Brewers' outfield alignment reveals another minor injury team is dealing with

The Milwaukee Brewers' ongoing injury woes are no secret. With Andrew Vaughn, Jackson Chourio, and Christian Yelich already on the injured list halfway through the first month of the season, the Brewers' lineup is without three of the top five hitters in their everyday batting order.

However, Milwaukee's position player injuries don't end there. Tyler Black and Akil Baddoo, two members of the 40-man roster, would likely be up with the big-league club to fill for the injured lineup regulars if not for suffering injuries themselves. Baddoo is out with a quad strain and not expected to return until June, while Tyler Black landed on the Triple-A 7-day injured list last week with an injury that has not been disclosed, as is often the case with minor league injuries.

Stints on the injured list make it easy to track just how many significant injuries a given organization is experiencing at any one time, but what often goes unreported are the more minor injuries that players play through during the season. Take, for example, the left ankle tendinitis that Brice Turang was suffering from last week. Turang was reportedly dealing with the injury for days before it reached a point where he needed a day off. Prior to that, Sal Frelick was dealing with tightness in his left side that the ever-tough Brewers right fielder played through, but there's no doubt it was having an impact on his production.

These minor ailments, while not serious enough to require a stint on the IL, no doubt impact the team's ability to win games, and should absolutely be taken into consideration when evaluating the Brewers' season as a whole. And they aren't going away either. Just yesterday, Pat Murphy revealed that another one of his position players has been nursing a bad hip in recent days.

Brandon Lockridge continues to play stellar defense while dealing with minor hip injury

One Brewer who has seen more opportunities as a result of the early-season string of injuries is outfielder Brandon Lockridge. The 29-year-old Lockridge, who the Brewers acquired at last year's trade deadline, was one of Milwaukee's top performers in Spring Training and earned a spot on the Opening Day roster. Now with a need for right-handed bats, Lockridge has seen plenty of playing time during the regular season, and though the surprising power that he displayed during the Cactus League hasn't carried over, he is hitting .279 with a couple of big hits through his first 15 games of the season.

However, what's stood out even more than Lockridge's timely hitting is his excellent defense in the outfield. Said defense was on display in the Brewers' losing-streak-busting win over the Toronto Blue Jays last night. Not only did Lockridge make a pair of impressive running grabs on line drives in the left field corner and left-center gap, but he also made an early entry in the "catch of the year" race with an impressive leaping grab against the wall in foul territory (seen below).

Chad Patrick, who was on the bump when Lockridge made the incredible catch, said after the game, "I thought that thing was long gone in the seats...It was a 3-2 count, so it was a relief that I didn't have to throw him another pitch. I felt like I executed [the pitch] and you know, the baseball gods reward you in different ways."

It was no doubt an unbelievable grab from Lockridge, but it's made even more impressive when more context is added to the situation. In his postgame press conference last night, Pat Murphy relayed that, "[Lockridge] is nursing a bad hip. He's been nursing a bad hip."

The question arose because the Brewers elected to keep Lockridge in left field, while playing Blake Perkins in center after he entered the game as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning. Previously this season, when both outfielders have been in the game together, Murphy has gone with Lockridge in center and Perkins in left -- a result of the fact that Perkins' defensive abilities haven't been quite the same since his Spring Training shin injury last year.

To some extent, it's a moot point -- both are proven defenders and generally provide above-average defense in both center field and the corners. Murphy said as much after the game, noting, "We're really lucky to have three guys out there that can defend. And if you put Sal out there, he can do it. If you put Chourio out there, he can do it."

That said, the fact that Murphy noted Lockridge's injury as the reason for him not being in center field at the end of the game last night seems to suggest that when fully healthy, Lockridge now slots in above Perkins on the center field depth chart, which is a change from last year.

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