What we learned: March 17, 2015

Yesterday’s Results

The Brewers had the day off.

Brewers News and Analysis

• The Brewers have been one of the best teams in MLB in avoiding Tommy John surgery. Noah took a look at how the Brewers have been able to avoid the recent epidemic of players who have undergone Tommy John surgery and what it means for the team.
• In our BCB Community Over/Unders series, 90% of voters believe that Kyle Lohse will outperform his ZiPS line in 2015.
• Darnell Coles returned to the Brewers organization in hopes of getting the team's hitters back on track. Adam McCalvy of Brewers.com has a profile of Coles, who is happy to be back with the Brewers.
• The Brewers made another round of roster cuts, and Kyle Lesniewski of Reviewing the Brew has the details on who was returned to the minor league camp. Also on Reviewing the Brew, Pete Schwichtenberg notes that Tyler Thornburg has been excellent this spring in his return from injury.
• Confusion is in the outfield as three of the backup outfielders have a lot in common. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel profiles the outfield backup candidates, who are fighting for roster spots this spring.
• Nick Michalski of The Brewers Bar interviewed Cardinals blogger C70 and asked him some questions about the Cardinals this season.
• John Sickels of Minor League Ball released his top 175 MLB prospects list yesterday. Monte Harrison is the highest rated Brewers prospect at #107, with four total in his list and another six in his list of players that missed the cut.
• Marcus Young of Miller Park Prospects continued his series on the top five Brewers prospects by position with the top five third base prospects.
• The Brewer Nation continued their Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers series with #21 Jeremy Jeffress.
• The Brewers had their first off day of the spring yesterday, and Cait Covers the Bases has some pictures of how the Brewers spent their day off.

NL Central Update

Yesterday’s Scores

• Cardinals 1, Tigers 0
• Padres 7, Cubs 0
• Reds 10, Giants 4
• Pirates had the day off.

Today’s Games

• Astros @ Pirates - 12:05 pm
• Cardinals @ Marlins - 12:05 pm
• Reds @ Indians - 3:05 pm
• Royals @ Cubs - 3:05 pm

Around Baseball

Roster News

• The Blue Jays agreed to a minor league deal with Randy Wolf.
• The Royals agreed to a minor-league deal with infielder Rafael Furcal. He is currently recovering from a hamstring injury.
• The Phillies placed starting pitcher Cliff Lee on the 60-day DL as he attempts to rehab his torn left flexor tendon in an attempt to pitch this season.
• Indians starting pitcher Gavin Floyd will have surgery on his fractured right elbow and could miss the entire 2015 season.
• Mets starting pitcher Zack Wheeler has a torn UCL and will likely have Tommy John surgery, ending his 2015 season.

Other Notes

• In an effort to get their players to perform at the highest level possible, the Marlins have made an upgrade to their team plane so their players will travel in luxury.
• The atmosphere at Indians camp has been light this offseason. Last week, Terry Francona pranked Trevor Bauer after he gave up three home runs in a spring start. This week, Francona got ambushed in a water balloon attack by front office personnel. Israel Fahr of Big League Stew has the details on the brewing water balloon war.
• A list of mascot rankings by Twitter followers came out yesterday, which was led by Bernie Brewer at #1, Wally at #2, and Mr. Met at #3. Chris Cwik of Big League Stew notes that Mr. Met decided to take a shot at Bernie and Wally in response, and Wally decided to respond in his own way.
• The commissioner's first big test may be upon him now. Pete Rose has officially applied for reinstatement, and Rob Manfred will consider his request.

Today’s Action

The Brewers return to action today and travel to face the Padres this afternoon. First pitch is at 3:05 pm, and the game will be televised on Fox Sports Wisconsin with an audio stream on MLB.com.