Article: Forum Friday: Play Ball!

[BillScottCanRake]

Welcome to the 2022 season opening edition of Brewer Fanatic’s Forum Friday! This is our first Opening Day as Brewer Fanatic, and we are excited to be the new home of the best Brewer news and discussion anywhere.  Every week, we’ll take a look at some of the popular topics generated by our community and give a quick rundown of the week’s action.

April 7 is the best day of the year thus far, with the Brewers opening their season in Chicago against the Cubs.  This also means the first of at least 162 Game Threads in our forums. While you don't have to watch a Brewers game while also keeping tabs on the game thread, you'll be missing out if you don't. And without spoiling thins too much, we’ve got 161 more games to go.

Prior to the opener, the Brewers made almost as many moves at the catcher position in a two days as they did all of last year, which considering we now have the "Jacob Nottingham Rule" is quite an accomplishment. The first big of news was the suspension of Pedro Severino for 80 games and the post season on Tuesday, April 5. Among the first names brought up as a replacement for Severino was the aforementioned Nottingham by @Ron Robinsons Beard.

Severino's suspension spurred the Brewers front office to action, as they added two catchers in rapid succession. Victor Caratini was acquired from the Padres for minor leaguers OF Korry Howell and C Brett Sullivan, and a few hours later the Crew added some additional depth from Miami by flipping IF Hayden Cantrelle and RHP Alexis Ramierez for Alex Jackson. Having back-to-back trades completed to closely together made @ClosetBrewerFan quip David Sterns may have "just forgot to call (the Jackson) trade off." Or, as @Ulice Payne said, “Jake Nottingham can breathe easier.”

One topic which didn't get as much attention as I thought it should was Pitch sign stealing woah solvdd? Not only does @young guns get some kudos for a creative title, but I'll be very curious to see how offenses perform against teams using this new technology as compared to how they perform against teams using traditional signs. I also wonder if teams will be looking to expand their IT staffs...

This week was a busy one for the Crew’s minor league affiliate, so there was plenty to talk about in our Minor League Forum.  Rosters have been released for each of the full season teams and our first 2022 Community Top 25 Prospects poll voting has closed.  We’ll have the results from this poll in a future Forum Friday.  And, of course, the minor league season opened April 5 and along with it the return of the Daily Link Report.  For those of you who are new to Brewer Fanatic, the Daily Link Report is a complete roundup of each day's minor league action, including links to box scores, stories, and video from each game.  We may be biased, but we believe Brewer Fanatic has the best Brewer minor league coverage you will find anywhere.  And being biased doesn’t mean we are wrong!

That’s all for now, but be sure to check back next week. Hopefully we can chat more Brewer wins and less about catchers.

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