IMPORTANT, please respond: how/where do you consume your Brewers Spring Training coverage?

[Brock Beauchamp]

So I've been kicking something around in my head but there are a *ton* of moving parts and I want to get a feel for how all of you follow the Brewers every spring.

1. How closely do you follow ST? Not the games but the players, progress updates, prospects, etc.
2. What news outlets do you follow to get spring training coverage?
3. Is there enough ST coverage for the Brewers and/or how could it improve?

If as many of you could respond as possible, it will be VERY helpful. What I have cooking in my head is quite expensive and a pretty big jump forward and I don't even know if it's feasible but I want to explore the option for 2023.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Yes, I think you should go down to Arizona for a month so we can get first-hand information?.

I usually look at box scores fairly regularly, not every day. Other than that I would look at the former incantation of this board to see what stuff is being passed on 2nd or third hand. If my nephew happens to head down there I might get some stuff from him. 

That's about it. I gave up on the J-S a long time ago.

[patrickgpe]

1) Very minimal. The biggest issue is that they games are on in the afternoon when I'm at work. Also a lot of the games are during March Madness. If they are on TV and I'm around, I'll watch on the weekend.

2) I tend to get enough infromation on surprises / disappointments, etc here and bleacher report. Used to be jsonline before they went behind the paywall 

3) I think so. Some ideas could be a weekly ranking of positional battles for the 26 man roster. For example, if 4 Starters are competing for the 5th spot, stats and rankings by posters and/or admins. Kind of what you do for the minor leaguers. I don't really care how Burnes is pitching in the spring, but 'd like to see how the minor leaguers and the fringe major leaguers are doing. 

[brewerfan82]

1. Fairly closely. I follow box scores, throw on televised games and follow team transactions and rumors (especially since the Brewers have made a bit of a pattern out of snagging some decent pieces late in the offseason recently)

2. Mainly this site, mlb.com, mlbtraderumors.com

3. I think there's enough info to fill my giddiness for the return of baseball, but I'd always welcome new and fun ways to track the team!

[Brock Beauchamp]

7 minutes ago, brewerfan82 said:

1. Fairly closely. I follow box scores, throw on televised games and follow team transactions and rumors (especially since the Brewers have made a bit of a pattern out of snagging some decent pieces late in the offseason recently)

2. Mainly this site, mlb.com, mlbtraderumors.com

3. I think there's enough info to fill my giddiness for the return of baseball, but I'd always welcome new and fun ways to track the team!

What we do at Twins Daily is to send multiple writers down on a staggered time table that covers about four weeks of ST. What we do is produce *at least* one daily report and the occasional editorial piece about a specific player, coach, or whatever. We also capture brief player interviews to get some direct face-to-face after the long winter. Does this overlap with what you see in the Brewers landscape?

[Joseph Zarr]

11 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

What we do at Twins Daily is to send multiple writers down on a staggered time table that covers about four weeks of ST. What we do is produce *at least* one daily report and the occasional editorial piece about a specific player, coach, or whatever. We also capture brief player interviews to get some direct face-to-face after the long winter. Does this overlap with what you see in the Brewers landscape?

My opinion of Brewers ST coverage is it has been sparse for quite some time. We seem to get occasional tid bits from the McCalvy's of the world - a nice story here and there. But, overall, I generally stopped paying attention as the coverage didn't merit any commitment or interest on my end. It was a foregone conclusion the enticing ML players would be sent down no matter how they played. It typically came down to a couple fringe bullpen spots and, if a small miracle happened or an injury, a fringe bench player. 

It would be quite awesome to fill the niche of absurdly interesting ST coverage, however. For instance, more in-depth discourse and sharing re: how our top prospects are faring in the games. Especially, considering this upcoming off-season there are legitimately 5-6 prospects who might be pushing for meaningful PT. It seems like ages since this has been remotely a thing.

EDIT: And, now, considering Will Sammon moved on to the Mets and, apparently, the Athletic hasn't replaced him or even considered addressing Brewers fans...it would appear it's a stretch to expect anything other than League-wide tid bits. I cancelled my subscription after that all went down. I was happy for Will - he's fantastic. But, honestly, it felt entirely disorganized and silly on the Athletic's part.

[edfunderburk]

32 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

So I've been kicking something around in my head but there are a *ton* of moving parts and I want to get a feel for how all of you follow the Brewers every spring.

1. How closely do you follow ST?
2. What news outlets do you follow to get spring training coverage?
3. Is there enough ST coverage for the Brewers and/or how could it improve?

If as many of you could respond as possible, it will be VERY helpful. What I have cooking in my head is quite expensive and a pretty big jump forward and I don't even know if it's feasible but I want to explore the option for 2023.

1. Very closely

2. MSJ online, Brewers MLB website, this forum

3. I’d love to see something similar to the daily minor league report from this website

thanks again for all you do to get Brewers news to fans

[Brewcrew82]

1. Quite intently, though not as close as I do during the season. I'll usually subscribe to MLB tv just for that month-plus and watch/listen to as many games as I can, with the caveat being that my interest tapers off once the regulars/top prospects aren't playing. 

2. This site, Brewers.com, JS, and Brewers Twitter.

3. I would definitely look forward to some more coverage! Especially in areas that are typically overlooked by the beat guys. 

[Outlander]

I think we get enough Spring Training coverage from jsonline for Spring Training. The Athletic has done a nice job in the past as well but they seem to have quite a bit of turnover on who covers the Brewers and as noted right now that is nobody. I personally don't really need much Spring Training coverage though.

[timpep]

It was sorta fun to follow when the Brewers were terrible because positional battles kind of existed. Now I find it incredibly rare for spring training to influence the roster and practice games are meaningless to me. 

[LouisEly]

1) Minimal.  Between being out of market and not able to see games unless they are on MLB network and knowing that the roster spots are pre-determined except for one or two bullpen spots, I'm not terribly interested.

2) Here, Brew Crew Ball, and Bleacher Report's Brewers feed on their app

3) As far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't make much effort to find/consume any more coverage than I already do

[Brock Beauchamp]

5 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

2) Here, Brew Crew Ball, and Bleacher Report's Brewers feed on their apP

More direct question, does Brew Crew Ball actually send anyone to Arizona?

[LouisEly]

3 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

More direct question, does Brew Crew Ball actually send anyone to Arizona?

Don't know.  You can probably check their article archives and see.

[Brock Beauchamp]

12 hours ago, LouisEly said:

Don't know.  You can probably check their article archives and see.

With the wonkiness of the past 2+ years, hard to say for certain. It appears they didn’t send anyone in 2022 but that’s hardly a surprise. ST was very lightly trafficked this year due to the lockout. 

[AKCheesehead]

I follow the ST box scores because they're baseball box scores and I enjoy baseball box scores.  Other than that, I mainly want to know these 3 things, as they tend to be the bellwethers of the team's success for the upcoming season:

1) Which players are in the best shape of their lives?

2) Which pitchers developed a new pitch they're excited about using against real live hitters?

3) Who has corrected a vision problem during the offseason and is ready to hit like Molitor now?

Joking aside, I do enjoy the intriguing player background stories that sometimes pop up during ST.

[brewerralph]

I follow as much as I can find. Bleacher Report, BA and the Athletic. Your minor league reporting is great, but if you could cover minor league spring training that would be really great. That is a big ask! You do a great job on the site!!!!

[brewcrewdue80]

I dont. Scoreboard watch/box score watch these day.  I'm in that all work no play stage in life.

[CheeseheadInQC]

I usually scan articles where I can find them to keep up on injuries and the battles for the last few roster spots. I track box scores as well, partially to see which minor leaguers are brought over. I also scan the brewerspd twitter account to see their lineups, get an idea of who is getting stretched out as a starter, that sort of thing.

[Mass Haas]

On 8/23/2022 at 7:07 PM, Brock Beauchamp said:

More direct question, does Brew Crew Ball actually send anyone to Arizona?

No for BCB.

In all our existence we have not had someone dedicated to walking the major (or minor league backfields) and producing original content in article or long-post form. I am not aware of any Brewers fan site to do so, we certainly would have been aware.

An occasional poster will post tidbits about their visit (not often), perhaps our early day Power 50 legend Toby way back in the ‘00’s.

We are lucky enough to have Brad Krause and his tremendous photo skills combine with his minor league Brewers passion, but I believe it’s been several years since his last Maryvale visit.

https://krausebrad.photoshelter.com/gallery-list?_bqO=0&_bqH=eJzLM68M8vcLrSiPNDHIigqIKvfONtJNTwzNdo60MjW0MjKwsgqN93SxDTUAgnyTeBfjqsqUqLxiAPpQEXs-&pagVar=collections_galleries_list

[Nola Beery]

I don't follow too much other than the headlines (ESPN, SI) and checking in here occasionally. Thanks. 

[SomewhereInTime]

I don't usually eat any spring training coverage.

[Brock Beauchamp]

19 hours ago, Mass Haas said:

No for BCB.

In all our existence we have not had someone dedicated to walking the major (or minor league backfields) and producing original content in article or long-post form. I am not aware of any Brewers fan site to do so, we certainly would have been aware.

An occasional poster will post tidbits about their visit (not often), perhaps our early day Power 50 legend Toby way back in the ‘00’s.

We are lucky enough to have Brad Krause and his tremendous photo skills combine with his minor league Brewers passion, but I believe it’s been several years since his last Maryvale visit.

https://krausebrad.photoshelter.com/gallery-list?_bqO=0&_bqH=eJzLM68M8vcLrSiPNDHIigqIKvfONtJNTwzNdo60MjW0MjKwsgqN93SxDTUAgnyTeBfjqsqUqLxiAPpQEXs-&pagVar=collections_galleries_list

Excellent. Thanks, Jim!

[NBBrewFan]

For me I don't have a great need for more Spring Training coverage. I've just got to the point that I don't put much stock into what happens in those games to determine what I think about the players/coaches.  In reality 2/3rds of a hitters PA are against other teams end of their roster or not going to make the team players and for pitchers the same, mostly pitching to players not going to see MLB.  Add on top of that the varying degree that players are working on specific pitches, mechanics, etc. most of the data from Spring Training is low, low quality.  Hearing about prospects is nice, but like a hollywood movie road show, nobody will say anything other than they are the best prospect ever, work hard, blah, blah blah.  Would there be actual coverage that is balanced or just more spin?

[Simba2020]

I read Rotoworld (and do so throughout the season) for player news. Outside of that, don't really follow at all. Might catch a game or two, or parts of, when the Brewers televise a ST game.

[Pugger]

Down here in SW FL I'm lucky if I find scores online.  I wish we had ST here instead of AZ...