Today, Rhys Hoskins and Christian Yelich are scheduled to make their spring training debuts. Plus on Sunday, Freddy Peralta will make his debut in a Cactus League game against the DBacks. We’ll have more reaction on tonight’s Brewers Weekly from Spring Training from all of the players involved. In case you’ve missed the previous two episodes this week, you can find the shows wherever you get your podcasts under Brewers All-Access
Monday with Chris Hook, Wade Miley, Aaron Ashby, & Joey Ortiz
Wednesday with Matt Arnold, Tyler Black, Joey Wiemer, and Jacob Misiorowski
DL Hall
Let’s clear something up about whether or not DL Hall is going to be a starter.
“There’s a starter in there for sure,” pitching coach Chris Hook told me in Monday’s conversation for Brewers Weekly. Hall is being built up like a starter and just threw his first simulated game on Tuesday.
I had already watched DL Hall throw a “live” on the backfields in the first week of workouts, and I was thoroughly impressed. But a live BP is a little different than a simulated game. “Lives” are very regimented: 25 pitches total, five pitches per batter – no matter the count or result, then the last 10 pitches with men on.
A simulated game is just as you imagine, everyone on the field except for an outfield and no one running anything out. If a batter gets on, pitch your way out of it.
Hall would face Christian Arroyo, Christian Yelich, and Rhys Hoskins for his simulated game. He didn’t have to pitch himself out of much. He struck out the side in his first inning – his sequence against Yelich seen below: Fastball (0-1), slider (1-1), slider (1-2), fastball (K).
“It’s easy gas. It doesn’t look like he’s throwing hard and you look up it’s 97,” Hook said in regards to Hall. “The breaking stuff is really good, he’s got a good feel for a changeup as well.”
I didn’t film every pitch, but I walked away from that live distinctly impressed with his changeup. It doesn’t have a ton of arm side movement, if at all, but the velocity change paired with that hot fastball/slider combo can certainly be plenty for a starter’s repertoire.
“This is an arm and a talent that you just kind of let mature – very much like Freddy Peralta. He’s coming in with three pitches whereas Freddy had one [the fastball]. So that’s exciting.”
Why are they running so much?
Why not? Pat Murphy has filled a lot of the early lineups with “freshmen and sophomores” – young players auditioning for a spot on the big league roster. A lot of the young pieces have plenty of speed: Tyler Black, Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick, Brice Turang, the list goes on.
Is it alarming how much they have been thrown out so far? “Some of those are really bad decisions, but we are encouraging ‘up-tempo,’” Murphy said this week. “We’re gonna run, we’re gonna threaten the other teams, we’re gonna be a threat. Sometimes, it looks ugly, but spring training can be a blessing and a curse.”
Some of these can help gauge if a player can project for more stolen bases when the season begins. Stealing bases, in a way, can be boiled down to a math problem.
Pitcher’s time to the plate + catcher pop time + action time > runner’s time from 1st to 2nd.
Let’s take Brice Turang for example – he stole 2nd base 24 times last season, taking an average of 4.10 seconds thanks to Statcast. That’s a little skewed because Statcast takes the moment you touch the bag at second as the time, sometimes later because of slides or throws offline this number changes.
Here’s a good one against the game’s best, JT Realmuto. The poptime was 1.81 – which is elite, but Nola to the plate was 1.3 with a leg kick AND a curveball.
Give another .5 or .75 of a second for the pitch and tag (he ran on a curveball so that helps the runner), and we revisit the formula:
1.31 + 1.81 + .75 = 3.87 defense time. Turang’s time on this pitch was 3.77 with a great jump and a sprint speed peak of 29.2 ft/sec.
Math is cool, no matter what your classmates think.
Homemade glove
Sometimes Spring Training features sort of mundane or off-the-wall activities for team bonding. Something that falls in that category is making a baseball glove with no instructions or materials. You learn to become resourceful fast. So here’s Hoby Milner and Janson Junk explaining their assignment this spring.
Odds & ends
58 players in camp (+1 on 60-day IL)
31 pitchers | 6 catchers | 13 infielders | 8 outfielders
Upcoming schedule
Friday, 2:10 PM CST, vs San Diego – Brewers.com
Saturday, 2:10 PM CST, vs Los Angeles (NL) – 620 WTMJ
Sunday, 2:10 PM CST, at Arizona (Scottsdale) – 620 WTMJ
Monday, OFF DAY
Recent transactions:
UTL Jahmai Jones claimed off waivers by the Yankees
Random stat of the day
Last season, there were only four players with at least 400 PAs that had more walks than strikeouts. Juan Soto, Alex Bregman, Luis Arraez, and Tony Kemp. Jose Ramirez had equal 73 walks and strikeouts last year.
The last Brewer to do so was Nori Aoki in 2013: 55 BB, 40 SO, in 674 PA
