Brandon Woodruff likely to miss playoffs with surprise shoulder injury.

Gutting. Brutal to watch all of that hit him in real time talking to the media at Am Fam Field yesterday. Which, as a side note, he deserves credit taking part in. He could have easily just had Counsell or Matt Arnold discuss what happened with the beat reporters, but he decided to sit down with them and let the Brewer fans hear it from him. You can tell it’s killing him that his season is likely done.

Anyway, in the words of George Costanza: “Why must there always be a problem??”

In 2019 we lost MVP-Yeli before the playoffs, in 2021 we lost Devin Williams when he decided to box a wall during the division clinching celebration, and now Woody.

No doubt, this is a big blow. I hesitate to use the word, ‘devastating,’ it’s not like Woodruff is the only ace-caliber pitcher in the rotation, but he’s on a short list of players they are going to have a hard time navigating this run without. This is essentially the same injury in the same shoulder that sidelined him for 4 months of the season. Since he had been back, he’d been lockdown. Cruel timing all the way around.

So, where do the Brewers go from here? To the ballpark for a game today, of course. I’ve been ruminating on this since the news came out yesterday, and I think I do have a few spin zones to hopefully generate some good vibes again. Cue my graphic:

My Spin Zone is going to harken back to the magical 2018 season. A season that saw the Brewers chase down the division title in Game 163 at Wrigley, a season that saw them win the most games in the National League, and a season that saw them have a lead in Game 7 of the NLCS at home. Remember that team? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Well that team accomplished ALL of that, with Jhoulys Chacin and a banged up Wade Miley as their #1 and #2 pitchers. That squad did NOT have a lot of depth in the rotation. Woodruff was a rookie in the bullpen, Burnes was a rookie in the bullpen, Freddy was a rookie who made 16 appearances. They were able to piece together wins with Chacin, Miley, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra, and the ghost of Gio Gonzalez starting a TON of games.

If that team could make a run with those guys as the key pieces in their rotation, this team can make a run with Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta, and Wade Miley.

And the offense on that 2018 team wasn’t a whole lot better than the offense on the 2023 team. They only scored 21 more runs on the season, so it wasn’t like that team was an offensive juggernaut that was using their bats to overcome a weak starting rotation.

Granted: The bullpen in 2018 was ELITE. Hader was being used in all situations, Jeffress was an All Star closer, Corey Knebel (a former All Star closer in 2017) was the set up man, and they picked up Joakim Soria at the deadline. I wouldn’t put the 2023 bullpen in that exact same conversation, but it isn’t bad either. Devin Williams had better numbers this year than Jeffress did in 2018, Payamps has been leaking oil recently but his numbers are comparable to Knebel’s. And let’s not forget Hoby Milner. He’s not the same type of lefty that Hader is, but some of Milner’s numbers this season are actually BETTER than Hader’s in 2018.

Yes, losing Woodruff is crushing. But 5 years ago this team was knocking on the door of a World Series by making excellent bullpen decisions and playing top notch defense. The 2023 team is more than capable of that, even with Woodruff sidelined.

And in case that Spin Zone doesn’t do it for you, there’s this:

Damian Lillard is a Milwaukee Buck.

PS: Let’s send some good vibes to the team and some well wishes to Woody by posting this moment as well:

That hit was the definition of, ‘if I woke up tomorrow morning with my head sewn to the carpet, I wouldn’t be as surprised as I am now.’