BREWERS PITCHING STAFF
It is June 16th and the Brewers have a staff ERA of 3.86.
Here are the starters...(ERA as starters only)
Davis.....3.61 (14 starts)
Sheets....2.66 (13 starts)
O'Mueller.5.98 (9 starts)
Santos....3.50 (9 starts)
Kinney....9.72 (6 starts)
Capuano...2.86 (5 starts)

BREWERS STARTERS: 3.96 ERA, 343.1 IP, 326 H, 32 HRA, 118 BB, 256 K.

Less hits than innings pitched, 6.71 K/9, 32 HRA while playing half of their games in Miller Park is also impressive. K/BB ratio over 2:1. The starters have been getting the job done.

MATT WISE, BEN HENDRICKSON, ADRIAN HERNANDEZ and CHRIS SAENZ also made a start (Wise made two). If Capuano could stay healthy, the Brewers would have a stellar rotation of Sheets, Davis, Santos, Capuano and Obermueller. Obermueller has been throwing the ball better as of late. He still struggles to locate the ball, but has good enough stuff where he can get away with it at times. His ERA is a little higher because of an unexpected relief appearance he made when Capuano got hurt in Houston back in April.

Now to the bullpen. If somebody would've told you that the Brewers bullpen would be doing the job it is right now before the season started you would never have believed it. No lefties? No problem. Little experience? No problem. These guys have been working in a lot of tight games and come out and pound the strike zone and get hitters out. It's nice to see.

Here are the numbers out of the pen.
Adams....0.00 (13 IP)
Kolb.....1.09 (24.2 IP)
Kinney...2.04 (17.2 IP)
Kiesch...2.70 (26.2 IP)
Burba....2.87 (31.1 IP)
Vizcaino.3.34 (29.2 IP)
Bennett..3.66 (32 IP)
B Ford...7.20 (20 IP)

BREWERS RELIEVERS: 3.71 ERA, 221 IP, 204 H, 23 HRA, 76 BB, 146 K.

As a staff, just like the starters, the Brewers relievers have allowed less hits than innings pitched. The 23 HRA in 221 IP is a little high, but when as a bullpen they have an aggregate WHIP of 1.27 a lot of the homeruns are coming as solo or two-run shots. As my pitching coach said my freshman year of college "nobody gets beat on solo jacks". The bullpen's K/BB is just a hair below 2:1, but close enough to be effective.

These are the guys with the most work out of the pen so far this year. Other than Ben Ford, look at how well everybody has been doing. The name that really jumps out is MATT KINNEY. Since moving to the pen he has been throwing the ball a lot better. This could be a result of a few things...
1)Different mentality coming out of the pen
2)Hitters only see him once, gives him advantage
3)He's worked out whatever mechanical glitch that he has and would be throwing well if he started right now too.

Whatever it is it has helped the Brewers pen so far.

Another concern about the Brewers bullpen is that they broke camp without a left-hander. Anaheim did the same (and perhaps another team, I can't recall). So have left-handed bats dominated the Brewers bullpen? Lets look at the numbers.

Lefty/Righty splits
Adams....(.053/.167)
Bennett..(.273/.250)
Burba....(.240/.172)
Vizcaino.(.173/.250)
Kiesch...(.231/.286)
Kolb.....(.214/.190)

These are the players being used out of the pen the most. The thing with lefty/righty splits for relievers is that they're often only based on about 50-70 at-bats from each side this early in the season. Still, while it isn't 100% accurate, I think you can get a decent read off of these numbers.

You might notice guys that are more successful versus lefties. Vizcaino and Kieschnick are the two with the most IP, so I'll discuss them. Vizcaino throws that splitter and a tailing fastball, which both run away from a left-handed hitter. He doesn't throw his slider very much anymore (which was usually his designated HRA pitch). Kieschnick pounds the outside corner of the plate to lefties and has good tail and sink on his fastball, which is not only difficult for lefties to drive out of the park, but is difficult just to make solid contact.

Brewers as a staff...

Vs. L...(.243/.302/.377), 19 HRA in 885 AB
Vs. R...(.254/.317/.403), 36 HRA in 1242 AB


The Brewers have been playing good ball this season, and it is directly a result of the pitching staff keeping them in games. The Brewers pen is comprised of journeymen, unproven players and a Rule V draft pick so it will be interesting to see if their success so far this season is luck or if it is for real.