Game Thread (8/21/2022): Brewers (Woodruff) at Cubs (Steele) - 1:20 PM CDT

[Nola Beery]

1 hour ago, HarryDoyle said:

And the Brewers finish with a tidy 2-7 against the Cubs, Reds and Pirates in their last 9.

Yeah. Not good. But better that 1-8! 

 woot

[BruisedCrew]

32 minutes ago, yourout said:

Good stuff......If you could pick any pitcher in the MLB for a game 7 who would you choose?

Healthy deGrom. When he is on there’s nobody like him. 

[BruisedCrew]

52 minutes ago, Brewcrew82 said:

As long as your argument isn't that Burnes isn't an ace, I can see wanting more from Woodruff, specifically as it relates to this season. However, Woody's numbers since coming off the IL are certainly ace-like and he's gone 6/7 innings in all but three of his outings, with one being his dominant start against the Rays where he was on a strict pitch limit. 

As regards Scherzer, yes he's been dominant since coming off the IL. But he's in a different historical class to begin with, and Woodruff's numbers since he came off the IL aren't even that far off from his. That's why you have to look at the whole picture, which the Fangraphs chart I highlighted does. Scherzer is not listed because he doesn't qualify due to injury, but if he did, he would rank 4th with Nola. Either way, there's room in the game for multiple aces, and virtually every baseball analyst would agree that Burnes, Scherzer, and Woodruff are all aces. 

So, it sounds like your biggest beef is over the semantics and label of whether a pitcher is an “ace” or not. I’m not going to get deep into that other than to say that, regardless of what analysts call them, not all pitchers that analysts might call “aces” are created equal. Any more than all Hall of Famers are equal just because they share the same label. But, if it will make you feel better I will call Woodruff an ace before I criticize him for not being able to complete 6 innings in consecutive starts.

I will say that that I disagree with your comment that Woodruff’s performance since coming off the IL is not that far from Scherzer’s. The differences may not be huge, but I think they are pretty significant.

Specifically, your statement about Woodruff going  “6/7 innings in all but 3 starts” suggests that there is no significant difference between going 6 or 7 innings, so let’s lump them together. Woodruff has only gone 7 full innings once and Scherzer did it 3 times, and never went less than a full 6. IMHO that is a pretty big difference. A starter who can go 7 innings as opposed to 6 in a close game is both leaving it up to only 2 pitchers instead of 3 who can blow the game with a bad outing, and keeping one more reliever fresh if you need him tomorrow.

Scherzer also has an ERA of 1.83 in his 9 starts compared to Woodruff’s 2.53. More importantly, Scherzer has had 3 starts of the 9 giving up no runs; Woodruff has had 1. For a team that has trouble scoring I think you would agree that 1 run can make a big difference