SURPRISE, Ariz. -- There’s a car wash on just about every corner in greater Phoenix, and that’s a good thing, because Brewers manager Pat Murphy keeps talking about sending his pitchers there.
Get ready to hear all season about the “H&H Car Wash,” which is Murphy’s reference to the Brewers’ knack for putting pitchers through the paces with pitching coach Chris Hook and pitching coordinator Jim Henderson -- the aforementioned H&H -- and seeing them come out better on the other side.
Examples are plentiful. Last year, the Brewers plucked Quinn Priester from Boston’s Triple-A roster and went on to win 19 consecutive games in which he pitched. The year before, they helped Tobias Myers transform from a pitcher who went 1-15 with a 7.82 ERA at Triple-A two years earlier and turned a demotion to Double-A, into Milwaukee’s Most Valuable Pitcher Award winner. Trevor Megill and Jared Koenig went from pieces on the edge of other teams’ bullpens to high-leverage beasts for the Brewers.
It goes on and on. The Brewers wouldn’t be three-time defending NL Central champions, Murphy says, without their H&H duo.
Those two letters remind Murphy of managing Triple-A El Paso in 2014-15. Every morning the Chihuahuas were home, Murphy had breakfast at the H&H Car Wash and Coffee Shop, a legendary joint visited by U.S. presidents and Minor League managers alike -- an old-school diner where breakfast came complete with a car wash. Murphy was particularly fond of octogenarian proprietor Maynard Haddad, just the sort of colorful, high-decibel company Murphy prefers while consuming plates of huevos rancheros with hand-pressed tortillas.
Sadly, the establishment closed in 2021. But now it lives on in Brewers camp, of all places. Murphy even has T-shirts in the works, and a slogan: “Washin’ dirt and addin’ vert.”
For days now, whenever a visitor asks the Brewers' skipper about his young starting pitching, Murphy’s answer begins like this:
“Have you ever been to El Paso?”
On Sunday morning, there was a query about organizational newcomer Kyle Harrison, who hasn’t yet appeared in a Cactus League game but instead has been working on the side and in simulated games with Hook and Henderson. Harrison, a 24-year-old left-hander who already has parts of three years of big league experience with the Giants and Red Sox, was the centerpiece of the six-player trade that sent third baseman Caleb Durbin to Boston last month.
“We’re making tweaks with a kid like Harrison,” Murphy said. “There’s things that we’re doing. We ran him through the H&H Car Wash.”
Now it’s time to polish. Harrison is slated to make his first appearance for the Brewers during Tuesday's exhibition game against Great Britain’s squad in the World Baseball Classic.