A Look at the Milwaukee Brewers Pitching Rotation the Rest of the Way

The Brewers have rotation decisions to make for the rest of the season. Read on to find out who they might consider…

Entering play for the game on Monday 8-22-16, The Brewers sit at 17 games under .500, but they still have decisions to make for the rest of the season.

When looking at starting pitchers to guide the team the rest of the season, the choices for the rest of the year include Wily Peralta, who has looked decent for the most part since returning from a trip to AAA. While Wily seems to be pointed in the “up” direction as of this writing before the 8-20-16 game, you have to have concern for Jimmy Nelson, who has not logged more than five innings pitched since his July 16th outing. Chase Anderson is recovering from getting hit by a baseball, and is sloted back into the rotation to make a start on Tuesday 8-23.

One bright spot in the pitching staff has been Zach Davies, who is having a pretty nice Rookie campaign. Of course we all know that Matt Garza is a mainstay in the rotation the rest of the season, but the question lingers about how long Brent Suter sticks around. After making one start, he will be in the bullpen until further notice. Will the Brewers eventually give him a chance to have another start or two to show what he can do in the bigs?

More from Brewers News

• Brewers: Yet Another Huge Promotion For Top Prospect Jackson Chourio
• Brewers Making Colossal Mistake With Corbin Burnes’ Contract
• Which Players May Be In The Final Month Of Their Brewers Careers?
• Brewers: Where Does Devin Williams Stand In NL Reliever Of The Year Race?
• Brewers: Lorenzo Cain Was Right to Call Out the Team’s Management

Among the other starting pitchers, Junior Guerra has been pretty much surprised everyone with his performance this year. As of right now, he seems to have recovered from some elbow inflammation and is chomping at the bit to take the ball every fifth day but the Brewers have yet to activate him from the DL.

Does a guy like Taylor Jungmann or even Wei-Chung Wang come up to the Brewers when they decide September callups? While Taylor has struggled earlier in the year, he has battled to come very hard in an effort to come back to the bigs and he could earn some starts if the Brewers decide to go in that direction. As far as other potential callups go, the Brewers have had Wang pitch in the big leagues before, but not as a starter. They may want to get a look at him and it could happen in the month of September this year.

Just last year Jorge Lopez, Tyler Cravy, Zach Davies, Ariel Pena and Tyler Wagner all made starts for the Brewers in September. In AAA, some names to consider for September Roster Expansion are Hiram Burgos, who has battled his way back from injury and remained in the Brewers’ organization. A guy who might fly under the radar a bit is RHP Aaron Wilkerson who has made 24 minor league starts this year and has an ERA of 3.49.

At AA, Brandon Woodruff is a promising 23 year old RHP and he has had 25 starts which has resulted in 11 wins and an ERA of 3.04. Luis Ortiz gets mentioned every now and then among Brewer prospects. The 20 year old pitcher has been in touch with Matt Garza and they are very familiar with each other according to a recent article.

Ortiz has an ERA of 2.94 in 17 minors starts this year and should get a look in my opinion. With 10 losses and an ERA of 6.61 in the minors this year, prospect Jorge Lopez seems to be a long shot to be called up.

As of right now, the Brewers’ 40 man roster is full, but with guys like Adrian Houser, Michael Blazek, Jacob Barnes, Andrew Susac, and Will Middlebrooks unlikely to make a return or contribution to the major league level the rest of the way, some maneuvering could be done to take them off the roster among others.

Next: Brewers MiLB Pitcher of the Year Heats Up

I am interested to see what the Brewers will do with their decision-making in regards to the starting rotation going forward in 2016. I feel that the locks to continue to pitch are guys like Garza, Guerra, Peralta and Davies, but Nelson, Anderson, and Suter may not get the ball every fifth day because the Crew may want to take a look at others. Only time will tell, but I do know that for a team that is rebuilding, it could be fun to see what some new faces could do!