Brewers' bullpen once again among baseball's best

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Milwaukee had one of the best bullpens in 2018. Despite some changes in personnel, the Brewers’ relievers are doing it again.

Brewers’ relievers have an opponents OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of .681. Only San Francisco (.652) and St. Louis (.662) are better in the National League, where the average OPS for relievers is .728.

Among those on the current 25-man roster, it’s probably no surprise that Josh Hader leads the way with a .503 opponent OPS. Only Donnie Hart, who pitched in four games but is now in Triple-A, is slightly better than Hader, at .490.



Junior Guerra, who has been a revelation out of the bullpen this year, is next at .513. Jeremy Jeffress is at .640 and lefty Alex Claudio .674. Matt Albers is also below the league average, at .706.

Adrian Houser is the lone current member of the bullpen above the league average with an overall opponent OPS of .823. However, that includes two games he started as an opener. In his five relief appearances, Houser’s opponent OPS is a sparkling .519.

You can insert your own joke here about how this is no relief to those facing Milwaukee’s relievers.

Speaking of OPS, Milwaukee’s hitters are among the best in the league when they get ahead in the count. In the NL, only the Cubs (1.351) have a better OPS than the Brewers’ 1.318 when the count is 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-0 or 3-1.

The league average in those situations, by the way, is a 1.139 OPS. Hence why it is called a hitter’s count.

Other notes:

-- Philadelphia starting pitcher Jared Eickoff has allowed a .511 slugging percentage to left-handed batters but just .309 vs. righties. He’s also 12th in the National League in opponent batting average vs. right-handed hitters (.202).

-- Back in the rotation, Chase Anderson enters Friday’s game with a 1.32 ERA, an opponent slash line of .167/.293/.229, 1.24 WHIP and no home runs allowed as a starter. As a reliever – Anderson began the year in the bullpen – he had a 4.50 ERA, opponent slash line of .256/.326/.538, 1.40 WHIP and three HR allowed.

-- Former Brewer and current Phillies shortstop Jean Segura owns the longest active hitting streak in the majors at 14 games.

Statistics courtesy Sportradar and baseball-reference.com