The good news is: there are players on the field, they are doing baseball-related things, and the clocks keeps ticking down to opening day.
The bad news is: those baseball-related things often create injuries. Or, in the case of the Brewers, simply talking about baseball-related things brings up talk of injuries.
Here's an update on the Koskie situation, which isn't really new, but it is more official:
Because Koskie has not completely recovered from the post-concussion syndrome that sidelined him for the entire second half of last season, assistant general manager Gord Ash said the Brewers had no choice but to "aggressively plan" for other options at third base.
"The good news is that he continues to improve," Ash said. "The troubling news is he hasn't improved enough to get on the field yet."
There's also some
troubling news regarding Rickie Weeks:
Brewers manager Ned Yost said it's "way too soon" for red flags, but Rickie Weeks' sore right wrist was concerning enough for the club to schedule a visit this week with the doctor who performed Weeks' offseason surgery.
Okay, fine, it's not a big deal. But personally, I'm not thrilled that the first spring training news about Rickie is that he has to see a doctor. It's one thing to platoon Graffanino and Counsell at third base. But I
really don't want to see them both in the lineup on the same day. Ever.
Here's an interview with Derrick Turnbow, in which he says all the right things:
"I think Cordero would say this, too: I would love to close right now," Turnbow said. "Every time I go out there and pitch, I'm going to be out there trying to get the closer's job back. For now, I'm going to try to be an All-Star setup guy, because Cordero is a great pitcher. He's been doing this for a long time and it's his job to lose.
"It's going to take getting back out there in Spring Training and having some success to put those question marks behind me," he added. "A lot of people have questions, and I have to get that belief and confidence back. I'm ready to do it."
Whether that all means he'll have success this year is a different story, but it's nice to know that Turnbow sounds more like the pre-success Turnbow than, say, Geoff Jenkins. It's easy to forget after the last half-season what an incredibly likable guy Derrick is. Even apart from the fact that we'd love to have two great closers for the 8th and 9th innings, he's the kind of guy we should be rooting for.
