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All minor leaguers for the Milwaukee Brewers officially reported to spring training by March 4th. After a couple weeks of doing drills and playing intrasquad games, today finally begins the schedule of minor league spring training games. Over the next 16 days, there will be 14 days worth of games with two off days mixed in. There are games at home and on the road, with the AAA and AA teams generally traveling together and the A+ and A ball teams doing the same. For example, today the AAA and AA teams will play San Francisco at home while the A+ and A teams will head to Scottsdale to play their Giant counterparts.
Often times, especially in injury situations, major leaguers will go to the minor league side to get extra at-bats in these minor league games. That way the rules can be changed to fit the needs of the team. For instance, a major league player might bat once per inning just to get more plate appearances, regardless of his time in the batting order. Typically though, the minor leaguers are simply working to get prepared for their seasons much the same as the big leaguers are.
If you’re traveling to Arizona for spring training and are interested in catching a minor league game, here is the schedule of where each affiliate will be playing:
Our minor league spring training schedule: pic.twitter.com/PbcywUvDHc
— Brewers Player Dev (@BrewersPD) January 18, 2017
In addition, here is the minor league roster of players you can expect to see in these games:
Spring training roster, sorted by name. pic.twitter.com/rEwnZOkWxQ
— Brewers Player Dev (@BrewersPD) March 5, 2017
Besides the obvious guys like top prospects Isan Diaz, Lucas Erceg, Brandon Woodruff, etc, there are several players that I’ll be following with interest this season. Well I guess I’ll really be following all of them with interest, but here’s a list of a few of my favorites, including:
Luke Barker || Carlos Luna
David Burkhalter || Blake Lillis
Art Charles || Max McDowell
Zach Clark || Jon Olczak
Dustin DeMuth || Jon Perrin
Gentry Fortuno || Matt Ramsey
Ronnie Gideon || Troy Stokes
Thomas Jankins || Weston Wilson
What about you, which non-top prospect(s) will you be following most closely this year? Let us know in the comments section below.