Brewers Report Cards: Player Grades At The Half-Way Point

Brewers Bullpen Grades

Josh Hader: A+

When you’re a perfect 20-for-20 in save opportunities and hold a 0.55 ERA in 32.2 IP, you’re going to get an “A+” on your report card.

Josh Hader has been lights out. His velocity has been strong, he’s occasionally thrown in a changeup to the mix, and he has stopped allowing the long ball.

Hader hasn’t gone multiple innings in an outing all year, and although that’s frustrated some fans who are used to it, it’s hard to argue with the results. He’s been fresh more often and has been able to pitch more often, and that’s a good thing.

Devin Williams: B

Fresh of a 2020 Rookie of the Year campaign in which he posted a miniscule 0.33 ERA, Devin Williams has fallen back to earth a little bit. His 3.26 ERA isn’t bad, but he has a 5.9 BB/9 and his command hasn’t been as strong as it was last year.

His outings have been more stressful than fun this year, so he gets a B for the first half.

Brent Suter: B

Suter is filling his role as the multi-inning reliever and lefty specialist and doing it about as expected. He has a 3.46 ERA, which isn’t fantastic, but nothing to complain about either. He’s had some tough outings in key moments, but overall has been solid.

Brad Boxberger: B

Again, a solid veteran arm who has had a few rough outings but overall has been solid and has come up clutch in some key moments. Boxberger is sort of filling the 7th inning role after the trade of J.P. Feyereisen. His closer’s experience has helped him get three saves in games where Hader was unavailable.

Trevor Richards: B

His first few outings went poorly, and he was on track for a poor grade, but Richards has turned things around lately. He had a clutch outing to get out of a bases loaded jam with no outs to preserve a lead for Corbin Burnes and since then has done well.

His 3.71 ERA with the Brewers is decent, but if you exclude his first three outings where he had two blown leads, Richards has a 2.19 ERA with Milwaukee. He also had a streak of eight straight scoreless outings.

Eric Lauer: B-

When Lauer has started against NL West teams, he’s been excellent. When he’s pitched against nearly anyone else, not so much. Lauer’s 4.50 ERA in 44 innings indicates he hasn’t been stellar overall although it’s in line with the numbers he posted in San Diego.

He’s had some really good starts against the Dodgers, Padres, and Rockies, but has been roughed up in plenty of other ones. So he gets a B- for the first half.

There were plenty more players who had opportunities this year, but there’s no way to grade all 51 who have donned the Brewers uniform in the first half of the season. Hopefully some of these guys can keep up their high grades in the second half and some can improve their grade over the final three months.