Brewers skipper Craig Counsell said today that top starter Brandon Woodruff will make his long-anticipated return tomorrow, as Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel was among those to report (Twitter links). He has been sidelined since late July with an oblique strain.
Without any remaining minor-league games to utilize for rehab work, Woodruff will obviously not hit the ground at full stride. The Brewers are clearly planning ahead for a truncated outing, though just how long he’ll last hasn’t been divulged. The club did indicate that veteran lefty Gio Gonzalez will take the ball from Woodruff.
It’ll be interesting to see how the 26-year-old Woodruff throws upon his return. Indications are that the team is bullish on his work to date, though game conditions will pose a different challenge. With a tight postseason race coming down to the wire, Counsell will need to extract as much value as possible from Woodruff while also ensuring he doesn’t push the valuable young pitcher too far too fast.
If the Milwaukee organization is able to sneak into the postseason, Woodruff will be a fascinating part of the picture. He likely won’t be fully built up to shoulder a full starter’s workload, but could be used in tandem fashion. And it stands to reason that his workload might increase with each successive outing, which could make Woodruff a larger and larger factor.
Woodruff will still be short of two full years of MLB service at season’s end, so he’s well shy of arbitration eligibility. But he’s on track to qualify as a Super Two at the end of the 2020 campaign. With ample cheap control remaining, Woodruff is a major piece of the near-future puzzle in Milwaukee. Thus far in 2019, he has thrown 117 2/3 innings of 3.75 ERA ball with a strong combination of 10.4 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9.
On an unrelated note. Here’s an interesting fact.
Randy Johnson holds the record for most strikeouts in a single relief appearance (16) in 2001.
Bears ran 61 offensive plays yesterday and Tarik Cohen was on the field for just 23 of those plays.
I had tacos for lunch, and it’s not even Tuesday.
Shooter McGavin blew a four stroke lead to Happy Gilmore on thw back 9 of the Tour Championship.
I look 20 years older than I actually am due to Mets related stress
Lmao
Alabama’s state vegetable is a watermelon
and him and schilling nearly tossed a perfect game to boot.
even more useless trivia about that game: randy lost the perfect game in the 6th when he walked the catcher.
lost the no-hitter in the 8th when the same guy got the lone hit for the padres
Gio will not pitch enough innings and doesn’t strike out enough to break that record.
Woodruff is STARTING.
Whats with the Brewers? This has been happening since the franchise began. They can’t develop or keep a staff ace. Remember Jim Colborn, Mike Caldwell, Pete Vuchovich, Teddy Higuera, Ben Sheets, Yovani Gallargo? Zack Greinke and CC Sabathia only stayed around less than a season. When I make all time teams, the Brewers have the worst rotation by far of any other franchise. Without fail, when they get an ace, he goes down then becomes mediocre.
They were a crappy franchise until the late 00s. That’s the biggest reason why they couldn’t develop an ace.
Their only World Series appearance was in the ’80’s……
1982 to be exact. I wouldn’t say they were a crappy franchise, they just weren’t competitive enough. For years they had terrible ownership. But their plus side is that they aren’t yet in the books for any of the crappiest seasons.
Yup. Owner
with little $$$
can’t hire
good scouts
or front office
personnel or
good minor
league
coaches…..
Zack Greinke was a Brewer for a year and a half…CC Sabathia was a trade rental who was pursued in free agency by the Yankees, who there was no way the Brewers would be able to compete with in terms of offers, so those are terrible examples. Sheets couldn’t stay healthy. Gallardo, even in his prime, could rarely get past the 6th inning because of pitch counts. Pitching has always been their problem, but financial constraints and just not drafting good enough pitchers tends to be their problem.
Gotta say I’m impressed with the Brewers. As a Phillies fan watching our wild-card hopes melt faster than ice in a desert, pundits were way off base sounding the death knell for them after Yelich went down. Okay, they haven’t exactly been stomping all over the rebirth of the ’27 Yankees the past week or so, but all you can do is beat the team you are playing that day. So far, so good.
Haven’t liked the Brewers starting pitching since Day 1 of this season, but somehow they’ve been just good enough to keep them in the hunt for not only the wild-card but also the NL Central. The latter will be a tough chore, but it’s far from a lost cause.
Cubs are starting to look like the TV show M*A*S*H, only without the laugh track. Losing Baez and Rizzo is a major punch in the gut.
The Cardinals? They have a few pimples of their own, but their starting pitching has come around this past month. Even Wacha threw five shutout innings the other day. Wacha!
Brewer fans, buckle up. With the three aforementioned teams ever so close, it’s gonna be a gut wrenching final week and a half. I’ll be rooting for you guys.