Mehring in Arizona, 2015 - Day 1
Rain was not what I was expecting on my first day in Arizona. It was light and sporadic, but it was enough to keep the minor league players at the Milwaukee Brewers camp in Maryvale, Arizona from taking the field today.
Instead, it was a light day of hitting in the cages and throwing in the bullpens.
The day was even lighter due to no games for the minor league players. The first game of their season is tomorrow (Friday) at 3pm CDT. I will have updates from that game on Twitter over at @CMehring.
That does not mean today was a dull day.
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Gary Lucas is the new pitching coach for the Timber Rattlers and he is looking forward to working with the 2015 edition of the team. Lucas had been in the Minnesota Twins organization for years and has been a pitching coach in the Midwest League for - off the top of my head - Quad Cities, Beloit, and Cedar Rapids…at least. I know that the Brewers organization was pretty excited to hear that he was available when they had an opening for a pitching coach.
For you Marquette basketball fans who might stumble across this: Lucas lives in Rice Lake and said that he saw Golden Eagle recruit Henry Ellenson twice this season. Marquette is getting a really, really good player.
I plan on talking more in depth with Lucas during this trip and posting the interview over on Rattler Radio.
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Matt Erickson had some time to chat before he went in to throw for batting practice. He was non-committal on a possible roster. That is understandable since they haven't even begun to play games yet. There were two things that he mentioned about the 2015 Timber Rattlers:
- They will be young….really young.
- Check out some Monte Harrison dunks on YouTube
Monte Harrison was the Brewers' second round pick in the 2014 draft and signed with the Brewers over a football and basketball scholarship at Nebraska. He hit .261 with a .402 on base percentage in 50 games in the Arizona League last season. Baseball America puts Harrison as the #4 prospect in the Brewers organization heading into this season.
This is a long way of saying, "I think Erickson expects Monte Harrison to be a Timber Rattler this season."
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The first mistake I made this trip was asking Tony Diggs how his offseason went.
"OFFSEASON?"
Diggs is the Assistant to the Director of Staff & Player Development and the manager of the Brewers Minor League affiliate in the Arizona League and he doesn't get much of an offseason. He helped with fall instructional league and rolled into a winter program for players who stayed in Arizona after that was done.
After a couple of weeks off for Christmas, Diggs worked a new January program for players. Next came another early program in February and now the minor league camp has begun.
Baseball never sleeps. And that's great.
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Five or six groups of fans have seen the Timber Rattlers logo on the shirt I am wearing today and stopped me to tell me how excited they are for the season to start. At least that would be how I would interpret three of those groups shouting, "TIMBER RATTLERS! WHOOOOOOOO! GO RATTLERS!" as I walked by them.
It's hard not to be excited at this time of year. The snow is gone from Neuroscience Group Field at Fox Cities Stadium, the team plays it first Midwest League game in three weeks, and all is right with the world.
PLAY BALL!