Results tagged ‘ Mark Rogers ’
Rogers made sure to enjoy his debut
Before Mark Rogers throw his first official pitch in the Major Leagues, he stepped off the Miller Park mound and had a look around.
“It was fun. More than anything, it felt good to be out there,” Rogers said. “I had to step back from the mound and, for a second, take it all in. Then I got back up there to do my job. I’d be lying to you if I said I didn’t have a good time tonight.”
Rogers pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning in the Brewers’ 4-0 loss to the Cubs on Friday and made Chicago first baseman Micah Hoffpauir his first strikeout victim. He was added to the Brewers’ active roster earlier in the day.
Brandon Kintzler also made his big league-debut on Friday with 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Both young right-handers will get a chance to make an impression for 2011 over this season’s final three-plus weeks.
For more on Rogers, check out my story over at the main site.
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Macha eyes Marlins series for Rogers start
Newly-recalled right-hander Mark Rogers is expected to make his Major League debut out of the Brewers’ bullpen but could see a start before the end of the season. Manager Ken Macha would prefer to avoid starting a rookie in a game with postseason implications, so he is eyeing the Brewers’ Sept. 23-29 series against the Marlins. That happens to fall in a stretch of 17 straight games without an off-day, so Macha could use Rogers to give his other five starters and extra day of rest.
Rogers, meanwhile, is hoping to use his stint with the Brewers as a springboard to 2011.
“I’d like to try to make this team out of camp next year,” Rogers said. “That’s my ultimate goal, and this is another tool to prepare myself for Spring Training next year. I’m up here to learn, and I’m extremely excited about it. It’s another step in the right direction. …
“I’ve been healthy all year, and that was the main goal, to make my starts every fifth day. I was able to do that. That’s a huge stepping stone for me.”
For more of Rogers’ post-callup comments, check out Brewers.com a bit later tonight.
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Rogers joins Crew for opener vs. Cubs
The field is full of players at the moment, four full hours before game time, and it’s tough to tell who’s who. The Brewers are in their usual Friday throwback mode, wearing royal blue tops for early batting practice that make them extremely easy to confuse with the Cubs out for early work of their own.
Hopefully, we’ll be able to tell the teams apart later on.
The Brewers have one newcomer at the park today in right-hander Mark Rogers, their first-round Draft pick from 2004 who was recalled from Double-A Huntsville. As reported a couple of days ago, Rogers was already in Milwaukee for his year-end motion analysis, and since he was on the 40-man roster, activating him made a lot of sense. It will be interesting to see how he’s used over the final three-plus weeks of the season, in relief or as a spot starter. Look for more on Rogers later over at Brewers.com.
Here are the lineups:
CUBS
Kosuke Fukudome RF
Starlin Castro SS
Marlon Byrd CF
Micah Hoffpauir 1B
Geovany Soto C
Alfonso Soriano LF
Blake DeWitt 2B
Carlos Zambrano RHP
BREWERS
Rickie Weeks 2B
Corey Hart RF
Corey Hart RF
Ryan Braun LF
Prince Fielder 1B
Casey McGehee 3B
Chris Dickerson CF
Alcides Escobar SS
Jonathan Lucroy C
Dave Bush RHP
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Parra nearing end of rope?
Brewers left-hander Manny Parra, called his fastball command, “consistently terrible.” The team is considering giving someone else a try in September.
Parra continued to slam headfirst into some sort of maddening, mid-inning barrier in Sunday’s 7-3 loss to the Padres, keeping the game close early before coming unraveled and making a sudden exit. Parra matched his season-high by lasting six innings, but he surrendered seven runs along the way and still has not recorded a seventh-inning out in any of his 16 starts.
The Brewers are thinking about a change. Manager Ken Macha and general manager Doug Melvin had what Macha called “a brief discussion” on Sunday morning about September call-ups. The team has four young starters already on the 40-man roster in Josh Butler, Amaury Rivas, Mark Rogers and Cody Scarpetta.
“We talked a little bit about perhaps who’s coming up and maybe giving somebody else a call,” Macha said. “Really, in all three games in this series, our starters haven’t gotten us where we need to get.”
Parra, who surrendered seven runs on eight hits with four walks, went the deepest into the game of the three. Ace right-hander Yovani Gallardo lasted only 3 1/3 innings on Friday night, and lefty Chris Narveson made it three innings on Saturday. But the Brewers won each of the first two games in the series thanks to some clutch relief and timely hitting.
Those hits were not there on Sunday.
If Parra is indeed removed from the rotation, it would be for the third straight season. In 2008, the Brewers moved him to the bullpen for the stretch drive. In 2009, the Brewers demoted him to Triple-A Nashville in June.
The team faces a very interesting decision with Parra this winter, when he is arbitration-eligible for the first time. Even with his inconsistency, that means Parra’s price tag is about to increase exponentially.
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Rogers to Double-A DL with blister
I’d say this qualifies as good news for fans of former Brewers first-round Draft pick Mark Rogers. The ailment that sent him to Double-A Huntsville’s disabled list Monday is only a blister.
That would explain Rogers’ rough outing on Sunday. He surrendered six runs on two hits and four walks in only two innings, a rare blemish on a stellar season. Even with those runs, Rogers has a 3.78 ERA in 22 starts for Huntsville and Triple-A Nashville.
Right-hander Michael Fiers was reinstated from the DL at Huntsville and took Rogers’ place.
In other Minor League news, the Brewers formally announced two more signings from the 2010 Draft: Seventh-rounder Joel Pierce, a right-handed pitcher, and 10th rounder Rafael Neda, a catcher. The Brewers have locked-up their second through 12th round picks, leaving only first-rounder Dylan Covey, a right-handed pitcher, unsigned
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Rogers, Salome on the move
A couple of Minor League transactions, courtesy of the Brewers:
– C Ben Johnson has been placed on the DL at Nashville.
– C Martin Maldonado and RHP Mark Rogers have been transferred from Huntsville to Nashville. They will drive from Huntsville to Nashville today and will be active for the Sounds tonight versus Albuquerque at 7 p.m. CT.
– C Angel Salome has been reinstated from the DL at Nashville and transferred to Huntsville. He will be active for the Stars tonight versus Mobile at 7 p.m. CT.
– LHP Dan Merklinger has been transferred from Brevard County to Huntsville. He will fly from West Palm Beach to Huntsville tonight.
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Capuano to start Thurs.; Rogers OK after scare
Former All-Star left-hander Chris Capuano moved back to within one step of the big leagues on Tuesday, when the Brewers, as expected, promoted him from Class A Brevard County to Triple-A Nashville. Capuano is attempting a comeback from the second Tommy John surgery of his career.
He is scheduled to start for the Sounds on Thursday against Tacoma, Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash said. That is supposed to be Chase Wright’s day to pitch, but Ash was not ready to say how the rest of the rotation would be impacted by Capuano’s arrival.
In three starts at Brevard County, Capuano was 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA and 17 strikeouts versus zero walks.
“The concern there wasn’t the numbers, it was can he handle the physicality of pitching?” Ash said. “He’s ready for the challenge of getting more advanced hitters out.”
Capuano has not pitched in the Majors since 2007. He re-injured his surgically-repaired left elbow during 2008 Spring Training and underwent his second ligament replacement surgery that May. The list of pitchers to successfully return to the big leagues from multiple Tommy John surgeries is short, but it includes former Brewers reliever Chad Fox.
Capuano will be replaced at Brevard County beginning Tuesday night by fellow Major Leaguer David Riske, who is a bit more than 11 months removed from his own Tommy John surgery.
In other Minor League pitching news, former first-round Draft pick Mark Rogers was scheduled to start for Double-A Huntsville on Tuesday. He was scratched from a start on Saturday after being struck in his right elbow by a line drive during batting practice.
“He hasn’t missed a full turn, he was just a little delayed,” Ash said.
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Four more camp cuts
A former first-round Draft pick and the Brewers’ reigning Minor League pitcher of the year were among the latest round of camp cuts Monday.
Right-handers Mark Rogers and Amaury Rivas were optioned to Double-A Huntsville, and left-hander A.J. Murray and catcher Martin Maldonado were returned to Minor League camp. The moves left 48 players on the Brewers’ spring roster.
Rogers, Milwaukee’s first-round pick in 2004, and Rivas, who won top pitcher honors last season, each appeared twice in Cactus League games. For Rogers, it marked another step on a long road back from shoulder injuries that so far have derailed his professional career.
“He’s worked very hard,” Brewers manager Ken Macha said. “His delivery is such that he’s a little more on-line — a lot more online. When you start cutting loose on pitches like he did this year, he should feel very good.”
Rogers did not allow a run in a pair of two-inning appearances. It was his second Major League Spring Training camp, but he was unable to pitch last year because he was still recovering from a 2008 season lost entirely to shoulder surgery.
Last year at Class A Brevard County, Rogers had a 1.67 ERA in 22 starts and one relief appearance. He also pitched in the prospect-rich Arizona Fall League.
They key, he agreed, it simply staying healthy.
“I’m OK with that statement,” Rogers said. That’s been our goal, to get 100 percent healthy and compete at the highest level. I’ve done that. I’ve been able to prove to [Macha] and everybody else that I’m healthy, and now I have to go do it consistently. There’s more work I can do, but it is already getting more and more comfortable.”
Rogers, 24, was pleased that his parents, Craig and Staphanie, were in the stands for both of his Cactus League outings. They were in town from Maine.
Rivas is also 24 and was Rogers’ teammate last season at Brevard County, where he went 13-7 with a 2.98 ERA and was honored along with Minor League Player of the Year Logan Schafer. Macha was impressed with Rivas’ change-up, which the manager referred to as a, “plus, plus pitch.”
Murray and Maldonado were both in camp as nonroster invitees. Murray, who has big league experience with the Rangers, will likely end up at Triple-A Nashville.
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More cuts coming Monday
Expect the Brewers to announce another round of roster cuts on Monday that will focus on paring the pitching staff down to those with a legitimate chance to make the Opening Day roster. It could mark the end of the line for prospects like Mark Rogers and Amaury Rivas, who have a bright future but still have some Minor League work to do first.
Considering that the starters are making their third turn through the rotation and pushing toward the 70-pitch level, it makes sense for the team to make some more moves.
They next key date is Wednesday, March 17, the last date to request unconditional release waivers on players in order to owe only 30 days’ termination pay, or one-sixth of the players’ salary. The actual deadline for such a move is 1 p.m. CT.
That deadline does not affect players with multi-year contracts, because those salaries are already guaranteed.
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Rogers thrilled with long-awaited debut
Scott Paulus/Brewers
Try telling Mark Rogers that this was just a Spring Training game.
Rogers, the former first-round Draft pick whose path to the Majors has been slowed by arm injuries, appeared in a Brewers uniform for the first time on Friday with a scoreless two-inning appearance against the A’s at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. Rogers was so efficient — throwing 21 total pitches — that he lingered in the bullpen after the game to throw 19 pitches more.
“It’s been a long time,” Rogers said. “This may sound ridiculous to some people who have played in Spring Training games a lot, but I was up last night tossing and turning. I was really looking forward to today.”
Rogers’ career might be best summed up by the Brewers’ hot-off-the-presses media guide. He is the eighth-longest tenured member of Milwaukee’s 40-man roster, but his biography and statistical history takes up all of one page.
The Brewers plucked Rogers out of high school in Maine with the fifth overall pick in the 2004 Draft and he made it about two years before the first shoulder injury. He had surgery in 2007 and again in 2008 and missed both seasons entirely before making a comeback in 2009 at Class A Brevard County. Working on a strict pitch count, Rogers posted a 1.67 ERA in 22 starts and one relief appearance before finishing the year in the prospect-rich Arizona Fall League.
Now he’s entering his seventh professional season but is still just 24 years old.
“I don’t even have to think about my arm anymore,” Rogers said. “I can solely focus on executing my pitch.”
Rogers threw his full arsenal — fastball, curveball, cutter/slider and change-up — and then threw most of the credit to new Brewers pitching coach Rick Peterson. Peterson stresses free and easy deliveries and has made significant progress with Rogers since the start of camp.
“I’m lucky to have him here,” Rogers said. “We talk about being natural, getting in that natural arm slot because it’s the easiest to repeat. My recovery time has been significantly better. I feel like I can throw every single day. … It’s been a good two weeks.”
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Adam McCalvy
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