Yelich's quiet camp start no big deal for Crew

MILWAUKEE -- This should shock no one: Craig Counsell says the Brewers aren’t worried about Christian Yelich’s quiet start to Summer Camp.

Yelich vented about his poor timing while he was mic’d up for a live stream of Tuesday’s intrasquad game, saying he’s “[stunk] so far” during the Brewers’ various live batting-practice at-bats and scrimmages. He struck out three times against Milwaukee ace Brandon Woodruff on Tuesday night, then went 0-for-2 with another strikeout against Corbin Burnes on Wednesday to continue a quiet couple of weeks. When Yelich got his first hit in one of the Crew’s recent camp games, his teammates erupted in celebration, and hitting coach Andy Haines and catcher Jacob Nottingham called for the “milestone” baseball.

It was all in good fun.

“I’m trying to figure it out on a live broadcast,” Yelich said during Tuesday’s game, when he wore an earpiece and a microphone to communicate with the broadcast booth. “It has nothing to do with the microphone. It’s all on me for being late at the plate. That’s what you get in The Show.”

What did Counsell make of Yelich’s candor?

“It's Spring Training. We're fine. He's fine,” Counsell said. “There are no concerns. This is how you get locked in. You have to go through this stuff. This is part of camp. It'd be great if every single year, you square a ball up in your first at-bat, but it's different every year. Sometimes it takes 10, 15 or 20 at-bats until you get it going. No concerns at all.”

Yelich is healthy again after missing the final three-plus weeks of last season due to a fractured right kneecap. He’s moving to left field to accommodate the signing of strong-armed right fielder Avisaíl García.

Wisconsin native impressing
Tuesday was another good day for River Falls, Wis., native J.P. Feyereisen, who was optioned to the Minors in Spring Training but brought back to compete for a bullpen job in Summer Camp because clubs have four extra spots on 2020 Opening Day rosters. The right-hander went three up, three down against Jedd Gyorko, Orlando Arcia and Logan Morrison.

“Look, we have 23 pitchers here right now, and we’re going to have 16 or 17 on the staff,” Counsell said. “Everyone we brought back, we feel like has a shot, yeah. J.P. has definitely thrown the ball well since he’s been here. His velocity has actually gone up a little bit since the first camp. And there’s no question his body is different than it was down in Arizona. All signs have been positive for him so far in this camp.”

Counsell said submarine right-hander Eric Yardley has also made a good impression. Both players are on the 40-man roster; the Brewers acquired Feyereisen in a trade with the Yankees last September and claimed Yardley off waivers from the Padres in November.

Last call
• Counsell still wasn’t ready Wednesday to name Woodruff the Brewers’ Opening Day starter, though the right-hander was sharp for 78 pitches in Tuesday’s game and is lined up to pitch the July 24 opener against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Counsell said the coaches were planning to discuss how to handle Woodruff’s lone remaining exhibition outing; in a typical Spring Training, the starters’ pitch count comes down in the final exhibition outing so they’re well-rested for a regular-season debut.

“We're going to get together today and map out that last start for him,” Counsell said. “I anticipate it'll be less.”

• Brewers medical director Roger Caplinger and head athletic trainer Scott Barringer continue to get high marks for their work preparing the Crew for all of the medical protocols associated with playing baseball in 2020. As of Wednesday, no Brewers players had missed a workout because of a problem with COVID-19 testing such as a delayed result, according to Counsell.

“We have been very fortunate,” Counsell said. “And we have the policy in place that if the test results are not back, the player will not work out or the whole team will not work out. But we've had our results back within the time window that we need them back in.

“I think a lot of this, as we are doing everything the first time, we find out the best practices. There's a lot of examples. We changed a thing today. We had non-game pitchers coming in after the game yesterday. Today, what we learned is that if we do that, we would be at risk for some of their test results not coming back in time because they couldn't get the test results off to the lab via courier service last night. So we've moved that up to make sure that's not going to happen. I think we're all adapting to best practices and we're all understanding that this is a new process for everybody, for the lab that's being inundated with tests. Thus far, I'd like to say that Roger has had something to do with us getting everything back, but I'm not completely sure."