Counsell on Yelich: 'No news from the MRI'

Here’s a case of “no news is good news” for the Brewers: The MRI scan of Christian Yelich’s bad back didn’t reveal any answers, meaning Yelich has no structural damage as far as the club’s medical experts can see.

“There’s no news from the MRI that’s going to change how we’re proceeding,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “We’re going to proceed with trying to increase activity as we can. There’s nothing from the MRI that would change what we’re doing now.”

Yelich has not played since April 10, and initially, the Brewers thought he would only miss a couple of days. By the end of that week, Yelich was placed on the 10-day injured list. Last week while the Brewers were in San Diego, Yelich was out on the field for some baseball activity, but optimism faded when he “plateaued,” as Counsell put it, in his comeback.

The Brewers sent him back to Milwaukee on Saturday for an MRI.

“This was to rule out anything. Just get another piece of information,” Counsell said. “So, we basically just ruled out anything significant structurally that would show up on the MRI. We still need to make progress to get him back on the field, and so from that perspective not much has changed. We’ll keep moving forward and see what some activity [Monday] at the field brings.”

There’s a better chance of Lorenzo Cain returning to action in the coming days after he successfully navigated a pregame workout on Saturday and was back on the field for more on Sunday morning at Wrigley Field. Cain is on the IL with a right quad strain and was eligible for reinstatement as of Saturday.

“We're not there yet, but I think it was a stepping stone yesterday, back on the field,” Counsell said. “Whenever the players get on the field, it's a good sign to me. It means that the training room is starting to kind of step aside and we're starting to get into more baseball stuff. That's where we're at with Lorenzo. Now there'll be a progression of running and baseball stuff out in the field that we have to go through.”

Forty strikeouts and counting for Burnes
Just like a hitter on a hitting streak, Corbin Burnes will try to keep his strikeout-to-walk ratio out of his mind when he takes the mound Monday night at American Family Field against the Marlins. Burnes has already set a record for a starting pitcher with 40 strikeouts before issuing a walk, and Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen’s all-time record of 51 is within sight.

“If you get to 3-0 [against a batter] and you’re going, ‘I don’t want to walk this guy,’ you’re already toast,” Burnes said. “At that point, you’ve already walked the guy and you might as well let him go ahead to first base. The biggest thing I’ve done this offseason is the mindset. It can be 3-0 and I really don’t care. For me, it’s 0-0, 0-1 or 0-2. I’m attacking. In pitcher’s counts, I’m going at hitters. There’s no, ‘You’re behind 2-0, behind 3-0, and I’m giving him a good fastball to hit.’ As soon as you fall into that trap, you’re done.”

Common sense says Burnes will eventually walk a batter. Just for reference, the franchise record for best strikeout-to-walk ratio for a qualifying pitcher is Ben Sheets’ 8.25 in 2004, a healthy margin ahead of runner-up Zack Greinke’s 4.47 in 2011.

The overall record in the modern era (since 1901) is former Twins right-hander Phil Hughes’ 11.63 in 2014, followed by Bret Saberhagen’s 11.00 for the Mets in 1994.

For starters, finally some southpaws
After facing 21 consecutive right-handed starting pitchers through Jake Arrieta’s outing on Sunday at Wrigley Field, the Brewers will finally see their first left-handers this week when Trevor Rogers and Daniel Castano are scheduled to start the first two games for Miami.

According to Brewers PR, the longest the team had gone into a season without facing a left-handed starter was 15 games in 2004. The last team to open a season with 21 or more consecutive games without facing a lefty starter was the Rockies, who faced righties in their first 23 games in 2006.

“It is crazy,” said left-handed hitting Brewers leadoff man Kolten Wong. “I feel like in Spring Training, all I was facing was lefties the whole time. To go from that to only right-handers, it’s a good thing and a bad thing for lefties. You’ve got to understand your approach and not get off it, because when you face a string of righties you tend to get a little jumpy and a little pull-happy.”

This quirk didn’t catch the Brewers by surprise. As Spring Training neared, they noted that the National League Central was dominated by right-handed starters, aside from Wade Miley in Cincinnati and Kwang Hyun Kim in St. Louis. It’s one of the factors that drew the Brewers to left-handed hitting Travis Shaw as a candidate for third base, and later to Jackie Bradley Jr. as an additional outfielder.

“Actually, ‘Couns’ came out to the outfield the other day and said, ‘Can you believe it? We’re facing 21 straight righties before our first lefty.’ He was in awe about it,” Burnes said. “I hadn’t really thought about it.”