Jack Stern

A break from pitching in games could physically benefit one of the Brewers' best relievers, but he may be past the point of recapturing that freshness this year. Image courtesy of © Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images The Brewers shook up their bullpen on Tuesday, and optioning Bryan Hudson to Triple-A was the club’s most noteworthy move. Hudson has been an invaluable multi-inning weapon for Pat Murphy, often functioning as a bridge between short starts and the back end of the bullpen. Of his 43 appearances, 24 have spanned more than one inning, and he owns a 1.73 ERA in 62 ⅓ innings. However, the Brewers saw signs in recent weeks that Hudson is not as crisp as he was early on, and that he could benefit from some time away. “We haven’t exactly liked everything we’ve seen about how the ball’s coming out and how he’s responding, that type of thing,” said Pat Murphy, who indicated that Hudson will get time off from throwing in games while in Nashville. “When you just look at the actual stuff that’s going on, we hope that we can get him a little refresher and get him back to where he was earlier in the season.” Hudson's run prevention has still been solid after the All-Star break, but he has not been nearly the same pitcher he was in his fresher days. His strikeout and whiff rates have plummeted, and he’s issuing more walks. Hudson is neither getting the same kind of takes nor inducing the same kind of swings as he was until mid-July. Split IP ERA FIP SIERA Whiff% CSW% K% BB% First Half 48.1 1.49 3.53 2.88 23.1% 30.0% 29.3% 6.6% Second Half 14.0 2.57 3.89 4.74 15.4% 22.1% 18.0% 10.0% Even without scouring all the numbers, watching Hudson pitch in recent weeks was enough to deduce that things were not quite right. The Brewers saw it. Hudson’s diminished fastball has garnered the most public attention. The pitch’s success stems mainly from the deceptive combination of Hudson’s funky arm slot, elite extension, and ability to locate it up in the zone, so its pure velocity is often misleading. Still, it raised eyebrows when that velocity dipped slightly leading into the break, and continued to fall when the season resumed. Hudson’s fastball averaged 89.1 mph, and dropped as low as 87.4 mph on Jul. 23 against the Cubs. He hit the injured list four days later with a minor oblique strain. The hope was that a week off would be a blessing in disguise, and Hudson would return good as new. The immediate returns looked promising, but faded quickly. Hudson’s fastball averaged 91.1 mph in his return outing, but that average dipped below 90 mph in each of the last four outings preceding his reassignment to Triple-A. Hudon’s fastball is not the primary concern, though. It’s his sweeper. Whereas his fastball has lost a couple of ticks over time, his breaking ball velocity has fallen nearly 5 mph from its peak in June. Hudson has appeared unable to throw the sweeper with full conviction for months. It was his go-to secondary offering in the first half, and the most lethal weapon in his arsenal. He has since limited his usage of the pitch, and turned to his cutter more often to compensate. When Hudson does throw his sweeper, it’s not the same pitch it was a few months ago. Its Stuff+ grade (based on physical characteristics that include velocity, movement, release point and spin) was 113 in the first half. It’s 79 in the second half. The Brewers want to get Hudson closer to his early-season form. Whether that’s genuinely attainable at this stage of the season is uncertain. While this is Hudson’s first official “refresher” of the year, it’s his third reset period since July. The first two were unsuccessful. Hudson looked worn down when the All-Star break arrived. He continued to look worn down after the break, and after his stint on the injured list. At this point, it’s fair to wonder how much Hudson has left in the tank for this year. He surpassed his innings total from last season in his most recent outing. His unusual delivery takes a toll on his large frame. Murphy has alluded multiple times to his physical struggles in recovering from appearances. The hope is that Hudson’s reset attempt in Nashville will restore him, physically, for the final weeks of the regular season and into October. It’s possible that he is past the point of recapturing that status in 2024. The Brewers will soon find out whether that’s the case, and the answer will impact how they construct their playoff bullpen. View full article

When the Brewers acquired the veteran starter, the expectation was that they would emphasize his pitchability. They've gone a step beyond that, by helping him add another pitch to what was already a deep arsenal. Image courtesy of © benny sieu-usa today sports When the Brewers acquired Aaron Civale from the Tampa Bay Rays in early July, he looked like a great fit for their run-prevention system. Not only could Milwaukee’s elite defense nudge his results in a positive direction, but its pitching development crew was welcoming the kind of makeup it has repeatedly developed into sources of solid bulk innings. Civale joined the club with a six-pitch mix that featured three distinct fastballs; a pair of breaking balls with plus movement; and a splitter. Fast-forward a few months, and things are playing out as hoped. None of Civale’s peripherals have meaningfully improved, but his BABIP has dropped from .312 as a Ray to .257 as a Brewer. On the pitch mix front, the Brewers have not just emphasized his mix-and-match profile. They have also expanded it. When the team was on the road in Atlanta, Civale had what he described as an “in-depth dive” with members of Milwaukee’s pitching development team. They wanted him to reintroduce a harder, shorter slider into his arsenal. “I think it’s something that, internally, is a pitch that the Brewers’ system liked and something that can serve a purpose,” Civale said. “So it’s something that we’ve just been messing with the last few weeks. It’s not necessarily brand new, but just another thing to mix into what we’ve been working on.” Civale had thrown the shorter slider in past seasons, but seldom used it. This year with the Rays, he traded it for a bigger sweeper that became a prominent part of his arsenal. The sweeper averages 17.2 inches of horizontal break, and regularly exceeds 20 inches. It also separates itself from Civale’s curveball, which sweeps 13.4 inches laterally and drops nearly 65 inches. Both breaking balls have elite movement. The Brewers identified a drawback to only having sweeping breaking pitches to pair with Civale’s trio of fastballs. They felt his pitches were not playing off each other as well as they could due to the big movement. “He was getting so shape-oriented – ‘How big can I make it?’ – and none of his pitches tracked in the strike zone,” said pitching coach Chris Hook. “It just put him at a disadvantage.” Covering an array of shapes with a deep arsenal like Civale does is desirable, but one could argue that his big breaking balls had too much separation from his fastballs. The horizontal break on his sweeper differs more than two-and-a-half feet (nearly 32 inches) from his two-seamer and almost two feet (21.6 inches) from his cutter. When the discrepancy is that dramatic, some hitters can spot the separation and recognize the pitch earlier in its flight to the plate. The Brewers want that identification to occur as late as possible. “There’s some advantages to having great pitches that move,” Hook said, “but I think it’s a great advantage if your pitches all look the same and move in different ways. That’s the bottom line.” In that sense, the shorter slider was the missing link for Civale. It bridges the movement gap between his cutter and sweeper, and tunnels better than the sweeper with a comeback two-seamer. The pitch break graphs below visualize the slider’s impact. Notice how it fills the once-open space between Civale’s cutter and sweeper. “He’s got a short, medium, and long,” Hook said. “That’s kind of how we look at his pitches that go left, you know what I mean? It’s a short, medium, long with the cutter, the slider, and now the sweeper.” Civale unveiled the shorter slider on Aug. 9, in his first start after that discussion in Atlanta. He’s since used a balanced mix of curveballs, sweepers, and sliders. It’s too early to read heavily into the results, but the initial signs are promising. After slugging .488 with a 10.6% barrel rate against Civale’s bigger breaking balls through Aug. 3, opponents are slugging .208 with no barrels off a breaker since he added the slider. Those numbers could easily change after one outing, due to the small sample. Regardless of the long-term outcome, the change is the latest example of Milwaukee’s pitching development brass optimizing a pitcher’s strengths. Civale’s greatest attribute is mixing speeds, shapes, and locations. While the shorter slider is unlikely to become one of his most prominent pitches, showing it throughout an outing makes it even harder to cover his wide range of pitches and opens up more sequencing options. “He can do it naturally.” Hook said of Civale’s ability to manipulate the baseball. “I think he’s doing more things that look similar ... Now I feel like he’s in a better position to do that, and I think his headspace is good.” Civale is controlled through the 2025 season. Getting him to his most deceptive form could pay off for the Brewers beyond just this year. View full article

The Brewers have overcome absences from critical players all season. After perhaps its greatest loss yet, the club is surging. Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports Hours after his three-hole hitter underwent season-ending back surgery, Pat Murphy was asked about the ripple effects Christian Yelich’s absence could have on his remaining hitters. “They feel it,” Murphy said of the pressure imparted by losing a lineup cornerstone. “You can see it every once in a while, where they’re trying to [force] it.” He steered the rest of his answer down a familiar road. Murphy likes to strip away the noise and boil his team’s mentality down to the fundamentals, no matter the context. It’s a reason why the Brewers have thrived in the face of adversity all season. “Our game works in order,” he said. “What I mean by that is, yeah, you want to be the guy to get the big hit, but if the game deals you a ball seven inches away, you got to meet it halfway and say, ‘Okay, thank you. Ball four.’ It’s really tough on those guys to not take on more than they can and just stay within themselves.” If the results are any indication, Brewers hitters have brushed aside potential added pressure and continued to meet the game halfway. Yelich last played on Jul. 23. In his absence, the Brewers have gone 22-13, and just concluded a 19-9 showing in August. The club is now a season-high 24 games above .500, and owns the highest run differential in baseball. August also happened to be Milwaukee’s best month of the year, offensively. It finished third in baseball in runs per game (5.57) and fourth in OPS (.786). The Brewers scored 10 or more runs in four games throughout the month, including a 10-run inning in Friday night’s 14-0 drubbing of the Reds. The contributions came from throughout the lineup. Four Brewers with at least 50 plate appearances in August posted an OPS north of .900: William Contreras, Willy Adames, Jackson Chourio, and Gary Sánchez. Contreras and Adames combined for 19 home runs. Chourio added five round-trippers and 14 extra-base hits, including his game-winning blast in the ninth inning in Milwaukee’s win Saturday evening. Sánchez continued to be an underrated part-time bat who seamlessly slots into the middle of the order. Others have pitched in, too. Garrett Mitchell has five extra-base hits in his last seven games. Blake Perkins has 10 hits since returning from the injured list, just over a week ago. August demonstrated that, while losing Yelich is a substantial blow, the Brewers still have a blueprint for success without his bat. Chourio has continued his post-May breakout and is now a force near the top of the lineup. Contreras and Adames have stepped up as middle-of-the-order veterans. Yelich was at the center of the offense when healthy, but he was never its only impactful bat. Part of what’s made this year’s lineup more successful than past iterations is its balanced makeup, and the willingness of its members to pass the baton to the man behind them. Those attributes have remained present in Yelich’s absence. “It can be scary,” Murphy said when Yelich’s season officially ended. “But you find a way.” View full article

In just a few months, Jackson Chourio turned one of his greatest weaknesses into one of his greatest strengths. It's a shining example of the adaptability that positions him for long-term stardom. Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports Jackson Chourio added another accolade to his explosive rookie season Tuesday night, when he crushed the Brewers’ longest home run of the season. It was a 449-foot blast off the American Family Field video board, to give his team an early lead. The pitch was a mistake by Logan Webb, who missed his target with a changeup that ended up low-and-in, rather than off the outside corner. Still, it was the latest example of just how far Chourio has come at the plate in the last few months. The home run came on a non-fastball in the lower third of the zone. Chourio has been one of baseball’s best hitters against such pitches. He has slugged .467 against them this year, the 11th-highest figure among qualified hitters. That’s impressive enough, but it’s even more remarkable given that Chourio was one of baseball’s worst hitters against low non-fastballs through the season’s first two months. Through the end of May, Chourio slugged .128 against non-fastballs in the lower third of the zone or below. Soft stuff low was not just a weak spot in his game: It incapacitated him. Pitchers quickly discovered this, and began hammering Chourio with breaking balls and changeups away, sending him into a prolonged funk. Much of Chourio’s tear since the calendar flipped to June has been fueled by an almost unfathomable turnaround against those pitches. He has slugged .733 against them since then, the second-best mark in baseball. Unsurprisingly, that 606-point swing in slugging is the greatest of any qualified hitter between those two split-spans. It’s not close, either. Ketel Marte ranks second, with a 544-point change. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is next at 333 points. The transformation underscores Chourio’s greatest attribute as a young talent: his ability to make adjustments quickly against more experienced competition. That trait will make it challenging for pitchers to craft an effective plan of attack against Chourio. He does not merely possess a slate of elite raw tools, including his lightning-quick hands and effortless bat speed. He also has the mental and physical adaptability to harness them in a competitive setting. Three months ago, pitchers could beat Chourio by executing a soft pitch at the bottom of the zone. If they do it now, he’ll destroy it. He did not merely improve from a compromised hitter against those pitches to a capable one. He has become elite against them. Anyone who followed Chourio’s ascent through the minor leagues would be familiar with this element of his undeniable talent. He showcased it at almost every stop, including in Double-A last summer as a 19-year-old. He hit for a subpar .714 OPS (88 wRC+) during the first half, before exploding for a .917 OPS (141 wRC+) the rest of the way. Chourio’s first big-league campaign was always likely to follow a similar trajectory. It’s partially why it never made sense to option him to the minor leagues amid his early struggles. Incredibly, he flipped the switch sooner at the highest level of professional baseball than he did in Double-A. The cat-and-mouse game between pitcher and hitter is one of constant adjustments, but Chourio accelerates the speed of the game, and will force his competition to make more frequent adjustments than most hitters do. That should terrify them. View full article

Not much is known about Christian Yelich's timeline in the early stages of his recovery from season-ending back surgery, but he struck a relieved and optimistic tone in his first public comments since the operation. Image courtesy of © Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports A week-and-a-half removed from season-ending back surgery, Christian Yelich is back with the Brewers. Facing reporters in the Brewers dugout for the first time since the operation, Yelich provided more insight into the procedure, how it became a necessity, and his long-term outlook. Yelich said he underwent a microdiscectomy, which entailed “cleaning some stuff out that needed to go and was causing some problems” in his back. While surgery was not on the table until his latest trip to the injured list, it was not a shocking outcome. Yelich has battled recurring back pain since his days with the Miami Marlins, and the more recent flare-ups were getting worse. “The [rehab] that we tried, it was kind of a long shot,” he said. “I think I knew ultimately that [surgery] was my destination at some point.” “His body did not move well for the last four or five years,” Pat Murphy said. “When you swing with that much leverage, and you hit the ball as hard as he hit it… it takes that much torque and that much bat speed to hit that. You’re paying a price somewhere.” With nothing to lose, Yelich attempted rehab in hopes of contributing to the Brewers’ playoff push and delaying the surgery until the offseason. Changing course became an easy decision a couple of weeks ago when his back was not improving. By the time he and the Brewers decided on that route, the pain in Yelich’s back was affecting more than just his attempts to play baseball. “It was to the point where daily living sucked,” he said. “I was really uncomfortable. There was a lot of pain. It was something I just had to get taken care of, and I’m glad I did it, honestly.” He and the Brewers have yet to establish a precise recovery timeline, but Yelich threw out three months as a rough estimate. The bottom line is that he expects to have a “fairly normal” offseason and be a full go for spring training. While Yelich never declared the procedure a complete cure for his balky back, he seemed relieved afterward and spoke optimistically about its impact on his long-term health. “I think people see back surgery and think, ‘Well, that’s the end of your career.’ But honestly, in my mind, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. I think that it’s going to help me tremendously, and I think I’ll probably feel better than I have in the last few years going forward. So in that sense, it’s cool. It’s a really nice thing.” The procedure could be a turning point in Yelich’s career. There could be lasting complications that plague him beyond 2024, or he could report to camp in February moving better than he has in years. Time will tell which path his recovery follows. View full article

Most teams pursue the upside of recording an out over mitigating the risk of an impactful hit late in games. The Brewers' first-year manager has fewer reservations about sending an RBI threat directly to first base in such situations. Image courtesy of © Rafael Suanes-USA TODAY Sports When Pat Murphy signaled to intentionally walk Brent Rooker in the seventh inning of Saturday’s win over the Oakland Athletics, it was the 22nd time the Brewers elected to send an opposing hitter directly to first base. Only four teams have issued more intentional walks. It’s a dramatic strategic shift for a team that issued a combined 19 intentional walks over the past two seasons, including just seven last year. From 2023 to 2024, Milwaukee has flipped from issuing the third-fewest intentional walks in baseball to the fifth-most. Even Murphy was surprised when informed, during the club’s last homestand, how many automatic free passes his team has issued. “I would have said five. So I could have been sleeping some of those games, because that happens.” He then called for three more in a five-game stretch when the Brewers went on the road. Teams have grown far stingier over willingly filling a base in recent years. The 2017 MLB season featured 970 intentional walks. By 2021, that figure decreased to 703. It’s dropped to 475 in 2022, 474 in 2023, and 407 this year. As modern front offices have assigned quantitative value to baserunners and outs, most teams pursue the latter in nearly every situation. Even baseball’s very best hitters reach base less than half the time. An out is both the more likely and beneficial outcome, and teams are more confident than ever in the gameplans they have even for dangerous sluggers. Under Craig Counsell, the Brewers followed the trend. In Murphy’s first season as manager, they’ve done the opposite. The front office supplies Murphy with several analytical resources to inform his in-game decision-making, including a breakdown of when putting a runner on via a walk carries the least risk. “There’s a script for it,” he said. “The people upstairs have created a probability [of] when is better.” Murphy has the final say on those decisions, though. He has issued most of the intentional walks in contexts likely deemed acceptable by those probabilities, but his true inspiration seems to be his intuition about certain hitters and game situations. Murphy emphasizes avoiding damage at the hands of an opponent’s best bats in critical moments. “In my life, every game I’ve ever been part of, I look at the lineup, and I’m like, ‘This guy ain’t beating us,’” he said. In practice, that usually means intentionally walking a batter to prevent him from driving in a potentially decisive runner in scoring position. If first base is open, placing that batter there also creates a potential double-play opportunity. “It’s the situation,” Murphy said. “But it’s usually a guy that, if he hits, can really hurt you. And it depends on who’s behind him, or sometimes it doesn’t depend on who’s behind him. It’s just the right thing to do when you got a guy on the mound that could create that ground ball.” Murphy has no qualms about filling first base when it’s unoccupied in a high-leverage moment. Of the Brewers’ 22 intentional walks, 18 have come with first base open in a late and close situation (defined by TruMedia as a plate appearance in the seventh inning or later in which the batting team is leading by one run, tied, or has the tying run on base, at bat, or on deck). No team has issued more intentional walks under such circumstances. The average club has done it about seven times. More than twice as often, Murphy’s Brewers send the batter straight to first base instead of attempting to retire him. Murphy called for all three intentional walks on the road trip with first base open in a critical situation late in the game. With runners on second and third in the ninth on Tuesday, the Brewers walked Lars Nootbaar to load the bases and create a force out at home in a one-run game. They walked Willson Contreras with the winning run on third the following night. On Saturday, they walked Brent Rooker to obtain a more favorable matchup for Jared Koenig, against JJ Bleday. The Rooker walk stands out the most, because it was the third time this season that Murphy upped the ante by walking the go-ahead run. He previously did it to Contreras on Apr. 19 and to Elly De La Cruz on Jun. 16. In all three instances, the Brewers escaped the inning without a run scoring after the walk. Overall, Milwaukee has issued an intentional walk in 19 innings this year and prevented any scoring thereafter in 14 of them. The walks have combined for -0.1 Win Probability Added in isolation. The main takeaway is that they have not been discernibly detrimental to the Brewers. One could argue that Murphy and the Brewers are too often conceding a base and bypassing opportunities to record an impactful out. He may be giving opposing hitters too much credit. At the end of the day, though, he’s simply turning to a low-risk play more than most managers. Even if Murphy is too liberal with issuing intentional walks, it’s hard to take serious issue with that inclination. View full article

Milwaukee's No. 1 starter has struggled at times throughout the year, but has turned in four strong starts with the club's backup catcher behind the plate. Is the pairing onto something, or is it a small-sample mirage? Image courtesy of © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports Freddy Peralta has pitched to William Contreras in 22 of his 26 starts, but Thursday afternoon saw him paired with Gary Sánchez for the second outing in a row. It also became the third time this season that Peralta has allowed no more than one earned run in consecutive starts. After blanking the Cardinals over five innings, Peralta has now posted a 1.17 ERA in four starts with Sánchez, compared to a 4.37 ERA with Contreras. ERA often does not tell the whole story of a pitcher’s performance, though, especially in a small sample. Most evidence points toward Peralta being the same pitcher regardless of his batterymate. Peralta has pitched to a 4.17 FIP with Contreras. With Sánchez, that figure is 4.34. Furthermore, there is minimal evidence suggesting that he’s been any better pitch-to-pitch when paired with the latter. If anything, there are some signs that he has not been his best self in those starts. Sánchez follows the same blueprint that Contreras does when calling the game for Peralta. He has thrown fewer sliders and more curveballs to Sánchez, but Peralta attributed that to not having a feel for his best breaking ball in his start on Thursday. With that in mind, the breakdown is nearly identical. Unsurprisingly, using a similar mix with similar execution means Peralta’s pitch results have not substantially improved. He’s allowed less hard contact in Sánchez starts, but is also inducing fewer swings and misses and chases outside the strike zone. The real takeaway is the lack of discernible improvement to Peralta’s pitching with Sánchez beyond his shiny ERA. Most notable on that front is that his greatest weakness of failing to put hitters away more efficiently remains unchanged. Peralta is essentially averaging the same number of pitches per batter faced with Contreras and Sánchez. According to TruMedia, he’s thrown pitches in non-competitive locations (more than 18 inches away from the center of the strike zone) at a slightly higher rate when caught by the latter. The issue remained pronounced on Thursday, as Peralta reached nine three-ball counts, inflating his pitch count to 92 in those five innings. Maybe, maybe, maybe there's one thing here, if we want to get very granular. Against right-handed batters, both Sánchez and Contreras have called a similar percentage of changeups for Peralta. However, while most of those pitches have ended up on the inner third to righties with Contreras behind the plate, more of them have been away with Sánchez there. The arm side of the plate, where the majority of even right-on-right changeups have landed with Contreras and Peralta working together, is the natural place for that pitch to go. It's in the nature of a changeup to fade in that direction; that's why the pitch is usually thrown principally against opposite-handed batters. When you have a power changeup like Peralta's, it's also not a bad idea to steer it in under the bat paths of some hitters. The location differences here could be random, given how small Sánchez's sample is, and they don't automatically imply one approach being superior to the other. However, in two directly comparable moments, we can see an important difference. Here's a 2-2 changeup Peralta threw to Atlanta's Austin Riley on Jul. 31, with Sánchez behind the plate. FP to Riley w Sanchez.mp4 That's a hard-hit ball, and Willy Adames's fielding burp ensured that it didn't have a happy ending for the Brewers. Still, it's a ground ball. It's an out, most of the time. Note the way Sánchez set up for the pitch. He got low, and his mitt placement led Peralta to get the ball away from Riley. Here's a 2-0 changeup Peralta threw Riley one week later, in suburban Cobb County, Ga. FP to Riley w WC.mp4 That's a very different setup from the catcher, and a very different pitch location--with a very different result. Every pitcher has a different set of preferences about how their catcher sets targets, and not all of their preferences are rational, or even important. It can be one underrated factor in the command a pitcher demonstrates, and one small way a catcher influences a pitcher even if they call the game and frame pitches about the same way another catcher does. Even so, this is anecdotal, and it's not quite enough to say for sure that Sánchez takes a different tack with Peralta than Contreras does, for better or worse. There does not appear to be anything in particular about the Peralta and Sánchez pairing that has brought out the best version of the former. Rather, he’s performed at a similar level while enjoying better sequencing with the latter behind the plate. If Sánchez continues to team with Peralta more often, expect the results to even out. View full article

Freddy Peralta has looked like a pitcher trying to find his mechanical comfort zone for most of the season. That process has continued with a few more adjustments in his last three starts. Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports Freddy Peralta’s season has been a year-long search for consistency. Peralta entered the year atop the Brewers rotation but has instead performed more like a mid-rotation starter than an ace, posting a 4.11 ERA and 4.13 FIP in 24 starts. In his quest to recapture his best form, Peralta has applied a variety of tweaks throughout the season. He’s enacted a few more changes in recent weeks. Peralta has traditionally pitched out of the windup with the bases empty, beginning his motion to the plate by bringing his hands over his head. In his last three starts, he has pitched exclusively out of the stretch. The change came after Peralta noted to Milwaukee’s pitching development brass that he felt his command was better when using the simpler motion. “I think it just allows him to get his head on target a little earlier,” pitching coach Chris Hook said. “He’s got the head over the hands [out of the windup], and we just felt like he’s getting into a better position delivery-wise out of the stretch more often and throwing the ball where he wants to command-wise.” Peralta added another wrinkle in his last start against the Dodgers. He used three distinct motions out of the stretch: his standard delivery, a truncated one in which he is quicker to the plate, and a longer one with a stutter in his leg lift. Peralta mixed the three throughout the night, including a three-pitch strikeout of Teoscar Hernández that featured each variation. peralta_deliveries.mp4 This isn’t the first time Peralta has experimented with different offshoots of his traditional delivery. He’s featured them periodically throughout the last three seasons when he and the Brewers feel they’re necessary and helpful, particularly during the 2022 season. Mixing deliveries gives hitters multiple looks and makes Peralta harder to time up, but the Brewers also believe it’s beneficial for him mechanically. “It is part of the understanding of hitters and their timing mechanism and trying to disrupt that, but I also think he gets into his delivery a little bit better when he does it,” Hook said. Adaptability and a willingness to adjust are positive traits for a pitcher, but the volume of alterations Peralta has tried this season raises an important question: can a player attempt too many modifications to their detriment? Absolutely, Hook says. What constitutes too much varies for each pitcher, though, and the Brewers trust Peralta as much as any hurler on the staff when it comes to trying new things. “This guy’s been in the big leagues for seven years, so if that’s something that makes him feel better and more convicted, go to it.” That flexibility isn’t offered to everyone, but the Brewers extend it to experienced pitchers who know their bodies and mechanics. The 28-year-old Peralta meets those criteria. “He’s earned that freedom,” Hook said. “It’s not like I’m just giving it.” The hope is that Peralta can reach a comfortable spot that unlocks his best form more consistently. The Brewers could use that version of him down the stretch and into what will hopefully be a deep playoff run. View full article

One of a manager's many responsibilities is putting players in positions to succeed. The Brewers skipper has frequently done the opposite with one of his right-handed relievers. Image courtesy of © Rafael Suanes-USA TODAY Sports After some alarming early-season trends in his bullpen management, Pat Murphy has since done a fine job of monitoring workloads for his relievers, while putting them in situations to succeed. It's easy to nitpick bullpen decisions, but the fact that very few of his pitching decisions have persistently stood out over time is a good thing. One repeated decision, though, continues to raise eyebrows in every occurrence. Murphy has frequently turned to sinkerballing righthander Elvis Peguero to extinguish fires against right-handed batters, and the matchups have rarely transpired as hoped. The latest example came in the Brewers’ comeback 6-4 win over the Dodgers on Thursday. Summoned in a tie game to retire Enrique Hernández with runners on the corners and two outs in the sixth inning, Peguero allowed a first-pitch single to give Los Angeles the lead. This was one of the unluckier outcomes after Murphy orchestrated the matchup. Hernández’s ground ball was an 82.9-mph roller that squeaked through the hole into right field. Peguero induced weak contact on the ground. The result just wasn’t there. That doesn’t justify the process, though. Peguero’s profile as a pitcher and the season he is having indicate that he is one of the least likely Brewers relievers to succeed when asked to strand runners by retiring a right-handed batter. Peguero has reverse splits, both this year and for his career. Lefties have managed just a .645 OPS against him, but righties have a .768 OPS. For his career, those respective figures are .666 and .767. Even last year, righties hit him better (.629) than lefties (.600). Those reverse splits are not a fluke; Peguero’s hard gyro slider and heavy sinker are arguably most difficult to track from the left side. Sinker-slider guys are usually toughest on same-handed batters, but there are always exceptions. A career sample of 550 batters faced supports the phenomenon. Furthermore, Peguero’s erratic control and command often render him prone to creating his own traffic. This season, he’s allowed as many hits as innings pitched (47) while walking 11.4% of batters faced, producing a 1.49 WHIP. Despite those struggles to keep hitters off the bases, Peguero is often able to keep his own runners from scoring, as evidenced by his tidy 3.06 ERA. That’s due to his excellent 56.9% ground ball rate. Peguero has induced 10 double plays this year, the third-highest total among all relievers in baseball. This makes Peguero a largely effective reliever, when given space to erase his own traffic. Murphy is doing him a disservice by designating him as one of his top options to pitch without that space. Peguero has inherited 24 runners this year, second to only Hoby Milner. He’s allowed 15 of them (62.5%) to score. His lack of success in the exact situation he frequently inherits – runners on base with a right-hander up and the Brewers leading or tied – is even more eye-opening. Peguero has entered in such a spot 10 times. At least one inherited runner has scored eight times, and on five such occasions, he has departed with the Brewers tied or trailing after leading or trailing after being tied. Before Thursday’s appearance against the Dodgers, the last time Murphy turned to Peguero as a righty-specialist fireman was against Atlanta on Jul. 31. After he immediately allowed a two-run single to Austin Riley to break the tie, Murphy defended him in his postgame comments as “the guy for this situation,” while fellow right-handers Joel Payamps and Nick Mears went unused in that spot. Murphy has not had such a wealth of alternatives every time he has used Peguero as a fireman. However, making the same decision in a similar context a couple of weeks after that game indicates that his belief in Peguero’s fit for the role has not changed. It has to. With Trevor Megill days away from returning from the injured list, the choice may soon be out of Murphy’s hands. Peguero is one of the few optionable relievers in the bullpen, and the Brewers could demote him to maintain as much pitching depth as possible. One way or another, Peguero should not be the reliever of choice to put out fires against right-handed batters. He’s a solid middle reliever, but repeatedly using him in a role that plays into his weaknesses instead of his strengths is detrimental to both the player and the team. View full article

Colin Rea has been a model of reliability for the Brewers for nearly two seasons, but has transformed into an optimized version of himself in recent weeks. At a time in the season when some starters start to wear down, Rea is better than he's ever been. Image courtesy of © Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports It’s no longer accurate to call Colin Rea an unsung hero. Having posted a 3.38 ERA in 122 ⅓ innings this year, Rea has deservedly garnered recognition as the Brewers’ most reliable starting pitcher as the team has navigated a sea of injuries and inconsistency. He is, as strange as it feels, the co-ace of a surefire division winner. For most of the year, Rea looked like a capable back-of-the-rotation innings-eater who was maxing out his results in front of an elite defense. He notched a tidy 3.62 ERA in his first 15 outings, but his 4.82 FIP, 4.90 SIERA, and 15.6% strikeout rate were far less inspiring. Not all that overperformance was sheer luck; Rea deliberately filled the strike zone with his diverse pitch mix to put his defense to work. He was executing the game plan more often than not, and it was working. That’s changed over the last six weeks. Rea has found another gear in his last seven outings, pitching to a 2.90 ERA, 3.13 FIP, and 3.28 SIERA. His strikeout rate has jumped to 28% against a 6.2% walk rate. Those results have followed a mechanical change. Rea worked with pitching coach Chris Hook on staying closed longer in his delivery. Notice where his arm and torso are when his front foot lands in a start against the Yankees on Apr. 26. Here’s where they are in his last home start, against the Braves on Jul. 29. In April, Rea was already opening up when his front foot landed. Now, his entire body is making a straight line to the plate when he lands. The tweak has not only improved his command, but it’s also added more deception to his pitches. Being synced up means he’s throwing with more conviction. It also creates a tougher look for the hitter. In the July start, Rea’s hand is still fully behind his head when he lands. He’s no longer giving hitters an early peek at the ball. “If I can keep my hand behind my head when my front foot lands and my front shoulder closed, then I can put more pressure into my front foot,” he explained, “which is going to give me a little bit more life to the ball. It’s going to give the hitter a shorter time to pick up the baseball.” Rea’s overall whiff rate has climbed from 16.8% over his first 15 appearances to 24.7% over his last seven. Every pitch in his arsenal is generating more swings and misses. “You see some more swing and miss,” Hook said. “The stuff is the same, but I think there’s just a touch of deception there. He’s getting into his front foot, he’s creating a little bit better leg block, and then he’s staying behind the baseball a little bit more. You can go watch it. There is some deception there. You don’t see the ball until really late, which helps his fastball play up even more.” “Even the takes I get now are different,” Rea said. Perhaps the greatest difference-maker for Rea has been eliminating his platoon weakness. He was effective against right-handed hitters even before this stretch, holding them to a .623 OPS from the start of 2023 through those first 15 outings of this year. Left-handed hitters, meanwhile, tagged him for an .816 OPS. Rea hasn’t just quelled his platoon split since then. He’s been even more effective against lefties (.516 OPS) than righties (.674). He’s done it by changing how he attacks lefties. Rea has thrown his secondary pitches away from lefties all season, but he’s now doing the same with his sinker. He’s upped its usage in such matchups from 21.5% to 29%, and instead of trying to front-door it inside, he’s mostly relegating it to the outside corner. When Rea focused more heavily on the comeback sinker, lefties were doing damage because the pitch often played into their swing. “They say those sinkers and two-seamers kind of lead right into the lefty’s bat path, if they have a little launch to their swing,” he said. Keeping it away has helped him avoid running into the barrel of a left-handed bat. It also sets up a back-door cutter or sweeper. “We’ve been using our misses,” Rea said. “I’m going to dot this two-seam down and away, and it’s going to run off or sink off the plate where we’re not going to get hurt. If that’s the case and they take it, then I know I’ve got a back-door slider.” “We were giving up damage, and we had to change something,” said Hook. “The idea is, ‘I know I can get in, and I can get in with the cutter, I can get in with the [four-seamer] any time I want here. What can I do to best set that up? I’m safe out here [with the sinker].’” Back-dooring his cutter and sweeper to lefties has been a consistent card in Rea’s deck, but tunneling those pitches with the sinker on the outside corner has made them even more effective. Lefties slugged .436 on cutters and sweepers within the outer half of the zone from the start of 2023 through Rea's first 15 appearances of this year. They have not recorded a hit against such pitches since. Due to his mechanical tweaks, the sweeper has superseded the cutter as Rea's preferred pitch with glove-side movement. He’s thrown it just as frequently or more than the cutter in each of his last three starts. “I think the sweeper overall has just been feeling much better now that I’m staying closed longer,” he said. “It’s much more repeatable.” “If you’re leaking early, that kind of puts you in a better position to throw the cutter, actually,” Hook elaborated. “Now [he’s] staying on the ball longer, and that’s a little bit [of a] different spot for [him]. So I think it’s just another step he has to make.” Changing things and taking steps forward is nothing new for Rea. He’s tinkered with everything over the years. Examples include ditching his windup to pitch exclusively out of the stretch, developing his sweeper during the 2022 offseason between big-league stints, and experimenting with various grips for his splitter and changeup. “He’s under construction,” Pat Murphy said. “He’s always trying to get better.” As part of that process, Rea is constantly consuming information and trying new things. He brings an open mind to his craft every day. “That’s just the way I’ve always been,” he said. “It’s just who I am, I guess, like fear of missing out on something. “There’s always something to learn in this game. No one’s got it all figured out.” That willingness to learn and constant tinkering is why he’s having a career year in his age-33 season, after a winding road through four MLB organizations and two stints pitching in Japan. "It’s not really a secret sauce," Murphy said. "It’s his diligence. He’s just relentless on [wanting] to be really good. He’s super level-headed." “The ones that have excelled while I’ve been here, they always have that, ‘I want to get better today,’" said Hook. "You know? It never stops.” Stopping, Rea believes, is one of the worst things a pitcher can do. “The minute you stay stagnant, the minute you turn it off, that’s when things start to go sideways." Some pitchers wear down during the late summer, as their innings load accumulates. Rea keeps getting better, and it’s all due to his adaptability. He's been a source of steadiness in the Brewers rotation for nearly two seasons, but he's now blossomed into a legitimately strong starting pitcher with staying power for a playoff contender. Hook has had a front-row seat in watching that evolution. “I’m super proud of him, and I think there’s a lot more in there as well.” View full article

DL Hall's results were mixed in his first outing off the injured list, but aspects of his performance were reminders that he still has the makeup to impact the Brewers down the stretch. Image courtesy of © Max Correa / The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK The innings pitched and run columns in DL Hall’s pitching line on Sunday were unassuming: three earned runs in four-and-two-thirds innings. His first big-league appearance since April 20 featured a handful of positives, though. “I thought it was really encouraging,” Pat Murphy said. “The best he’s thrown all year that I’ve witnessed, in my opinion.” Hall racked up a career-high nine strikeouts and induced a season-high 12 whiffs. He missed plenty of bats with an arsenal that looked improved from his initial stint with the Brewers at the start of the season. When he last started in the big leagues on April 20, Hall’s fastball averaged 91.6 mph and dipped all the way down to 89.6. That was a far cry from its 95.6 average out of the Orioles bullpen last season. The expectation was that Hall would lose a tick of velocity as he stretched back out into a starter, but not that he would dip into the low 90s. His secondary pitches showed promise, but the loss of velocity and life turned what some outlets pegged as a 70-grade fastball into a batting practice pitch. After that outing, Hall hit the injured list with a left knee sprain. Lacking full strength in his push-off leg kept him from driving down the mound with full authority and sapped his velocity. A slew of rehab assignments followed. After a series of freak developments – reaggravating the knee, having starts rained out, and getting hit on the forearm by a comeback line drive – stalled his progress, Hall finally returned to a big-league mound feeling and looking more like the pitcher the Brewers thought they were getting when they traded Corbin Burnes to Baltimore in February. Hall’s fastball averaged 94.6 mph and never dipped below 92.9. He maintained that velocity throughout the outing, still hitting 95 in his final inning of work in the fifth. “Pretty big difference,” Hall said of how he felt Sunday compared to his earlier outings. “I think [being healthy] plays a big part in all my pitches, not just the velocity on my fastball, but how everything else plays when the arm speed’s there and when the body is moving how it’s supposed to.” Hall’s command withered in his final two innings, during which he issued two of his three walks, hit a batter, and allowed a solo home run on a fastball that missed its intended location by the width of the plate. It was strong early, though, particularly on his secondary pitches. Hall’s changeup induced four whiffs, and his slider yielded five. He also recorded six called strikes with his curveball. Those glimpses were a reminder of why the Brewers believed in Hall as a starter going into the year. He has the arsenal to do it. “Since he’s been a starting pitcher, I think he’s become more of a complete pitcher,” Murphy said. “That’s kind of cool. He’s really become a pitcher.” Murphy would not commit to another start for Hall due to the many moving pieces within Milwaukee’s pitching staff, but he said he expects Hall to log more big-league innings moving forward. He earned another look as a starter with his showing on Sunday. The outing proved he can still help the run-prevention unit down the stretch. “I thought it was a step in the right direction,” Hall said. View full article

The Brewers continued their offensive rampage to open their longest homestand of the year, but the defense scattered its fingerprints all over the team's latest comfortable win. Image courtesy of © Rafael Suanes-USA TODAY Sports After weathering their first losing month of the regular season and starting August with a series loss, the Brewers have come roaring back with four straight authoritative wins. The Brewers have scored 42 runs in that span. They’ve scored at least eight runs in each game, the latest of which was an 8-3 win over the division rival Reds to kick off a 10-game homestand, Milwaukee’s longest of the season. Understandably, the offense has grabbed the headlines this week. However, the Brewers’ latest win also illustrated how vital their defense remains to their success. Playing plus defense has become a staple of recent Brewers teams, and it’s a key reason why the club has remained consistently competitive. Friday night featured reminders of that remaining true, even as the offense surges. No single play functioned as a turning point in the game, but the Brewers flashed their leather throughout to keep it rolling smoothly after the bats staked Aaron Civale to an early lead. After Civale allowed a leadoff double to Noelvi Marte to open the third inning, Luke Maile hit a soft lineout to Brice Turang, who scampered to the bag to double off Marte. Civale was animated after the double play. In a 6-0 game, it may not have seemed like a dramatic play, but it was a boost to a pitcher trying to eat innings with a lead. “It turns the inning around and potentially turns the game around,” Civale said. Civale held the Reds scoreless through his first six innings of work in what was one of his best starts as a Brewer, but things started to get hairy in the seventh. The Reds opened the inning with three straight hits against Civale, including a leadoff home run by Spencer Steer and a double by Ty France. The latter nearly plated the second run of the inning, but Garrett Mitchell, Willy Adames, and William Contreras teamed up on a relay play to throw out Jeimer Candelario at the plate for the inning’s first out. Preventing that run from scoring looked more significant when Stuart Fairchild homered off Nick Mears two pitches later to make it 8-3 and Marte doubled. Had the lead shrunk to 8-4 with no outs in the seventh and a runner on second, the abrupt escalation to a high-leverage situation likely would have changed how Pat Murphy deployed his relievers. Instead, the relay play kept the Brewers in more comfortable territory. Perhaps the most impressive play of the night was Joey Ortiz’s diving stop down the third-base line in the ninth. Ortiz snagged a ground ball by Marte, got to his feet, and fired a one-hop throw that Rhys Hoskins picked for the second out of the inning. Murphy was impressed with the play itself but also lauded Ortiz for defending with high-leverage intensity in a low-leverage situation. During a long season that wears on players physically and mentally, that’s easier said than done. “It’s just hard to be in the game in the same way [with a big lead],” Murphy said. “To be that good, right then, in that way… that was a Turang-type play. And Joey’s been doing it all year.” This year’s offense has proven itself as a sustainably above-average unit. Don’t overlook the defense, though. It’s still a driving force behind the Brewers’ success, even if it does not take center stage every night. View full article

Milwaukee’s typically slick-fielding shortstop has been shakier in the field this year, a development with implications for the futures of both parties. What’s changed, and can they correct it? Image courtesy of © Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports Willy Adames is enjoying his best offensive season since his inaugural campaign as a Brewer. After a strong series in Atlanta as part of his team’s three-game drubbing of the Braves, Adames is slashing .252/.335/.452, with 20 home runs, 27 doubles, and the best walk-to-strikeout ratio (0.46) of his career. His 119 wRC+ is his highest since 2021. It’s been the opposite story on the other side of the ball. In addition to his power output, Adames has been indispensable to the Brewers over the years for his prowess in the field. According to FanGraphs, only Dansby Swanson provided more defensive value for his team at shortstop across the 2022 and 2023 seasons, combined. That’s changed in 2024. Adames enters Friday with -7 Defensive Runs Saved, -1.2 Ultimate Zone Rating runs, 0 Defensive Runs Prevented, and a Fielding Run Value of 3. It’s no surprise those metrics, all from different sabermetric websites, vary in their perception of Adames’s defense. Baseball has embraced quantitative evaluation, but the quality and reliability of defensive metrics lag behind those for hitting, pitching, and baserunning. There’s a case for DRS as the most nuanced, though, particularly for evaluating infielders. It relies on video scouting and weighs what those scouts deem “Good Fielding Plays” and “Defensive Misplays” based on a set of criteria. The result is a metric that features some human error but also captures at least some of the intricacies of infield defense. A video scout can see the difficulty and added value of fielding a ground ball that took a tough hop, making a successful throw when the fielder’s momentum is carrying him in the opposite direction, or executing a barehanded play on a soft roller. They can also identify lackluster fundamentals, such as attacking a ball poorly, bobbling it, or failing to cover a base for a potential double-play turn. Each metric paints a slightly different picture of Adames’s defensive value, but they all agree he has taken a step back. He finished last year with 8 DRS, 5.9 UZR runs, 16.7 DRP, and an FRV of 12. One of the biggest reasons for the downturn may be that Adames is approaching ground balls in a way that looks less fundamentally sound than in years past. Errors are a rudimentary and imperfect way to measure defense, but it’s noteworthy that Adames has already been charged with six fielding errors this year. That’s his highest total in a season since making eight in 2021, a figure he’s on pace to beat with 48 games left to play. It’s also the first season since 2021 in which he’s committed more fielding errors than throwing errors. Five of those six misplays have happened since July 6, with the latest occurring in Thursday’s series finale in Atlanta. There have also been plays scored as hits that Adames has made in the past, including a Miguel Amaya grounder that ate him up in Chicago a few weeks ago. Adames has been unable to field these balls cleanly because he’s not attacking them. Take, for instance, this error against the Pirates in early July at the onset of his defensive slump: adames_fe_1.mp4 Adames was shaded toward second base on this play, and Jack Suwinski bounced one that way. Instead of charging the ball and getting behind it, he stayed back and played it stiff and flat-footed to his left. This left him unable to handle the hop, which seemed longer than he anticipated. The following inning, Adames stayed back on an even more routine grounder, and it almost allowed Jared Triolo to leg out an infield single. adames_back.mp4 He made a similar mistake on an error against the Braves at home. Another flat-footed stab at the ball was unsuccessful. adames_fe_2.mp4 In several instances, it has looked like Adames isn’t reading the ball off the bat as well as he has in the past. In addition to causing more perceptible misplays, it may also be cutting into his range. A delayed first step makes it tougher to reach a grounder, as does running in or perpendicular to one in the hole instead of angling back to buy more time. DRS is presumably dinging him in those two areas. Whatever the cause of his worsened reads and reactions, both parties would benefit from resolving it. Adames’s defense is integral to the Brewers’ run-prevention strategy. They need their rangy shortstop to make the routine plays and scoop up balls in the hole. His defensive performance could also impact his impending free agency. Adames can secure a better deal on the open market by proving he’s still a premium defender at short, not a diminishing one who may have to slide to third base in a few years. The imperfections of defensive metrics make it difficult to pinpoint how much worse Adames’s glovework has gotten, but it has undoubtedly declined over the last few months. The sooner he and the Brewers can identify and correct the issue, the better. View full article