Playoff euphoria has taken over the city of Milwaukee.
It's taken over this writer.
Still, I think it's time to take a step back and look at something that was in the news last week, the fact that the Milwaukee Brewers low class A ball team will be the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers for the next four years.
On one hand, this is great for the franchise. It makes it easier for those of us living in the Milwaukee area to get out and see the younger players in the Brewer system earlier. It also helps deepen the connection between the Fox River Valley and the major league club in Milwaukee, which can't hurt ticket sales.
There is one major downside, however. The pitchers who will be coming through Appleton for long stints will by and large be on the young side, as Low A is where pitchers fresh from high school tend to go the year after they're drafted. Young pitchers are particularly susceptible to injury and pitching in cold weather is often cited as a particularly dangerous practice to engage in.
Well, as JSonline blog poster
Of course no one can say for certain that this will cause any problems. It's not like the Brewers moving their Low A team from a Wisconsin locale to a warmer climate (Beloit to West Virginia) a few years ago led to a noticeable decrease in injuries to pitchers in the system, at least on the surface. So maybe this will all come to nothing in the long run. Young pitchers do tend to get hurt in general, so it's not really going to be possible to pin point injuries as "weather related."
With the success the Brewers have had developing players in general, it seems reasonable to assume they considered all factors and made this decision with open eyes and decided the risk was worth the potential reward. Still, with top flight and fresh from high school pitching prospects like Jake
Odorizzi and Seth Linz likely ticketed for the Rattlers early next
season, there is good reason to be at least a little concerned here.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled revelries...