Results tagged ‘ Donovan Hand ’
Latest Brewer Nation Podcast Available for Download!
Recorded last night over dinner and during a fantasy baseball draft, my podcast partner Cary Kostka and I get you ready for Opening Day!
We discuss the 25-man roster projection, lineup for Opening Day, rotation, Kyle Lohse, Yuniesky Betancourt and more!
Click here to download the podcast: Brewer Nation Podcast – 2013 Opening Day Preparedness
Brewers Almost Down to 25
The Brewers made a handful of additional roster moves in anticipation of paring the list down to 25 men to start the regular season on Monday, April 1st.
Here are the moves:
- Donnie Murphy exercised an “out” in his contract after learning he would not be making the 25-man roster and was released.
- Jeff Bianchi was officially placed on the 15-day DL today with left hip bursitis. Bianchi also dealt with a groin injury this spring which caused him to miss the World Baseball Classic. He was to play for Team Italy. Bianchi’s placement is retroactive to 3/22 (the earliest date you can backdate an injury to this year).
- Corey Hart was officially placed on the 15-day DL today as well, also retroactive to 3/22. Given the original estimate of recovery, the Brewers could have freed up a 40-man roster spot by having Hart start the season on the 60-day DL, but opted to go with the 15-day DL instead which probably means that they are optimistic of a return to the big league lineup prior to May 21st (which is 60 days after March 22nd).
The Brewers have only three more roster decisions to announce, but that won’t come until the team is back in Milwaukee this weekend for exhibition games against the Chicago White Sox.
Still to be decided are:
- Will the Brewers will begin the season with 13 pitchers? If so, it’s likely that an extra starter will be kept while Kyle Lohse ramps up.
- Who wins the final two spots in the bullpen? Brandon Kintzler is a lock in my opinion, but technically I suppose there are two spots for him, Alfredo Figaro, and Donovan Hand.
- Who wins the final bench spot (unless there are two)? With Yuniesky Betancourt, Logan Schafer, and Martin Maldonado locked in, if the team carries only 12 hitters that leaves one spot for either (in my opinion) Blake Lalli or Khris Davis. If the team only carries 12 pitchers, I think they both make it.
To hear who I think will make the team and win those battles, check out the latest podcast which should be posted tonight at some point.
Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers – #48 Donovan Hand
“Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers” continues on this most glorious of February days as we take a look at a player who is attending his first big league camp.
He was discussed last year prior to Jim Henderson’s eventual call up as another option who was performing pretty well in the minor leagues out of the bullpen in Triple-A affiliate Nashville.
He is…
Donovan Hand.
Mostly as a relief pitcher in 2012, Donovan J. Hand compiled a 3.84 ERA over 79.2 innings pitched. He made three starts in 44 games. Overall, Hand held opponents to a .292 batting average, posted a 1.36 WHIP, struck out 54, and in 79.2 innings he walked only 18. And all of that was tallied while his allowed BABIP was .335 for what that’s worth.
Hand throws a heavy enough ball that he has kept home runs in check the past couple of year as he’s matured. Entering his age 27 season, the time has come to demonstrate to the Brewers’ coaching staff that he is indeed a viable candidate to be called up from the minor leagues should the need arise. He needs to pitch his name onto the short list.
It’ll be a bit tougher for him to get a call up in-season if only because Hand is coming to big league camp as a non-roster invitee. That means that he isn’t on the 40-man roster currently. That being said, he has a prime opportunity to impress as there should be plenty of innings in the first several games as a pair of entrenched relievers will be pitching for Team Canada for a stretch.
As for his short term projection, Hand was used in a variety of ways last season by Sounds manager Mike Guerrero and pitching coach Fred Dabney. 23 of Hand’s 41 relief appearances in 2012 were longer than three outs and 16 of those were at least six outs. He could possibly end up as a long reliever in the big leagues in 2013 if, for example, something devastating happened where the Brewers were forced to maybe move Tom Gorzelanny into the rotation for however long a time.
Physically, the Brewers website lists Hand at 6’3″ and 220 pounds. I’m guessing that’s the most up-to-date measurements since elsewhere sites agree on a listing of 6’4″ and 210. He throws (and swings) right-handed. Hand has made his hay primarily as a sinkerball (two-seam fastball) pitcher, but he tells me that he also throws a four-seam fastball, a cutter, a curve and a circle change. He throws a four-seam fastball for specific reasons, like many sinkerball pitchers do. He used to throw a slider earlier in his career and told me that his cutter was born from his old slider and is “a smaller version of the slider”. When he was drafted he didn’t throw a curve.
Hand was originally drafted by the Brewers back in 2007 when they took him in the 14th round out of Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama. He reached Double-A in his first full season (2008) as a professional, still mostly starting at that time. He started less than half of his games in 2009, and made the switch to the bullpen basically full-time in 2010. It was in 2010 that Hand first reached the Triple-A level. After starting the 2011 season with nine appearances at Double-A Huntsville, he was promoted to Triple-A and hasn’t looked back finally pitching the full year with Nashville in 2012. He’s now logged over 200 games in the minor leagues including more than 100 at Triple-A.
Could it all be coming together for Donovan Hand in 2013? Certainly feels like it. He’s experienced in professional ball, he’s performed at the highest level of the minors, he earned his first invitation to big league camp…
Look, I’ll reiterate that it would likely take a situation of some significance for him to break camp with someone other than Nashville, but entering what are commonly considered as the prime years for a pitcher coupled with all the other circumstances, Hand could certainly get his name on that proverbial short list I mentioned before.
The work starts today at Brewers camp in Phoenix, Arizona. I’d be willing to be that Donovan Hand will be among those working the hardest.
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You can follow Donovan on Twitter and support his quest for a successful season and big league call-up: @DonovanHand
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Miss anyone along the way? Catch up on the Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers profiles to this point:
- #49 Yovani Gallardo
- #51 Michael Gonzalez
- #53 Brandon Kintzler
- #54 Josh Stinson
- #57 Khris Davis
- #58 Josh Prince
- #59 John Axford
- #60 Wily Peralta
- #61 Darren Byrd
- #63 Tyler Thornburg
- #64 Mike Fiers
- #65 Miguel De Los Santos
- #67 Santo Manzanillo
- #68 Jesus Sanchez
- #70 Nick Bucci
- #71 Johnny Hellweg
- #73 Ariel Peña
- #74 Michael Olmsted
- #75 Travis Webb
- #77 Jed Bradley
- #78 Taylor Jungmann
- BONUS ARTICLE: #91-94 Adam Weisenberger, Hunter Morris, Kentrail Davis, Rafael Neda
Roster Expansion Allowed, Here’s Who Could/Should Fill In
On September 1st each baseball season, teams are allowed to carry a MLB roster of up to 40 players. This is as opposed to the standard 25.
Teams almost always promote at least a player or two though the outside amount seems to have something to do with their postseason aspirations. If you’re in the hunt for October you don’t want several inexperienced hands trying to find their way during a pennant race, for example.
The Milwaukee Brewers aren’t exactly in that position this season.
Sure they opened the day 7.5 games behind the brand new second Wild Card berth, and start things have happened as recently as last year, but to call it “unlikely” is quite fair.
In part due to their record and in part because of the situational circumstances for certain player (i.e. shutting down Mark Rogers due to an innings limitation), the Brewers will probably be calling up a healthy group of their higher-end minor league talent.
Infielder Eric Farris was a lock to be recalled in my opinion but was already called up to the 25-man roster yesterday after Cody Ransom was claimed off waivers by the Arizona Diamondbacks. I also expect the Brewers to help out all three areas in a couple of days when the Triple-A regular season has concluded.
For the bench I would be shocked if infielder Taylor Green and outfielder Logan Schafer weren’t recalled. I do think they’re likely to call up outfielder Caleb Gindl as well.
In the pitching side there is an opening in the starting rotation with the aforementioned exclusion of Rogers. Not coincidentally at all, right-hander Wily Peralta made his final start of the season for the Nashville Sounds on the same night Rogers was making his last for the Brewers in 2012.
Along with Peralta, you can expect Tyler Thornburg to come back up and start once or twice add the season winds down.
I would normally expect Mike McClendon to be rewarded for a long season with a recall but he was taken off the 40-man roster the most recent time he was sent back to Nashville.
Any other bullpen help would likely come from outside the current 40-man composition but the Brewers can add as many as three players to it right now should they choose to do so.
I do think they’ll add coverage though so perhaps someone will get an add. Maybe Brandon Kintzler, Donovan Hand, Rob Wooten, John Lowe, maybe even Hiram Burgos…just some names to think about.
Regardless of who gets to don a Brewer uniform for the rest of the year, there should be plenty of reasons to continue to pay attention if only to see these guys get some playing time.
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So, those are my thoughts. Anybody I forgot about? Who do you think should come up? Why?
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