Brewers Option Tyler Thornburg, Johnny Hellweg To Nashville

Two of the Brewers' brightest young pitching prospects came to camp with slim chances to make the Opening Day roster and did everything they could to make it a tough decision to send them out, but the organization still sent them to AAA yesterday.

Johnny Hellweg appeared in five games this spring and is second among all Brewer pitchers with 8.2 innings pitched. He started the Cactus League with six scoreless innings before getting knocked around a bit in his last two outings. Nonetheless, he impressed the coaching staff with his work and has a very good chance to be back with the team at some point this season.

Tyler Thornburg's best outing of the spring, unfortunately, didn't count: He pitched three hitless innings before Friday's game was rained out. He made two official appearances this spring and posted a 9.00 ERA over four innings, walking four and striking out two. He was scheduled to start on Wednesday, but Yovani Gallardo will get the ball instead now that he's back from the World Baseball Classic.

Adam McCalvy says these guys were sent out early so both of them could get stretched out to start for Nashville. All 21 of Thornburg's minor league appearances a year ago were starts, but the Brewers moved Hellweg from the rotation to the bullpen for AA Nashville a year ago to keep his innings down.

These moves leave the Brewers with 48 players in major league camp.