Milwaukee Brewers: Jeremy Jeffress Dominates Way to All-Star Game

Jeremy Jeffress received the good news Thursday that he is going to be an All-Star for the first time in his career. Joining Josh Hader, Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich, and Jesus Aguilar, he is the fifth Milwaukee Brewers player to make the ASG, a franchise record.

Jeffress is replacing Sean Doolittle of the Washington Nationals on the roster, who was recently placed on the 10-day DL.

Jeremy Jeffress’ Season Stats

Jeremy Jeffress is having a career year in 2018. He’s made 44 appearances in relief and is one of Counsell’s favorite arms out of the bullpen. This season, Jeffress is 6-1 with a 0.99 ERA and 0.838 WHIP, both well below his career averages in those categories. Jeffress is also improving his K/9, BB/9, K/BB, HR/9, AVG, BABIP, and Strand Rate.

It is incredible to look at the season Jeffress is having when you compare them to his career averages. He has been able to lower his BB/9 while outperforming his career 7.99 K/9. Most impressive about the stats above is his strand rate or LOB%. In the rare occasions when runners get on base, he is stranding them 94.7% of the time. Jeffress is even stranding runners at a higher rate than Josh Hader at 89.5%

Jeremy is atop the leaderboard in many relief pitching categories, most interesting to me is the high leverage category and inherited runners. Jeffress is second with 27 relief appearances in high leverage situations, and first in the MLB with 33 inherited runners.

The numbers tell me a couple of different things. First, Craig Counsell trusts Jeffress, and why wouldn’t he? Second, when you combine strand rate, inherited runners, and high leverage situations stats.

We see that Jeffress is entering the game in critical moments, with runners on base, and not allowing those runners in to score. His dominance is a key factor in the early season success of the Brewers and definitely deserves to be on the ASG roster.

Next: Rumors: Crew Fading in Machado sweepstakes

The Milwaukee Brewers have five All-Stars for the first time in franchise history. The last time the Brewers set a record number of All Stars, they went to a World Series.