Grading the 2022 Brewers

[14thinningwalkoff]

Long time lurker, first time poster, hi Brewers fans. I felt the need to write something to close the book and move on from this season. I realize a lot of folks here are feeling pretty down on this season, myself included, but I tried to be fair in my grades. Would enjoy reading others' grades if you'd like to reply with them.

A  Corbin Burnes 199 IP, 2.98 ERA, slight regression from last year but still all-around all-star performance
A  Devin Williams 60 IP, 1.93 ERA, 15 SV went over 2 months without giving up a run
A- Brandon Woodruff 153 IP, 3.05 ERA, some injuries led to lower IP, slight regression from 2021 but overall very solid year

B  Willy Adames 31 HR and solid defense, offset by terrible .297 OBP and a team-high 165 Ks
B  Hunter Renfroe team-leading .814 OPS, 29 HR, it’s a miracle we got Renfroe for JBJ, one of the bright spot of the season
B  Jace Peterson 2+ WAR in 320 PAs is pretty impressive, by far the best year of his career, unfortunately missed some time due to injury
B-  Garrett Mitchell .296 AVG (fueled by an extremely lucky .556 BABIP) had some big hits, hopefully the start of a stretch as a solid outfielder in Milwaukee
B- Kolten Wong not the gold glove 2B he once was, average fielding, average bat, made for a pretty average year
B- Freddy Peralta 78 IP, 3.58 ERA, 3.06 FIP, less BBs but also less K’s vs. 2021, injuries really limited Peralta this year

C+ Relief Pitchers not named Devin nor involved in the Trade Deadline. lots of average bullpen arms, not as reliable holding the lead as some recent years’ Brewers bullpens
C+ Luis Urias league average hitter, serviceable utility infielder
C+ Tyrone Taylor struggled to get on base (.284 OBP), league average hitter, solid D in CF
C  Eric Lauer 152 IP, 3.83 ERA, 4.56 FIP, about league average 103 ERA+
C  Aaron Ashby 104 IP, 4.49 ERA slightly worse than 2021 across WHIP, FIP, K/BB, expecting more improvement
C Mike Brosseau .778 OPS, unremarkable defense, serviceable utility infielder
C- Keston Hiura .769 OPS, 14 HR in 226 AB, fun fact: was on pace for over 300 K’s if he would have had as many ABs as Yelich this season. Saw flashes of power from Hiura, but it seems like his days in Milwaukee may be numbered striking out 42% of the time
C- Craig Counsell many will criticize CC’s bullpen management, but he wasn’t exactly gifted the plethora of solid bullpen options of past seasons. Have to question some lineup decisions down the stretch (McCutchen over Hiura at DH, lack of playing time for Mitchell)
C- Rowdy Tellez team-leading 34 HR, .763 OPS, but also .219 AVG and not great in the field by most measures

D+ Christian Yelich .254 AVG, .742 OPS nearly a 60% ground ball rate. not the worst hitter on the team by any means, but quite possibly the most disappointing given he’s on the books for $26 million this year, and the next 6 seasons too. expected more from the team leader.
D  Jason Alexander 71 IP, 5.40 ERA ate some innings, not much else to say
D  Adrian Houser 102 IP, 4.73 ERA pretty big decline vs last 2 full seasons (’19, ’21 ERA was a full run lower)
D  Victor Caratini .197 AVG, .636 OPS
D- Omar Narvaez .209 AVG, .606 OPS rough year at the plate. Fielding metrics are mixed on Narvaez in 2022
D- Jonathan Davis .581 OPS but made a couple nice catches
D- Josh Hader 4.24 ERA, 29 SV (in 4 months) a tale of two (three?) seasons? Classic Hader for 2+ months with a 0 ERA through 19 games. Then threw BP for 2 months, got traded, threw some more BP, almost letting the Brewers get back into the Wild Card, and now looking pretty sharp again, unfortunately for the wrong team.

F Andrew McCutchen .237 AVG, .700 OPS it’s not his fault CC had him in the lineup way too often. Had one job, to crush lefties, instead hit .221 vs LHP
F  Pedro Severino got caught juicing, played 8 games, got cut
F  David Stearns entering the 2022 season with arguably the best rotation in MLB and a top-5 bullpen, failed to improve the team meaningfully in any way before and during the season. Led arguably the worst trade deadline in recent memory. Traded Hader at career-low value, killed team chemistry, while getting a worse reliever (Rogers) in return, cut the best reliever of the bunch (Lamet), traded for another useless reliever (Bush), and added zero help to a struggling offense. Brewers likely get the Wild Card if Stearns just did nothing at the deadline. Now we pray for Ruiz and Gasser to turn into valuable building blocks for the future.
F  Taylor Rogers 23 IP, 5.48 ERA should have taken an extra prospect in the Hader trade instead
F  Matt Bush 23 IP, 4.30 ERA, 5.15 FIP 2022 Bush fun fact: .422 OPS against in low leverage situations, .751 OPS against in high leverage situations
F- Lorenzo Cain .179 AVG, .465 OPS, 34 OPS+, embarrassing season, complained about a lack of respect from the team. When you don’t match JBJ’s output, not much respect is deserved. Thanks for 2018 Lo Cain, we won’t be missing you.