2018 Brew Crew Ball community top prospects in review: Brandon Woodruff

We keep moving with our 2018 review of the Brew Crew Ball’s community prospects. Today we’re checking on Brandon Woodruff.

Brandon Woodruff, RHP

AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox: 71.1 IP, 4.04 ERA, 1.388 WHIP, 68 K
Milwaukee Brewers: 42.1 IP, 3.61 ERA, 1.181 WHIP, 47 K

Woodruff’s season was, in one word, weird. After proving that he deserved to be on the major league roster in 2017 with his performance at AAA and briefly in the MLB, he started off the season with the Big League Crew. But he gave up four runs in three games and was demoted.

After his first demotion, he was brought back up and had an awful to very bad performance where he allowed nine runs in two games. That’s less than ideal. But after that, Woodruff was superb in every outing he was called on.

Woodruff is the type of pitcher who was designed to struggle in Colorado Springs. While he has a good fastball, it’s not enough to keep hitters off balance. He needs his other pitches but they don’t work well in the thin air. That means Woodruff ends up getting beat up at the Brewers’ former AAA establishment.

Starting in late May, he dominated during his brief appearances in Milwaukee. Woodruff’s final 25 major league innings resulted in a 1.44 ERA with 30 Ks.

That success continued into a string of spectacular postseason appearances, where Woodruff supported the big league club with three scoreless outings and one appearance where he allowed three runs but still pitched well over 5.1 innings.

The advanced statistics all line up with Woodruff’s performance. There’s now no doubt he’s ready for the next level. I can’t wait to see how he does in Milwaukee full time.

Just for fun, here he is hitting a homer off Kershaw.

Next up is #6 Brew Crew Ball prospect Brett Phillips.

Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs