This Skill is Why the Brewers Love Joey Ortiz's Defense at Shortstop The Brewers will admit that Joey Ortiz is not their quickest, nor their rangiest infielder. That's because he excels at something they value more at shortstop.

"It's uncanny."

"Joey Ortiz has elite body control."

On the skill that fuels Ortiz's defense prowess and is why the Brewers believe he's an indispensable fielder at shortstop ⬇️

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'There's a Lot of Upside There': Kyle Harrison's Development With the Brewers is Just Beginning Kyle Harrison is unlike most Brewers starters throughout the last half-decade. He's unlike most starters, period. Those differences are a big reason why his new pitching coaches are so excited about h...

“Left-handers with that unique slot and that velo and that makeup don’t come around that often."

Kyle Harrison makes his season debut tonight. Here's what the Brewers have been working on (including what they've scrapped), and why they like his upside:

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Will Luis Rengifo Be Matt Erickson's Next Success Story? Last year, the Brewers' third base and infield coach helped turn Caleb Durbin into a solid defensive third baseman. Now the club believes he'll do it again with Durbin's replacement.

Luis Rengifo has a career -6 DRS and -18 OAA at third base, but Matt Erickson and the Brewers believe they can develop him into a solid defender.

"The physical ceiling he has, I think, is
impressive."

On the infield guru's newest project:

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Chad Patrick's New Breaking Ball Could Help Him Put Everything Together Chad Patrick didn’t just end his season in a new role as a reliever. He also had a different arsenal that improved throughout the year, leaving him with some of the best stuff on the team.

The Brewers starter with the best Stuff+ behind Jacob Misiorowski in 2025? Chad Patrick.

The curveball he added in August is pretty good, too.

He can be easy to overlook in a stable of young starters, but Patrick might be one of the closest to a breakout.
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Jacob Misiorowski Throws Two Fastballs Getting granular over pitch labels isn't always worth the fuss. In Jacob Misiorowski's case, however, it explains why the Brewers tweaked his mix as his rookie season progressed.

Jacob Misiorowski calls it a slider, and he can keep calling it a slider. It's effectively a cutter, though, and he and the Brewers used it as such throughout his rookie season.

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The Brewers Can Unlock Ángel Zerpa's Upside by Making Him More Deceptive Milwaukee parlayed career years from Isaac Collins and Nick Mears into a potential breakout reliever still trying to piece together his high-powered arsenal. They could supply the missing link.

Trading Isaac Collins and Nick Mears for a middle reliever wasn't about who was more valuable in 2025; it was about who would contribute more in Milwaukee moving forward.

Angel Zerpa has great stuff, and the Brewers may hold the missing link to his breakout.

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After Another Dodgers Starter Dominated Them, Brewers Face Daunting NLCS Deficit Milwaukee has thrived by bouncing back from losses and playing relentlessly, especially at the plate. Instead of doing that in Game 2, their at-bats were even worse than the night before, sending them...

All night long, the Brewers kept swinging at Yoshinobu Yamamoto's splitter as if they thought they were getting a fastball.

"This guy's split looks like a heater."

Blake Snell and Yamamoto have dismantled their offense. Now they're halfway to elimination.
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It didn't change after Game 1, but I now expect them to take the series after going up 2-0.

Danny Jansen and the Brewers Have Already Gone to Work on His Receiving The Brewers have a long-running history of helping catchers transform their pitch framing. They’re trying to do the same with their recent trade deadline acquisition, but with a different set of adjus...

Danny Jansen tried a glove drop earlier this year to better frame low pitches. It didn't work, so he ditched it.

When he joined the Brewers, catching guru Nestor Corredor suggested swiping his glove across the dirt.

Why they think it's helped his receiving:

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Why the Brewers Keep Giving Anthony Seigler Opportunities Against Right-Handed Pitching It has yet to produce results, but Anthony Seigler is excelling in the areas the Brewers value and shares the attributes of some of their recent breakout players.

"He's proven to me that he's got a spot here."

Why the Brewers keep giving opportunities against right-handed pitching to Anthony Seigler, whose results have yet to match his swing decisions and quality of contact ⬇️

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Tobias Myers stopped using his changeup in games earlier this year because he couldn't throw it with fastball-like conviction. Thanks to a new split-changeup grip, he's back to throwing offspeed stuff.

"It just keeps feeling better and better every day."

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Brice Turang Has Far More Power Than He Lets On. When Will He Unlock It in Games? The Brewers' glove-first second baseman quietly has some of the most impressive left-handed power on their roster, yet he continues to employ an approach geared toward hitting line drives and reaching...

Brice Turang crushes upper-deck home runs in batting practice. How much power lies beneath his slap-hitting approach?

"I think there's a lot."

He and the Brewers are working on pulling more balls in the air, but getting there the right way is a long road.

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Thanks for reading!

After Breakout Last Season, Jared Koenig's Atypical Dominance Continues for 2025 Brewers Bullpen It's easy to watch Jared Koenig pitch and wonder how opponents struggle to hit him. There's a reason for his success, though, and it is serving him even better in his second season with the Brewers.

Jared Koenig throws tons of fastballs over the plate, and hitters keep failing to barrel them. How?

"I'm funky," he explained.

How Koenig's delivery and seam effects make his sinker and cutter challenging to track, even if they don't seem that way from afar ⬇️

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Following Familiar Blueprint, Brewers Have Turned Grant Anderson into a Valuable Reliever The plan for Grant Anderson was apparent, because the Milwaukee Brewers produced a similar success story a couple of years ago. They've done it again.

"We already have the blueprint in Hoby Milner and how he used his stuff, and now we can use this with Grant."

How the Brewers helped Grant Anderson develop an improved sweeper and clean up his mechanics ⬇️

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Elvin Rodríguez and the Brewers Took an Important Step Toward His Success on Monday Night It should have been the strategy for the journeyman righthander all along, but that misstep is in the past. He and the Brewers are now both in tune with the best way to use his stuff.

Elvin Rodríguez saving the bullpen with five innings of relief was a silver lining in another blowout loss.

More importantly, after some conversations following his last start, he and the Brewers finally used the pitch mix they should have from the start.

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High Fastballs Have Had Garrett Mitchell's Number. He's Trying to Change That. When Garrett Mitchell lined an elevated Antonio Senzetla fastball for a double on Wednesday night, it was just the second non-bunt hit on a high fastball in his big-league career. All hitters have var...

Garrett Mitchell is fully aware of his struggles against high fastballs. He's made defending against them a significant part of his approach — not so he can crush them, but so he can force pitchers back into his damage zones.

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A Natural Pairing, Tyler Alexander and the Brewers Can Help Each Other in 2025 The cerebral control specialist felt Milwaukee would be an excellent fit for him, and his early experience has confirmed it. He'll get opportunities to bounce back from a career-worst season and eat i...

Tyler Alexander makes his first start tonight.

The left-hander on his process on the mound, how the Rays improved his sweeper last season, and why Milwaukee is a great place for fine-tuning the rest of his arsenal ⬇️
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As a Receiver, Eric Haase Has Learned to Evolve With the Game He’ll tell you that his mentality of taking nothing for granted remains unchanged, but Eric Haase finds himself in a much different situation this spring than he did a year ago. Last March, Haase was ...

His adjustments began the year before, but after joining the Brewers last season, Eric Haase became the latest catcher to transform his pitch framing under their tutelage.

The backup backstop on his evolution to modern receiving techniques ⬇️

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Brandon Woodruff Demonstrated How Far He's Come (and Where He's Still Working) in Spring Training Debut It was a triumphant day for the Brewers' former ace, but it was also the first public demonstration of the areas where he's still tinkering and trying to unlock the best version of his post-surgery se...

The good news from Brandon Woodruff's spring training debut: he hit 95 mph, and the secondaries look great.

The complication: he's unintentionally cutting his four-seamer.

On Woodruff's remarkable steps so far and where he remains a work in progress ⬇️

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Tobias Myers, Nick Mears Injuries Change the Math for Brewers' Opening Day Pitching Staff The Brewers had some tough decisions to make about their final bullpen spots in the coming days, but the near-certain absences of two would-be locks open fresh opportunities to carry certain pitchers—...

Our @jackstern.bsky.social is down in Maryvale for the balance of #Brewers camp, and has good coverage this afternoon of the implications of Tobias Myers's injury and Nick Mears's illness for the Opening Day roster. New @brewerfanatic.com: brewerfanatic.com/news-rumors/...

With His Glove-Side Pitches Fine-Tuned, Connor Thomas Makes His Pitch for Brewers' Opening Day Roster In recent years, the Brewers' Rule 5 draft pick has transformed how his cutter and sweeper interact with the rest of his arsenal. He's put in additional work on that front with his new team as he look...

Last year, Connor Thomas separated his sweeping slider from his cutter and arrived at what he felt was the best way to use both pitches.

Now he's competing for a job with the Brewers, who are guiding him toward new ways to use his arsenal.

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José Quintana Brings Final Brace to Revamped Milwaukee Brewers Pitching Staff The Brewers confirmed their signing of the former All-Star on Wednesday, completing a gradual but dramatic rotation makeover since last year.

Relying on DL Hall, Jakob Junis, and Joe Ross as starters a year ago did not work out well for the Brewers.

After signing José Quintana, they'll enter 2025 with four pitchers who started at least 30 games last season.

On Milwaukee's rotation makeover:
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Keep an Eye on These Under-the-Radar Non-Roster Invitees in Brewers Camp Prospects are not the only non-roster players worth watching in spring training. February also affords a glimpse of less-heralded players who could appear in the big leagues later in the year. A few s...

The non-roster players who receive the most attention in spring training are usually top prospects. Here are some others to watch in #Brewers camp ⬇️

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Limiting the Long Ball is the Key to a Nick Mears Breakout The right-hander was a better pitcher after his move to Milwaukee in every way—except one. He must keep the ball in the park to carve out a high-leverage niche.

After last year's trade deadline, opponents started swinging harder at Nick Mears' fastball at the top of the zone and crushing it — almost as if they knew it was coming.

Reducing those confident swings will be the key to a breakout season.

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Elvin Rodriguez Fits Multiple Brewers Molds. Which One Will They Choose to Press Him Into? Recent Brewers pitching staffs have been islands of misfit toys, with some hurlers succeeding through deception and others with impressive raw stuff. Their recent signing straddles the line between bo...

Most recent Brewers pitchers have been deceptive kitchen-sink multi-inning guys or relievers with great stuff.

Elvin Rodriguez could be either, depending on which route the Brewers choose for his development.

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What Looming Home Run Regression Could Mean for Trevor Megill and a Post-Devin Williams Brewers Bullpen Trevor Megill earned his status as the favorite to take over the ninth inning for good, but a driver of his previous success may evaporate in 2025. That holds implications for the evolving late-inning...

Trevor Megill excelled at limiting home runs last year, but he doesn't profile as a pitcher who can continue doing so.

Why Megill's home run rate is likely to rise in 2025, and what that might mean for a post-Devin Williams bullpen ⬇️

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New Arsenal Metrics Highlight How the 2024 Brewers Succeeded by Maximizing Deception In the face of injuries, the Brewers successfully built most of their rotation on the fly with pitchability at the core. Newly-developed arsenal models present a way to quantify it.

The Brewers built most of their 2024 rotation on the fly from pitchers without good stuff but compensated by excelling at deception.

Thanks to Baseball Prospectus' new arsenal metrics, we can now quantify it.

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The 2025 Brewers Need a Resurgent Rhys Hoskins. Will They Get One? The veteran slugger was not moving like his old self in his first season in Milwaukee. Can he rediscover his past form, or is this the new normal for the next stage of his career?

For most of 2024, Rhys Hoskins looked like a hitter swinging without the full support of his lower half, and it reduced his ability to reach velocity.

A deep dive into what went wrong and his outlook moving forward ⬇️

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Thanks, Kyle.