PHOENIX -- The Milwaukee Bucks are having a historic season, playing to an .841 winning percentage entering their game against the Suns on Sunday, just a few miles from where the Brewers hold Spring Training. Any comparison of his club to the runaway Bucks, Brewers manager Craig Counsell knows, opens him to being labeled a Pollyanna.
But Counsell was asked a question about the composition of his roster, and he’s been thinking about something lately. It struck him after the Brewers inked yet another versatile utility player in Brock Holt.
“I’m going to make this comparison, and I hesitate to make this comparison because I don’t want everybody to go crazy on this,” Counsell said. “But when I watch the Milwaukee Bucks -- and I’m not talking about Giannis [Antetokounmpo], but the rest of the players on their team -- how they use all the players on their roster, I actually think it’s pretty comparable to how I see our position player group this year.”
The Brewers’ Antetokounmpo is Christian Yelich, it’s suggested. But Counsell argues that the sports are so different that the comparison is indirect.
In the wider view, however, he sees parallels.
“I just love how the Bucks are such a deep group of players, where the bench extends farther than most teams,” Counsell said. “And they all contribute pretty significant minutes. To me, minutes are like plate appearances for baseball. … I love how the Bucks have done it this year. It’s a deep group, and on a nightly basis you’re not sure which is ‘the guy.' They kind of base it on what the other team has. Are they playing small? Are they playing big? They have this big group of guys they can use to counter the other team. I think that’s how our position players are set up.”
The Bucks have only two players averaging 30 minutes or more per game -- Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton -- but they have 14 players averaging more than a quarter of playing time per game. The Brewers might have only one or two players who fit the traditional definition of everyday: Yelich, for sure, and probably second baseman Keston Hiura. Even durable center fielder Lorenzo Cain is reluctantly open to more days off this season to protect his legs.
Everywhere else, a timeshare appears likely, including catcher (Omar Narváez and Manny Piña), first base (Justin Smoak and Ryan Braun), shortstop (Orlando Arcia and, when he’s healthy, Luis Urías), third base (Eric Sogard and Jedd Gyorko) and right field (Avisaíl García and Braun), with Holt playing all over.
“I think everybody is going to play a lot,” Counsell said. “We’re not going to have a lot of ‘everyday’ players, so to speak, but we have a lot of guys who can get a lot of at-bats. I think we can take advantage of matchups both looking ahead as a series comes up, and tactically in-game, having an extra position player.”
Counsell is a visible fan at many Bucks games during the baseball offseason, but he won’t be able to make Sunday’s game. The Bucks and Suns tip at 3 p.m. local time, while the Brewers will be playing split-squad games against the Angels at home and the A’s on the road.
Braun could debut Sunday
There’s a chance Sunday is the day Braun becomes the last Brewers position player to appear in a Cactus League game. He’s been fighting a sore right shoulder, but his delayed debut was planned from the start of the spring, as it is most years.
“Frankly, I never have any concerns about Ryan having enough at-bats,” Counsell said. “It’s more getting in the field enough. It’s the nine innings of playing that starts when the regular season starts. The at-bats have never been a concern for me. I think we can all agree that’s not a big concern with Ryan. He’s proven that. We’ve seen it for 13 years.”
Braun is expected to split his time in the field during Spring Training between right field and first base. Neither position is completely foreign to Braun, but he has not played either extensively for several years. The Brewers are shifting Yelich to left field to open right for Braun and García, who has a particularly strong throwing arm. To make sure Braun gets enough at-bats, the team plans to play him occasionally at first base.
Last call
• Lefty Brett Anderson was a little rusty in his return to action from a 24-hour flu bug that forced his last scheduled start to be scratched. But after giving up hits to the game’s first four batters and falling into a 3-0 deficit, he went on to work 2 2/3 otherwise clean innings in the Brewers’ 11-2 loss to the Rangers Saturday at American Family Fields of Phoenix. With MLB clubs in the process of educating players about COVID-19, was Anderson concerned when he got sick?
“No. My wife and son both had it, and it was a 24-hour deal,” Anderson said. “I thought I was in the clear, and then I woke up the day I was supposed to pitch last time and I wasn’t in the clear. Knowing that their stuff wasn’t extended, I felt pretty confident that mine wasn’t.”
• Some fans go home from the ballpark with a souvenir baseball. Then there were Brad, Ashley, Bodhi and Presley Ralph -- Brewers fans who returned to their Phoenix home with a new family dog thanks to volunteers from the Arizona Humane Society, who walked the concourse with pets up for adoption. The organization holds similar events across the Cactus League.
Up next
Sunday will feel like déjà vu for the Brewers, who are repeating their schedule from Feb. 24 by playing split-squad games against the Angels at home and the A’s on the road in Mesa, Ariz at 3:05 p.m. CT. The Brewers won both games the first time around, and they’ll look to do the same on Sunday behind starting pitcher Shelby Miller in the home game and Adrian Houser on the road. The game against the Angels will be on MLB.TV and also air on 94.5 FM radio in the Milwaukee area.