MINNEAPOLIS – The Milwaukee Brewers pitching plans for the time being are anything but a direct route, winding and bobbing by the day as they piece together an open rotation spot while also trying to give their regular starters more rest.
But they’re also finding they quite like going as the Crow flies, too.
Rookie right-hander Coleman Crow left an indelible mark on the braintrust of the Milwaukee Brewers for the second time in as many spot starts through the quarter point of the season May 15 at Target Field.
Much like he did in his major-league debut April 17 in Miami, Crow was fearless, attacking the zone early and often, mixing speeds and locations with the savvy of a seasoned veteran and foraging on an unexpectedly aggressive Minnesota Twins lineup in a 3-2 win.
“Guys go out there and throw 83 pitches in four innings and you’re like, ‘God, every guy is 3-2 [count],” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy, who’s taken a quick liking to the young hurler. “This kid goes out there and just attacks, attacks, attacks. It was great.
“God, he’s just a likeable kid, too.”
Crow cruised through 4 ⅔ hitless innings before a Ryan Kreidler single just over the outstretched glove of David Hamilton at short ended any dreamy notions of what might take place in front of 24,309 at Target Field. He ultimately relented one run in the sixth but turned in a performance that once again left the Brewers impressed: Five-plus innings, three hits, no walks and three strikeouts.
“He’s 2 for 2 for me, man,” Murphy said. “Reminds me of [Logan] Henderson last year. Guy just kept coming up and kept giving us great outings.”
Murphy called Crow’s outing a spot start prior to it taking place, and not even another solid outing with high feel-to-pitch like the one he displayed on this night is likely going to change that.
The Brewers, you see, are right now operating their own version of pitching chaos.
They have pitching depth. And they’re damn sure going to use it.
Milwaukee has shifted Chad Patrick to a nebulous, anytime, anywhere, role after the second-year righty couldn’t quite find his groove in the rotation.
And not only does that leave the Brewers down a starter until Brandon Woodruff comes back from the injured list, but they’re also now making an effort to sprinkle in some created rest for their four regular starters, including the constantly-cramping Jacob Misiorowski. The Brewers learned a lot about how to pull off this type of pitching schedule a year ago when Woodruff first returned and regularly needed to pitch on five days’ rest each time.
“We realized you can do it a lot,” Murphy said. “It’s probably beneficial. I think it’s a healthy thing.”
That leaves, just two days after Crow swooped in for one evening, the old, reliable arm of TBA on the list of probable pitchers for the May 17 series finale in Minnesota. One option is to mix and match Patrick and Shane Drohan, although Murphy seemed to suggest they are going to use Crow’s roster spot to call upon someone else (perhaps Robert Gasser?) to start.
That leaves Patrick in his wild-card role, which he is taking a liking to even if it comes at the expense of a rotation slot.
“I’m not worrying about anything,” Patrick said of his new bullpen mentality. “When I’m not starting, I’m not worrying about how deep I’m going to go in games. When I come out of the bullpen, I don’t know how long I’m going to go. If I get another chance to start, that’s going to be my mentality.
“I’ve kind of been in my own zone right now and not really stressed about it or worried about it,”
While Patrick is simply happy to still have a locker, the same is soon not going to be true for Crow – as much as he may deserve it based on what he’s shown.
Before the Twins began to calibrate a bit beginning in the fifth and sixth, Crow was putting on a clinic of mixing, matching and exploiting aggression.
He threw all five of his pitches between 10% and 30% of the time. He buried first-pitch cutters for strikes, expecting a more patient approach from the Twins. But in the unanticipated instances early in which he and catcher William Contreras sensed jumpiness, they used Crow’s ability to spin strike-to-ball pitches and induce weak contact. Until a Royce Lewis line out in the fifth, there was only one batted ball against Crow with an expected batting average above .130.
Crow, at 25 years old, is inexperienced as far as pitching in the majors goes. But when it comes to knowing his craft, he’s a savant.
“I think it’s just speeding them up and slowing them down,” Crow said. “Reading a swing and seeing what they’re hunting and going away from that. Then get them off of that and go to something else.
“I think a lot of my stuff plays together like a little jigsaw puzzles. The shapes, one going east, one going west with the sinker and cutter. The curveball has more depth and it’s slower. It’s speed them up, slow them down, move it in and out.”
Time will tell whether what Crow is doing is sustainable, or if he’s simply exploiting opponents who aren’t used to his spin-o-rama style of pitching.
But there aren’t any questions around the Brewers clubhouse about how nasty his stuff is when he’s on.
“I can’t wrap my head around throwing a 40 inch difference side to side, man,” reliever Trevor Megill said. “That’s just a different kind of talent than I have. It’s disgusting.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Brewers’ pitching depth? It’s ridiculous. Just look at Coleman Crow.
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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