Hey everyone, this is J.D. Closser of the Milwaukee Brewers

I was born and raised in Alexandria, Ind. The season has begun for us here in the minor leagues. I am a catcher and will be starting the season in Nashville, the Triple-A affiliate for the Brew Crew. It was a very eventful spring. I came into the season with an outside chance to make the big club, so I was very excited for the whole thing to get started. As spring opened up, pitchers and catchers reported Feb. 17. When we got there, our lockers were all set up with all of our baseball needs. New spikes, gloves, batting gloves, catchers gear, etc... you name it, it was in there. The next day we got our physicals and had our first workouts.

Every single pitcher in camp threw on the first day. So with only having seven catchers in camp we knew that we were in for a long day. That’s 28 pitchers to seven catchers. That just doesn't add up to a good ratio. Each guy threw for five minutes in the pen and five minutes live. Needless to say, the catchers were a little sore and needed to sit in the cold tub after the first day.
The next day the pitchers split into two groups of 14 and the same thing continued. This went on for 8 or 9 days. In the meantime, the position players started to filter in and we got close to the full-squad workouts.

Before we catch the pitchers, we get to take batting practice and do a few defensive drills for our enjoyment. Once all the full team gets there, we begin all the fun stuff to practice such as team fundamentals. For example, one day we do bunt plays, the next day we do first-and-third defense. The full squad workouts are for about two days. But really, what we’ve all been waiting for is intersquads.

We have two intersquads. We have the next day off, but then the real games start the day after that. In all, we get to play 31 spring games with one day off. Things start off really well for me.

I don't get in the first game but we have a split-squad game the next day, and I find out that I will start one of the games. It was the day to show my stuff to my new team. We played the SF Giants with Barry Bonds in the lineup for the first time this spring. I had a great day at the plate and behind it. I went 4-for-5 with a two singles, a triple and a homer, plus a personal all-time spring and professional high seven RBIs. Things couldn't have gone any better to start. I continued to play well for most of the spring.
Then came the day of disappointment. I was called into our manager Ned Yost's office.

This only meant one thing. I knew the second that I walked in and saw Brewers general manager Doug Melvin, assistant GM Gord Ash and Yost all standing there. I was told that I had been put on waivers and had cleared and sent outright to Nashville. I took some time to soak it all in and signed the papers to accept the assignment. The good news from the meeting was that they were going to continue to keep me in major-league camp with them until the end of spring. I took that as a nice complement and decided that I would not let this little thing bring me down.

The last two weeks of camp went by like a snail with the only reason for minor-league catchers to be there was for the starting pitchers to get their innings in and get there pitch counts up. I finished the spring with a .360 batting average. The last two games of the spring for us were to be played in Texas against the Rangers. One game was against their Double-A team in Frisco, Texas, and the other at the big-league stadium in Arlington. We got on the plane the last day with everyone all amped up to finally leave the rapidly heating-up Arizona desert.

The first game got rained out after we took BP and sat around for a few hours. The next day we needed to make up the starting pitcher’s lost innings (here we go again), so we had a simulated game in the afternoon and a real game that night. After a tough loss in the night game, (a 4-3 loss on a walk-off homer by Nelson Cruz) we packed our bags and headed back to Milwaukee for one final workout before the season started. This was open to the public, so there were something like 20,000 fans there to watch us take infield and BP.

Once that was over, I jumped in my car packed with all of my belongings for the season and drove down to Nashville, from which I am writing this little blog. Our first game is Thursday against the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Triple-A affiliate of the NY Mets.

So, that is just a little glimpse into the fast paced life of the major/minor leagues. I will be writing in every week or two to keep everyone updated on how we the team and I are doing. So long for now.