Brewers: Is This The Best Starting Rotation In Team History?

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PHOENIX, ARIZONA – JULY 19: Jhoulys Chacin #45 of the Milwaukee Brewers delivers a pitch in the first inning of the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on July 19, 2019 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Diamondbacks won 10-7. (Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images) /

It’s always a good sign when the season starts off with the question looming in fans’ heads, “Is this the best ____ we’ve ever seen?” And we definitely have an example of that this year in regards to the Brewers starting rotation.

In 2021, the Brewers have put out a five-man rotation that stands up with just about any other rotation in the entire league. As it turns out, it stacks up pretty well against other rotations in franchise history too.

The Brewers have had some very good starting rotations throughout their history so let’s see how some of the best ones stack up to the current 2021 staff.

2018

Junior Guerra, Brent Suter, Wade Miley, Chase Anderson, Jhoulys Chacin

We start off with the team that won the most games in franchise history with a combined regular season and playoff record of 102-71. This unit had a combined record of 43-34 and an ERA of 3.71. While there weren’t really any household names in this list, Jhoulys Chacin was the best out of the group with a 15-8 record and he had the most starts in the MLB with 35.

Interestingly enough, 2018 was the year that Freddy Peralta entered the big leagues and he even started 14 games for the Crew that year with a record of 6-4 and an ERA of 4.25. Brent Suter is the only one on this list still with the team, though he’s now in a different role with the club as the long relief or lefty specialist at times. Wade Miley was the only one that didn’t return to the club in 2019 after signing with the Houston Astros for $14.5MM, a year he went 14-6 in 33 starts.

In terms of individual records for a season, Chacin made an appearance on a few lists. He had the sixth-least hits allowed per nine innings in franchise history with 7.14, seventh-most games started with 35 and ninth-best Championship win probability added (measures how a player impacts their team’s chances of winning the World Series) at 2.9. Suter made an appearance on an all-time list as well with the eighth-best K/BB ratio at 4.421.

2011

Randy Wolf, Shaun Marcum, Yovani Gallardo, Zack Greinke, Chris Narveson

Ah, 2011…what a great year to be a Brewer fan. During the 2010 season, the Crew was arguably the best hitting team in the MLB, but their pitching lagged behind. GM Doug Melvin parted ways with Jeff Suppan, Dave Bush, and Doug Davis and replaced them with Shaun Marcum and the highly-coveted Zack Greinke.

Greinke was one of the most exciting acquisitions to date as the Brewers gave up a haul including Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar, Jake Odorizzi, and Jeremy Jeffress, but all Greinke did was succeed in a Brewer uniform going 25-9 in his two years in the Cream City.

This group went a combined 70-41 in 2011 with an ERA of 3.81. All five starters won double digit games and would lead Milwaukee to their first NLDS win in five games against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Yovani Gallardo and Shaun Marcum each saw their highest win totals in their respective careers that season. Also, no Brewer starting rotation has had five guys start 25 or more games in a season since 2011. Marco Estrada was the only other pitcher to make a start that season having only started seven of the 43 games he saw action in.

Individually, Gallardo and Greinke etched their names in the single-season history books. Gallardo is tied for eighth-most wins in a season with 17 and tied for fourth-most strikeouts in a season with 207. Greinke has the second-highest K/9 ratio at 10.538 and eighth-most strikeouts with 201. This was also the team with the previous record for consecutive games with at least five innings pitched and one or fewer runs allowed.

2008

MILWAUKEE – SEPTEMBER 28: CC Sabathia of theMilwaukee Brewers in the locker room as he and the Brewers celebrate clinching the National League Wild Card after the game against the Chicago Cubs at Miller Park on September 28, 2008 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Brewers defeated the Cubs 3-1. (Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images) /

Ben Sheets, CC Sabathia Dave Bush, Manny Parra, Jeff Suppan

The year before this roster was assembled was the first time the Brewers had a winning record since 1992, so there was plenty of optimism moving forward with this team. Ben Sheets, Dave Bush and Jeff Suppan were starters in 2007 and Manny Parra was moved to a starting pitcher in 2008.

Then one of the biggest trades in team history was made to acquire CC Sabathia for pitchers Rob Bryson and Zach Jackson, first baseman Matt LaPorta, and outfielder Michael Brantley. Brantley was really the only player that amounted to anything as he was a star in Cleveland.

The Crew went 14-3 in games that CC pitched, but that wasn’t the full extent of the success for the starting staff. As a whole, they had a record of 53-39 with a combined ERA of 3.65.

Sheets and Bush both had the second lowest ERA’s of their career in 2008 behind their 2004 campaign respectively. Sabathia had the lowest earned run average of his career in those 17 games with Milwaukee. In the playoffs it was the bats that let down the Crew as the offense only mustered nine runs in four games.

There were plenty of single-season records set in 2008 and Sabathia had his fingerprints on almost all of them. His name appears on 15 of the 35 major pitching “Top 10 Leaderboards” in Brewers pitching single season history and that all comes with more than half of his season in a Cleveland uniform.

Some of these numbers include: the lowest ERA in a season at 1.65, tied for first in win percentage at .846, tied for fourth in WHIP at 1.003 and the second lowest FIP at 2.44. He and Ben Sheets also are tied for eighth in team history for three shutouts in a season.

1982

Mike Caldwell, Pete Vuckovich, Moose Haas, BobMcClure, Randy Lerch, Don Sutton

How do you mention an all-time position group without mentioning the 1982 Brewers? Answer? You don’t.

This team produced the franchise’s second Cy Young Award winner with the closer being the first ever. Notice there are six names on this list and that’s because of the key addition of Don Sutton on August 30th in a trade with the Astros. Milwaukee actually had eight players start five or more games so it was really a team effort on that front.

Pete Vuckovich was the Cy Young award winner that year in a season that saw him go 18-6 with an ERA of 3.34 in 30 games started. Vuckovich also registered a jaw dropping nine complete games in 223.2 innings of work. He was the best pitcher on the staff, but you know the starter position group is deep when the Cy Young winner doesn’t even start the first game of the World Series.

Mike Caldwell started Game 1 and went nine innings only giving up three hits and no earned runs. The six mentioned above had a combined record of 70-42 with an ERA of 4.03, but much of the team’s damage was done with a bat in hand thanks to the likes of Paul Molitor, Robin Yount, Cecil Cooper, Gorman Thomas, and more.

This team created plenty of history including the team’s only World Series appearance in 51 seasons of existence. As mentioned above Vuckovich won the Cy Young, barely edging out Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles who had a lower ERA and WHIP that year. Palmer had won the prestigious award three times prior to the 1982 season. Vuckovich is tied for fourth-most wins in single-season history with 18.

Mike Caldwell is also familiar with the record books as he is tied for eighth in wins in a season with 17, tied for ninth-most innings pitched with 258.0 and is tied for eighth-most shutouts with three. Don Sutton also makes an appearance on a list with the best Championship win probability added at 8.3.

1971

Marty Pattin, Jim Slaton, Bill Parsons, Skip Lockwood, Lew Krausse

The 1971 pitching staff currently owns the lowest team ERA (3.38) in club history so I wouldn’t be doing the article justice if I didn’t include them. 1971 was only the third year of the franchise’s existence and second as the Brewers. Marty Pattin was an All-Star in 1971 and finished the season with a team high 169 strikeouts and Bill Parsons was second in the AL Rookie Of The Year voting after a season that saw him log 12 complete games.

This was a very balanced pitching staff that saw three different hurlers rank among the best in team history. Pattin had five shutouts in 1971, good enough for second-most in history and 36 games started which is tied for third-most. Parsons was right behind at 35 games started on the rubber which is tied for seventh most. Parsons and Jim Slaton each had four shutouts, good enough for third-most.

2021

Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes, Adrian Houser, Brett Anderson, Freddy Peralta

The Crew have plugged in a handful of other guys to start games this year but this is the best starting rotation they have.

Despite getting so little run support you’d need a magnifying glass to see it, Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes are smack dab in the middle of the Cy Young conversation. Freddy Peralta as the number five starter, is among the best arms in baseball in terms of whiff and strikeout rate while Adrian Houser and Brett Anderson have kept their team in games and induced tons of ground balls.

The starting pitching staff has already set records and we’re not even two months into the season. These five guys set the franchise record for most consecutive starts with at least five innings pitched and one or fewer runs allowed with seven games in a row.

Individually Corbin Burnes set the record for strikeouts by a starter before issuing his first walk and he’s the first pitcher in the modern era to have 40 strikeouts and no walks in a stretch of four games. Through May 23rd, these starters have a combined ERA of 2.78 and a WHIP of 0.979. When healthy, this unit is undoubtedly one of the best in baseball.

It’s too early to say if the 2021 starting rotation is the best in team history. Injuries happen and guys can regress during a season, but the start for the current staff has been historical. They are balanced from top to bottom and have two guys at the forefront that rank among the best in baseball. From pitchers that punch out hitters at high rates to guys that pitch to contact, they have it all.

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At the end of the season, we’ll have to revisit this question and see if this really is the best starting rotation in franchise history. What do you think?

*All stats via Baseball Reference

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