Some Spring Training Spring Cleaning

Today the Brewers finished, what could easily be called, a funky spring camp.  Clearly injuries became the main focus during the Ides of March.   However, there was some great talent on display from a team who “experts” said had unloaded all of the talent in their farm system.  The young Brewers hopefuls clearly resented that notion, so they did nothing more than help to create the best offense in the Cactus League.  Guys like Erick Almonte, Brandon Boggs, Logan Schafer, and Marco Estrada helped prove to me that this team still has a great deal of talent below the surface.

This article was written to help us keep track of some of the craziness that has gone on over the past few days as ST came to a victorious close.  The Crew beat the Padres for the second day in a row, winning today by the count of 8-7.  Randy Wolf might as well have been a tee.  He got waxed for 7 runs (only 3 of them earned), but he just kept putting himself in to difficult situations.  This was not a good sign of things to come from that guy.  The Brewers found themselves down 6-3 after two innings, but they clawed their way back to a narrow one run victory.  Mark Kotsay knocked in 3 RBI’s today, just so that he could rub it in my face.

• Brandon Boggs has officially cleared waivers (which was a real shocker!!)  he has until tomorrow morning to either accept or decline the option.  Should he decline, he would become a free agent.  Please stay Brandon……I promise you will play in the majors this season. 
• Luis Cruz, who had a terrific spring, was also optioned to Triple-A.  He has chosen to reject that assignment and is now a free agent.  That makes me sad, he was a very talented player.  Best of luck to him. 
• Jonathan Lucroy was cleared to start his rehab assignement effective immediately.  This means he could be back in his major league robes in no time. 
• Nyjer Morgan’s tenure with the boys in blue has officially started.  He had two hits and scored a run.  Adam McCalvy of MLB.com talked to him today.  This article gives you a feel for where this guy is mentally.  I also know that some of the Pittsburgh Pirate faithful are jealous of us having this guy. 
• Zach Braddock got stung by a scorpion a few days ago.  That really should sum up how this spring went for the Brewers.  If it isn’t a basketball, then it’s probably a scorpion. 
• The bullpen will look like this on Opening Day 2011, John Axford, Zach “the Socrpion” Braddock, Mitch Stetter, Takashi Saito, Kam Loe, Sean Green, Brandon Kintzler, and Sergio Mitre.  That sounds pretty solid to me, but if any of these guys can not perform Justin James and Mike McClendon are just a phone call to Nashville away.
• Overall the Brewers finished Spring Training with a record of 19-11, which is good enough for 4th in Cactus League play. 
• Rickie Weeks wins the Batting Average Crown, finishing the spring with a .442 BA
• Home Run King is a tie between Ryan Braun and Casey McGehee with 4 a piece. 
• RBI Champ belongs to the unsuspecting Jeremy Reed
• Top Spring Pitcher has be Sean Green.  In 11.2 innings of work this March, he only gave up 1 run.  Honorable mention goes out to Brandon Kintzelr, but he made the team so that is his award. 

Now the fun really begins.  Thursday the Brewers open regular season play against our bitter division foe’s, the Cincinatti Reds.  Yovanni Gallardo will be on the mound for the Brew Crew.  The game starts at 1pm CST.  Don’t worry though, I will remind you again tomorrow.

     Please be sure and check out all of Colin’s hard work on, The All-Brewers Team.  That era came to an end yesterday, as he posted “The Utility Players” segment.  Over the past month we had pitchers, position players, and now the bench players.  Be sure and check them out if you have not already. 

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning (depending on when you check us out).

2 Days until Opening Day 2011