Brewers Video
Pat Murphy talked in spring training about the value of flexible bullpen usage. With the starting rotation likely to cover fewer innings and Devin Williams hitting the shelf with stress fractures in his back, relievers needed to be ready to pitch in various situations to help the Brewers string together 27 outs each night.
Murphy has delivered on his promise of an all-hands-on-deck approach through the first three weeks of the season, but his usage tendencies for specific relievers have been loose to a fault. There is a difference between flexibility and a chaotic lack of direction, and Murphy’s bullpen management veers toward the latter.
In fairness to Murphy, he has been dealt an unfavorable hand. Short starts and injuries to Williams, Trevor Megill, Taylor Clarke, Wade Miley, and Jakob Junis have compromised the staff and forced relievers to absorb a heavy workload early in the season.
How Murphy distributes that workload, however, could be improved, and it starts with developing some ground rules for usage.
The Brewers have leaned on creative and aggressive bullpen usage in the past, but that approach still came with a few stipulations designed to maximize the group’s output over a 162-game season. High-leverage arms rarely pitched when the team was losing unless they needed work. Concentrated workloads were limited, particularly early in the season. As part of the Johnny Wholestaff approach, less-proven pitchers needed to cover innings.
Those guard rails were absent throughout the past several days. It started on Tuesday night when Joel Payamps, Abner Uribe, Elvis Peguero, and Hoby Milner all pitched with the Brewers down a handful of runs. Payamps, Uribe, and Peguero returned the following afternoon as part of a bullpen game, and Milner was warming up at one point.
That level of usage is pushing it this early in the season. Uribe threw 31 pitches on Tuesday and 14 more on Wednesday. Milner entered Wednesday having thrown 64 pitches in the previous four days and nearly threw more.
Murphy used high-leverage arms in a low-leverage game to preserve long reliever Bryse Wilson as his starter for Wednesday’s bullpen game. Tobias Myers, whom the Brewers promoted to provide length in that game, did not pitch. The club demoted him the following day.
On Friday, Murphy tried to alleviate the recent strain on his bullpen by asking Trevor Megill to convert a two-inning save in his return from the injured list. Megill’s 11-pitch eighth inning and the state of the other relievers made this a reasonable decision, but Murphy abruptly changed course once Megill issued a two-out walk. Joel Payamps started throwing, and Murphy brought him into the game after Megill allowed a base hit to Alec Burleson two pitches later.
Payamps’ first eight pitches demonstrated that he wasn’t ready to go. He hit Ivan Herrera with a slider to load the bases and issued a game-tying walk to Brendan Donovan before inducing a Paul Goldschmidt groundout to end the threat.
Murphy’s lack of commitment to either reliever in the inning created a messy situation. For Payamps to be ready at the first sign of trouble, he needed to be warming up at the start of the inning. While warmup pitches lack the intensity of in-game ones, they’re still part of a reliever’s workload.
There were two plausible directions for the ninth inning: ride or die with Megill or let Payamps start a clean inning. Instead of choosing a direction, Murphy played it in the middle. He revealed after the game that Megill was on a 30-pitch limit; if that was the case, giving the ninth to Payamps was probably the best route.
Murphy was unnecessarily aggressive with his bullpen usage yet again on Saturday, calling on Uribe for 30 pitches in a multi-inning outing with the Brewers leading by six runs. That brought Uribe’s pitch count to 88 in seven days.
The awkward workload delegation stems partially from the rotation averaging an MLB-worst 4 ⅔ innings per start, but Murphy’s hesitancy to trust his lesser relievers is also a catalyst.
Myers, who has pitched as a starter in Nashville, was on hand Wednesday to fortify the staff with length. Instead, his presence rendered the group shorthanded for two days when Murphy preferred Wilson as his starter and avoided using Myers. It helped the Brewers in the short term, as the high-leverage unit combined to shut out the Padres. However, similar decisions in future games will negatively affect the bullpen’s long-term health and effectiveness.
Murphy has also relegated Thyago Vieira to a stretched-out garbage time role. Vieira has thrown 50 and 45 pitches in two of his five appearances, respectively. That’s more than he’s accustomed to as a high-leverage pitcher in the minor leagues and overseas. It also thins the bullpen for a few days while he recovers. The workload balance in the bullpen would be better if Vieira pitched more frequently in medium-leverage situations.
Managing a big-league pitching staff isn’t easy, especially one with as many moving parts as the Brewers have. Still, Murphy must better apportion innings moving forward. That starts with setting boundaries and trusting the back half of the bullpen.
Follow Brewer Fanatic For Milwaukee Brewers News & Analysis
-
2
-
1
-
1
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now