The Brewers Against Starters Making Their Major League Debut

by TheJay on May 23, 2009 7:36 AM CDT Comment 2 comments

Anthony Swarzak is scheduled to start for the Twins tonight. Haven't heard of him? That could be because he's never pitched in the majors before. Since joining the National League in 1998, the Brewers have faced eighteen starting pitchers making their major league debut. It's been done before, it never hurts to look again at a rundown of how they did:

Player	Date	Tm	Opp	W/L	Score	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	GmSc
Brian Meadows	4/4/1998	FLA	MIL	L	2-6	3.2	10	6	6	2	3	0	18
Dan Reichert	7/16/1999	KCR	@MIL	W	12-10	1.2	5	7	7	4	1	0	14
Buddy Carlyle	8/29/1999	SDP	MIL	W	5-4	7	2	4	1	2	5	1	66
Brian O'Connor	5/13/2000	PIT	MIL	W	11-8	2	7	6	6	2	0	1	16
Adam Eaton	5/30/2000	SDP	MIL	W	6-3	5.1	5	3	3	2	4	1	48
Jose Acevedo	6/19/2001	CIN	MIL	L	8-10	4	4	6	6	2	4	3	32
Carlos Zambrano	8/20/2001	CHC	MIL	L	2-10	4	4	7	7	4	3	1	25
Juan Cruz	8/21/2001	CHC	MIL	L	1-3	6	3	2	2	1	8	0	65
Josh Pearce	4/20/2002	STL	@MIL	L	3-5	4.2	6	3	3	3	0	0	37
Nate Teut	5/4/2002	FLA	@MIL	L	4-6	4.1	8	5	5	1	3	0	29
Kirk Saarloos	6/18/2002	HOU	@MIL	L	1-7	4.2	6	6	6	3	4	1	29
Chin-hui Tsao	7/25/2003	COL	MIL	W	7-3	6.1	8	3	3	1	5	2	49
Zach Duke	7/2/2005	PIT	@MIL	L	3-5	7	5	3	3	1	9	1	63
Anthony Reyes	8/9/2005	STL	@MIL	W	5-2	6.1	2	2	2	1	5	1	65
Paul Maholm	8/30/2005	PIT	@MIL	W	6-0	8	4	0	0	3	5	0	76
Boof Bonser	5/21/2006	MIN	@MIL	L	3-5	6	5	1	1	3	8	0	63
Rick VandenHurk	4/10/2007	FLA	MIL	L	2-3	4.2	5	1	1	3	5	0	52
Jonathon Niese	9/2/2008	NYM	@MIL	W	6-5	3	7	5	5	4	2	1	23
All Players	1998-2008	MLB	MIL	8-10	87-95	88.2	96	70	67	42	74	13	43

The won-loss marks and scores are from the perspective of the pitcher's team, so the Brewers have actually gone 10-8 in games started by opposing pitchers making their major league debut. "GmSc" stands for game score, a fun little number that tries to rate the effectiveness of a pitcher's start without getting too complex. The pitcher list contains some eminently forgettable names and some guys who still give the Brewers fits, but taken together, they didn't do well in their first starts:

Here are the rate stats for their 88 2/3 combined innings: 9.74 H/9, 7.11 RA, 6.80 ERA, 4.26 BB/9, 7.51 K/9, 1.32 HR/9

For quick and dirty comparisons' sake, the Brewers have turned starters making their major league debuts into Chan Ho Park with a few more homers. Hopefully they make Swarzak's stats look like Park's 2009 numbers.

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Cherry picking

I realize this is selective history on my part, but while the Brewers may be 10-8 and have scored about seven runs a game off of all of these guys, the last seven guys (Tsao, Duke, Reyes, Maholm, Bonser, Vandenhurk and Niese) posted a combined 3.27 ERA en route to a 4-3 record.

"The reports are that he is getting better. The definition of better is nebulous."

by KLSnow on May 23, 2009 8:53 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

the Bonser loss... ughh

Losing to a guy named Boof in his first start is a bad memory. I mentioned yesterday that it seems like the Twins always kick our butts in this series, and this was one of the games that I was recalling.

by keephopealive on May 23, 2009 2:57 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

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