Atlanta Braves news: Brewers lose a bullpen arm, but does it matter?

The Atlanta Braves know all about baseball injuries, but injuries at this time of the year can mess with the momentum of playoff teams.

If all continues according to current trends, the Atlanta Braves will face the Milwaukee Brewers starting next Friday (October 8) for their side of the NL Division Series matchups.

Milwaukee has gotten where they are based on outstanding pitching on top of an offense nearly  the equal of Atlanta’s:

• Their starting pitching:  2nd best ERA in the NL
• Their relief pitching:  5th best ERA in the NL (the Braves are 8th, by the way)

Those numbers can be a bit misleading when heading into the playoffs, of course:  the Brew Crew has used thirty-four different pitchers in a relief role this year, but come October, they will rely on their best group:

• Josh Hader, Brent Suter, Brad Boxberger, Devin Williams:  all with 57+ appearances.
• Hunter Strickland, Jake Cousins, Miguel Sanchez:  all with 27-33 appearances)

Except there’s some news today that throws a wrench into their plans:

Sound familiar?  Yeah — it was in Milwaukee that Huascar Ynoa had a disagreement with a bench that resulted in a similar injury.  Doesn’t any pitcher heed Crash Davis‘ advice from Bull Durham… to never use your pitching hand to punch anything?

Reporters are already suggesting that this is a huge blow to Milwaukee’s chances to win the World Series.  Here’s one example:

Frankly, these reactions seem quite overblown.

Above, we listed the 7 pitchers for Milwaukee that have spent the most time on the mound in the regular season in relief roles.  One of those — accounting for 54 innings — is now removed from that group.

The pitcher most likely to see a bump in his innings now is Hoby Milner — a lefty, but also the only lefty we’ve listed so far.  Atlanta’s lineup is such that we should probably expect to see him often regardless of any injuries.

Don’t forget:  the spacing of playoff games is such that off days happen relatively often.  While those bullpen work-horses (Suter, Boxberger, and Hader) have shouldered the load all season, there’s no reason to think that would change in the playoffs.

Add to that the tendency for starting pitchers to go an extra inning beyond regular season norms (if they are doing well, of course).

If those principles work out for Milwaukee, then fans of their team may not miss Williams much.

Overcoming this elite pitching staff was always going to be difficult for the Atlanta Braves.  That doesn’t change with the loss of Williams.

That said, the Braves did manage to defeat Milwaukee 3 times this year — splitting their six season series games.

If the Brewers wish to wallow in despair about their plight, then sure — bring it on.  Anything that harms their mental state going into the series next week would be appreciated.

The Atlanta Braves had better not be thinking that they’re going to play “down”, though… the Brewers still have lot of weapons that will have to be silenced by many great plate appearances from our side.