Results tagged ‘ Rick Peterson ’

Peterson still under consideration for pitching post

Rick Peterson is still under consideration to remain as Brewers pitching coach after a pair of meetings last week with new manager Ron Roenicke, but Roenicke plans to spend his first full week on the job sifting through other candidates before making final decisions. 
Peterson still has one season left on his two-year contract, but general manager Doug Melvin is giving Roenicke freedom to select his own staff. 
“The meeting with me and [Peterson] went well,” Roenicke said. “But bench coach, pitching coach, those two spots are so important to a new manager. I really have to make sure I have the right person, whether it’s Rick, whether it’s somebody else, I need to make sure.” 
Roenicke wants to make his decision soon, partly so Peterson knows where he stands heading into 2011. 
In addition to the pitching post, Roenicke is also in the market for a bench coach, first- and third-base coaches and a bullpen coach. The only spot spoken for belongs to hitting coach Dale Sveum, who signed a two-year contract extension last month. 
“We want to [set the staff] as quickly as we can,” Roenicke said. “We also know it’s important to get the right people, so we don’t want to rush into it. Doug and [Brewers assistant GM] Gord Ash have gotten together a bunch of names for me to look at, people they really like, and they’ve come up with some nice names.” 
The Brewers introduced Roenicke at Miller Park on Thursday as the 18th manager in franchise history. 
He returned home to California over the weekend but will travel to Phoenix later this week to meet with Melvin, Sveum and the Brewers’ development staff there. Roenicke will be back in Milwaukee several times over the coming months, including in late January for the team’s “Brewers On Deck” event. 
“Once we get the coaching staff together, I’ve got the numbers for all of the players and I want to start calling them,” Roenicke said. “It’s going to be pretty busy here for the next couple of weeks.” 
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More thoughts on golf, pitching from Peterson

When asked a simple question about the changes Randy Wolf has made since the beginning of the season, Brewers pitching coach Rick Peterson had plenty to say.

His wealth of information on the subject was particularly interesting considering the subtlety of the change in Wolf’s delivery.
“I wouldn’t even call it a change. I’d call it a very subtle adjustment,” Peterson said.
Nonetheless, Peterson went on for a few minutes about Wolf and the relationship between golf and pitching. Here are some additional thoughts that were not included in today’s story on Brewers.com:
“You try to pinpoint what it is that’s causing him to [struggle]. It’s either something in his delivery or it’s something in his concentration level, and it wasn’t anything in his concentration level. Randy prepares at as high a level as anybody can prepare. He’s totally dedicated and committed.
“The only thing that we really talked about was tempo. One of the things that Randy shared with me in Spring Training was that he wanted to make sure his tempo remained slow.”
“Randy’s an athlete. He’s very athletic, and everything that he does, including his golf swing, really has an athletic upbeat tempo. Yet his delivery is just so slow that maybe if we speed up the tempo a little bit, that will allow him to be more on time and allow him to better execute pitches.
“It’s amazing at this level how subtle the difference can be. If you take a look at games, even as some of our guys have gone through struggles, out of 100 pitches, it’s not 15 pitches that they’re off, it’s maybe three or four, and there goes your whole game.”
“When you hear golfers talk about their golf swings, they can be like elusive mistresses sometimes. You can’t really figure out what it is, but they’ve always got a coach with them. 
“They’ve got a coach right there with them before every tournament. Golf and pitching are very similar in that way. The differences are just so subtle in both.”
– Jordan Schelling, Associate Reporter

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Change in tempo pays off for Wolf

For the Brewers final off day of the 2010 season, we have a look at what veteran left-hander Randy Wolf has done since a 12-run outing in late July that has led to his impressive late season performance.
According to Wolf and pitching coach Rick Peterson, it had everything to do with his tempo. Below is a preview of the story that will be on Brewers.com later today:

MILWAUKEE — A year ago, Randy Wolf put together a career-best season with the Dodgers.
From start to finish, Wolf was one of the league’s most consistent pitchers as he posted a handful of career-best numbers, including 214 1/3 innings pitched and a 1.101 WHIP.

 

Opening the 2010 season with the Milwaukee Brewers, that consistency seemed to escape Wolf. He looked nothing like the pitcher he was for Los Angeles, stumbling out to a 4-6 record with a 5.31 ERA through 13 starts in the first two months of the season.

“I just knew something wasn’t right,” Wolf said of his struggles.

Over that stretch, Wolf mixed in impressive outings, as he tossed six scoreless innings at Pittsburgh on April 20 and seven scoreless against the Astros on May 25. More frequently, however, Wolf struggled, as he did in allowing eight runs over 4 2/3 on June 9 to the Cubs.

As he watched his club’s newly acquired veteran left-hander struggle, Brewers pitching coach Rick Peterson struggled himself as he searched for an answer.

“You’re trying to pinpoint what exactly it is. Why exactly is he struggling? What’s different from the year before and this year?” Peterson said.

“So I went and I looked at all the pitch f/x information going back three years, taking a look at his vertical and horizontal movement on all his pitches, and the velocities on all his pitches. They were all the same. It was actually identical.”

If his stuff was the same early in 2010 as it was throughout the last three seasons, why were Wolf’s numbers so much more inconsistent?

Following his rough outing on June 9, Wolf bounced back, going 3-2 with a 3.25 ERA over his next seven starts. Wolf’s next start after that stretch, July 21 at Pittsburgh, was his worst yet. Entering with a 4.56 ERA, Wolf surrendered a career-high 12 runs on 13 hits over 5 2/3 innings pitched, causing his ERA to jump to 5.20.

While that Pittsburgh outing certainly was forgettable, the silver lining was that it marked the date Peterson and Wolf finally figured out what change was necessary.

“The difference, from this year to past, was that he just wasn’t making pitches,” Peterson said. “For whatever reason, he was missing location consistently. Everything else was the same, but that makes a huge difference.

“What I think had happened was that his slow tempo had worked for a long period of time, but now it was almost so slow that it was affecting his release point and his ability to execute pitches.”

For more on Wolf’s adjustments since that rough outing Pittsburgh on July 26, watch for the full story on Brewers.com later today.

– Jordan Schelling, Associate Reporter

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Macha wants most from Gallardo

Brewers manager Ken Macha wants to get the most out of his best pitcher, right-hander Yovani Gallardo. Pitching coach Rick Peterson wants to be sure Gallardo is as strong in September as he was in April. 

Those competing aims have led to some interesting conversations of late, Macha revealed on Saturday in the hours before Gallardo’s start against the Rockies. 
“I have some disagreement with the pitching coach as far as the amount of rest guys are getting,” Macha said. “He’s always lobbying to give them the extra day.”
Macha and Peterson spent significant time over the past week setting up their rotation for the final three weeks before the All-Star break, and Thursday’s off-day followed by another this coming Monday have opened the door to a number of scenarios. 
According to Macha, Peterson preferred giving Gallardo two extra days of rest before a Friday start against Seattle. Instead, Macha lined up Gallardo to pitch Thursday against the Twins on only one extra days’ rest. 
“Had we given Yovani another extra day’s rest with the off here, we would go to St. Louis and play four games [from July 1-4] and not have Yovani pitch in any of them,” Macha said. “I just can’t see that happening.
“At the beginning of the year, I kind of said, ‘OK, let’s given everybody an extra days’ rest. We played the Cubs and they beat the daylights out of us because they had their three guys lined up and we didn’t. I like to get input from my coaches, and they have input. I like to give them responsibility, too. But ultimately, I’m the guy who makes the last decision. We went with Yovani pitching in [next week's] Minnesota series so he can end up pitching against the Cardinals.”  
This is not to say Macha intends to abuse Gallardo during the dog days of summer. 
“We were very protective of him last year,” Macha said. “We shut him down. His arm angle is not dropping down. He says he feels great. I know he throws a lot of pitches. He’s throwing the ball as well as I’ve seen him in my two years here.” 
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More praise for Peterson

Peterson.jpgHey Brewers pitchers, raise your hands if they have been a topic of conversation with Rick Peterson this spring.

Veteran right-hander Jeff Suppan on Tuesday became the latest Brewers pitcher to say that Peterson had made a welcome suggestion about his hand positioning and movement. Peterson has suggested to many pitchers in camp that they lower their hands and move them along with their legs during their delivery.

The goal is creating rhythm, and a more natural arm slot. Yovani Gallardo, Dave Bush, Manny Parra and Chris Capuano have all said previously that they made a similar tweak at Peterson’s urging. Suppan said Tuesday that he has been thrilled with the results.

“I think I had gotten to being stagnant with them and he added some movement,” Suppan said. “It is really helping. I have seen better movement on my pitches than I’ve seen in a long time. It’s still an adjustment throwing out of the stretch because my timing is off with my hands going up in my leg lift, but I’m working on that every day.”

That was evident on Tuesday, when Suppan surrendered three Cubs runs on five hits in three innings. Much of that damage came in the second inning, when Suppan worked from the stretch after Marlon Byrd led off with a double.

Parra was talking about the same topic after his outing against the Mariners on Monday. Parra, too, has been working with Peterson to find a rhythm by moving his hands a bit more during his delivery.

“I know there were times last year that I was a little stiff,” Parra said. “[On Monday], my rhythm was still a little off. I think I attribute that to adrenaline.”

Suppan said he was thinking of a tweak along these lines over the winter but that Peterson “hit the nail on the head” on the first day of Spring Training.

“I just knew my pitches weren’t having action, and the hitters were letting me know that as well,” Suppan said. “With that little adjustment, getting my hands moving with my leg, it got my arm in a better position and my fingers on top of the ball. I was very excited about that.

“I think I was doing that in the past. I just wasn’t aware that I was doing it of late.”

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Game day?

Maryvale Baseball Park is in wait and see mode this morning while rain falls in Phoenix. What is it about rainy weekends this spring?

The weather forced the Brewers to move their morning stretch into the covered batting cages, and manager Ken Macha and pitching coach Rick Peterson are making contingency plans should the game be washed out. Macha met with with reporters in his office and here’s what’s happening in camp:
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The most important thing, Macha said, was keeping scheduled starter Doug Davis on schedule. He is to make his Brewers debut today against the Reds, and should Mother Nature intervene Davis would instead throw a two-inning simulated game. The Brewers have covered bullpen for these contingencies.
Peterson would have to do some shuffling with the relievers scheduled to follow Davis. They are Todd Coffey, John Axford, Zach Braddock and Scott Schoeneweis. 
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Here’s the lineup posted this morning:

Alcides Escobar  SS

Jody Gerut  RF
Ryan Braun  LF
Prince Fielder  1B
Jim Edmonds  CF
Mat Gamel  3B
Gregg Zaun  C
Hernan Iribarren  2B
Doug Davis  LHP
Gamel would make his first Cactus League appearance. He complained of a sore right shoulder the other day but was back at full strength on Saturday. 
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Outfielder Trent Oeltjen said he was relieved that the x-rays on his bruised left wrist came back negative on Saturday. Oeltjen was supposed to participate in outfield drills Sunday before the rain dashed those plans, but he won’t resume swinging the bat until Monday. 
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As of Sunday morning, Macha was not ready to name his starting pitcher for Monday’s game against the Mariners at Maryvale Baseball Park. Right-hander Dave Bush and left-hander Manny Parra are each scheduled for two innings.
“We haven’t decided [who will go first],” Macha said. “Rick and I are going to talk about it and then we’ll tell one of them. We don’t want anybody to read anything into anything.”
Macha will not face the same conundrum next time. Bush and Parra are lined up to pitch again on Saturday, March 13, when the Brewers have split-squad games against the Rockies at Maryvale and against the White Sox in Glendale. 
Is Macha trying to downplay the competition?
“Why put so much pressure on the guy like that?” Macha said. “Just go out and pitch good, that’s all.”
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Macha was still singing left-hander Chris Capuano’s praises on Sunday, a day after Capuano pitched his first Major League game in nearly two years. He continues to mention Capuano as a legitimate candidate for the Opening Day roster. 
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Jim Edmonds made Macha chuckle the other day. 
“I asked him if he had a first baseman’s mitt because it would be nice to have a backup first baseman on the roster,” Macha said. “He says, ‘When you watch me run these balls down in center field, you’re going to like what you see out there.’ 
“I told him I’ve already seen that. I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but he came up with the Angels when I was there [as a coach]. He was a brash rookie then, and not a whole lot has changed. Just take the rookie out of there. That’s good. You want guys to have that type of feeling about themselves.”
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Biomechanics experiment begins

Brewers pitchers got their first taste of biomechanics at Maryvale Baseball Park today, where the team’s traveling lab was set up in the batting cages and a series of hurlers were strapped with sensors for a throwing session. The equipment took a series of precise measurements aimed to identify injury risks.

It’s one aspect of the program that new pitching coach Rick Peterson refers to as his life’s work, but the Brewers were already exploring the science before Peterson’s arrival under head team physician Dr. William Raasch. I will talk to some pitchers about the experience after today’s workout to see what they think. 
I wrote about Peterson last week before reporting to camp myself, and saw that some fans are wondering whether the Brewers hired a pitching coach or an injury prevention specialist. That’s an interesting question, so I posed it to manager Ken Macha, who worked with Peterson previously in Oakland, for his opinion. 
“The way to answer that is to tell them to check the guy’s record,” Macha said. “At one particular time, the Toronto Blue Jays had [Roy] Halladay, [Kelvim] Escobar and [Chris] Carpenter all in their snake [Minor League system]. A little later, we had [Tim] Hudson, [Mark] Mulder and [Barry] Zito. All three of those guys became extremely productive pitchers at an early age for the A’s. 
“Whereas, Carpenter didn’t become productive until he got [to St. Louis]. Escobar, so-so. And Halladay wound up getting sent back to A-ball to restructure himself. You look at that particular example, and that says a lot for [Peterson].”
Peterson’s passion, Macha said, is his best trait. 
“I think the best coaches are the guys who can break down the basic movements into such small parts,” Macha said. “Whether it’s teaching a ground ball or the hitting stroke or whatever, you simplify it for these players so they’re looking to improve their small parts.”
Here’s how Friday’s schedule was to work:The pitchers warmed up in the bullpen, then went into the lab to throw at full-effort for their motion analysis. Then they headed out to the field to face live hitters on loan from Minor League camp. The big league hitters will get a few more days of batting practice before stepping into the box for real. 
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Peterson has big plans for Brewers

Rick Peterson laughs out loud when asked whether he believes in fate.
“Oh, my God, are you kidding me?” he asks. “That’s all I believe in.”
So, chalk it up to fate that Peterson battled injuries throughout his collegiate career and a four-year stint in the Pirates’ Minor League chain. Fate led him to delay pursuing a job in either of his undergraduate degrees — psychology and art — in favor of coaching. It led him in 1989 to Birmingham, Ala. — home of the Double-A club of the White Sox but also of Dr. James Andrews, who opened the American Sports Medicine Institute and began studying the root causes of pitching injuries. Peterson was among the first baseball men to walk through ASMI’s doors and over the ensuing two decades he studied biomechanics as something of a religion, becoming an expert at using Andrews’ readings to develop a program to help pitchers reduce the likelihood of injury and improve velocity and command of their pitches.
Fate then took Peterson to the A’s and the Mets and made him one of the game’s most famous pitching coaches. Now, at 55, fate has led him to Milwaukee, home of the National League’s worst starting rotation in 2009 and two of his former managers. Brewers skipper Ken Macha was with Peterson in Oakland and bench coach Willie Randolph was his boss in New York. Most important, the Brewers are at the front of the biomechanics movement and are the only Major League club, as far as Peterson is aware, with an in-house lab. In a sense, the Brewers needed Peterson as much as he needed a job.
As Peterson settled into Maryvale Baseball Park, where Brewers pitchers and catchers will have their first official workout on Monday, he considered how fate had done it again.
“What a perfect match,” Peterson said via telephone earlier this week. “That’s why I’m so excited.”
You can read more about Peterson’s philosophy and the Brewers’ plans to run pitchers from throughout the organization through a biomechanics scan in my story on Brewers.com. I know I’m not the only one wondering if we’ll look back at the end of this year and say Peterson was GM Doug Melvin’s most important free agent pick-up.
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Blogging from "On Deck"

Thousands of Brewers fans lined up early this morning at Milwaukee’s downtown Midwest Airlines Center for “Brewers On Deck,” a day-long fanfest that features autographs, photo sessions, memorabilia booths and a big corner stage for question and answer sessions and other events. 

Here are the updates as they appeared throughout the day:
5:31 p.m. CT — Attendance figures are in, and 10,638 fans attended Brewers On Deck on Sunday. That’s 227 more than attended last year, when the team was coming off a playoff appearance. 
5:05 p.m. CT – Ryan Braun is rooting for Prince Fielder to sign a longterm extension with the Brewers. Braun, after all, is under contract through 2015 and has the luxury of hitting in front of Fielder in the lineup. But Braun is not holding his breath.
“He’s going to do whatever is in his best interests, whatever is best for his family,” Braun said. “He’s earned the opportunity to go out there and see what free agency is like, see who’s interested and how much they are willing to pay.
“Obviously, I want him here. But it’s a business and I just want what’s best for him. I think everybody recognizes the circumstances and the situation that he’s in and that the team is in. To me, it’s going to come down to what’s best for his family. He’s close enough to free agency that it doesn’t make a lot of sense for him to sign a deal at this point. You have to be [realistic].”
3:36 p.m. CT – On Monday, David Riske will be just eight months removed from Tommy John surgery, a procedure that can require 12 months of rehabilitation. Still, the reliever is hoping to be active for the Brewers on Opening Day. 
“I’d say it’s a long shot, but it’s a possibility,” Riske said. “It just all depends on how fast it responds, and then when I can face hitters and how fast it responds after that.”
Riske has been rehabbing at home in Las Vegas and began throwing off a mound two weeks ago. That’s a significant milestone.
The Brewers would love to get some production from Riske this season because so far his three-year contract has not paid off. Riske says his troubles began during his first Spring Training with the Brewers in 2007, when then-pitching coach Mike Maddux tried to introduce a curveball to his repertoire. 
“I wish I would have never, ever tried to learn those breaking balls because that’s really what triggered it,” Riske said. “What do you do? You want to do what they want, and it gradually got worse and worse. … My whole career, I threw 95 percent fastballs, and I’ve had a pretty good career up until last year. I wish I would have just said no.”
Riske said he objected, but tried to pitch through the pain. He posted a 5.31 ERA in 45 appearances in 2008 and was shut down after Sept. 7. 
Riske is due $4.5 million in 2010 and his contract calls for a $4.75 million option for 2011 or a $250,000 buyout. 
He expects to be limited at the start of Spring Training and will follow a program prescribed by Brewers’ doctors. Pitchers and catchers will participate in their first formal workout on Feb. 22. 
“I miss competition,” Riske said. “I’ve been competing with my boys at home, and that’s just not the same. I want that back. I just want to go pitch without hurting.”

2:25 p.m. CT – Jeff Cirillo is staying busy these days. He’s an active investor in the Walla Walla Sweets, a newly-formed baseball team in the West Coast League, a summer wood bat league for collegiate prospects. Cirillo produced his cell phone and showed off the club’s logo, a proud father showing a photo of his kids. The club is named for one of Walla Walla, Wash.’s chief exports, the sweet onion.
Cirillo is involved in everything from player procurement to business operations. He’s also a Major League scout for the D-backs and said he’ll also be involved in some on-field instruction this year. 
1:27 p.m. CT — Prince Fielder Fielder moved into a new house this winter in Windermere, Fla., the upscale hamlet near Orlando made infamous in recent months because it’s also the home of Tiger Woods. With all of the commotion, Fielder has mostly stayed in, playing with young sons Jaden and Haven and staying in shape. Fielder’s new home is outfitted with a pool, a gym — “A little miniature-Ballys,” he said — and an indoor batting cage. He’s working to maintain his playing weight from last season, “or maybe to get a little better.” 
“I have to work out or I’d be huge,” Fielder said. “That’s not an option for me. … I don’t want to turn into an obese person, because I can.” 
He likes the Brewers’ offseason moves to far, and Sunday’s “On Deck” event gave Fielder a chance to catch up with newcomers like Randy Wolf, LaTroy Hawkins and Gregg Zaun. His contract could be a major issue swirling around the Brewers as they gather at Maryvale Baseball Park for Spring Training, but Fielder is much more interested to focus on baseball. 
“I’m just looking forward to having a better year as far as the team,” he said. “Whatever happens after that is cool. As long as we improve, I’m happy.”
12:56 p.m. CT – Fielder isn’t sweating his contract situation, unlike so many of the Brewers fans who asked for his autograph at the Brewers’ annual fan fest on Sunday. 
Fielder is two seasons shy of free agency, and the Brewers are already engaging agent Scott Boras in some casual conversations about a long-term extension. Trouble is, there is little or no precedent for a Boras client of Fielder’s star caliber accepting such a deal over the riches available on the open market, and many Milwaukee fans are already counting down the days to Fielder’s inevitable departure.
Not so fast, he said. 
“In the end, it’s my decision,” Fielder said. “But as my agent, he’s going to make sure that I have the most information possible about what’s going to benefit me and my family. That’s what it’s about first. My family has to be happy, and then I go from there.
“There’s no urgency right now as far as that.”
Asked whether he was worried about the fact that fellow star first basemen Albert Pujols, Ryan Howard and Adrian Gonzalez are all lined up to reach free agency at the same time as Fielder, he responded with a smile, “I’m younger than all of them, and I’m pretty good.”
Fielder said he won’t set a deadline for talks, though he said he “could tell [Boras], ‘Beat it,’” at some point if he doesn’t want to talk business any more. If the negotiations don’t progress, Fielder would earn his $10.5 million in 2010 and be eligible for salary arbitration one more time this winter. If he has a season like the one he enjoyed in 2009, when Fielder belted 46 homers and tied for the Major League lead with 141 RBIs, it could be a record-breaking case. 
The Brewers took a chance on Fielder in 2002, when they made him the seventh overall pick in the First-Year Player Draft and were skewered by some Draft analysts who were already expressing concern about Fielder’s weight. Instead, Fielder charged through Milwaukee’s Minor League system and took over first base at Miller Park for good in 2006. He set a franchise record 50 home runs in 2007, teamed with left fielder Ryan Braun to lead the Brewers
to their first postseason appearance in a generation in 2008, then set club marks for RBIs and walks in 2009.
That history matters, according to Fielder. 
“I came up here and I love it here,” he said. “My thing is I want to stay here as long as possible. For now, I’m here for two more years anyway. All that other stuff, hopefully, will work out.”
Even though it’s a major long shot, Brewers fans sure hope so. 
11:56 a.m. CT – Brewers bench coach Willie Randolph will begin the season on the disabled list.
Randolph underwent surgery to repair a torn flexor tendon in his elbow and attended “Brewers On Deck” with his right arm in a brace. Randolph said the injury was the result of wear and tear from throwing so much batting practice in 2009 — coaches throw hundreds of pitches every day — and decided recently that he had to have the problem fixed. 
Ben Sheets, of course, underwent flexor tendon surgery a year ago and missed the entire 2009 season. Randolph expects to be back earlier; he said he hopes to be back on the mound in May. 
11:30 a.m. CT -- Manager Ken Macha and pitching coach Rick Peterson were first up on the main stage and answered questions from reporters and from fans. Most of the discussion, perhaps since Peterson was present and perhaps because it was such a disaster last season, was the pitching. 
“It will all come down to the pitching,” Macha predicted. 
Before he met them in person on Sunday, Peterson had already reached out to many of the team’s pitchers via telephone. Those conversations were mostly about building relationships, Peterson said, though he’s also spent time breaking down video and data and jotting down ideas about improvements.
Those nuts and bolts discussions will begin in Arizona, Peterson said. 
“I want them to understand first that I’m an asset for them,” Peterson said. “Right now I’m doing my homework.”
So far, he likes what he sees. 
“I think this could be a really special year,” Peterson said. “You think about winning 80 games last year and having the worst starting pitching in baseball. If we can make some incremental differences … I think that we can go into Spring Training with the hope of playing in October.”
Other highlights from the session:
- Macha again endorsed Rickie Weeks for the top spot in the lineup. “If I was to write a lineup today, he would be the leadoff hitter,” Macha said. 
- Peterson said the team is in “wait and see right” mode with left-hander Mark Mulder. The sides have discussed a Minor League contract, and Peterson indicated that the ball was in Mulder’s court at this point. 

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Brewers consider Halama for Minor League deal

halama.jpgThe Brewers told John Halama’s agent that they will have a scout in the stands for the former big league left-hander’s start in the Dominican Republic on Friday night, and Halama hopes to strike a Minor League deal with Milwaukee by early next week. <p/>

The Brewers are seeking starting pitching depth this winter and Halama, 37, wants to reunite with pitching coach Rick Peterson and manager Ken Macha. The trio was together in Oakland in 2003, Macha’s first year as A’s manager and Peterson’s final year as that team’s pitching coach.

Halama would also be rejoining Brewers advance scout Chris Bosio, who was a special assignment coach for Seattle during part of Halama’s four-year run with the Mariners.

“He really wants to pitch for the Brewers,” agent Joe Rosario said. “He would love to reunite with both Macha and Peterson.”

Brewers Latin American scouting coordinator Fernando Arango is to attend Halama’s start for Aguilas against Licey on Friday night. It’s a rematch of Nov. 15, when Halama pitched seven innings and allowed two Licey runs on six hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

In his first six winter league starts, he was 3-2 with a 1.66 ERA and 21 strikeouts versus two walks. Both of Halama’s losses came in 1-0 games.

Halama pitched for seven Major League teams in parts of nine seasons from 1998-2006. He’s 56-48 with a 4.65 ERA in the Majors, but his career was derailed after a stint with the Orioles in 2006, in part by a contentious divorce.

He began the 2009 season with the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the independent Atlantic League and was 8-1 with a 1.96 ERA in 69 innings, drawing the interest of the Braves. At Triple-A Gwinnett, Halama was 4-7 with a 4.48 ERA in 13 starts and three relief appearances, but much of the damage was done in a pair of relief outings July 7 and 12, when Halama relieved rehabbing Braves JoJo Reyes.

As a starter, Halama had a 3.69 ERA last season at Triple-A. He turns 38 on Feb. 22.

“He spent the last two years pitching his butt off to get to where he is now,” Rosario said. “He’s big league-ready. He just wants an invite to [Spring Training] camp to show that he belongs and he feels like Milwaukee is the way to go.”

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