Brandon Woodruff, Milwaukee Brewers
The Brewers have faced questions about their starting rotation since the beginning of last year. So far, they’ve overcome not making a big splash and are once again firmly in the middle of the National League playoff hunt. Woodruff’s production in the rotation has been one of the reasons why.
The right-hander had a solid 2018 campaign, but it was mostly spent in the bullpen. In fact, between 2017 and 2018, he had made a total of just 12 starts. He’s made 10 such appearances this year, which has yielded a 27.9% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate, a 3.51 ERA, and 1.22 WHIP. His 1.3 fWAR through 56.1 innings has already more than doubled his career mark heading into this year (1.1 in 85.1 innings).
It is interesting to note that his ground-ball rate is down at 40.0%, with a lot of that difference going to his line-drive rate allowed (25.5%). He’s managed to limit hitters to a .324 BABIP despite allowing hard contact at a 39.2% clip. He’s at least forced the opposition to swing more often than last year (48.5% swing rate in ’19) while making contact with less frequency (75.9%).
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
