Inbox: What goes into winter ball decisions?

MILWAUKEE — For the first time since the end of the season, it’s time to clean out the Inbox.

Thank you as always to those who submitted questions; you can email me or tweet me your own Brewers query for inclusion in a future feature. We’ll start with an old friend of the site.

@AdamMcCalvy What goes into the decision to send/not send a guy like Orlando Arcia, already coming off his longest season, to winter ball?

— Kyle Lobner (@BrewFrostyMug) November 18, 2016

@AdamMcCalvy What goes into the decision to send/not send a guy like Orlando Arcia, already coming off his longest season, to winter ball?

It’s not just this season — it’s been a long three seasons for Arcia, who was the Brewers’ top prospect before graduating to the Major Leagues in 2016. Including winter ball in Venezuela, he played 182 games in 2014, 160 more in 2015, then played 155 games during the 2016 regular season, including his first 55 games in the Major Leagues. So it surprised some to see Arcia’s name in the box scores for Caribes de Anzoategui.

I passed Kyle’s question to Brewers farm director Tom Flanagan:

“For winter ball players, it’s a little complicated, but there are ‘extreme fatigue’ rules for non-roster (40-man) players (levels of innings pitched, ABs etc) that if a player exceeds during the season, he can be ‘blocked’ from winter ball by the parent organization,” Flanagan wrote in an email.

Flanagan continued, “However, for all players, we look at each case individually to put the player in the best possible position for both his health as well as development. So in most cases, you weigh the player’s physical condition and …

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