Jack Stern

Garrett Mitchell's injury created an opportunity for Oliver Dunn, who put up strong numbers in Double-A last year and made an excellent impression this spring. The Brewers believe in his three-true-outcomes profile. Dunn is getting a chance to prove that his approach will lead to results against big-league pitching. Image courtesy of © Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports Oliver Dunn made an impression on Pat Murphy in spring training. Now, he’s getting an opportunity to impact a big-league roster for the first time in his career. Dunn was initially slated to begin the season with Triple-A Nashville, but the Brewers added him to the active roster after Garrett Mitchell fractured his hand in the final week of spring training. Mitchell’s absence moved Sal Frelick back to center field (more or less) full-time, and created a need for another left-handed hitter on the roster--ideally an infielder. Enter Dunn, whom the Brewers acquired via trade in November after he raked for the Philadelphia Phillies’ Double-A affiliate in 2023. The 26-year-old launched 21 home runs and posted an excellent .271/.396/.506 line (148 wRC+). He continued that strong showing in the Arizona Fall League, hitting .343/.455/.616 in 88 plate appearances. Dunn has played second base most often in the minor leagues, but Murphy said a few weeks ago he expects most of his action with the Brewers will be at third. He explained that Dunn feels most comfortable there. He looked at home at the hot corner in spring training, showing solid range and footwork with several charging plays on soft ground balls down the line. Scouts have expressed concerns about whether Dunn’s arm is strong enough to play at third, though, and Jake Bauers bailed him out with scoops at first base on a couple of those plays. If Dunn impacts the Brewers this year, it will be primarily with his bat. He injects raw power into an offense that was among the worst in that area last year. He also excels at getting on base, drawing walks at a 16.2% clip. As a three-true-outcomes hitter, the greatest drawback in Dunn’s profile is his high strikeout rate. He punched out at an alarming 27.5% rate last season. That figure could increase when he faces higher-caliber pitching. However, Dunn’s swing-and-miss tendencies may be closer to palatable than out of control. His whiff rate was a couple of percentage points higher than the Double-A average, but his 12% swinging strike rate was right in line with the league average of 12.9%. Many of Dunn’s strikeouts were due to his selectiveness at the plate, rather than swings and misses. Hitters must be passive on borderline pitches to walk as often as he does, but that approach is a double-edged blade that can also result in more looking strikeouts. Dunn was far more likely to take strike three than the average Double-A hitter. His 19.2% called strike rate with two strikes far exceeded the league average of 11.7%. If Dunn thinks a pitch is just outside the zone with two strikes, he won’t try to spoil it. He’ll take it. Murphy doesn’t want Dunn to change his selective approach in an effort to reduce his looking strikeouts. “Hitters that have that great strike-ball discernment, hitters that are great at that, they punch out,” he explained. “They punch out because they take a pitch they believe is a ball and gets called a strike. That happens. He’s really good at it, so that’s going to be something that we have to live with.” Dunn’s excellent feel for the strike zone is a key part of his game. Murphy would rather live with the occasional drawbacks of that approach than try to change his identity as a hitter. “When it’s close, it’s hard to deny him that right of, ‘I make my own decisions about that.’ To force him to swing at [borderline pitches] could change his whole game.” Dunn will confront an adjustment period as he transitions from facing pitchers much younger than him in the minor leagues to some of the best pitchers in the world. Opponents will attack him differently at this level, and it could require him to alter some of his swing decisions. At the same time, the higher level of competition could work in Dunn’s favor. Borderline pitches he took for strike three in Double-A may be correctly called balls by big-league umpires with tighter and more accurate zones. Regardless, expect Dunn to stick with the approach that got him here: spit on borderline pitches and strike on ones over the heart of the plate. The Brewers have faith in Dunn’s profile. He has an opportunity to prove that it can lead him to success in the big leagues. View full article

With Devin Williams sidelined, the onus could fall on returning setup man Joel Payamps to provide stability at the back end of the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen. Some modest tweaks to his fastball usage could have him performing better than ever. Image courtesy of © Rich Storry-USA TODAY Sports When news broke that Devin Williams would miss at least the first two or three months of the season due to stress fractures in his back, the Brewers immediately emphasized the importance of a next-man-up mentality in the bullpen. Several arms in the relief unit have stuff suited for high-leverage work, including triple-digit flamethrowers Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill. However, the most experienced in pressure situations is the reliever who worked the second-most innings out of the Brewers’ bullpen last year (behind Bryse Wilson) and placed second in fWAR behind Williams as his primary setup man. In 70 ⅓ innings, Joel Payamps posted a 2.55 ERA, 3.48 FIP, and 79 DRA-, with solid strikeout (26.8%) and ground ball (45.9%) rates. His 3.0 Win Probability Added was the second-highest in the bullpen and double that of third-place finisher Hoby Milner (1.5). An improved slider was responsible for much of that success. Before coming to Milwaukee, Payamps’s breaking ball was more of a slurve that yielded middling results, including a .318 opponent wOBA and -2 run value in 2022. The Brewers helped him fashion it into more of a sweeper, shaving three inches of vertical drop on average from the pitch while adding an inch and a half of lateral movement. Those changes are illustrated by the graphs below. Notice how the spread shifts from 2022 to 2023. The adjustment paid off. Payamps’s sweeping slider held opponents to a .243 wOBA and had a +5 run value. He missed more barrels with it, to the tune of an increased whiff rate (23.2% to 28.6%) and a lower average exit velocity (88.2 to 86.3 mph). Payamps’s slider will continue to be his bread and butter as he strives for a successful follow-up to his breakout season. How he utilizes his two fastballs in conjunction with the breaking ball could be the difference between regressing from his 2023 campaign and sustaining it. The Brewers, as they’ve done with several pitchers in recent years, put Payamps on a plan of throwing primarily sinkers to same-handed batters and four-seam fastballs to opposite-handed opponents. That meant pounding right-handers inside with sinkers and attacking left-handers with elevated four-seamers. Nearly two-thirds of Payamps’s fastballs to right-handers were sinkers, and 78.4% of his heaters to left-handers were four-seamers. That breakdown was largely effective for him, but Payamps can level up his overall performance by tweaking how he uses those two fastballs. His sinker is more of a running two-seamer than a heavy, downward mover. Whereas diving sinkers average around 0 inches of induced vertical break (IVB), Payamps’s averaged 8.1 inches last year. That has implications for where in the zone the pitch is most effective. As most pitchers do with sinkers, Payamps focused on pounding right-handers down and in to generate ground balls. However, that’s not the most effective location for it. Because Payamps’s two-seamer lacks sink, it’s not conducive to rollover ground balls. Instead, it yields soft ground balls by jamming opponents. Right-handers can go down and get Payamps’s two-seamer at the bottom of the zone and dump it into the outfield for base hits. It actually plays best at belt height, where the pitch looks like a juicy meatball until it tails in on hitters. The running action steers away from the path of the barrel and produces near-automatic jam-shot grounders. Look at last year’s batting averages and launch angles yielded on right-on-right two-seamers by location. Instead of using it to get underneath barrels, Payamps’s top priority when throwing the two-seamer should be to get as close as he can to the handle of the bat. That means focusing on the black of the plate to his arm side, rather than the bottom third of the zone. One could also argue that Payamps should throw fewer two-seamers, in general. While his strikeout rate surged dramatically last year, Payamps’s whiff rate did not follow to the same extent. Whereas the former placed him in the 75th percentile of pitchers, the latter was in the 57th percentile. Because Payamps generates few chases outside the strike zone, generating more in-zone whiffs will be necessary for maintaining his strikeout gains. The best way to do that is by throwing more four-seamers to righties. Payamps doesn’t generate elite backspin or ride on his fastball, but its high total spin (2,485 rpm) and his low-three-quarters arm slot make it highly effective up in the zone. Payamps was in the 30th percentile for IVB on four-seamers, but the 81st for vertical approach angle. Payamps’s four-seamer has consistently generated whiffs throughout his career, including a career-best 38.3% whiff rate last season. It stifled opponents to a .178 wOBA, and its +15 run value was by far the highest of any pitch in Payamps’s arsenal. That effectiveness extended to the times he broke it out against right-handers. They whiffed on 46.3% of swings against the four-seamer while batting .125 against it. Despite that success, Payamps threw it just 16.2% of the time to right-handers. Pitch types do not exist in a vacuum. Payamps’s two-seamer is still his best fastball against righties because it better complements the sweeping shape of his slider down in the zone. It’s also a far better pitch for generating weak contact on the ground. However, a more balanced mix of fastballs could serve him well. More specifically, Payamps should be willing to lean on the four-seamer in situations that demand a strikeout of a right-handed batter. Payamps will reprise his high-leverage role when the regular season begins on Thursday. With Williams out, his presence at the back end of the bullpen is even more crucial. Some minor tweaks to how he utilizes his fastballs can help him answer the call. View full article

Pat Murphy says his time as a bench coach gave him the perspective he needed to manage. If he applies what he learned over that time, he could be just the skipper this Brewers team needs. If he doesn't, his first season could feature more bumps. Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports Pat Murphy has a reputation as a hard-nosed, old-school baseball guy. He disputes that characterization. “I am old,” he quipped. “I’ve been in baseball forever. I don’t like being called a baseball guy, necessarily.” Murphy developed that reputation during his 21 years as a collegiate head coach. It’s a stark contrast from his predecessor Craig Counsell, whom many view as one of the best new-school managers in baseball. The Brewers’ new skipper insists he is not the same coach he once was. Years of experience, including an eight-season tenure as Counsell’s bench coach, have helped him evolve. “I’ve learned a lot standing where I was for the past eight years,” he said last week. “I’ve had my eyes wide open, as they say.” That learning experience was necessary before he landed his first full-time managerial gig at age 65, Murphy says. “I would have struggled if I was given this opportunity as a younger man.” Murphy has acquired a broadened perspective over the years, both in terms of on-field strategy and his overall mindset. “Your ego gets challenged in this deal all the time,” he explained. “When you’re younger, you’re trying to prove yourself, and you’re trying to be known or let people know how great you are. It’s so stupid.” As spring training has progressed, it’s become clear that this version of Murphy is not the same as his past iterations. Murphy has not tried to prove anything. He has commanded respect with a distinctive blend of humor, calling things as he sees them, and thoughtful baseball insight. No one ever quite knows what Murphy will say about anything on any given day, but they know it will be authentic. Regarding game management, Murphy’s job is not about following a particular school of thought; it’s about making the best decisions. He strives to combine the observations of his experienced eye with information to lead his players and best position his team for success. Murphy doesn’t base his approach on old-school cliches. He arrives at most of his conclusions by thinking critically about the game's intricacies as they apply to the situation before him. Instead of committing to straight platoons in the lineup as Counsell did ahead of him, Murphy explained that he approaches matchups based on how hitters fare against specific pitch shapes and locations. This is arguably a more analytical approach than one that adheres to opposite-handed matchups for hitters whenever possible. It weighs more information. As he shapes his bullpen without an injured Devin Williams, Murphy would rather not name a new closer. He prefers the strategic advantage of having his best arms available for the highest-leverage moments and weighs as many factors as possible to determine when those moments are. Murphy’s thinking is neither old-school nor new-school. It’s just thoughtful. That thinking won’t always lead him to a conclusion that matches statistical reality. In those instances, Murphy is not afraid to be challenged by information. He welcomes dissenting analysis from an analytical front office. “I use their information,” he said. “I want their opinion. They’re studying it from their angle, over and over and over. You’re crazy not to use [the information].” Murphy trusts his eyes from the dugout but knows they aren’t always accurate. “Oftentimes, I think I see something, but maybe I don’t. All the data and the information measures all of it, so that data is crucial to know.” Murphy says he’ll make in-game decisions, but the preparation process features collaboration with the front office. “We get together, and we make a decision. [For the] final decision, I’m the one walking up the steps saying, ‘You’re out, you’re in.’” Murphy's knack for critical thinking is encouraging, but the potential concern is whether he’ll apply it consistently. Like any manager, Murphy has biases, and some of his conclusions about specific players appear more grounded in perception than substantive analysis. Murphy believes second baseman Brice Turang will take a “quantum leap” in his sophomore season but did not offer concrete observations to support that assertion. Instead, he pointed to Turang’s competitive nature and praised him for working hard over the offseason to get stronger. Turang tied for the second-worst wRC+ among players with at least 400 plate appearances and the lowest run value against four-seam fastballs last year. A strong work ethic and competitive drive are valuable traits, but Turang can’t will his barrel into connecting with more fastballs. His offense was a liability last year. Achieving the magnitude of improvement needed to make him a useful everyday player requires tangible adjustments. Similarly, Murphy repeatedly expressed his belief that Joe Ross fits best on a big-league staff as a starting pitcher, saying that he has seen him settle into games as a starter in the past. Ross made eight starts in 2012 with the Short-Season Class A Eugene Emeralds, whom Murphy managed that summer while working in the San Diego Padres organization. The present-day reality is that even if Ross is attempting to throw four pitches, he only has two playable ones. He hasn’t been a league-average starting pitcher since 2021 and owns a 4.78 ERA since the start of 2017 after a pair of encouraging seasons to begin his career. Ross has some potential as a reliever. His sinker-slider mix played up in short stints last year when he returned from Tommy John surgery for a handful of minor-league appearances. It’s much more challenging to look at his metrics and makeup and declare him a bona fide MLB starter. Murphy gravitates toward competitors. While not inherently detrimental, it can become problematic if he favors it over the objective realities of a player’s on-field performance. His eyes may tell him that Turang and Ross are competitors who will find a way to produce, but Murphy cannot use that as his primary criterion for making decisions. Organizations possess more resources than ever to project, track, and evaluate player performance. While a trained baseball eye can pick up on things the numbers overlook, the metrics are almost always a more reliable foundation for analysis. Murphy is not a fully old-school manager, but it seems his eye still emphasizes the nose-to-the-grindstone player whose perceived value doesn't hold up under modern measurements. If he lets that bias drive too many of his decisions, his inaugural season as manager could be bumpy. If he puts into practice what he has learned over the years, he might be precisely the skipper this team needs. View full article

Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy knows the value of playing matchups to put his players and team in the best position to succeed. His process for deciding on those matchups may differ from his predecessor's, though. Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports The Brewers are no strangers to playing matchups. Stacking left-handed hitters against right-handed pitchers (and vice-versa) became a staple of Craig Counsell's lineups during his final years as manager. He used pinch-hitters at an above-average rate in every season but his last, often with the goal of gaining the platoon advantage. There will still be mixing and matching at a couple different positions throughout the lineup in 2024. Brice Turang, Sal Frelick, and Garrett Mitchell are all platoon candidates. At the same time, there could be fewer of those stacked lineups, particularly against right-handed pitching. Rhys Hoskins will be a mainstay in the heart of the order as a right-handed bat. Gary Sánchez and Jackson Chourio also figure to receive ample playing time. Counsell’s successor knows the importance of putting his players and his team in a position to succeed. To Pat Murphy, that may not always entail playing the handedness game. “The handedness oftentimes is a thing that gets pointed to, but there’s more to it,” he said. “There’s the times we don’t do it when there’s the opportunity to do it with the handedness.” Murphy rattled off numerous situational factors that determine whether to pinch-hit, including the hitter on deck, the pitcher warming in the opposing bullpen, and how the options off the bench stack up against the incumbent hitter. Also tucked into the list was how the hitters in question handle certain kinds of pitchers. If Murphy applies that last criterion to how he manages matchups, it would be a welcome change from how the Brewers have played matchups with hitters in the past. It’s seemed, at times, that the Brewers operated under the premise that all hitters project better against opposite-handed pitchers. They were undeterred by the established reverse splits of Keston Hiura, Brian Anderson, and Luke Voit, attempting to use all three as reinforcements against left-handed pitching within the last two seasons. It failed in all three instances. The Brewers have never confirmed this to be their thought process, but Counsell’s past comments about Hiura indicated that his reverse splits violated the organization’s expectations and left everyone stumped. Murphy struck a much different tune when asked about it, responding without hesitation that he believes reverse splits are legitimate and explicable. The starting point for his reasoning is not handedness, but pitch shapes and locations. Sometimes, Murphy explained, opposite-handed pitchers are more comfortable with attacking certain areas of the zone than same-handed pitchers. This can create a tougher at-bat for the hitter, despite their having the presumed handedness advantage. “They have space,” he said. “It might not make sense in an article.” It became clearer what Murphy was getting at once he gave the example of a right-on-left cutter. It’s easier for the pitcher to back-door the cutter because there’s no batter crowding that corner of the plate. He can miss arm-side without the repercussion of a hit-by-pitch, giving him increased confidence in throwing to that spot. Murphy also pointed to arm-side splitters in the same vein. An inside cutter can produce a similar reverse split, Murphy said. “Mariano Rivera, his splits were almost negative, I’m sure,” he posited. “I’ve never looked at it, but I would say right-handers would have a better shot because left-handers, when his cutter was doing what his cutter was doing, didn’t have much of a chance.” Rivera, a right-handed cutter specialist, held right-handed hitters to a .588 OPS for his career. Lefties hit for an even worse .524 OPS. Murphy said he wouldn’t characterize any of the potential timeshares in his lineup as straight platoons, instead emphasizing that a number of situational factors will determine who gets at-bats. Returning to his space argument, Murphy also hinted at a preference for steering away from lineups stacked with batters of the same handedness, an approach he floated earlier in camp. “I think it’s so understated what it means to the pitcher. For instance, a lefty. If you ask [Wade] Miley if he wants nine right-handed hitters, he’d say yes. “Lefties mess up his spacing a little bit. You’re so used to facing nine [right-handers]. You can calibrate your back-door cutter and calibrate how your two-seamer is. Then you get a lefty in there, it does kind of startle him.” The idea is that mixing lefties and righties can keep an opposing pitcher from settling in because the side of the plate to which he has more space constantly switches. Does Murphy plan to startle opposing pitchers by running out lineups featuring hitters from both sides? “I like that.” It remains to be seen how much autonomy Murphy will have with regard to in-game decision-making. If the ball is truly in his court, the Brewers could be playing matchups in a different sense than they have over the past few seasons. View full article

Jackson Chourio has made the cut, Freddy Peralta is starting on Opening Day, and several infielders in positional battles have been optioned out. The Milwaukee Brewers' roster is starting to come into focus. Image courtesy of © Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports With the start of the regular season just over a week away, the Brewers are getting closer to finalizing their roster. After reports surfaced Monday evening that Jackson Chourio had made the Opening Day roster, the Brewers made a series of cuts this morning. Per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, infielders Vinny Capra, Oliver Dunn, and Owen Miller have been optioned to Triple A, as has righthander Janson Junk. Tyler Black, Robert Gasser, and Jared Koenig were reassigned to minor-league camp. None of the cuts are surprising. Capra was a long shot to make the roster, and while Pat Murphy has spoken highly of Dunn throughout camp, he indicated last week that he could use some more time in Triple A. The optioning of Dunn and Miller adds some clarity to a third base competition that seemed wide open for much of camp. With the former heading to Nashville, Sal Frelick is now the top left-handed hitter on the depth chart at the hot corner. Miller's reassignment leaves Christian Arroyo and Joey Ortiz competing for the role of a second right-handed-hitting utility infielder, alongside Andruw Monasterio. Gasser has impressed this spring, but was never likely to open the year in Milwaukee. However, Murphy hinted that he could join the starting rotation in April when the Brewers have two stretches of 13 straight games without a day off. In other rotation news, Murphy confirmed this morning that Freddy Peralta will get the ball on Opening Day. Wade Miley's availability for the first week of the season remains a coin flip, leaving Colin Rea as the only other confirmed starter behind Peralta. Murphy has been coy on how the rest of his pitching staff will shake out, but DL Hall, Jakob Junis, Joe Ross, Aaron Ashby, and Bryse Wilson are all in the mix for bulk innings. The Brewers still have key decisions approaching in the final days of camp, namely which relievers to carry in the bullpen and whether to squeeze Eric Haase onto the roster as a third catcher. Still, today's transactions brought the roster closer to the one that will travel to New York next week. View full article

After improving his sinker in Triple-A Nashville last summer, J.B. Bukauskas could become the Brewers' latest breakout reliever. Image courtesy of © Jeff Le-USA TODAY Sports At the end of last season, J.B. Bukauskas’ future with the Brewers seemed uncertain. The club exhausted the right-hander’s third and final minor-league option last year, meaning it would not be able to send him to the minor leagues in 2024 without first exposing him to waivers. A crowded bullpen mix and his lack of roster flexibility meant he could soon be moving to his fourth organization in three seasons. Plenty can change in a few months. With opening day less than two weeks away, Bukauskas looks like someone who could easily impact the big-league bullpen. He was granted a fourth minor-league option due to his injury history, and the injury of Devin Williams opens a spot in the bullpen. He has turned heads in camp, striking out 12 in six innings of work. Bukauskas is glad he’s still a Brewer. “I feel like I’ve made some good connections and been able to click with a lot of the stuff I’ve been trying to improve on,” he said. “I really enjoy it here, and I’m really happy to be here.” It’s taken Bukauskas a few stops to land in Milwaukee. He was a first-round pick of the Houston Astros in 2017, who shipped him to the Arizona Diamondbacks two years later at the trade deadline as part of a package that landed Zack Greinke. Baseball doesn’t care about prospect pedigree; the game can humble anyone. Bukauskas is no exception. Injuries and poor performance as a starter in the minor leagues prompted a switch to the bullpen. When he reached the big leagues in 2021, he got shelled. In 17 ⅓ innings, Bukauskas surrendered 24 hits and four home runs en route to a 7.79 ERA. The main culprit was his fastball. Throughout his minor-league career, Bukauskas threw a four-seamer with little ride as his primary pitch. According to Statcast, it had 3.6 fewer inches of vertical ride on average than the typical four-seamer thrown at a similar velocity. To put it into more conventional scouting terms, Bukauskas’ fastball was flat with no life. When he brought it with him to the majors, opponents blasted it for a .500 batting average and .821 slugging percentage. Upon the mention of his four-seamer in the Brewers clubhouse on Thursday, Bukauskas immediately interrupted before a question was asked. “It was terrible,” he blurted out. Bukauskas suffered a grade two tear of his teres major muscle in spring training the following year. As he worked his way back, he focused on replacing his four-seamer with a sinker. “I was in a sim game, and I was like, ‘I’m just going to try it because the four-seam was so bad,’” he said. Bukauskas officially made the switch when he returned to game action that summer. After the Seattle Mariners claimed him off waivers from the Diamondbacks in January 2023, he worked with their personnel to further refine the sinker. The breakthrough came after the Brewers claimed him in April. “When I came here, it really started to take off,” he said. The induced vertical break on his sinker decreased from 3.1 inches with the Mariners Triple-A affiliate to one inch with the Brewers’ Triple-A team in Nashville. According to Statcast, it averaged 5.1 more inches of sink than the average sinker thrown at a similar velocity. The lower the induced vertical break of a sinker, the more late diving action it will have as it approaches the plate. By slashing a couple inches, Bukauskas added depth to his sinker that made it more effective. The difference between the fastballs is obvious. Here’s how Bukauskas’ four-seamer looked in 2021: bukauskas_4s.mp4 This is what the heavy sinker looked like during a late-season stint with the Brewers last September: bukauskas_sinker.mp4 Because he no longer needed to worry about his fastball getting crushed, Bukauskas could attack hitters more aggressively. “It ultimately gave me more confidence to just be in the zone more often and have the ball put on the ground rather than in the air,” he said. The addition of the sinker had additional ripple effects on how Bukauskas attacks hitters. It plays well with his slider. Bukauskas added depth to that pitch as well, tacking on five more inches of vertical drop from 2021 to 2023. He can now use both pitches to get under barrels. “The arsenal plays good together,” he said. “That sink-slide allows you to cover both sides of the plate and keep guys guessing when it’s down.” While the sinker complements the slider, it forced Bukauskas to shelve his changeup, which received a 70 grade from FanGraphs in 2021 and was viewed by scouts as his best pitch. After the Brewers acquired Bukauskas, Nashville pitching coach Jeremy Accardo and bullpen coach Patrick McGuff told him to ditch the changeup because the sinker was too similar to it. “I had the changeup, and it was basically the same shape as the sinker, but it didn’t have very much speed differential, so we just banged it,” he explained. The sinker-slider mix allows Bukauskas to generate weak contact and swings and misses. His main goal is to induce ground balls with the sinker, but he can turn to the slider for a strikeout when he needs it. “I’m trying to get the ground balls early in counts,” he said. “If I have the ability late in the count to try to put guys away, I’m still going to go for it. I think the big thing is just keeping the ball on the ground.” Bukauskas’ new mix helped him post a 2.92 ERA and 2.90 FIP in 37 innings in Nashville last year. He induced ground balls at a gaudy 63.3% rate while running a strong 26.8% strikeout rate. That same mix is strong enough to be similarly effective in the big leagues. With Williams sidelined for at least the first three months of the season, Bukauskas could have a greater opportunity to establish himself in the Brewers’ bullpen. He could be working some big innings for Milwaukee in a few months. View full article

Pat Murphy has raved about Eric Haase's spring training performance on both sides of the ball, but the veteran catcher faces a roster construction roadblock in his battle for a spot on the Opening Day roster. Image courtesy of © Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports If you ask around about players who have made an impression in Brewers camp, you’ll find that catcher Eric Haase is a popular answer. “He’s been as good as anybody in camp,” Pat Murphy said. The Brewers inked Haase to a one-year deal in December. This spring, he has posted gaudy numbers at the plate, slashing .409/.480/1.207 with a pair of home runs. After a challenging 2023 season, Haase trained over the offseason at 108 Performance in Knoxville. The goal was to get back to punishing fastballs. Haase slugged .529 against fastballs during a productive stretch with the Detroit Tigers in 2021 and 2022. During that time, his work against fastballs was worth 15.4 runs, according to Statcast. Last year, his production against them cratered to a .300 slugging percentage and -11.1 runs. One of the adjustments he made was backing off the plate. “I was right on the dish, and it kind of led to a little bit of topspin,” he explained. Topspin fly balls die in the air instead of carrying. They’re bad news for a power bat like Haase, who relies on driving the ball in the air for extra-base hits. His average exit velocity on fly balls fell from 93.8 mph in 2021-22 to 89.6 mph last year. The average distance of those balls dropped from 316 feet to 298 feet. “I backed off the dish [to] give myself a little bit of space,” Haase said. “Just trying to be really simple back up through the middle, and it’s really showing. I’ve been able to hit balls with good spin to every part of the field.” The 31-year-old has also drawn rave reviews for his work behind the plate. Murphy praised his game calling in Robert Gasser’s start on Thursday. “Behind the dish, he continues to impress me,” he said. “He really gets it.” In Murphy’s eyes, Haase has done everything anyone can do to crack the big-league roster out of camp. The problem is there may not be a spot for him. William Contreras was arguably the best catcher in baseball last year, and the Brewers signed Gary Sanchez to complement him as part of a catching and designated hitter carousel. Would the Brewers consider rostering three catchers to keep Haase? “I don’t like it,” Murphy said generally about carrying three backstops concurrently. I think there’s a stretch you can carry three at any given time of a season. I just don’t think that it makes a lot of sense for a lot of teams to carry three catchers.” Tag-teaming Contreras and Sanchez at catcher and DH leaves some at-bats open in the latter spot for other players. Adding Haase to the equation would fill it every day with a catcher. Murphy doesn’t want to lose that flexibility. Murphy said of his tentative plan for the DH role, “I think what best serves us is a rotation of [Christian] Yelich, Contreras, and [Rhys] Hoskins.” Rostering three catchers also comes at the expense of another position player. Keeping Haase would force them to demote another right-handed bat, such as Joey Wiemer, Andruw Monasterio, Joey Ortiz, or Owen Miller. That would suddenly leave Murphy with limited reinforcements in the outfield or the middle infield. Despite turning heads this spring, it’s clear that Haase faces an uphill battle to make the roster. He’s impressed his skipper enough to make it a challenging decision. “I can appreciate what Haase is doing so much, so he’s made this so difficult,” Murphy said. If Haase doesn’t make the roster, the Brewers would have to expose him to waivers, allowing other teams to claim him under his current contract. They could also release him, giving him the freedom to choose his next team. Haase’s best path to breaking camp with the Brewers may be if the club decides Sanchez’s defense is not yet up to par. He allowed three passed balls in his first start behind the plate on Wednesday. Still, preferring Haase behind the plate doesn’t change the fact that the club will have to decide on its catching mix sooner rather than later. Haase knows that he can only keep working to help a big-league team this year. “Just try to handle my business every day,” he said. “If the opportunity’s there, then we go forward. If not, then keep it going. Just try to do what I can do.” View full article

As he commented on the outlook of the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen sans Devin Williams, Pat Murphy demonstrated an awareness of both the value of flexibility and the natural gravitation toward defined roles. That understanding will be critical as shapes his bullpen without his star closer. Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports Pat Murphy has handled plenty of adversity in his 30-plus years of coaching. Losing players to injury is nothing new. “You’re going to get dealt some cards that are not face cards,” he said in his first media session since the baseball world learned that Devin Williams will miss at least three months with stress fractures in his vertebrae. Still, losing the best closer in baseball for an extended stretch is a gut punch. “This hurts immensely,” Murphy said. There’s a wide range of potential outcomes in the bullpen without Williams. The Brewers have enough arms with great raw stuff that they could survive in his absence. It’s hard for any team to rival the power arms of Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, and Elvis Peguero, all of whom generate exceptional movement in addition to their premier velocity. At the same time, the club has very few relievers who have proven themselves in high-leverage work over a full season. Beyond 33-year-old Hoby Milner, the track records in the bullpen are short. The Brewers already had enough uncertainty at various positions. They didn't need more. The team is worse off without Williams, who blew just three save opportunities in 2023 and allowed earned runs in just six of his 61 appearances. Williams is so automatic in the ninth inning that anyone else will be a downgrade. Losing him also shakes up the bullpen hierarchy, leaving the Brewers’ first-year manager with a new challenge of finding the best way to line up his arms in the late innings. Murphy’s preference is a closer-by-committee approach. He sees no need to handcuff himself by locking any of his relievers into a particular role or inning. “I got this vision of this fireman’s hat that we’re passing onto different relievers every night,” he quipped. Murphy likes the flexibility afforded by the committee arrangement. In particular, it gives him the ability to use his best reliever in the highest-leverage spot of the game, even if it comes before the ninth inning. “It sometimes behooves you to say, in this situation, you might be better off being a little situational about it,” he said. “It’d be like, okay, the leverage is right now in the seventh. The biggest leverage right now is in the eighth. Worry about the ninth when we get there.” While that sounds like the ideal setup on paper, it rarely holds up in practice. History shows that pitchers and managers gravitate toward defined roles, even if the original intent is to avoid them. Bullpens that begin as committees typically end up with a clear ninth-inning closer, an eighth-inning setup man, and a seventh-inning guy. Murphy recognizes that such a structure is hard-wired into the game. He has a theory as to why it happens. It starts the first time the best reliever in an unstructured bullpen records the final three outs of a win. He began by setting the scene of the late innings in a close game. “Everybody’s using their best arms [in the final three innings],” Murphy explained, “so there’s less runs scored in close ballgames.” The initial ordering of relievers can be based on matchups. If those who throw the seventh and eighth work clean innings, no need arises to deviate from that order. The pitcher on standby as the fireman has yet to appear in the game. “Nothing happened in the seventh. Nothing happened in the eighth. Okay, where is the situation for this guy?” Murphy asked rhetorically. “Well, we got to use him now, so it’s the ninth.” If the situation repeats itself a couple of times, and the final pitcher successfully closes the game each time, it becomes harder for the player and the manager to separate him from that role. Murphy is a firm believer that the last three outs carry an added mental gravity, and it’s challenging to remove someone from that situation once they’ve proved they can handle it. “The last three outs [mentality is] real. It’s different. The guy’s done it. He’s done it twice. He’s done it three times.” All of a sudden, that pitcher has adopted the mindset of a closer. “All the outside influences start telling them, ‘You’re the closer now.’” There you have it. What started as a closer-by-committee setup is now a traditionally-structured bullpen. The process all comes back to the prestige (and the money) that has become associated with recording the last three outs of a close win. So long as the strict closer role continues to be adulated by fans, the media, and baseball’s salary arbitration system, a reliever’s natural gravitation toward it will remain. Murphy thinks the lack of experience in his bullpen could work to the club’s advantage in that regard. He’s hopeful that his young relievers will be able to maintain a broader perspective than that of veterans who have grown accustomed to stricter roles. “I think our group in there, we’re young enough [that] I think we can understand, tonight it’s one guy, the next night it’s another guy.” Despite what Murphy says about flexibility, the bullpen is likely to follow the more common path he described, in which the top relievers settle into specific innings. He probably knows it’s true, even if he won’t say it outright. The real takeaway is that Murphy thinks deeply about these aspects of managing. He has an understanding of both strategy and mentality as it pertains to managing a bullpen. He'll need it as he tries to help this group find its stride without Williams as the anchor. View full article

Hoby Milner has established himself as a cornerstone of the Brewers’ bullpen. He went into detail with Brewer Fanatic on the adjustments to his arsenal and game plan that led to a pair of breakout seasons. Image courtesy of © Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports Brewers manager Pat Murphy was asked on Tuesday morning if he needed to see results from Hoby Milner in his remaining spring training outings. “No,” Murphy responded firmly. “A guy like Hoby, we know what we’re getting.” Milner has earned his manager’s full trust with his performance over the past two seasons. Since the start of 2022, he’s appeared in 140 games, posting a 2.79 ERA, 3.14 FIP, and 3.25 SIERA. That makes Milner one of the Brewers’ most valuable hurlers and one of the more reliable bullpen arms in baseball over that two-year run. Among 150 qualified relievers, he ranks fifth in appearances and 34th in RA9-WAR (wins above replacement, based on runs allowed per nine innings) during that span. Milner began his career with the Brewers as a shuttle arm, bounced between Triple A and the big leagues, and was the last man in the bullpen. His 2021 numbers were unimpressive: a 5.40 ERA and 5.89 FIP in 21 2/3 innings. However, some promising changes to Milner’s profile were reasons for optimism moving forward. Milner’s control improved dramatically. Prior to the 2021 season, he struggled with free passes, issuing walks at an 11.1% rate. Once he joined the Brewers, he all but eliminated the walks, limiting them to a 3% rate in the big leagues and just 1.7% in the minor leagues. Milner also transformed from a pitch-to-contact specialist to a strikeout machine. He ran a 30.3% strikeout rate with the Brewers and fanned a jaw-dropping 40% of hitters in Triple A. An improved breaking ball was the biggest driving force behind the newfound swing and miss. By changing how he oriented the ball in his hand, Milner added four inches of sweep to the pitch from 2018 to 2020. When asked on Wednesday in the clubhouse how he tweaked his breaker, Milner immediately began digging through his locker for a baseball. When he turned around, he held a ball marked up with Sharpie to remind him where his index and middle fingers should be positioned. “When I was with the Phillies, I spiked it with a four-seam orientation like a curveball,” he explained. “Almost like Aaron Nola’s grip.” When Milner decided he wanted to generate more sweep on his breaking ball, he maintained the grip but changed the positioning of the seams. “I wasn’t creating any seam-shifted [wake],” he said, referring to the physics term for the interaction of a baseball’s seams with the air around it, creating much of the lateral movement on two-seamers and sliders. “So I moved over to a two-seam orientation, whereas I spin it off, it would come off like a two-seam if I were to throw a curveball with it.” The change enabled Milner to maximize the seam-shifted wake on his breaking ball, creating more sweep. The opponent whiff rate against the pitch increased to 35.1% in 2021. Statcast labels the breaking ball as a curveball. Milner calls it a slider but acknowledges that its unique movement profile falls between a sweeper and a curve. “On the vert line, curveballs are negative,” he explained. “My slider is negative. Everyone else that throws a slider is way up in the positives.” When Milner talks about the “vert line,” he’s referring to a pitch movement graph like the one below. Notice how many of his breaking balls have negative induced vertical break, a trait more common for topspin curveballs than sidespin sliders. For anyone unfamiliar with pitch shape measurements, here’s a crash course. Pitches with a higher induced vertical break resist gravity as the ball approaches home plate, creating a rising effect for hitters. Pitches with lower vertical breaks tend to have sinking or diving action. Milner doesn’t consider his slider a finished product. He wants to fashion it into a true sweeper, with a minimal vertical break or even a deceptive rising effect. “My goal is for it to look like a Frisbee going across. I don’t get that, but I would love to get something that has actual vert so that it defies gravity,” he says, citing San Francisco Giants pitcher Tyler Rogers’ famous “UFO slider” as an example. Milner also made another arsenal change in 2021 to increase his strikeouts, replacing his sinker with a four-seam fastball. “I was throwing all four-seams trying to get swing and miss because I didn’t feel like my two-seam was good enough to get soft contact.” The problem was that Milner's release of the ball didn’t generate the riding action that good swing-and-miss four-seamers possess. He naturally generates sink and run, so switching to a four-seamer was essentially switching to a worse sinker. “I only get like 8 to 10 [inches of vertical break],” he said of his four-seamer. “Most guys are trying to get 20.” The lack of vertical break produced a hittable pitch that opponents frequently barreled. Milner’s four-seamer generated whiffs at a 17.5% rate, and opponents slugged .642 against it. He allowed a 34.9% line drive rate and 3.3 home runs per nine innings. “I gave up so many homers, we were like, ‘Okay, I got to do something different.,’” Milner reflected. He shelved the four-seamer and brought back the sinker in 2022, en route to a breakout season. “I started throwing two-seams to lefties a lot and getting underneath their barrel. That worked out, and I started figuring out ways to use it against righties.” Milner reintroduced the four-seamer last year, but this time, it held opponents to a .233 slugging percentage with an excellent 26.7%. The four-seamer is finally doing what Milner wanted it to a year ago, but nothing about the pitch itself improved. Instead, it’s become effective because it differs enough from Milner’s sinker. He explained what this effect looks like from the hitter’s perspective. “They’re just like, ‘I’m going to swing at this down and away, and oh, it’s two inches higher than I expected it to be.’ So now it’s a pop-out instead of squaring it up.” The interplay of Milner’s two fastballs has become a key part of his game and enabled him to generate a fruitful mix of weak contact and strikeouts. Last season, he held opponents to a 35.4% hard-hit rate and sported a slightly above-average 23.4% strikeout rate. Our own Matthew Trueblood talked to Milner about his grip on the heaters and why he found it fairly easy to incorporate both pitches, last month. The adjustment has also helped Milner curtail the extreme platoon splits that plagued him early in his career. He can keep opposite-handed hitters off balance by learning how to spot the sinker to righties and changing looks with elevated four-seamers. “I used to try and strike righties out all the time with four-seams up, and they would catch them and hit a homer. Now, if I’m throwing a four-seam up to a righty, it’s like a sneaky, “He was not expecting that” kind of situation.” At this point in the conversation, Milner became a spokesperson for the value of having multiple fastball shapes in an arsenal. “I firmly believe most pitchers should have a four- and a two-seam.” “They can be this much different,” he adds, gesturing to indicate a difference of a few inches of movement, “or they can be like a foot [different].” It seems the Brewers agree. Milner’s teammates, including Brandon Woodruff, Colin Rea, Bryse Wilson, and Joel Payamps, throw two and four-seamers. While it took Milner some time into his Brewers tenure to find the best mix of fastballs, another change he made before landing in Milwaukee has largely stuck since. Milner began his career pitching from the first-base side of the rubber but veered toward the third-base side for a couple of years. After joining the Brewers, he returned to the first-base side and has inched even farther that way in the last two seasons. “If my release point was releasing right over the rubber, and everything started straight and then broke this way or this way, I have a feeling that stuff would be easier to see than four feet off the rubber like I am right now,” he said. Milner revealed that he moved to the third-base side early last year only to move back when left-handed opponents started hitting him harder. “I was like, ‘Okay, maybe I just need to be back on this side.’” While Milner admitted he’s not entirely sure what makes him more effective on the first-base side, the horizontal angle of his pitches likely plays up to lefties when it looks like he’s releasing the ball behind him from his sidearm slot. Whatever the explanation, identifying that release point as his most effective was part of the years-long evolution that shaped Milner into the reliable middle reliever he’s been for the past two seasons. The Brewers’ lack of proven starting pitchers and Devin Williams’s prolonged absence in the bullpen make Milner’s presence on the staff even more vital. He knows his craft to continue getting valuable outs for Milwaukee in 2024. View full article

Jake Bauers could become a valuable power bat for the Brewers after improving his swing with the Yankees last year. This time around, he’s looking to do damage with a less extreme approach. Image courtesy of © Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports The Brewers’ lack of power was a well-noted weakness that hampered the team throughout the 2023 season. Matt Arnold addressed that need by signing sluggers Rhys Hoskins and Gary Sanchez, but his first step toward adding thump to the lineup came in November when the Brewers acquired Jake Bauers from the New York Yankees. A former top prospect for the Tampa Bay Rays, Bauers’ big-league output has been uninspiring. In 412 games, he owns a .211/.302/.361 line (83 wRC+) and -1.0 fWAR. At first glance, his 2023 line with the Yankees was more of the same: a .202/.279/.413 slash (89 wRC+) and -0.5 fWAR. A deeper look reveals Bauers was anything but the same hitter he was before arriving in the Bronx. One of the knocks against Bauers for much of his career was his lack of in-game power for a first baseman and corner outfielder. Across his first three seasons, he hit 27 home runs in 328 games with a lackluster hard hit (33.5%) and barrel (5.5%) rates. That changed last season, as Bauers posted some of the best quality of contact metrics in baseball. His hard-hit rate jumped to 48%, and his barrel rate more than tripled to 18.7%. He matched his career high of 12 home runs in just 272 plate appearances. When Bauers made contact, it was among the most authoritative contact in the game. Among hitters with at least 250 plate appearances last year, his barrel rate ranked sixth, and his xwOBAcon (expected wOBA on contact) of .485 placed 10th. The transformation was the product of a series of changes Bauers made to his setup and swing path. He closed off his stance, raised his hands, and flattened his bat path. “I’ve always had an open stance,” Bauers said. “Squaring up helped me feel myself getting into that back hip a little more consistently with less space to travel. That helped a lot, which in turn helped with my bat path.” Bauers says he worked with the Yankees to clean up that bath path and make it flatter through the zone. The more efficient swing makes it easier for him to get the barrel to the ball. The changes produced some incredible results on contact, but Bauers struggled to put the ball in play consistently enough to maximize his newfound power. He struck out at a 34.9% rate and whiffed on 33.3% of his swings. While Bauers has no plans to overhaul his identity as a hitter, he hopes to showcase a more balanced profile with his new club. “I think last year was a little bit of an all-or-nothing approach,” he said. “I’m looking to dial that back a little bit. Put more balls in play, maybe give up a little bit of exit velo now and then, and just let the power happen.” Part of that process is understanding what pitches he can slug and which ones he can’t and applying that knowledge to his plan of attack at the plate. “There’s certain pitches you can hit home runs on, and there’s certain pitches that, unless you’re a freak, you really can’t. Instead of consistently trying to launch everything into the seats, Bauers envisions an approach that leads to more consistent results while allowing him to punish the pitches that he can hit for home runs. “Having a little bit more of a line drive approach and letting the home runs be thrown as opposed to trying to lift everything in the air to right field,” he elaborated. Bauers acknowledged that it’s been a years-long process of landing on the right mechanics and approach to be productive. The hope is that his fifth big-league season will be a breakthrough year. Even after adding Hoskins, the Brewers still see Bauers as a key component of their offense. There should be ample playing time for him between first base, designated hitter, and as a left-handed power bat off the bench. “If you’re looking at it and putting it on paper, he’s got a chance to play a lot,” Pat Murphy said of Bauers’ fit on the roster. The 28-year-old is ready to contribute in whatever role he’s called to fill. While Murphy said he doesn’t consider Bauers an option in the outfield, he’s willing to slide out to the grass if it helps the club. “I’m always looking to do whatever I can to help a team,” he said. “If that means playing right field, left field, shortstop, it doesn’t matter. That’s really the kind of role I’ve had to take over the course of my big-league career, and so I think that’s a healthy mindset. It puts you in good spot.” Wherever he lines up, don’t be surprised if Bauers helps the Brewers plenty as one of their better power bats. View full article

Keeping hitters off-balance is the key to successful pitching. Some hurlers do so with overpowering stuff, while others do it by mixing speeds, shapes, and locations. Colin Rea is an excellent example of the latter. Ironically, that became a central topic of discussion in his post-outing media scrum. It’s difficult to draw up a more stereotypical back-of-the-rotation arm than Rea. He tossed 124 ⅔ innings last year, with a 95 ERA+. His strikeout and ground ball rates mirrored the league averages. His average fastball velocity was a tick below that of the average MLB starter. None of Rea’s pitches are inherently good ones. The Stuff+ model available at FanGraphs grades his curveball at 101 and all of his other offerings as below-average. Statcast pitch movement metrics say that most of his pitches have slightly less movement than average. Rea’s auto-generated PITCHf/x arsenal report leads with, “Their sinker is a prototypical pitch with few remarkable qualities.” Rea knows his stuff isn’t good. He acknowledged it without hesitation or prompting when discussing his approach on the mound. “I don’t really have a pitch that stands out as far as stuff-wise,” Rea told the media on Tuesday night. Despite that lack of stuff, Rea keeps chugging along as a reliable arm who keeps his team in the game in most of his outings. His game is a sum of unremarkable parts that create competitive results. None of Rea’s pitches have plus movement, but they all move in different ways. Look at how each of his six offerings form distinct clusters in the movement plot below. A more accurate graph would feature a seventh cluster, as the sinkers with a higher vertical break are actually two-seam fastballs that Rea throws as another distinct pitch. Rea doesn’t excel at generating a particular kind of movement, but he can do a little bit of everything. He can create moderate amounts of sink, arm-side run, glove-side cut and sweep, vertical drop, and occasional ride. Each pitch he throws looks different to the hitter. That diversity in pitch shapes allows Rea to effectively cover every quadrant of the strike zone. The foundation of Rea’s approach is his trio of fastballs. He attacks down with his sinker to both sides of the plate, throws his cutter to the glove-side portion of the zone, and elevates with his four-seamer. That variety keeps the hitter from getting comfortable enough to consistently barrel a particular pitch. “When we mix all three of those together, that makes it play up,” Rea explained. Rea mixes the three pitches effectively to the point that hitters can’t hunt any of them. Last season, he threw his sinker 30% of the time, his cutter 26.5%, and his four-seamer 19.2%. From there, he mixes in a sweeping slider, a curveball, and a splitter that he has refined over the last few months. As someone who relies on mixing speeds and locations to keep hitters from growing comfortable against any of his pitches, Rea is always searching for new ways to add variety to his game plan. Right-handed batters see Rea’s cutter low and away most of the time, so on Tuesday, he deliberately threw several cutters up and in. The idea is that when the hitter sees a pitch in the upper third of the zone, they’ll assume it’s a four-seamer, only for the different movement of the cutter to violate their expectations and miss the barrel. Rea is best off keeping elevated cutters to a minimum. His cutter is more of a breaking ball than a fastball, averaging just 5.7 inches of induced vertical break last year. If left up in the zone, it’ll appear like a hanging breaking ball more often than not. Still, the high cutter is an extension of the thought process that has served Rea well in his time with the Brewers. Pat Murphy confirmed after his outing that Rea will be a member of his starting rotation. The Brewers will be relying on him and his knack for pitchability as a consistent source of innings this year. View full article

The 2023 Milwaukee Brewers demonstrated the importance of having depth on the 40-man roster. After making some adjustments in Triple-A last summer, new depth piece Vinny Capra could make an impact this summer. Image courtesy of © Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports In a busy offseason filled with personnel change, the Brewers' first addition was claiming infielder Vinny Capra off waivers from the Pittsburgh Pirates at the start of November. Anyone who forgot about that inaugural move is forgiven. It was overshadowed hours later by the return of Colin Rea on a new one-year deal. Amid the roster movement that followed, Capra understandably wasn't a point of conversation. Still, it's notable that the 27-year-old kept his 40-man roster spot throughout that time. While all but guaranteed to begin the season in Triple-A Nashville, Capra remains a useful depth piece for an organization that values flexibility and insurance across the roster. He has just 28 MLB plate appearances to his name, but Capra did take a step forward offensively in Triple-A last year. The improvements he made to get there could aid him in his quest to establish himself as a big leaguer. Capra has an excellent feel for the strike zone and strong bat-to-ball skills, but has always been held back by his limited power. He walked at a 14.5% clip in Triple-A last year against a 15.3% strikeout rate, but managed just a .096 isolated power. Given his skill set, hitting the ball on a line and reaching base however possible is his best path to productivity. "The goal has always been to hit drives," he said of his approach in the Brewers clubhouse on Tuesday. "And getting on base." Capra did the former at a better rate than ever last season, boosting his line drive rate from 24.3% in 2022 to a career-best 33.7%. It took some work to get there. Capra struggled with the Toronto Blue Jays' Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo, slashing .167/.357/.222 (67 wRC+) in 70 plate appearances. "I was hitting a lot of grounders and pop-ups," Capra said, by way of self-diagnosis. "I was coming off the ball and not staying through it." Things improved after a trade to Pittsburgh at the end of April, as Capra worked with Triple-A hitting coach Eric Munson on ironing out his swing. "We worked a lot on my bat angle and how I approach coming into the zone," he explained. "Once I figured that out, it was, 'Okay, now the timing's coming back, the sequencing's coming back.' From there, we can let all the years of training take over because we're at a familiar spot." The adjustments paid off, as Capra hit .329/.411/.439 (120 wRC+) in 192 plate appearances after switching organizations. A secondary goal of Capra's line-drive-centered approach is limiting ground balls. "If I'm barreling the ball up, that's obviously a good thing, but if it's on the ground, that's not as productive as if we can get that barrel into a line drive." When he fails to barrel the ball in a way that produces a line drive, Capra would rather miss underneath it for a fly ball than over the top of it for a grounder. The former gives him a chance to tap into more power. To him, it can be a more productive mistake than chopping the ball into the ground. His offensive philosophy seems to fit gorgeously with that of his new skipper. "Trying to hit homers is not really going to work, but if we try to hit line drives and miss under slightly, that can produce more power numbers." Capra's best asset at the plate is his ability to get on base. His best asset in the field is his versatility. A natural shortstop, he has logged time at every infield position but first base and has some experience in left field. "Each position has a different mindset and mentality," he said of bouncing around the diamond. "Understanding you can't play second base like you play third base and having a different mentality for each position, I think it helps out a lot." Capra's mindset at the plate and on the field could help him make an impact in Milwaukee this summer. Andruw Monasterio is a recent example of a depth infielder who made the most of an opportunity brought on by injuries and underperformance. Capra could follow suit over the next few months. View full article