The Brewers have selected the contract of left-hander Hoby Milner, the team announced. Milner will take the place of Eric Lauer on the active roster, as Lauer was optioned to Triple-A.
The move could essentially just be a way for Milwaukee to get a fresh arm in the bullpen, as Lauer threw 55 pitches over three innings in yesterday’s 6-3 loss to the Braves. Lauer’s future also won’t be in the bullpen, as MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy notes that the team plans to stretch Lauer out as a starter since the Brew Crew will be adopting a six-man rotation for the upcoming stretch of the schedule.
Lauer has already made two starts for Milwaukee this season, to go along with two relief appearances. The southpaw has a very solid 2.81 ERA/3.23 SIERA over 16 innings this season, as well as an above-average 24.6% strikeout rate and an outstanding 3.1% walk rate. On the down side, Lauer has allowed five home runs over those 16 innings.
Milner signed a minors contract with the Brewers last winter and now looks to get some action in his fifth MLB season. The lefty has a 4.53 ERA over 55 2/3 career innings with the Phillies, Rays, and Angels, with most of that experience coming in the form of 31 1/3 frames for Philadelphia in his 2017 rookie season. Milner has struggled since that first year, despite doing a good job of limiting hard contact.
He had a great spring training
Hoby is a very unique name. I wonder if it is short for anything.
I interviewed him for my college newspaper back in the day, I believe his full name is Hobimillian Millneuve
Yes, Hobytrey.
Something must be going on with Lauer he’s been pretty solid!
Lauer might be finally starting to turn the corner. When he was with the Padres, he absolutely gave the Dodgers fits. Just about everyone else shelled him though.
as a Padre he was always turning the corner after blanking the Dodgers, only to move on to the next corner against the rest of MLB
The thing with Lauer is he’s never had the velocity or the “stuff”, but he’s got solid results at every level and has been able to hang with it in the bigs too.
If the expectations are for a decent back of the rotation option, then I think he’s certainly capable. Turning the corner and becoming something like a top of the rotation arm just seems out of reach.
Last time i remember seeing milner pitch was when he was with the phillies and broke freemans hand.
In April 2018, Gabe Kepler called for Hoby Milner from the Phillies bullpen, but Milner hadn’t yet warmed up and therefore wasn’t ready to pitch. The umpire crew chief allowed Milner to warm up while on the mound. The Phillies received a formal warning letter from MLB because of Kapler’s goof.
The Giants are in first place, so apparently Kapler got his managing errors out of his system in 2018-2019.