The First Frosty Mug of 2010

Some things to read while being disappointed by science.

Good morning everyone, and welcome to a new decade. Thanks for joining us here at BCB for the first Mug of 2010, and if you missed it last night, scroll down (or click here) for the final post of 2009.

The Brewers have yet to make news in 2010, so here are a couple more posts looking back at the year and decade that were:

• Tom Haudicourt has his top ten "lowlights" from 2009. 
• The Brewer Nation has a look at the '00s by the numbers.

Speaking of the '00s, we still have a few spots to fill on the BCB All Decade Team. If you haven't voted yet, you have until 4 pm today to select the final member of the rotation and 4 pm tomorrow to select the fifth member of the bullpen. After that, we'll have two pitchers and a manager left to select, so the final poll will open on Sunday and the project will conclude on Tuesday.

In the minors: It can be pretty difficult to get good scouting reports and/or video of Arizona Rookie League players, so it's pretty nice to have this video of 2009 draft pick Demetrius McKelvie that Bernie's Crew found.

Around baseball:

Cubs: Signed Marlon Byrd to a three year, $15 million deal. (FanShot)
Phillies: Have reportedly agreed to a two year deal with Denys Baez, and signed outfielder Tagg Bozied to a minor league deal.

Jayson Stark's "strange but true" columns are always an amusing read, and his year-end piece is no exception even if Felipe Lopez is the only Brewer mentioned, and he's mentioned for a feat he performed as a Diamondback.

Could baseball's economic turn change the value or emphasis of developing players internally? Dave Cameron of FanGraphs notes that inflation in free agent contracts has slowed, which decreases the relative value of cost-controlled talent.

And, if you need a sabermetric fix today, Jeremy Greenhouse of The Baseball Analysts has a look at pitch counts and Pitch F/x.

Happy birthday to:

• 1998-2000 Brewer (and 1999 Opening Day starter) Rafael Roque, who turns 38. 
• 1901 Brewer Ned Garvin, who lost 20 games despite posting a 3.46 ERA. He would have turned 136 today.

Speaking of Milwaukee baseball history, apparently the city had baseball's two tallest players in 1884.

Drink up.