Photo Credit: Scott Paulus
Freddy Peralta wasn’t even supposed to be in the majors on Sunday, but he made the most of the opportunity.
Summoned from Colorado Springs at least in part due to Zach Davies’ ongoing shoulder issues and Chase Anderson’s sudden illness, Peralta was the youngest Brewer to make his MLB debut as a starting pitcher since Yovani Gallardo in 2007 and he had the Rockies off balance all afternoon, working 5.2 scoreless innings, striking out 13 and waiting until the sixth inning to allow his first hit.
“Game Score,” a metric developed by Bill James, is designed to rank performances by starting pitchers. Peralta’s Sunday performance scored a 78, the best outing by a Brewers pitcher in 2018. By that measure it was also the second-best starting pitching debut in franchise history, although the company at the top of that list is somewhat dubious.
Steve Woodard
No discussion of debuting Brewers starting pitchers is complete, of course, without a mention of Steve Woodard. Woodard’s first appearance in 1997 was one of the best outings by a Brewers starter in any environment, debut or not. Facing Roger Clemens and the Blue Jays in the first game of a doubleheader, Woodard allowed a leadoff double to outfielder Otis Nixon and then never allowed another hit, pitching eight shutout innings in a 1-0 victory. His Game Score for the outing was 91.
Unfortunately, this performance was perhaps the most notable moment in an otherwise forgettable MLB career for Woodard. He made a grand total of 94 MLB starts over seven seasons from 1997-2003 (including 73 as a Brewer from 1997-2000) and finished his career with a 4.94 ERA. Baseball Reference suggests his entire MLB run had an estimated value of 3.5 Wins Above Replacement.
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Chris Saenz
The others on the list of best debuts behind Woodard and Peralta would likely all trade their careers for Woodard’s success. The most curious case is Chris Saenz, who posted a 72 Game Score in a spot start against the Cardinals in April of 2004. Saenz worked six scoreless innings in the game, allowed just two hits and struck out seven.
Saenz returned to AA after the spot start, but never made it back to the big leagues: He made just 14 appearances for the Huntsville Stars in 2004 before suffering a catastrophic arm injury that derailed his career. He made a few comeback attempts but was effectively done with professional baseball following his age 22 season.
Taylor Jungmann
Jungmann was the #12 overall pick in the 2011 draft and Baseball America listed him as the #70 prospect in all of baseball before the 2012 season, and he showed flashes of the potential that earned him those accolades in his major league debut on June 9, 2015. He faced the Pirates that day and allowed one run over seven innings, allowing just three hits and recording five strikeouts. He walked just one batter in that contest, despite struggling with control throughout his career. His Game Score was 71.
Jungmann finished the season in the Brewers rotation and performed admirably, recording a 3.77 ERA in 119 1/3 innings. He never replicated that success again, however: He opened the season in the starting rotation in 2016 but was demoted to the minors after posting a 9.15 ERA in his first five starts. In 2017 he made the Brewers’ Opening Day roster again but was demoted after just one outing. The Brewers released Jungmann over the winter to allow him to pitch in Japan, where he has a 2.04 ERA in six appearances for the Yomiuri Giants’ minor league affiliate.
Tyler Cravy
Compared to Jungmann, Cravy had toiled in obscurity for quite some time before getting the call to the majors. A 17th round pick in 2009, Cravy reached the majors a week to the day before Jungmann and had a very similar outing, working seven innings and allowing the Cardinals a single run on four hits, walking two and striking out six. He had a 69 Game Score for the outing.
Cravy bounced back and forth between the majors and minors over the season and a half that followed and experienced some success in 2016, posting a 2.86 ERA in 20 appearances, including two starts. He was one of the last players cut by the Brewers at the end of spring training in 2017 and publicly lashed out at the organization, then was not recalled during the year and was allowed to leave as a minor league free agent following the season. He has not played in the majors or affiliated minors in 2018.
Gary Ryerson
For a long time the greatest starting pitching debut in Brewers franchise history belonged to a player most fans probably couldn’t name. Gary Ryerson (not Ned Ryerson of Groundhog Day fame) was playing his seventh professional season in the minors when he got the call to the big leagues for the first time on June 28, 1972. He pitched the first game of a doubleheader that day and worked a complete game, allowing two runs on eight hits with no walks and five strikeouts in a win over Cleveland. His Game Score for that outing was 68.
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Ryerson made a grand total of 18 MLB starts over two seasons. The Brewers sent him to the Angels in a nine-player deal following the 1973 season and he never played in the majors again.
Freddy Peralta won’t turn 22 until June so he’s younger than any of these pitchers were at the time of their MLB debut and, with the possible exception of Jungmann, he’s also more highly regarded as a prospect than any of them ever were. Nonetheless, he has some work to do to ensure his career doesn’t end up listed alongside the Brewers who had great debuts and quickly faded.
