Nelson Emerges in Brewers Rotation

Just by looking at their record, you can tell that 2015 has been a trying season for the Milwaukee Brewers. At 48-68 and 26 games behind the NL Central leading St. Louis Cardinals, not much has gone right for the Brew Crew, who haven’t been to the playoffs since losing to the Cards in the 2011 NLCS.

In early May, the Brewers fired their manager, Ron Roenicke, after a league-worst 7-18 start to the season. Starter Matt Garza, whom the team signed for $50 million before the 2014 season, owns a dreadful 6-12 record with a sky-high 4.82 ERA. The team’s all-star catcher, Jonathan Lucroy, has been limited to 72 games this season while dealing with a toe injury.

To make matters worse, the club traded away two of their starting outfielders (and two of their best players) in Carlos Gomez and Gerardo Parra at July’s trade deadline. And just this past week, general manager Doug Melvin announced he would be stepping down from his position.

Jul 31, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jungmann (41) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Chicago Cubs at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

However, with all the bad that has happened in Milwaukee this season, the Brewers and their fans have to be excited about what they’ve seen from 26-year-old starting pitcher Jimmy Nelson, who takes the mound in the second game of a three-game series between the Phillies and Brewers starting Friday night in Milwaukee.

A second round pick of the Brewers coming out of the University of Alabama in 2010, Nelson has pitched well in what is his first full season in the bigs. Before making his mark in The Show, Nelson spent five seasons in the minor leagues after being drafted and was named a mid-season All-Star for three consecutive years in three different levels from 2012-2014.

Nelson always put up decent numbers throughout his minor league career, and was even called up to the Majors to pitch in four games in 2013, but it wasn’t until the 2014 season with the Brewers AAA affiliate, the Nashville Sounds, where he seemed to figure things out on the mound.

In 17 games (16 starts) with the Sounds, Nelson went 10-2 with a spectacular 1.46 ERA over 111 innings, in which he fanned 114 batters. As was one of the most dominant pitchers in the minors, opponents hit a measly .179 off the  6’6’’ right-hander. He also owned a 0.92 WHIP in those 17 games.

Those gaudy numbers earned Nelson a mid-season call up to the big leagues, where unfortunately he would struggle to replicate his AAA success. In 12 starts and two relief appearances from mid-July to the end of the regular season, Nelson pitched to an ugly 2-9 record, and posted a 4.93 ERA.

Though the season ended on a sour note for Nelson, he took home an assortment of awards for his performance with the Sounds, being selected as a Pacific Coast League postseason All-Star, a Baseball America minor league All-Star, and was also given the PCL Pitcher of the Year Award.

Looking for more success in 2015, Nelson has been a very serviceable starting pitcher and an intriguing surprise for the Brew Crew. He has started 23 games for the Brewers, pitching to a 9-9 record with a respectable 3.65 ERA. Though his record may not be all that impressive, his nine wins lead the team. In 143 innings, Nelson has struck out 122 batters, which is also tops on the club.

With Garza struggling, Nelson has embraced being the team’s number 1 starter, as evidenced by the way he has pitched of late. Owning a 2-5 record after the month of May, Nelson has gone 7-4 since then, including a 4-1 record in his last seven starts dating back to July 4. In that span, he has 1.93 ERA and 44 punchouts over 46.2 innings. Five of those last seven starts have been quality starts.

Before his last outing against the Cardinals (7 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 8 Ks), Nelson was untouchable for three consecutive starts from July 24 to August 4. Facing the Diamondbacks, Cubs and Padres over that span, he pitched a total of 20.2 innings, struck out 17 and allowed no earned runs.

Nelson talked after his latest start against the Cardinals about putting together a string of good starts.

“It’s really nice to throw a run together,” Nelson told Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It’s good for your mentality, too, not having all the ups and downs like a rollercoaster ride. It’s to just kind of stay on an even plane, and consistency gives everybody confidence.“

With Nelson teaming with fellow starter Taylor Jungmann, a 25-year-old rookie who has a 6-4 record and a 2.42 ERA, the Brewers may have found themselves two building blocks of their next contending team. Together, Nelson and Jungmann have exceeded expectations and have become two strong spots in the starting rotation.

Nelson has four pitches in his arsenal that he is able to throw for strikes, a major reason he’s had so much success this season. The big righty’s fastball hovers in the low 90s, but he relies heavily on his slider to get him outs. FanGraphs has opponents hitting just .111 off Nelson’s slider this season.

This will be Nelson’s second career start against the Phillies, with the other coming on June 29 at Citizens Bank Park, a 7-4 win for the Brew Crew. In that game, the Phils were able to plate four runs off six hits and two walks against Nelson in five innings of work, but it wasn’t enough to compensate for the six runs Phillies’ starter Sean O’Sullivan gave up over five innings.

Nelson should find more success against the Phillies this time around pitching at Miller Park, where opponents are batting at just a .209 clip against him.

In an otherwise dismal season, Jimmy Nelson is giving the Brewers something to be excited for in the future. He takes on the Phillies’ Jerome Williams on Saturday at 7:10 p.m. in a series between two of MLB’s worst teams. Williams tossed seven innings of one-run ball against the Padres on Sunday.