[BirdWatcher]

The Denver Brewers had a successful pre-season, largely as measured by the lack of injuries and some impressive pitching from their two top pitching prospects. The only injuries the team had to deal with were a couple of minor day-to-day ailments for Rodrigo "RodRod" Rodriguez (hand contusion) and Bobby Erbakan (twisted ankle), both of whom otherwise had very good spring showings. Other starters who hit very well in the spring were Joe McPhillips (though he tailed off a bit at the end of the exhibition season), Josh Schaeffer, and Brett Taranto. Backup outfielder John Flores was probably the most impressive hitter of the Spring, leading the team with 5 home runs and hitting .372. Primary infield utility-man Joe Willemse also played well. Other backups, however, struggled at the dish- Jake DiCesare (who wound up being the last player cut from the active roster to get down to 25 for Opening Day), Jon Williams, and Nick Ward. Also starting left fielder Val Guzman and catcher Zacarias Martell were quite cold at the plate.

Starting pitchers Sekien Hamasaki and (especially) Steve Green didn't look particularly sharp but the front office doesn't put much stock in Spring training numbers especially for veteran pitchers. On the other hand it was great to see how effective both top pitching prospect Jim Atwell and especially non-roster invitee Bryant Cox- who stayed in the big league camp much longer than originally expected- pitched.

Hard-throwing sidearmer Walter Hackler was among the final cuts and will start the season at AAA Chester but will surely be back in a Brewer uniform before long.

One long-time Denver minor league relief pitcher, who has had several cups of coffee with the big league club- Antonio Nieves- once again did not live up to his potential and as he was out of options was put on waivers with the intention of assigning him back to AAA Chester but was claimed by Portland and is expected to start the season in the Wild Things bullpen. The team wishes the best for Nieves, who has always been respected for his baseball smarts and strong work ethic and hopefully at age 26 (he signed with the Brewers out of Mexico way back in 1968 as a 16-year old) he will finally achieve some big league success, just not against us, please.