PHOENIX -- Brewers pitching prospect Adrian Houser was two days removed from Tommy John surgery last summer and facing a grueling rehab at Milwaukee's year-round facility in Phoenix, when he realized he needed a place to live. He texted an old friend asking for help. The way Houser remembers it, Archie Bradley answered almost instantly.
"Bro, I'll always have a room for you," Bradley replied.
The two have known each other since they were 7 or 8 years old growing up in Oklahoma -- Bradley, now with the D-backs, is an Okie from Muskogee, straight out of the Merle Haggard song, and Houser was born 30 miles away in Tahlequah.