FanPost

Silly Assumptions Being Made


Hi,

There is a lot to be determined in Spring Training this year. It may be a good idea for folks to ease back and not make assumptions prior to April. In reading comments on pretty much any article there are folks acting as if they know some things that I don't believe have been determined yet. Here are a few:

1. Louis Urias will be the third baseman and Bruce Turang will play second. In 2022, Turang had as many games playing third as he did at second in the minors -- but that is even assuming that Turang is the other infielder getting games. It could as easily be Brosseau or someone else. Brosseau didn't play second base at all in 2022. Even in 2022, Urias played 73 games at third compared to 70 games at short or second. It is likely that the Brewers will be fairly fluid with where they position him again this year but considering the other options, there is a greater chance that more of those games will be at second base.

2. The Brewers will be playing three rookies in most games. With the current roster construction, it seems as if this team will likely have a rookie and/or a group of rookies get most of the starts in one outfield position. The Brewers likely won't often start an outfield of Yelich, Taylor, Winker so that means that one rookie will likely get starts in one of those outfield positions. Beyond that, the rookies will have to perform to get at bats.

3. Sal Frelick gets most of the starts in right field. To begin with, there is the potential that Frelick won't be with the team coming out of spring training. Then there is the fact that Frelick has very little experience in rightfield in the minors. In the minors, it looks like, if there was an outfield that included Frelick and Mitchel than Mitchel would more often play right. And that leads us to...

4. Centerfield is Mitchel's position. Although, Mitchel has the inside track for an MLB roster spot at the beginning of the season, there is no guarantee that he has one locked up. And even if he is on the roster, there could be a mix of outfield assignments. Some of this will be determined in Spring Training but some of it will be fluid through the year as players come up or go down or get injured.

5. The Brewers will go with a six man rotation. Although the Brewers have used a sixth starter at different times over the last two years, they have also dumped it at other times in the season. In 2023, there is no covid rebound and no shortened spring training because of the lock out so the external factors that the team was attempting to mitigate through use of a sixth starter are now gone. The Brewers have 3 scheduled off days in the first 36 days of the season, so even if they want the extra day of rest for their starters, they would only need to use a sixth starter about half the times through the rotation. Do they need to do this? And even if they do, is it more of a spot start/bullpen game rather than an actual six man rotation? The Brewers, as far as I know, haven't said they are going with a sixth starter in 2023.

Those are a few of the big assumptions that seem to be floating around, that may be totally bogus.