FanPost

Now Starting and Making His Major League Debut...

The pitching matchup for tonight's game is Jon Niese vs. Manny Parra. A young lefthander, Niese spent most of the season playing for AA Binghamton of the Eastern League before being promoted for a span of seven starts to AAA New Orleans. After putting up results at both stops, he got tapped to make his major league debut tonight in Milwaukee. When he takes the mound in the bottom of the first (because he won't be batting in the top of the inning, right?), he'll be the forty-ninth pitcher to make his debut starting against the Brewers franchise. I thought it'd be interesting to look at who the other forty-eight were and how they did.

Cnt Player Date Tm Opp WL Score Dec IP H R ER BB K HR GmSc
1 Bart Johnson 9/8/1969 CHW @SEP L 1-2 L 6.0 4 2 2 4 5 1 57
2 Jerry Janeski 4/10/1970 CHW MIL W 5-4 W 7.1 10 3 3 2 7 0 51
3 Steve Dunning 6/14/1970 CLE MIL W 9-2 W 5.0 5 2 2 2 3 1 50
4 Steve Luebber 6/27/1971 MIN MIL L 5-8 5.0 6 5 5 4 3 0 34
5 Lynn McGlothen 6/25/1972 BOS @MIL L 0-2 L 7.1 5 2 2 3 7 0 64
6 Fred Holdsworth 7/27/1972 DET @MIL W 8-5 5.0 7 5 5 1 3 0 35
7 Don Aase 7/26/1977 BOS MIL W 4-3 W 9.0 9 3 2 2 11 0 68
8 Rich Gale 4/30/1978 KCR MIL W 3-0 W 7.0 6 0 0 1 4 0 68
9 Rich Wortham 5/3/1978 CHW @MIL L 0-4 L 6.2 7 3 3 3 2 0 47
10 Dan Petry 7/8/1979 DET @MIL L 1-3 L 7.1 10 3 3 1 2 0 47
11 Rich Barnes 7/18/1982 CHW @MIL L 3-9 L 1.2 5 6 6 1 0 0 20
12 Stefan Wever 9/17/1982 NYY @MIL L 0-14 L 2.2 6 9 8 3 2 1 11
13 Allan Ramirez 6/8/1983 BAL MIL W 7-3 7.0 5 2 2 5 2 0 56
14 Mark Langston 4/7/1984 SEA MIL W 3-2 W 7.0 4 2 2 3 5 1 63
15 Joel Davis 8/11/1985 CHW MIL W 4-1 W 7.0 5 1 1 2 6 0 67
16 Jeff Sellers 9/15/1985 BOS @MIL W 4-2 W 6.1 8 2 1 3 1 0 49
17 Bob Tewksbury 4/11/1986 NYY MIL W 3-2 W 7.1 9 2 2 1 2 0 53
18 Al Leiter 9/15/1987 NYY MIL W 4-3 W 6.0 4 1 1 4 8 0 64
19 Dave Eiland 8/3/1988 NYY @MIL L 5-6 7.0 3 1 1 2 3 1 68
20 Alex Fernandez 8/2/1990 CHW @MIL W 4-3 7.0 5 2 2 2 4 1 61
21 Scott Aldred 9/9/1990 DET @MIL W 5-0 W 5.0 4 0 0 5 2 0 56
22 Denis Boucher 4/12/1991 TOR MIL W 5-4 5.1 5 4 3 1 1 2 44
23 Wade Taylor 6/2/1991 NYY MIL W 7-4 W 5.1 7 4 4 1 4 0 41
24 Denny Neagle 7/27/1991 MIN MIL W 7-4 3.0 4 2 2 1 5 1 47
25 Bob Wickman 8/24/1992 NYY MIL W 9-8 6.0 6 5 3 0 2 0 46
26 Steve Karsay 8/17/1993 OAK MIL W 6-3 W 6.1 6 2 2 1 3 0 55
27 Mark Holzemer 8/21/1993 CAL MIL W 7-6 6.0 9 5 5 3 2 0 33
28 Gar Finnvold 5/10/1994 BOS MIL L 5-9 5.0 4 2 2 2 4 0 53
29 Tim Van Egmond 6/26/1994 BOS @MIL L 4-5 L 7.2 5 5 5 4 7 1 52
30 Steve Wojciechowski 7/18/1995 OAK @MIL L 0-4 L 5.0 8 3 3 3 2 0 38
31 Brian Moehler 9/22/1996 DET @MIL W 7-5 5.1 6 5 0 4 1 1 43
32 Brian Meadows 4/4/1998 FLA MIL L 2-6 L 3.2 10 6 6 2 3 0 18
33 Dan Reichert 7/16/1999 KCR @MIL W 12-10 1.2 5 7 7 4 1 0 14
34 Buddy Carlyle 8/29/1999 SDP MIL W 5-4 7.0 2 4 1 2 5 1 66
35 Brian O'Connor 5/13/2000 PIT MIL W 11-8 2.0 7 6 6 2 0 1 16
36 Adam Eaton 5/30/2000 SDP MIL W 6-3 W 5.1 5 3 3 2 4 1 48
37 Jose Acevedo 6/19/2001 CIN MIL L 8-10 L 4.0 4 6 6 2 4 3 32
38 Carlos Zambrano 8/20/2001 CHC MIL L 2-10 L 4.0 4 7 7 4 3 1 25
39 Juan Cruz 8/21/2001 CHC MIL L 1-3 L 6.0 3 2 2 1 8 0 65
40 Josh Pearce 4/20/2002 STL @MIL L 3-5 4.2 6 3 3 3 0 0 37
41 Nate Teut 5/4/2002 FLA @MIL L 4-6 L 4.1 8 5 5 1 3 0 29
42 Kirk Saarloos 6/18/2002 HOU @MIL L 1-7 L 4.2 6 6 6 3 4 1 29
43 Chin-hui Tsao 7/25/2003 COL MIL W 7-3 W 6.1 8 3 3 1 5 2 49
44 Zach Duke 7/2/2005 PIT @MIL L 3-5 7.0 5 3 3 1 9 1 63
45 Anthony Reyes 8/9/2005 STL @MIL W 5-2 W 6.1 2 2 2 1 5 1 65
46 Paul Maholm 8/30/2005 PIT @MIL W 6-0 W 8.0 4 0 0 3 5 0 76
47 Boof Bonser 5/21/2006 MIN @MIL L 3-5 6.0 5 1 1 3 8 0 63
48 Rick VandenHurk 4/10/2007 FLA MIL L 2-3 4.2 5 1 1 3 5 0 52
Total All -- MLB MIL 27-21 206-220 16-14 270.1 276 158 144 112 185 23 48

The W's, L's, and scores are from the pitcher's point of view. So an L means the Brewers actually won the game and a W means they lost. Thus, in their 48 matchups against guys making their debut, the Brewers franchise has gone 21-27, including 14-16 when the rookie starter has picked up a decision. However, the Crew has actually outscored their opponents by 14 runs in these games, and they've won 9 of their last 12 such games going back to 2001. That said, the Brewers haven't hung a loss on an opposing debutant in six games, going back to 2002.

To look at totals for more recent results, let's turn to the past decade. In the 17 such games since the Brewers switched to the NL, here's what starters making their debut on the mound have done against the Crew:
85.2 IP, 89 H, 65 R, 62 ER, 38 BB, 72 K, 12 HR, 1.48 WHIP, 6.51 ERA, 44 average game score

For people who want to be bummed and/or say the team is punchless against guys like Niese, here are the last six starts:
38.1 IP, 29 H, 10 R, 10 ER, 12 BB, 37 K, 4 HR, 1.07 WHIP, 2.35 ERA, 61 average game score

Hopefully Jon Niese is a little more like Nate Teut than he is Paul Maholm in his debut.