Photo credit: Jean-Gabriel Fernandez
With more than half the 2021 MLB season in the books, the Brewers are on pace for a season with several memorable individual and team performances.
While the “second half” of their campaign unofficially started on Friday, the midway point of the Brewers’ season is already several weeks behind them. Sunday’s game was their 95th of the year, and by the middle of this week they’ll already be more than 60% of the way through the season.
If they can keep up their current run of success, this Brewers team has an opportunity to find themselves in elite company in franchise history. They’re on pace for 95.5 wins, just half a win back of the record set by the 2011 (96-66) and 2018 (96-67, including a tiebreaker game) teams. The last time they won exactly 95 regular season games was in 1982, when they won the American League East and reached the World Series.
Here are a few individual Brewers on pace for some notable numbers of their own:
Brandon Woodruff: 202 innings, 2.04 earned run average
In a season where pitcher durability was expected to be a significant question mark, Brandon Woodruff is on pace to be the Brewers’ most reliable workhorse in a long time. His 119 innings pitched through Sunday’s game leave him just three innings away from setting a new career high, and he’s currently on pace to log 202 innings for the season. If he gets there, he’ll be the first Brewer to crack 200 innings since Yovani Gallardo in 2012. His 2.04 ERA would also be the best ever for a Brewers pitcher with at least 162 innings.
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The Brewers, however, are going to have tough decisions to make with Woodruff and their other rotation mainstays if they continue to maintain a comfortable lead in the NL Central. Most of their top pitchers either already have or are on pace to greatly exceed their previous career highs for innings pitched. It’ll take a delicate balance to make sure those pitchers are ready for October but avoid overextending them before that.
Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and Corbin Burnes: 218+ strikeouts
This trio recently made some history by being a part of the first Brewers team ever to send four (or three) pitchers to the All Star Game. If they remain healthy and see consistent use, however, they could practically rewrite the Brewers’ single season record books in multiple categories.
Before this season only two Brewers pitchers had ever exceeded 218 strikeouts in a season: Teddy Higuera set a franchise record with 240 in 1987, and Ben Sheets broke it with 264 in 2004. After 50+ seasons with just two pitchers in that club, however, the Brewers are on pace to have three pitchers get there in 2021.
Omar Narvaez: Five Wins Above Replacement
After an unqualified disaster of a 2020 season, Narvaez has been an absolute revelation for the Brewers in 2021. His improvement is most often noticed at the plate, where his on-base plus slugging is up over 250 points from last season. He’s doing everything significantly better than he was a year ago and has emerged as one of the Brewers’ most valuable hitters.
According to FanGraphs, however, Narvaez has provided more value defensively than he has with his bat. They estimate he’s been worth about 9.2 runs at the plate and on the bases but about 11.9 defensively, for a total of three wins above replacement. That puts him on pace to join Yasmani Grandal and Jonathan Lucroy as the only Brewers catchers ever to be worth five wins in a single season.
After completing their sweep of the Reds on Sunday, the Brewers made it clear that they know they still have more work to do to finish what they’ve started. With that said, their recent performance has put them in position to leave behind an impressive legacy if they can keep up this pace.
