Brewer Daily News for March 29th: Final roster spots, Lohse wins debut

Good morning everyone and welcome to another edition of Brewer Daily News. This Friday morning, the Milwaukee Brewers are still having some players compete for the final roster spots before Opening Day. Yesterday afternoon, the Brewers’ newly acquired Kyle Lohse pitched against the Colorado Rockies and won.

Manager Ron Roenicke is going to have one huge decision to make regarding Davis and Lalli. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

With the acquisition of Lohse, this puts the Brewers in a spot to have more pitchers on the 25-man roster than hitters. If the team decides to go to 13 pitchers, only four spots will remain open for back-up players. Three of the spots have already been filled by Martin Maldonado, Yuniesky Betancourt and Logan Schafer. For the last spot, the Brewers will have to decide on whether or not Blake Lalli or Khristopher Davis will be the winner. Manager Ron Roenicke had this to say regarding the last spot:

“It’s complicated because there are certain guys you want to keep on your team, and you guys know how I feel. I like a five-man bench,” Roenicke said. “To think we could go with 12 [pitchers], I don’t know if that is realistic. The last two years were smoother.” – via Brewers.com

The team hasn’t announced anything regarding this switch, and they may not even go with it if they feel the team will be short on the bench. Once Corey Hart comes back, the team will have to option either Lalli or Davis back to the minors. September may seem like a long time away if either prospect has to wait until then for a call-up, but if they can impress, perhaps they’ll earn a well deserved spot.

Moving on, the Brew Crew beat the Rockies yesterday afternoon 6-2. Lohse made his debut for Milwaukee going 3 2/3 innings while giving up one run, four hits and striking out two. Lohse who was on a pitch limit, did well in his debut and will look to be a key part of the Brewers rotation heading into the 2013 season.

Offensively the team was helped out by Aramis Ramirez who went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a double and Betancourt who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, two runs scored and a home run.

Tonight the Brewers will play in Miller Park against the Chicago White Sox at 8 p.m. EST / 7 p.m. CST. The starters will be Wily Peralta for Milwaukee and Hector Santiago for Chicago.