Brewers: All 77 MLB And Franchise Records The Starting Rotation Set In 2021

It was a record setting year in a number of ways for the Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation. It seemed as if almost every night, someone in this group was rewriting the record book.

Leading the way, unsurprisingly, was Corbin Burnes. Burnes, along with Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta helped rewrite not only the Brewers franchise record book, but also some MLB records.

This is, without a doubt, the best starting rotation in Brewers history. The trio of Burnes, Woodruff, and Peralta all had ERAs at or below 2.81, while Eric Lauer and Adrian Houser had ERAs in the low 3.00s and were no slouches themselves even though they didn’t put up historic numbers or break any records.

In most years in Brewers history, Lauer and Houser had seasons worthy of being proclaimed the No. 1 guy in the rotation. But this year? They’re the No. 4 and No. 5 guys and it’s not even a guarantee that one of them will get any postseason starts.

Early in the season, this group was setting records at a blistering pace. They weren’t able to keep that pace up over the course of the whole season, unsurprisingly. As the weather got warmer, so did the bats. Still, this team did a staggering amount of work on the record books.

Now that the season is over, we have complete numbers on where these players rank on season leaderboards.

The Milwaukee Brewers rotation, led by Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, and Freddy Peralta, set 58 MLB or Franchise records in 2021.

Freddy Peralta was on pace to set a number of records, however did not reach enough innings to qualify, and as such his number of records will be much smaller. Peralta only had 144.1 IP, falling short of the 162 IP needed. Houser and Lauer also fell short of 162, and Lauer had the lowest amount of innings in the group with 118.2 IP.

Let’s take a look at the records the Brewers top three pitchers set this year and some records this rotation set as a whole.

Corbin Burnes set or tied 45 MLB or Franchise records in his performances in 2021.

MLB and Brewers Franchise Records set by Corbin Burnes in 2021

• Most strikeouts (58) before a walk to start a season as a starting pitcher (MLB) (Franchise)
• Most strikeouts (58) before a walk to start a season as either starter or reliever (MLB) (Franchise)
• Most strikeouts (15) without a walk in a single game (Franchise)
• Most swinging strikes (whiffs) in a single game (Franchise) (T-MLB)
• Most consecutive strikeouts (10) in a game (Franchise) (T-MLB)
• 1st pitcher with 30+ strikeouts and 0 BBs in first 3 starts (MLB) (Franchise)
• 1st pitcher to have streak of 3 straight games with 6+ IP and 2 or fewer baserunners (MLB) (Franchise)
• Most consecutive starts of 5+ IP and 1 ER or less (Franchise)
• 1st pitcher to start a season with back-to-back outings of 6 IP, 0 BB, and 1 H or less (MLB) (Franchise)
• Most starts with 10+ strikeouts and 0 BBs through first 10 games of a season (Franchise)
• Most starts with 10+ strikeouts and 0 BBs in a single season (Franchise)
• Fewest IP to 90 strikeouts in a single season as a starting pitcher (Franchise)
• Most consecutive starts (5) with 9+ strikeouts and 0 BBs (MLB) (Franchise)
• Most strikeouts (49) in a 5 appearance span with 0 BBs (MLB) (Franchise)
• 1st pitcher with 40+ strikeouts and 0 BBs in any 4 appearance span (MLB) (Franchise)
• 1st pitcher to strike out 10+ hitters in a game while allowing no hits (Franchise)
• Most strikeouts (25) in a two start span (T-Franchise)
• 1st pitcher to strike out 100+ batters in road games without a Loss in any of them (MLB) (Franchise)
• Most games in a single season with 10+ strikeouts and 0 runs allowed (Franchise)
• Lowest WHIP (0.94) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Highest K/9 (12.61) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Lowest HR/9 (0.38) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Lowest FIP (1.63) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise) (2nd-MLB)
• Highest ERA+ (176) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Highest K% (35.6%) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Lowest OBP allowed (.249) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Lowest SLG allowed (.273) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Lowest OPS allowed (.521) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Lowest OPS+ allowed (44) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Fewest HRs allowed (7) by a qualified pitcher in a single season (Franchise)
• Fewest XBHs allowed (27) by a qualified pitcher in a non-shortened season (Franchise)
• Fewest ERs allowed (45) by a qualified pitcher in a non-shortened season (Franchise)
• Fewest Hits allowed (123) by a qualified pitcher in a non-shortened season (Franchise)
• Lowest Runs Created (42) by a qualified pitcher in a non-shortened season (Franchise)
• Longest streak of starts (4) with 9+ strikeouts, 0 BBs, and 1 run or less (MLB) (Franchise)

That’s 35 statistical records for the franchise and 10 of them were also MLB records, which brings the total number of records broken by Burnes to 45.

He came incredibly close to breaking a few other records as well. Burnes was on pace to break the franchise records for highest average Game Score in a single season and the lowest ISO power allowed in a single season heading into his last start. But because of the shortened nature and the home run he allowed, Burnes came in 2nd in both those stats in franchise history.

Burnes also allowed just 166 baserunners all season, which is the fewest allowed by a Qualified Pitcher since Roger Nelson (154) in 1972. Not quite a record, but very close to it.

Is this the record for most records broken in a season? No idea. But it’s certainly one incredible year.

While this represents the bulk of the Brewers records by this rotation in 2021, he’s not the only one.

Freddy Peralta set 11 MLB and Franchise records with his performance for the Brewers in 2021.

MLB and Brewers Franchise Records set by Freddy Peralta in 2021

• Lowest Opponent Batting Average (.129) through first 11 starts of a season (MLB) (Franchise)
• 1st pitcher with 10 straight starts with 7+ strikeouts (Franchise)
• Most starts of 6+ IP and 2 or fewer hits in a single season (MLB) (Franchise)
• Most starts in a single season allowing 2 or fewer hits in a single season (MLB) (Franchise)
• 1st pitcher with consecutive starts of 6+ IP and 3 or fewer baserunners twice in a season (Franchise)
• Fewest hits allowed (27) in any 11 start span (MLB) (Franchise)
• Most starts (15) with 7+ strikeouts and 2 ER or fewer (Franchise)

Peralta, as mentioned in the slide above, took the record for lowest opponent batting average through 11 games that Brandon Woodruff set just a few days earlier. He then lost it to Jacob deGrom a few weeks later. But he still set the record, so it still counts. His franchise record still stands.

If Freddy Peralta had enough innings to qualify, he would’ve set many more records at the pace he was going. Peralta was ahead of Nolan Ryan‘s record for lowest H/9 in a single season with 5.24 H/9, while Ryan had a 5.26 H/9 in 1972, but Peralta didn’t have enough innings, so we’ll never truly know.

Speaking of Nolan Ryan, Peralta’s record for most starts of 2 or fewer hits in a season surpassed Ryan’s longstanding record of 11 starts of those parameters in a season, and he did so by the end of July.

Peralta was elite at preventing hits and his newfound four pitch arsenal gave him great results. In previous seasons Peralta was working with one or two pitches. But with the additions of a slider and changeup to the mix along with the fastball and curveball, Peralta went from a borderline bullpen arm to a dominant top of the rotation arm.

Well, he would be atop the rotation on most teams, but this Brewers rotation has a ton of arms. Let’s look at the records these arms set as a rotation.

As a group, the Milwaukee Brewers rotation set 11 MLB and Franchise records in 2021.

MLB and Franchise Records set by the Brewers Rotation Group in 2021

• Most starts of 6+ IP and 1 or fewer hits allowed in a season (MLB) (Franchise)
• Most consecutive starts with 5+ IP and 1 R or less allowed (Franchise)
• Most times a pitcher struck out 9+ and not gotten the win (Franchise)
• First rotation (min. 118 IP) with 5 starters having a 3.22 ERA or lower (MLB) (Franchise)
• First rotation (min. 118 IP) with 5 starters having an ERA+ at 132 or higher (MLB) (Franchise)
• First rotation (min. 118 IP) with 5 starters having a H/9 at 7.5 or lower (MLB) (Franchise)
• Eric Lauer – most consecutive starts of 5+ IP and 1 ER or less (T-Franchise)

Eric Lauer, Brandon Woodruff, and Corbin Burnes all tied the Brewers franchise record for most consecutive starts of 5 IP and 1 ER or less. The Brewers had three such streaks in the previous 50 years of franchise history. They had three separate such streaks by three different pitchers just this season.

Lauer finished the season with 118.2 IP, which is the reasoning behind the minimum innings limit set for that stretch of records. He threw the fifth most innings on this staff this season. No other rotation, no other team in the history of baseball has had five pitchers with 118 IP that all had ERAs so low. No other team had five pitchers with an ERA+ so high, and no other team had five pitchers with a H/9 so low.

Even with the lower bar for innings, not all being qualified for the ERA title, the Brewers still had the only group of five pitchers with 118 IP to meet those parameters in baseball history. Every other team would have the same lower bar of innings to get five pitchers to have those stats, and no one else could do it.

This group has clearly been the most elite and complete rotation in history at keeping earned runs and hits to a minimum. The defense behind them must also get credit for what they’ve done to eliminate hits and eliminate runs. The Run Prevention Unit that David Stearns put together clearly did it’s job.

This is arguably the best performing rotation in MLB history. No other team has had five starters perform to these levels. Others have had three or even four, but not five.

It’s a long list of records, and the Brewers are just getting started. Stat records courtesy of Baseball-Reference’s Stathead.