Jimmy Nelson

Rookies making big impact with Brewers

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:08 p.m. ET

foxsports

Milwaukee still has several prospects close to cracking the major leagues, but rookies have played a big part in the Brewers' 2016 season.

The Brewers have had the third-most games played in 2016 by rookies, trailing only Colorado and Cincinnati.

Some players came and went, some didn't get to play often, but others have taken on pivotal roles, such as Orlando Arcia, Junior Guerra and Keon Broxton.

Here's the list of rookies (note: this doesn't just mean the first year a player is in the majors, but rather retaining rookie eligibility) and their games played this season for Milwaukee:

Player	Games
Ramon Flores	104
Keon Broxton	73
Jhan Martinez	40
Orlando Arcia	39
Colin Walsh	38
Andy Wilkins	26
Zach Davies	26
Yadiel Rivera	25
Manny Pina	22
Junior Guerra	20
Jacob Barnes	20
Tyler Cravy	15
David Goforth	10
Brent Suter	8
Damien Magnifico	3
Ben Rowen	3
Ariel Pena	1

Kirk Niewenhuis is no rookie, but he has flourished against the Chicago Cubs this season.

In 13 games vs. the Cubs, he is batting .350 (14 fpr 40) with an .800 slugging percentage. That includes five of his 13 homers on the season and 10 of his 34 RBI.

Other notes:

-- Milwaukee's Jimmy Nelson (71.3 percent) and Chicago's Jake Arrieta (65.9 percent) rank third and fifth in the National League in highest percentage of pitches that are fastballs.

-- The Brewers have tossed three shutouts in September, tied with Baltimore for the most in September.

-- Milwaukee outfielder Domingo Santana is hitting .387 with four multi-hit games, four home runs and eight RBI in his last eight games.

Statistics courtesy STATS LLC and baseball-reference.com