on the IL becoming significantly longer than expected, the starters aren’t covering the innings needed to get by without a deep bullpen. And that lack of depth is showing as deficits in the middle innings are turning into blowout losses. Several recent short starts from Burnes, Houser, and Lauer have put more strain on the bullpen. 
 

Good late inning relievers are pretty much wasted on a team that can’t take a lead into the late innings. 
 

Throw in an offense that has been the second worst in the NL since early May (better than only the Pirates) and the Brewers house of cards is collapsing. The Brewers don’t have many games where they score enough runs to take a comfortable lead into the late innings, so the lack of depth becomes more problematic if the same relievers are needed to finish almost every win. 
 

The bullpen might not be the Brewers biggest problem, but it shares some responsibility along with starting pitching, hitting, and defense for the recent slide. 

[BruisedCrew]

The timing of this article is unfortunate.

Especially this sentence:

”The 2022 Brewers team can rely on their starters to go into the 6th and 7th inning and shouldn’t have to rely on overwhelming depth”.

With Peralta out for at least a couple more months, and Woodruff’s stay on the IL becoming significantly longer than expected, the starters aren’t covering the innings needed to get by without a deep bullpen. And that lack of depth is showing as deficits in the middle innings are turning into blowout losses. Several recent short starts from Burnes, Houser, and Lauer have put more strain on the bullpen. 
 

Good late inning relievers are pretty much wasted on a team that can’t take a lead into the late innings. 
 

Throw in an offense that has been the second worst in the NL since early May (better than only the Pirates) and the Brewers house of cards is collapsing. The Brewers don’t have many games where they score enough runs to take a comfortable lead into the late innings, so the lack of depth becomes more problematic if the same relievers are needed to finish almost every win. 
 

The bullpen might not be the Brewers biggest problem, but it shares some responsibility along with starting pitching, hitting, and defense for the recent slide.