Starting Pitching Galore

[edfunderburk]

We have 10+ quality starting pitchers once everyone is healthy. 

Majors: Peralta, Patrick, Civale, Quintana, Priester - plus Ashby & Hall

Minors: Myers, Henderson, Misiorowski, Woodruff

IL: Cortez, Gasser, Rodriguez (I hope he didn’t severely injure himself by pitching after a two-hour rain delay last week)

Am I missing anyone else? 

Does Woodruff - based on previous MLB success - bring / add > value to the starting rotation than Patrick? I don’t believe he does … & I’m a HUGE Woody fan. 

[Frisbee Slider]

19 hours ago, edfunderburk said:

Does Woodruff - based on previous MLB success - bring / add > value to the starting rotation than Patrick? I don’t believe he does … & I’m a HUGE Woody fan. 

My hope is Woodruff brings a veteran excitement to the clubhouse and continues to galvanize the team. Not exactly replacing the Adames clubhouse presence but more of a ‘let’s win for Woodruff’ he worked hard to recover from injury and has been a Brewer longer than anyone else on the roster.

[endaround]

22 hours ago, edfunderburk said:

We have 10+ quality starting pitchers once everyone is healthy. 

Majors: Peralta, Patrick, Civale, Quintana, Priester - plus Ashby & Hall

Minors: Myers, Henderson, Misiorowski, Woodruff

IL: Cortez, Gasser, Rodriguez (I hope he didn’t severely injure himself by pitching after a two-hour rain delay last week)

Am I missing anyone else? 

Does Woodruff - based on previous MLB success - bring / add > value to the starting rotation than Patrick? I don’t believe he does … & I’m a HUGE Woody fan. 

"Quality" is covering a lot of holes.  Civale and Quintana are #5 starters. Priester is replacement level. I think the assumption is Ashby is an emergency starter only.  Hall is unknown.

Myers is not doing well in AAA. 

Cortes is unlikely going to be ready until August (a healthy Cortes would have been great this season, but a healthy Cortes seems to be an every other year thing).

Gasser doesn't seem that close to returning.

The Brewers seem to see Rodriguez as a 8th starter that can be moved up and down as needed.  I don't know what will happen to him once he is out of options.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I think this is where pitching in general is headed in today's MLB - it's not about fielding a 5 man rotation of overpriced veteran "aces", as much as it's carrying a boatload of arms on the 40 man that can get through the batting order 2-2.5 times over 5 innings, most of who happen to be in early stages of arbitration if they aren't elite pre-arby talents, and then churn through the pile of #4-#5 starters as they either get injured or ineffective without worrying too much about options or years left of team control.

Spent the capital to bring in a veteran ace and odds are you're the DBacks this morning with Burnes, or the Dodgers (who have money to burn but the pitching staff they have on the IL right now probably has a higher payroll than the entire Brewers' roster)

[StearnsFTW]

41 minutes ago, endaround said:

"Quality" is covering a lot of holes.  Civale and Quintana are #5 starters. Priester is replacement level. I think the assumption is Ashby is an emergency starter only.  Hall is unknown.

Myers is not doing well in AAA. 

Cortes is unlikely going to be ready until August (a healthy Cortes would have been great this season, but a healthy Cortes seems to be an every other year thing).

Gasser doesn't seem that close to returning.

The Brewers seem to see Rodriguez as a 8th starter that can be moved up and down as needed.  I don't know what will happen to him once he is out of options.

Mostly agree with this.  I think you're short-changing Quintana and Civale a little.

I'm personally hoping the rotation in August will be Peralta/Woodruff/Quintana/Civale/Patrick with Henderson et al as depth.

 

[Playing Catch]

23 hours ago, edfunderburk said:

Am I missing anyone else? 

They are merely additions at the end of your list, but if someone from the future told me Coleman Crow and/or K.C. Hunt got a couple of Major League starts in August/September, I would wonder what happened to the guys ahead of them, but I wouldn't be surprised that they had earned the opportunity.

[CheezWizHed]

I think we have a lot of quality depth, but lacking on high end talent. Woody does of course, but the likelihood of him showing it this year is probably low.  If you get a 3.5-4.0 ERA from Woody, we should probably be happy.  Les Mis has the high-end capability, but I doubt you see him this year as a starter.  Freddy is a classic #2.  Always available, steady results of good-not-great, 

Much of our SP results are buoyed by the fact that we don't push them to finish 6 IP very often.  That puts extra pressure on the BP.  That normally pays some consequences late in the season. 

23 minutes ago, Playing Catch said:

They are merely additions at the end of your list, but if someone from the future told me Coleman Crow and/or K.C. Hunt got a couple of Major League starts in August/September, I would wonder what happened to the guys ahead of them, but I wouldn't be surprised that they had earned the opportunity.

That is highly optimistic. I'd be happy to see them earn AAA for next year.  

[liveforoctober]

On 6/1/2025 at 11:02 AM, edfunderburk said:

Am I missing anyone else? 

Wade Miley.

[Jim French Stepstool]

10 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

11 hours ago, Playing Catch said:

They are merely additions at the end of your list, but if someone from the future told me Coleman Crow and/or K.C. Hunt got a couple of Major League starts in August/September, I would wonder what happened to the guys ahead of them, but I wouldn't be surprised that they had earned the opportunity.

 

I agree with @CheezWizHed. I was happy when they acquired Crow, and Hunt has caught my attention. But especially with Crow having the long layoff I think they're both earmarked for AAA in '26, then go from there.

No one knows what 5-6 people emerge from the starters' list. My main hope is that we can get to the point where we're getting 5.1, 5.2, 6 innings out of guys a little more consistently. Getting six from Priester & Patrick back-to-back was a beautiful thing; it led to Quintana only going five on Sunday being just fine.

I guess that's my big hope for Woodruff---if he can settle in to going six & giving up 2 or 3 runs, maybe less as he gets more comfortable.

[Turning2]

2 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

I think we have a lot of quality depth, but lacking on high end talent. Woody does of course, but the likelihood of him showing it this year is probably low.  If you get a 3.5-4.0 ERA from Woody, we should probably be happy.  Les Mis has the high-end capability, but I doubt you see him this year as a starter.  Freddy is a classic #2.  Always available, steady results of good-not-great, 

Much of our SP results are buoyed by the fact that we don't push them to finish 6 IP very often.  That puts extra pressure on the BP.  That normally pays some consequences late in the season. 

That is highly optimistic. I'd be happy to see them earn AAA for next year.  

Agreed. They have an effective, patchwork collection of largely no names. Perralta has performed to his ceiling, admirably so, in my opinion. But nobody is going to confuse him with the classic definition of an ace. Woody is probably going to disappoint a lot of casual fans with inflated expectations of him picking up where he left off without missing a beat. Nonetheless, they have a pool of young, intriguing arms getting critical experience at the top level who could become that high end talent. Patrick, Henderson, Myers, and then Misiorowski right around the corner... somebody is going to be the next Burnes and /or Woody hopefully.

[sveumrules]

4 hours ago, endaround said:

Civale and Quintana are #5 starters.

Civale and Quintana are two of only 66 pitchers with at least 500 IP since 2021.

I think they both qualify as dependable veteran innings eaters which makes someone more of a back end three or solid four in today's starting pitching hellscape.

Quintana has a 90 ERA- | 96 FIP- over that stretch. If that is a #5 I'll take five of them.

Civale hasn't been quite impressive peripherally with a 94 ERA- | 125 FIP- since joining the Brewers, but has still kept runs off the board at an above average rate. Hard for me to call that a #5.

Going back to that 2021-25 leaderboard and lowering the IP threshold to 350 gets 137 pitchers (almost five per team), Quintana is 59th with 8.9 rWAR and Civale is 76th with 7.0 rWAR.

[Underachiever]

Would you take your chances if: 

Every game, your start goes 6 innings, and gives up 3 earned runs. In other words, what was once called a quality start. 
 

Every starter would have a 4.50 ERA. Would you take that? Would that be considered a bunch of number 5 starters? In my mind, it means the team is in every game going to the late innings. I would take that.

[liveforoctober]

It's an odd thing to think about now given the plethora now but the Brewers still might be in the market for another arm at some point.

Civale, Myers, Quintana, Woodruff, Cortes, Ashby, Hall, Gasser* all coming off of injuries.

Then you have to assume there is an innings restriction to varying degrees on the rest of Patrick, Henderson, Mis, Carlos (IL), Hall, Gasser*, possibly Priester and Ashby as well.

Right now it seems we have about a dozen arms at our disposal but when it is Oct 1st how many will we have left? I'm not sure how many of the young guys will be available to us.

We truly only have one starter who doesn't fall into the 'hurt' or 'limited' category... it wouldn't shock me in the least if we grab a vet along the Wade Miley lines and send him to Nashville with the vision of how he could be needed later.

[wiguy94]

17 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

It's an odd thing to think about now given the plethora now but the Brewers still might be in the market for another arm at some point.

Civale, Myers, Quintana, Woodruff, Cortes, Ashby, Hall, Gasser* all coming off of injuries.

Then you have to assume there is an innings restriction to varying degrees on the rest of Patrick, Henderson, Mis, Carlos (IL), Hall, Gasser*, possibly Priester and Ashby as well.

Right now it seems we have about a dozen arms at our disposal but when it is Oct 1st how many will we have left? I'm not sure how many of the young guys will be available to us.

We truly only have one starter who doesn't fall into the 'hurt' or 'limited' category... it wouldn't shock me in the least if we grab a vet along the Wade Miley lines and send him to Nashville with the vision of how he could be needed later.

For the type of pitchers they are, Patrick and Priester are not going to have an innings limit that impacts them. Patrick has thrown 124 and 136 innings the last two seasons. Priester has thrown 158 and 122 innings the last two seasons. These are both guys who likely end up around 150-170 innings on the season which is an acceptable jump from their previous workloads.

[edfunderburk]

4 hours ago, endaround said:

The Brewers seem to see Rodriguez as a 8th starter that can be moved up and down as needed.  I don't know what will happen to him once he is out of options.

Wasn’t he pulled from his last AAA start due to injury? 

What is the nature & diagnosis of his injury?

[edfunderburk]

4 hours ago, endaround said:

"Quality" is covering a lot of holes.  Civale and Quintana are #5 starters. Priester is replacement level. I think the assumption is Ashby is an emergency starter only.  Hall is unknown.

Myers is not doing well in AAA. 

Cortes is unlikely going to be ready until August (a healthy Cortes would have been great this season, but a healthy Cortes seems to be an every other year thing).

Gasser doesn't seem that close to returning.

The Brewers seem to see Rodriguez as a 8th starter that can be moved up and down as needed.  I don't know what will happen to him once he is out of options.

Everything you wrote is probably accurate … but it seems highly pessimistic too.

And that’s coming from someone who is not known for positivity on this board. 😏

[edfunderburk]

4 hours ago, endaround said:

Myers is not doing well in AAA.

That makes me super sad … he had such a remarkable 2024 … I hope he wasn’t a “one year wonder”

[edfunderburk]

51 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Quintana has a 90 ERA- | 96 FIP- over that stretch. If that is a #5 I'll take five of them.

💪👏🙌🏼

[Samurai Bucky]

Doesn't having a 8+ starting pitchers on the 40-man roster mean that the younger guys have to have a lot of options left?  My hope is that we get the young guys to push 7 innings by filling the zone and having a good whiff rate.  That would be cool.

[rickh150]

A few more takes and jabs…

The Brewers are totally delaying bringing Woodruff up….they know they remarkably have better options. Has anyone been nursed back from injury in such a long drawn out way before in Brewers history? Especially a SP making $18 mill? I know he needs time to throw after major shoulder surgery, but they are seemingly gladly delaying this out. No rush. No hurry. Maybe even no need?  Again, the only way I see this deal being worthwhile is if he wins a playoff game as a starter.  Crazy use of money for a small market team…huge risk.

Brewers have to be ecstatic to have Hall AND, wow and Ashby throwing middle relief again. Multiple innings, 2 lefty options at lefty hitters in middle inning rally times. Just so wow to have that to pair with the back of our pen.

Trading a starter or two is not out of the question in order to get a veteran 3B bat.  Teams falling out of contention looking to restock arms deals veteran bat…..seems about right.  

And Hiura got a hit tonight…..no surprise.  😳 

 

[Frisbee Slider]

8 hours ago, rickh150 said:

Crazy use of money for a small market team…huge risk.

Brewers have rarely minded taking some risks on short term deals. 
It’s the $180+ million long term deals we avoid. 

[Playing Catch]

21 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

That is highly optimistic. I'd be happy to see them earn AAA for next year. 

One team's optimism is another team's desperation. Far lesser performers have been called up from AA to pitch in the big leagues. I was merely highlighting the starting pitching depth in the organization, not suggesting that it would be a good idea for the club to bring them up to the Show.

10 hours ago, rickh150 said:

The Brewers are totally delaying bringing Woodruff up

Perhaps. The Brewers often seem to be up to roster shenanigans. Although, I don't know if it is any different in other organizations.

I suspect the ankle is a phantom injury, too. I think they wanted to give him more time to feel strong, and feel like he's at his best before coming back. They had to remove him from the 60-day due to his rehab assignment expiring. A mild ankle sprain says to me that the org merely is controlling for his quality of stuff now, or quantity of innings later. Either way, probably a prudent decision.

[Austin Tatious]

There are some quality prospects at lower levels too. Tyson Hardin, Meccage, Bishop Letson and some others look like they’ve got very good potential.  I’d probably put all three in my top 20.  

[CheezWizHed]

On 6/3/2025 at 8:38 AM, Playing Catch said:

One team's optimism is another team's desperation. Far lesser performers have been called up from AA to pitch in the big leagues. I was merely highlighting the starting pitching depth in the organization, not suggesting that it would be a good idea for the club to bring them up to the Show.

Perhaps. The Brewers often seem to be up to roster shenanigans. Although, I don't know if it is any different in other organizations.

I suspect the ankle is a phantom injury, too. I think they wanted to give him more time to feel strong, and feel like he's at his best before coming back. They had to remove him from the 60-day due to his rehab assignment expiring. A mild ankle sprain says to me that the org merely is controlling for his quality of stuff now, or quantity of innings later. Either way, probably a prudent decision.

Unlikely. The Brewers are far more prone to bring up a AAAA get-me-by SP than pull up someone from AA.  And neither Hunt nor Crow are even that high up the food chain. Every team has players at that "level" of SP at AA. 

[rickh150]

Now this line backer….they can put Woodruff off until July.