This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy's Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

PHOENIX -- To understand how Corbin Burnes evolved to the status of making consecutive Opening Day starts for the Brewers, one would have to turn back the clock before he became the franchise’s first Cy Young Award winner in a generation in 2021, before he flamed out in 2019 and had to remake himself physically and mentally, before he dazzled as a rookie in the ‘18 postseason, before he was the Brewers' Minor League pitcher of the year in ‘17 and before he was Milwaukee’s fourth-round Draft pick in ‘16. 

“It started on the Cape,” said Corey Rodriguez, one of the Brewers’ top amateur scouts. 

How the Brewers found Burnes is one of those classic scouting stories. Rodriguez, who is going into his 30th year with the Brewers and has scouted and signed first-rounders from Geoff Jenkins to Garrett Mitchell, is longtime friends with Kelly Nicholson, who coached the Cape Cod League’s Orleans Firebirds.

Rodriguez often joined Nicholson and other coaches for coffee to hear about their players, and in the summer of 2015, Nicholson was gushing about a bespectacled right-hander named Burnes who’d seemingly come out of nowhere.

Burnes, undersized as a kid and barely scouted out of high school before he found an opportunity at St. Mary’s College in northern California, wasn’t even supposed to pitch on the Cape that year.

His spot was earmarked for a college teammate, Cameron Neff. But Neff had surpassed his innings limit, so St. Mary’s coach Eric Valenzuela suggested the Firebirds take Burnes instead. Nicholson had learned over the years to trust Valenzuela’s feel for these matters, so he agreed.

“I was supposed to pitch somewhere that summer, I don’t even remember where,” Burnes said. “But on the Cape, you know you are going to get in front of some eyes that otherwise wouldn’t have seen you -- and definitely wouldn’t have seen you at a place like St. Mary’s. Sometimes your college coach has an opportunity to change your career. That’s what happened to me.”

Burnes, who was much smaller during his days at Centennial High School in Bakersfield, Calif., did not always project to be a power pitcher, let alone a Cy Young contender.

As he got older, though, the talented right-hander hit a growth spurt and grew into his frame. At Cape Cod, he got a chance to prove himself in front of MLB scouts.

On the Cape, Burnes had a 3.79 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 38 innings, but his fastball was lively and heavy, and it left his hand at an easy 92-96 mph.

The Firebirds were flush with future big leaguers, including Bryan Reynolds, Sean Murphy, Bobby Dalbec, Joe Ryan and two future first-round picks in Kyle Lewis and Eric Lauer -- yes, that Eric Lauer -- but over coffee, Rodriguez kept hearing about Burnes. Coaches loved the promising prospect’s intense focus. 

The following January, Rodriguez and Brewers area scout Joe Graham arranged to meet Burnes at a Starbucks in Moraga, Calif., not far from St. Mary’s. By then, Burnes was the Brewers’ top target in Northern California.

“It's a rainy afternoon or early evening, and he sits down, and you can tell there is something different about him in a really good way,” Rodriguez said. “The way he can articulate what he's trying to do, his process. I wasn't surprised that he was able to articulate these things because I had seen this starting to trend in the Cape. I said, 'There is extreme value here.'”

Forty-five minutes after they sat down, the scouts left intent on making Burnes a Brewer. 

“I said, ‘Hey, what do you like to do besides baseball?’” Rodriguez said. “He goes, ‘Well, I play golf.’ And I said, ‘Just curious, what's your best round? And he goes, '61.' I said, 'Just so you know, that's my front nine.' 

“But the way he said it, you know he was telling the truth. We just got a great feeling about the competitiveness, the focus, the presence. He doesn't have any fear in him.”

That competitiveness doesn’t wane. Years later, with a Cy Young Award in hand and a reputation cemented as one of Major League Baseball’s most electric pitchers, it still irks Burnes that the Firebirds didn’t win the Cape Cod League title that summer. 

“It's two things. It's competitiveness and it’s focus,” Rodriguez said. “It never wavers. That, to me, was the makings of what we have right now. This is why we're here with him.”