Milwaukee Brewers Roundtable: Ideal Future Bullpen

Isaac

Trevor brings up some great points. I’m a huge fan of Taylor Williams pitching out of the bullpen, as I think he’ll be able to add some velocity with the shorter spurts of action. I think he can work his way into a seventh-inning role as soon as this year if all goes according to plan.

I personally am a strong believer in Jacob Barnes, as well. He faded down the stretch last season, but I think that was more a result of it being his first full MLB season than anything. Let’s not forget that Barnes had a sub-3.00 ERA into the month of June and still amassed 24 holds despite his struggles. I only see him improving as he gets more accustomed to the big leagues, which bodes well for the Brewers’ bullpen.

In the case of Josh Hader, I think he should stretch out a bit, but not fully into a starter. I like the idea of him being able to toss two or three dominant innings at a time out of the bullpen in a fashion similar to Andrew Miller. If a starter has a relatively short outing, the Brewers can bring in Hader to dominate a few innings and bridge the gap to Barnes and Knebel in the back end.

One final name for the ideal bullpen moving forward is Wei-Chung Wang. Sure, he hasn’t pitched well in the majors. His 2.05 ERA in hitter-friendly Colorado Springs is nothing to scoff at, though. He also struck out four times as many batters as he walked at Triple-A, so he could be a nice left-handed compliment to Barnes and Knebel in the back end of the bullpen.