Trevor Hoffman is the all-time saves leader in major league baseball but can the Brewers afford to go with him much longer as the closer? He has pitched in 12 games (0 starts) for the Brewers this season and he is 1-2 with 5 saves, a 12.00 ERA and a 1.92 WHIP. He has walked 6 batters and he has given up 17 hits (6 homers) in his 12 innings pitched this season which shows just how brutal he has been this year. The decision would have been easier to replace Hoffman if LaTroy Hawkins were healthy but he’s on the D.L. The top choice on the pitching staff to replace Hoffman right now would be 29-year old righty Todd Coffey. Coffey has pitched in 17 games (0 starts) for the Brewers this season and he is 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA and a 1.38 WHIP. Inserting Coffey into the closer’s job would also have risks involved as he has never had that job and he has walked 8 batters in 16 innings which is a tad too many. The Brewers can’t afford to keep blowing games late and I think the time is right to replace Hoffman as the team’s closer.

The Brewers have demoted veteran righty starting pitcher Jeff Suppan to the pen. He has started 2 games for the Brewers this season and he is 0-1 with a 8.68 ERA and a 2.04 WHIP. He has given up 16 hits (3 homers) in only 9 1/3 innings this season. Suppan deserves this demotion because he’s been pretty awful for quite some time for the Brewers. 28-year old lefty Clint Narveson will replace Suppan in the starting rotation. Narveson has pitched in 9 games (0 starts) so far this season and he is 1-0 with a 7.20 ERA anda 2.40 WHIP. He has given up 17 hits and he has walked 7 batters in only 10 innings so far this year. But, Narveson has been groomed in his minor league career to be a starting pitcher so he should still be better than Suppan even though that’s not saying too much.

42-year old righty closer Trevor Hoffman is the all-time saves leader in major league baseball but he is off to probably the worst start of his career. Hoffman has pitched in 4 games for the Brewers this season and he is 1-1 with 2 saves, a 13.50 ERA and a 2.00 WHIP. He has given up 7 hits (3 homers) in only 4 innings pitched so far this year. The Brewers will likely give Hoffman a little while to get going but they won’t wait forever with LaTroy Hawkins around to replace him as the closer if he’s needed to.

26-year old lefty starting pitcher looked like he would be a solid member of the rotation this season. Coming into this year, Parra had pitched in 41 games (31 starts) in which he was 10-9 with a 4.31 ERA and a 1.52 WHIP. He won a spot in the starting rotation this spring but he has been awful for the Brewers this season even being dispatched to the minors during the year. He has pitched in 25 games (all starts) for the Brewers this season and he is 10-10 with a 6.42 ERA and a 1.84 WHIP. Parra has allowed 169 hits in 130 1/3 innings this season while walking 71 batters. Parra will have to win a starting job next spring for the Brewers as nothing will be handed to him.

34-year old righty starting pitcher Braden Looper has had a ton of run support this season from the offense and he has needed every bit of it to succeed. Looper has started 27 games this season for the Brewers and he is 11-6 with a 4.88 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP. Looper doesn’t have many quality pitches as he’s better suited for a relief role. You can see that when you look at his stat line and see that he has allowed 32 homers in only 155 innings this season. Looper will likely only continue to win games if the Brewers keep putting up impressive run totals when he pitches.