Milwaukee Brewers: First Half Grades for the Starting Pitchers

The first half of the 2023 MLB season was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for the Milwaukee Brewers, but in the end, they came into the All-Star break in relatively decent shape. They finished the first portion of the season by winning or tying their final five series and rolling in with a 49-42 record, good for second place in the NL Central, just a game behind the Reds.

With the first half in the books, it's time to look back on the performances of all the players over that time and hand out grades to each of them. We'll be handing out our report cards by position group, beginning with the starting pitchers.

The hope for Brewers fans was that the starting rotation would not suffer a similar fate as the 2022 version in terms of injuries. Unfortunately, the injury bug hit the rotation again, even striking down one possible starting candidate before the season began. Despite that, the rotation has held up relatively well with some surprise performances along the way.

Here are our 2023 first half grades for the Milwaukee Brewers starting pitchers.

RHP Corbin Burnes

For the last three years, it has been nothing short of domination as Corbin Burnes rose from a horrific 2019 season to become the team's ace and an NL Cy Young winner. And while this season hasn't quite matched those last three, he has proven to be a pitcher that still gives opposing batters fits.

For the most part, Burnes' numbers have seen a slight decline across the board. His 3.94 ERA is up from the sub 3.00 ERAs that he posted in each of the last three seasons, his 1.137 WHIP is also the highest since 2019, his home runs per nine are just a tick up from last season (1.2 versus 10) and his strikeouts per nine (8.6) are his lowest since his rookie season.

Burnes has still churned out plenty of strong performances, however. He has given up two earned runs or less in over half of his starts (10 of 18) and has struck out seven or more batters eight times in 2023. Perhaps that's why, despite the dip in production, Burnes was still named as an All-Star replacement, marking his third straight selection to the midsummer classic.

Grade: B+

RHP Julio Teheran

As unexpected as Rea's performance has been so far, the title of Most Unexpected Brewers Starter Performance has to go to veteran Julio Teheran, a midseason pickup who was on absolute fire for the Crew after not pitching in an MLB game since 2021.

After being acquired by the Brewers on May 25th, Teheran gave up two earned runs or fewer in his first six starts, lasting five or more innings in each start. Unfortunately, he has come back to earth in his two most recent outings, surrendering 13 combined earned runs. But that strong start still allows him to sit with an impressive 3.64 ERA and 1.021 WHIP at the All-Star break.

Grade: A-

RHP Adrian Houser

The starts were originally going to be few and far between for Adrian Houser, who was slated for the bullpen before the season began. But after an injury delayed his season debut until early May, those rotation injuries pressed him into starting duty right away upon his return.

Houser isn't exactly limiting the hits and walks at a 1.539 WHIP and has the lowest strikeout rate (6.0 K/9) among the starters. Somehow, though, he has parlayed his performances into a 3-2 record and a 3.68 ERA. If limiting runs and stacking wins is all that matters, then Houser has done his job more often than not.

Grade: B-

LHP Eric Lauer

What the heck happened to Eric Lauer? After two pretty good seasons in 2021 and 2022, things have gone off the rails in 2023. At first it seemed like a decrease in velocity might be to blame, but once that corrected itself, the bounce back never came for the southpaw.

In nine games (eight starts), Lauer is 4-5 with a 5.48 ERA, a 1.523 WHIP, and a whopping 2.7 HR/9. In late May, he was sent to the injured list and then optioned to Triple-A in June once healthy. He has since been placed on the temporarily inactive list and there hasn't been much news about him since then. Odds are the Brewers are working with him behind the scenes and hopefully they're able to right the ship together.

Grade: F

Starters with Incomplete Grades

Brewers "co-ace" Brandon Woodruff was off to a fast start to 2023, giving up just one run and striking out 12 in his first two starts of the season. Unfortunately, he was placed on the IL shortly after his second start and has been there ever since. He is now in the middle of a throwing program and will hopefully be back near the end of July.

Speaking of injuries, Aaron Ashby, a potential starter candidate for 2023, has been out with injury since before the season began. He had shoulder surgery in April and will miss most of this season.

The only other pitcher to make a start in 2023 is prospect Janson Junk. He would give up five runs (four earned) in 4.2 innings in a Brewers loss on April 12th. He was sent back to Triple-A afterward and hasn't been back in 2023.

Things could have gone much worse for the starting rotation in the first half of 2023. But instead of going down in flames, the starting rotation has continued to be a strength of the Milwaukee Brewers, just like it has the past few years.