PHOENIX -- Smile, Brewers pitchers. You're on camera.
The Brewers have a new video coordinator this year, August Sandri, after longtime club employee Joe Crawford left the team at the conclusion of last season for a job close to his native Ohio. Sandri was previously the assistant video coordinator for the Tigers, and stood out at Maryvale Baseball Park on Thursday as he climbed a stepladder to adjust a series of portable cameras which were clipped to a chain-link fence and trained on the bullpen mounds.
The Brewers are logging video of those sessions in case pitchers want to explore mechanical matters at a later date.
"We're filming more practice right now to be able to generate feedback for guys when needed," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said.
Non-roster invitee Joba Chamberlain knows Sandri from Detroit, and said he'd seen similar cameras employed by other clubs.
"It's become a really valuable teaching tool," Brewers GM David Stearns said. "If a guy is working on one particular change to his mechanics, sometimes that's not detectable to the naked eye. You need to slow it down on video. It's very easy to compile and process at this point.
"I don't think we would go through and carefully study every 'pen, especially the first 'pen of the year. … But there will be a point in this camp, multiple points, where [pitching coach Derek Johnson] goes back and looks at a 'pen from a particular guy to see if we can learn something."