Wednesday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while Jack teaches sex ed.

If you stayed up late last night (and waited out a MAC football game) you might have been disappointed, as Arizona outfielder Gerardo Parra beat out Ryan Braun for the NL Gold Glove in left field. You can see the full list of winners at Baseball Nation. For whatever it's worth, Jon Heyman said Braun's nomination was "well deserved." The Brewers still haven't won a Gold Glove since 1982, but Carlos Gomez did win a Grabby.

Elsewhere in defensive accolades, the full voting for this year's Fielding Bible Awards is now available online. Voters for the award ranked Carlos Gomez as baseball's fourth best center fielder, Zack Greinke as the game's seventh best defensive pitcher and Peter Gammons listed Ryan Braun second on his ballot for baseball's best left fielder. (h/t The Book Blog)

Braun probably has a better chance of winning this one: Award season continues tonight when the Silver Sluggers are handed out on MLB Network. And, of course, Braun was a near unanimous choice for Brewer MVP in the 2011 Brewer Blogosphere Awards. You can see our BCB ballots here.

It's a near lock that Braun will be patrolling left field for the Brewers next season, but what will the rest of the outfield look like? Brandon Berg of Chippewa.com and The Brewers Blurb both have looks at what the Brewers can do to improve out there.

Meanwhile, Dayn Perry of NotGraphs stumbled across a picture of a young Braun and made a list of facts about him.

Talking about Braun's defense in a positive light and then following it with this makes me feel like I'm having some kind of bizarro morning: Matt Klaassen of Beyond the Box Score ranked 114 major league catchers defensively, and Jonathan Lucroy came in 110th among them. Those rankings definitely don't pass the smell test for me.

Here are today's Prince Fielder notes:

• The Baseball Project wrote a song encouraging Fielder to stay with the Brewers.
• Yankees GM Brian Cashman told reporters he doesn't expect his team to pursue a bat this offseason.

Looking ahead to free agency: I don't think the Brewers have the available resources or interest in signing Jose Reyes to a long term deal, but they're probably going to continue to be mentioned as candidates until he signs somewhere else. The Baseball Index listed them as one of six options in their poll on the topic.

Of course, if Reyes signs with the Brewers it'll likely close the door on the Yuniesky Betancourt era. Tyler Maas (now of Miller Park Drunk) has a list of future job suggestions for the awful shortstop.

In more likely free agent moves: Jim Breen of Bernie's Crew has a look at four potential under-the-radar moves the Brewers could make this winter.

Meanwhile, here's the latest on Dale Sveum's offseason adventure: Jon Heyman says he's hearing that Sveum could have a shot to become the Cubs' new manager if the Red Sox don't hire him.

If Sveum does move on this winter, he may not be the only one: Tom Haudricourt pointed out that The Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting that Cory Provus is under consideration for a job as the Twins' lead radio broadcaster (FanShot). I can completely understand Provus' desire to move up, but as a fan base it would sting to lose both Jim Powell and Provus in a two year stretch.

In the minors:

• The AFL's annual Rising Stars game is on Saturday, and 2011 first round pick Jed Bradley is the only Brewer to make the roster.
• Bradley, by the way, pitched two perfect innings in Peoria's 6-4 loss to Scottsdale yesterday. You can read about that and more in today's Winter League Notes.
• Nick Bucci was an honorable mention on Adam Foster of Project Prospect's list of 2011's top ten pitching prospects in High A. He turned 21 in July and posted a 3.84 ERA with 7.1 strikeouts per nine innings in the Florida State League this season.
  

We're continuing to work our way through the ten most valuable Brewers of 2011: Shaun Marcum won the voting for the #6 spot and you can see his profile here. Nyjer Morgan is currently leading the vote for the #7 spot.

Around baseball:

Marlins: Named former Indians minor league coach Gary Thurman their new first base coach.
Pirates: Signed pitcher Tim Wood to a minor league deal.

LaTroy Hawkins is still in Taiwan but didn't pitch yesterday as a team of major leaguers beat the Taiwan All Stars 7-0 in a rain-shortened game, with most of the offense coming on a Curtis Granderson grand slam. ESPN has a recap.

Today in baseball economics:

• One of baseball's longest-running train wreck storylines may be nearing its conclusion, as Frank McCourt has reportedly agreed to sell the Dodgers. I still won't believe it until I see it.
• The Marlins may be getting a serious influx of cash: They're reportedly interested in raising the payroll nearly $30 million for their first year in their new ballpark, from $57 million in 2011 to as much as $85mm in 2012.

And in former Brewers: Rollie Fingers (facing Goose Gossage) and Pete Vuckovich (facing Jack Morris) are in the first round of the former player bracket in The Outside Corner's Movember MLB Mustache Madness.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to track down a killer.

Drink up.