Faces of Milwaukee: Brandon Woodruff

Despite the early playoff exit, we wanted to celebrate this memorable season once more with today's subject, Brandon Woodruff. Originally from Wheeler, Mississippi, he was drafted out of high school by the Texas Rangers but chose to attend Mississippi State University. Although he didn't put up spectacular numbers there. he was drafted by the Brewers in 2014 after his junior year. He worked his way up through the Helena Brewers and the Biloxi Shuckers, finally landing one step away from the majors with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in 2017. He bounced back and forth between the major and minor leagues in 2017, before landing a starting spot in 2018.

He became a minor legend in 2018, pitching 3 scoreless innings in Game 1 of the NLDS and then hitting a home run off of Clayton Kershaw in the first NLCS game. He has been a solid #1 starter for the last three years for the Brewers, although with the spectacular pitching of the team this year, he was really part of a three-headed monster along with Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta. While the starting rotation remained stifling in the postseason, our bats just never woke up so we'll have to keep hope alive that next year they can maintain their pitching dominance, and pick up a few extra bats to put them over the top.