Dairyland Express
Fansided

Milwaukee Brewers: Quarter-season awards

By Kenny Jilek

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - APRIL 20: Christian Yelich #22 of the Milwaukee Brewers celebrates with teammates after hitting a home run in the sixth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Miller Park on April 20, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - APRIL 20: Christian Yelich #22 of the Milwaukee Brewers celebrates with teammates after hitting a home run in the sixth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Miller Park on April 20, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 6
Next

MEDAL RESULT | Biggest Surprise

Zach Davies

Ben Gamel

Junior Guerra

Going into this 2019 season for the Milwaukee Brewers there was a lot of speculation about who would be the ace for this club. Would it be Opening Day starter, Jhoulys Chacin who had been so steady down the stretch in 2018? Would it be one of the young, up and coming pitchers who had made contributions to the NLCS team last season? The one guy in the five-man rotation that no one expected would be the best in the rotation is none other than the Bat Boy, Zach Davies.

He’s never really looked the part of a major league ace. His small stature and high-80s to low 90s fastball has never made him a big name arm. This was a guy that was left off of the playoff roster last year and only was put on the NLCS roster after an injury to Gio Gonzalez. This season he has proven wrong every single doubter and leads the MLB in ERA with a spectacular 1.54 ERA. His change-up has always been one of his signature pitches, but this season it is on another level. Opposing hitters are batting .206 against it with a whiff rate of 32.6 percent.

Junior Guerra has always had great stuff. His ERA of 2.81 in 2016 earned him the nod as Opening Day starter the next year, but after an injury and two years of inconsistency, it didn’t look like he would ever get back to that kind of production. This season he has come out as one of the best bullpen arms for the Milwaukee Brewers this season with an ERA of 2.52. Guerra is doing it with a mix of pitches. He has four pitches that he is throwing all between 23 and 28 percent of the time. With this mix, batters can never know what to expect on any count. Similar to 2016, his split-finger numbers are off the charts. No one has gotten a hit off of it yet, and it has a strikeout percentage of 48.1 percent.

Home/Milwaukee Brewers