The News You May Have Missed From Brewers Spring Training Over the Weekend
We got a boatload of information in tweet form and in longer-form pieces from the Brewers beat writers fortunate enough to already be down at Spring Training covering the Brewers as camp opened up over the weekend.
Here’s a compilation of what you might have missed if you weren’t paying attention.
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FRIDAY
P&C weekend began with Brewers.com’s Adam McCalvy reminding us just how beautiful green baseball fields are.
https://twitter.com/AdamMcCalvy/status/568796164008443904
Then the information started coming. We learned that Tyler Thornburg, less than a week removed from being labeled as hopefully a “viable candidate” for the bullpen by Asst. GM Gord Ash, was expecting to open camp with no restrictions.
From there, McCalvy talked to Jonathan Lucroy about the All-Star’s expected workload this spring.
The Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel’s Todd Rosiak also spoke to Lucroy along with Kyle Lohse after the Friday morning announcement about the changes related to the game’s perceived “pace of play” issues.
Tom Haudricourt posted a series of tweets with a quote from the talkative Lohse regarding the team’s collapse. Lohse had said at Brewers On Deck that he would talk to his teammates about it when they got to Maryvale and then move on.
Lohse as transcribed by Haudricourt: “Hopefully we have a group of guys that are pissed off about way things ended.”
Lohse: “We had an excellent 4 ½ months. I’m pissed. You don’t get that many opportunities to get to the playoffs.”
Lohse: “When you have it that close, it should help drive you. Let’s learn from it and not let that happen again.”
The official Twitter account of the Brewers Player Development staff got in on the news making by dropping this tweet on Friday.
But of course, we already knew about half of that the night before. (h/t @Mass_Haas)
https://twitter.com/SimonHampton9/status/568535147986833408
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SATURDAY
Day Two of camp opened with some news about a potential #7 starter in the person of Michael Blazek.
Speaking of starting pitchers, Rosiak told us that Johnny Hellweg, just 9.5 months removed from Tommy John surgery, is throwing off a mound and should be in games before April.
Rosiak also talked to Ash about Thornburg and Jim Henderson.
Haudricourt checked back in on Twitter with a reminder about the backup corner infielder spot.
As for the back-end of the bullpen? Well, at least for now…
Ron Roenicke spoke with reporters. Todd Rosiak tweeted that the hot corner could have more games started by not Aramis Ramirez than in years past.
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SUNDAY
Adam McCalvy worked his beat hard on Saturday, and on Sunday we saw the results of some of his efforts. Included among them was this conversation with Dontrelle Willis, who is aiming to make the Brewers on a minor league deal.
From outside the Brewers beat, FoxSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal checked in with this Sunday evening tidbit.
And this clarification…
