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Tom Haudricourt has the news over at the Journal Sentinel: Alfredo Figaro will be the final man in the Brewers' bullpen beating out Donovan Hand.
As Haudricourt states, the Brewers chose to go with the pitcher whom they felt had the best "stuff". Figaro is a hard thrower, unlike Hand who relies more on his control.
The Brewers couldn't have gone wrong if they based the decision on Spring Training stats. Hand started off Spring Training with a great scoreless outing streak and finished off having given up just one run in 13 innings. He had a 0.923 WHIP, but struck out just five hitters. Hand has been in the Brewers organization since being drafted in 2007. For his career he has a 3.60 minor league ERA and has never had a bad season. If/when ineffectiveness or injury strikes the Brewers bullpen, Hand will likely be the first man called up.
Figaro, on the other hand, gave up three earned runs over 14.2 innings, striking out ten batters with a 0.886 WHIP. This is Figaro's first season with the Brewers after spending the previous two in Japan. His last MiLB season was his worst as he posted a 4.14 ERA in 2010. While Figaro may be a hard thrower, his strikeout numbers aren't outstanding. His best season by K/9 also came in 2010 when he sat down 8.1 batters per nine innings. He has also had years closer to a 5.0 K/9 and 7.1 for his career.
As covered earlier, Khris Davis earned his way onto the roster as the last bench player. That means that Blake Lalli will be in Triple-A to start the season.
That leaves the Brewers roster looking like so:
Starting Lineup
C: Jonathan Lucroy
1B: Alex Gonzalez (probably)
2B: Rickie Weeks
SS: Jean Segura
3B: Aramis Ramirez
LF: Ryan Braun
CF: Carlos Gomez
RF: Norichika Aoki
Bench
Hitter Khris Davis
"Baseball player" Yuniesky Betancourt
OF Logan Schafer
C Martin Maldonado
Starting Pitching
Yovani Gallardo
Kyle Lohse
Marco Estrada
Mike Fiers
Wily Peralta
Bullpen
John Axford
Jim(my) Henderson
Burke Badenhop
Tom Gorzelanny
Chris Narveson
Alfredo Figaro
Michael Gonzalez
Brandon Kintzler
Given that bench, and considering that Alex Gonzalez will be likely starting most games at first base, that means two things. One, Logan Schafer is the only real backup outfielder. Khris Davis isn't very good at the defense thing. Two, and most unfortunately, Yuniesky Betancourt is the lone bench infielder until Corey Hart gets back. Oh dear.