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[formerlybis]

29 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Your guess is pretty spot on.

Of the nine teams with more relief IP than the Brewers going back to May 26th the only other current playoff teams would be TBR (283 IP | 8th) and CHW (315 IP | 3rd).

This has kind of been the Brewers MO the last few years as they've transitioned out of the Burnes / Woodruff / Peralta trio into the new wave of young arms...

2020-23 Starters
2862 IP (5th) | 87 ERA- (2nd) | 90 FIP- (4th)
+19.09 WPA (3rd) | 55.4 rWAR (3rd) | 50.1 fWAR (3rd)
2020-23 Relievers
1979 IP (23rd) | 91 ERA- (8th) | 97 FIP- (11th)
+22.10 WPA (2nd) | 17.7 rWAR (7th) | 13.3 fWAR (12th)

2024-26 Starters
2101 IP (27th) | 90 ERA- (2nd) | 99 FIP- (14th)
+9.07 WPA (8th) | 40.0 rWAR (6th) | 31.2 fWAR (12th)
2024-26 Relievers
1673 IP (3rd) | 82 ERA- (2nd) | 90 FIP- (3rd)
+22.35 WPA (2nd) | 22.5 rWAR (1st) | 16.0 fWAR (3rd)

Kind of wild to consider how good the bullpen has been these last few years with such a heavy workload and a lower percentage of their innings coming from Hader/Williams than the 2020-23 editions.

Like many aspects of the Brewers it seems like regression should have already happened some time ago but they just keep on staving it off and improving as a whole year over year.

Purely subjectively (though seeing how you operate, this may inspire something backed up objectively), the Brewers seem to prefer a bullpen with multiple arms that can go multiple innings, some of them used as often as 3 times a week. I remember having multi-inning guys in the past - Hader was one for a while - but not the sheer depth of them that we have now. That starts with Patrick and Ashby, but we currently also have Anderson, Wilson, and McCullers, with DL Hall about to come back. That ability to use one pitcher for say, two innings, is really useful in managing workload.

[SoCalBrewfan]

I would almost go further than that.  In the olden days, it seemed to me that long relief was for really marginal pitchers whose only redeeming factor was a seeming rubber arm, who could sit for a few days without any action then pitch three innings on Saturday night and 2 2/3 more on Sunday morning.  These guys weren't necessarily good, but they ate innings in blowouts when needed. Thyago Vieira was kind of that guy for us for a while.

On the Brewers, when things are going as planned at least, the bulk inning relievers are more like featured performers, essential elements of the game plan, and the line between fifth starter and bulk guys is more fluid. There's not really a name for this role, and I think most teams lack the depth to pull it off consistently, but I think if you look that many of the better recent Brewers teams have had at least one Bryse Wilson or Brent Suter or Adrian Houser in that role. This year it's DL Hall, Chad Patrick, and Vulture Supreme Ashby. And that list of names shows that this role is not an afterthought; they've invested in those guys and they are valuable members of the team. 

This also tracks with many starters getting a stretch of time in long relief before taking a starting job for good. I don't follow other teams as closely as I used to, but this feels different than the way many teams approach things...it almost certainly wouldn't work without a good defense and an influx of under-appreciated depth arms. And it fits with other aspects of the team's approach. If you're going to minimize starters seeing a line up for the third time, and are running out a bunch of young starters, you are going to need those bulk guys available.

I don't know if it's an explicit strategy, but it feels like a concerted effort on the part of the Brewers to have as few innings as possible just thrown away. That keeps the team in games and leads to comeback wins like we've seen recently. It just feels like another one of those little edges that this team works to be successful.

[Playing Catch]

 

2 hours ago, SoCalBrewfan said:

There's not really a name for this role, and I think most teams lack the depth to pull it off consistently, but I think if you look that many of the better recent Brewers teams have had at least one Bryse Wilson or Brent Suter or Adrian Houser in that role. This year it's DL Hall, Chad Patrick, and Vulture Supreme Ashby.

Perhaps the "vulture" role should enter the lexicon.

[thebruce44]

I think we essentially have a soft piggyback system where our depth can be best utilized by having 3 starters in the pen that can frequently throw 2-3 innings.

I would also guess that we do openers more often than other teams. That could skew the data assuming it is not somehow factored in to Sveum's data.

[igor67]

I don't think we have done that many openers this year. Which feels a bit like that ongoing evolution with the players on hand. Getting to the point of having enough bullpen guys who can be effective going 2-3 innings wasn't easy since it is a very different role than the traditional bullpen. I'm curious of how much was intentional and how much was being opportunistic.

[Underachiever]

If your starters are only going five, you better have multiple inning guys. It seems like the evolution of the pen, nothing more. You had the old-style long relief guys because it was unusual for the starters to have a short outing. The long relief guy was there to wear one when the team had a short start due to ineffectiveness or injury. Now, it's essential.