The first week of spring training feels like the season starts tomorrow and simultaneously like it will never begin. There is so much time, but yet it doesn’t feel like there is? Maybe it’s just shaking off the rust of the daily grind of going to the ballpark. Here are some musings and observations from a full week of games in the sunshine.
Brandon Woodruff is progressing well
The All-Star right-hander continues to throw off the mound, governed by pitch limits to build his surgically repaired shoulder. The body calendar does not always follow the baseball calendar, but Woodruff feels that his stuff just needs time.
“Don’t judge me by this first half,” Woodruff said after a recent live outing. Both he and Pat Murphy have conceded the fact he will not be on the Opening Day roster. “Wait until the second half when the last thing that comes with this surgery is the ‘whip’ at the end of the release.”
On Thursday he threw around 30 pitches in a simulated game against Christian Yelich, Mark Canha, Manny Margot, among others and continues to hold his fastball velocity around 92 MPH.
“Pretty encouraging that he’s going through it as well as he is,” Pat Murphy said following the sim game. “[Velocity] is far from where it will be, but it was pretty impressive.”
Vinny Capra’s path
The utility infielder is in his second MLB camp with the Brewers, having bounced from the Blue Jays, Pirates, and now Milwaukee. Capra was actually one of the first moves the Brewers made in the offseason before last, making a waiver claim to bring him to camp.
He only spent a little over a week with the big league club in 2025 just going 1-for-9 with a double. But after his stint in the Bigs, he finished the Triple-A season strong with an .802 OPS over his last 42 games.
Capra took that success into the offseason with a focus on rotational strength workouts to increase bat speed. “I tailored my workouts to get stronger but fast as well with movements,” Capra said. Three homers in his first week of camp is easy to grade: “I guess it’s feeling pretty good right now.”
Meanwhile, the Brewers kept him on the 40-man roster all offseason, a gesture not taken lightly by a player still trying to find footing in The Show.
“It means a lot. I like being here, I enjoy the staff, I enjoy everybody,” Capra said. “I think we’re a good fit.” Even yet, he is out of Minor League options putting his roster status in jeopardy by the end of camp. The Florida-native has never made an Opening Day roster, but 2025 could be his first as a utility infielder for the Brewers.
“Sometimes patience isn’t my strong suit,” Capra said in regard to putting forward a strong camp. “The game teaches you a lot, just taking it day in and day out and doing my best every day.”
Rhys Hoskins wants to find his form again
Bona fide everyday “sluggers” are a rare breed in today’s optimized version of baseball. As an entity, the game still values the home run, but the skill is less about “how many?” and more about “what else can you do?”
Rhys Hoskins returns to the Brewers exercising a player-option seeking to channel his everyday form back in Philadelphia.
“I already told Murph my goal this year is 150 [games],” Hoskins told me this week on our podcast conversation from Brewers Weekly. “I feel like some of those numbers, the home run numbers, RBI numbers, those other numbers that we look at for ‘power hitters,’ I think those will show up if the 150 game mark is there.
Hoskins played in 131 games last year returning from a torn left ACL before the start of the 2023 season – his last with the Phillies. “The thing that we’re all chasing in this game is consistency. And that’s really what I’m after this year,” Hoskins said.
“Being a consistent force in this lineup that Murph knows he can throw me out there every single day, and I’ve got a chance to produce.”
To do so, he’s made slight tweaks to his batting stance, squaring his hips more to the plate to stabilize his lower body. By doing so in his own words, “I’m just trying to have a little more hinge, which makes my head move less. So when your head moves less, you see the ball better, and when you see the ball better, you make better decisions.”
Craig Yoho changeup
YouTube is a catch-all for just about anything you need these days: cat videos, personalities, and even changeup tutorials. The website is a small piece of the success behind Craig Yoho and his devastating changeup that has him on the precipice of the Big Leagues.
When you compare some of the advance metrics from Yoho’s to Devin Williams’ “Airbender” changeup, the results are eerily similar.
“He’s [Williams] has got one of the best changeups in baseball history,” Yoho said in response to the comparisons.”
While training to be a two-way player in college, he was always trying to tinker with his changeup grip. “My changeup back in the day was an 85 MPH slow fastball,” Yoho said. “I was just looking up things, watching YouTube videos about how guys think about their changeups.”
Following that with his own experimentation through injuries during his college career, he was selected in the 8th round of the 2023 MLB Draft – a steal in the eyes of the scout who signed him, Ginger Poulson.
“She said it was the first time she saw me pitch and she said ‘I’m good on him, I don’t need to see him anymore,'” Yoho recalled. “Her write-up said this guy could go in the first round if he didn’t have all of these [injuries].”
Following up a 0.94 ERA across three levels of the Brewers’ farm last season, Yoho finds himself on the precipice of the big leagues, and another success story of player development from the Brew Crew.
Dominic Cotroneo is the host of “Brewers Extra Innings” the postgame show for the Brew Crew here on 620 WTMJ. You can follow Dom on X @Dom_Cotroneo and on Instagram @DomCBaseball to bring you closer to spring training coverage from Phoenix all month long.
