Braun moves closer to getting back in action
He’s still on track for about 15 camp at-bats
Ryan Braun wasn't in the lineup Friday evening for Game 4 of the Milwaukee Brewers' Blue vs. Gold Series at Miller Park, but did manager Craig Counsell said he was closer to seeing some at-bats after sitting out the first three games by design.
Braun has yet to see action in the scrimmage series, which started Tuesday.
“He may be in there today but if not, I'm hoping it's Sunday,” said Counsell, who is giving his players the day off Saturday as a “recovery day” after two straight weeks of workouts. “I mean, we're getting to the point where we've got to get started.
“But, again, we've got four games left and if you look at 15 (at-bats) as the number for him (to be ready), he's got five already, so we're not really that far from that. The most important thing is that he's feeling good. He's been a little slowed by just the normal things, for him. Nothing of significance.
“Feeling good is always to me what I put more importance on that the number of at-bats.”
With a day of rest coming, Counsell said it only made sense to hold out second baseman Keston Hiura a third day with what has been described as right arm fatigue.
“We're not overly concerned about it; probably being on the cautious side of this right now,” Counsell said. “I guess it's caution right now, is the best way I can describe it. We don't know exactly what it is but it was going in the right direction, and all the tests you would do for something that you'd be concerned about are completely fine.
“I anticipate he'll make progress again today and because tomorrow is going to be almost an off day for us… I would think he'll be in there in some form on Sunday.”
Championship still meaningful
Because the season was reduced from the usual 162 games to 60 due of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent squabbling between the owners and players over money, it has been suggested by some that a 2020 World Series championship won't be meaningful. Counsell doesn't buy into that line of thinking, however.
“It's going to be different,” he said. “I don't think there's any question about that because the World Series winner is likely to do it in front of no fans. So, it's going to be different.
“I think as we go through 14 days of camp, it's still going to be a great accomplishment. I do think everybody involved in this, putting it together and working really, really hard to try to make this safe, make it a good product, prepare the players, keep them healthy, get them competing and the players competing themselves, the winner is still going to go through something pretty special, and have a great journey through this thing.
“I think we should happily crown this team as the champion, the team that wins it, because we're all doing the same thing, right? It's different what we're doing but all 30 teams are having pretty similar experiences in going through this, and I would say have maybe not completely identical but a lot of the same struggles and difficulty throughout the season.
“There is one unknown, obviously, that could complete change some teams' seasons, and I think we all recognize that, and we all recognize that through no fault of anybody's that a team's season could really be sunk. That's probably the scariest thing for everybody this year. But we all know that's part of it, so we have to just go through it. I think the World Series winner (will have) really earned it.”