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Grading Future Guerra: Strike Zone

Yesterday, Brewers rookie Junior Guerra had a rough outing at PetCo Park. Few will remember his nondescript four run, four inning outing for its performance, but the righty’s start was significant for another reason: Guerra has now started the most games of any age-31 debut starting pitcher in the MLB divisional era (1969-present). Guerra’s season […]

MLB: San Francisco Giants at Milwaukee Brewers

Seven Free Brews

Is it better to be lucky, or good? History has, time and again, proven this to be a trick question. The truth is, if you want to succeed in anything, you need to be both lucky and good. Building a championship baseball team is no exception. The 1994 Montreal Expos and 2001 Seattle Mariners might […]

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Junior Guerra Has Been Really Clutch

Junior Guerra still feels…surreal. That a 31-year-old independent-baller with 3.3 innings pitch in the major leagues became a dependable starting pitcher is bizarre enough. That he’s worked an ERA of 2.85 over his first 15 starts — better than Jon Lester, better than Chris Sale, better than Max Scherzer — leaves me speechless. There are […]

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Game 87 Recap: Cardinals 5, Brewers 1

In a possible pitching duel between Junior Guerra and Mike Leake, only the visiting starter delivered; the Cardinals didn’t have much trouble against Guerra, while Leake mowed down the Brewers. Best Play: Leake didn’t look especially sharp through the first three innings, when he allowed a run on four hits. Following a leadoff single in the fourth, though, […]

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Credit the Process, Not the Result

Junior Guerra currently holds a 3.13 DRA. Among starting pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched, that ranks 19th in all of baseball. If we consider the idea that since there are 30 teams there are 30 “Aces” (Yes, some of you will disagree with this classification), Junior Guerra is performing like an “Ace”. This […]

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Pitching Staff and the Rebuild

It’s no secret that the Brewers’ pitching staff has struggled tremendously this year: they rank last in baseball in DRA, are the only group to have posted negative WARP, and are leading only Cincinnati in FIP. And unfortunately for the Brewers, many of the culprits are young pitchers who the club was hoping to be […]