Wednesday's Frosty Mug

by Kyle Lobner on Dec 21, 2011 10:26 AM CST in Milwaukee Brewers News

Some things to read while being back in business. (h/t Halos Heaven)

We're 59 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale, and yesterday's biggest news was addition by subtraction. Yuniesky Betancourt has signed a one year deal to return to Kansas City (FanShot), once and for all eliminating the threat of him returning to the Brewers in 2012. Here's some reaction from around the web:

Jeff Sullivan of Baseball Nation notes that the Royals are now the first team to re-acquire Yuni.
Rany Jazayerli said Yuni's return to the Royals "won't hurt the team much," which is both the nicest thing anyone has said about Yuni in months and a textbook example of "damning with faint praise."
Joe Posnanski might be the only person excited to have Yuni back in Kansas City.
David Golebiewski of Baseball Analytics has a heat map showing Betancourt's ridiculous swinging habits.

The Brewers commemorated the occasion by spending the entire day doing not much else. As such, we'll move on to today's Prince Fielder notes:

Fielder has reportedly received an offer from the Mariners, although they've denied it.
Jon Heyman is reporting the Orioles are still in on Fielder, although as noted before Heyman's source is likely Scott Boras.
Tim Brown of Yahoo talked to Boras about Fielder's current road trip to visit potential suitors.
Babes Love Baseball has a look at his options.
Mike Bauman of MLB.com says Fielder can leave Milwaukee with no regrets.
Fielder is #1 on The Outside Corner's list of the top ten remaining free agents, and the gulf between him and #2 is pretty significant.

Meanwhile, the Brewers have updated the 40 man roster to reflect several new uniform numbers (h/t @Adam McCalvy). Here are the changes:

Player	Number
Santo Manzanillo	67
Wily Peralta	60
Jose Veras	40
George Kottaras	9
Aramis Ramirez	16
Alex Gonzalez	11
Zelous Wheeler	51
Caleb Gindl	54
Brock Kjeldgaard	66

Gonzalez and Ramirez will be key parts of the Brewers' new infield. Vince of Miller Park Drunk would like to introduce you to the newcomers.

In the minors: Frankie De La Cruz's awful winter continued yesterday, as he allowed six runs on eight hits over three innings and dropped to 0-7 in Estrellas' 8-5 loss to Gigantes. You can read about that and more in today's Winter League Notes.

There's not much else for news today, unless you haven't seen the Brewer Holiday Greetings.

This morning's Mug is the 992nd in BCB History. Assuming I don't miss more than one between now and then, we'll be celebrating The Night of (Approximately) 1000 Mugs at Rounding Third on January 3.

The BCB Book Club met one more time last night to discuss the final chapters of The Extra 2%. Stop by to share your thoughts if you haven't already, and help us decide what the club's next steps should be.

Around baseball:

Dodgers: Pitcher Ronald Belisario is expected to be suspended for the first 25 games of 2012 due to a violation of baseball's drug policy.
Nationals: Signed infielder Chad Tracy and outfielders Brett Carroll and Xavier Paul to minor league deals.
Pirates: Signed first baseman Jeff Clement to a minor league deal.
Rays: Avoided arbitration with pitcher Joel Peralta (one year, $2.175 million)
Red Sox: Former third base coach Tim Bogar will serve as bench coach in 2012.
Rockies: Signed third baseman Casey Blake (one year, $2 million) and pitcher Carlos Torres (minor league deal).

In what's becoming a time-honored tradition, each year we as a baseball community come together to point and laugh when teams dramatically overpay for relievers like Jonathan Papelbon. At FanGraphs, Jack Moore has a look at how you can use WPA to at least somewhat justify the decisions.

In former Brewers: One time Rule 5 pick Chuck Lofgren re-signed a minor league deal with the Giants and is attempting to make the switch from pitcher to position player.

Today in baseball economics:

The Mets are citing tight finances as the reason for their decision to discontinue their Gulf Coast League (Rookie) team. This would be roughly the equivalent of the Brewers suspending operations in Arizona.
Despite recent success and some $100 million+ payrolls in the early 2000s, the Rangers have still never drawn 3 million fans in a season. They set a new franchise record with 2.9 million in 2011, but that was their first season over 2.6 since 2001.

Are you a stathead looking for an opportunity to get your foot in the door in baseball? If so, it's possible the Orioles would like to talk to you.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get in shape before "Owners' Workout Day."

Drink up.

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Brewers have signed Cesar Izturis and someone I've never heard of named Juan Perez to minor league deals.

Fanshot

Follow @jessegennigen

Fighter of the Nightman. Champion of the sun. Master of karate & friendship for everyone.

by The Dayman on Dec 21, 2011 10:56 AM CST reply actions

Post edited

To reflect the fact that Jose Veras will wear #40, not 43.

Now that's great tasting chicken!

by Kyle Lobner on Dec 21, 2011 11:34 AM CST reply actions

Woke up this morning with a smile on my face.

No more Yuni! On a side note, went with that and voted a 100 in the fan tracking poll. Can’t wait to see the trend there after the last few moves over the next couple weeks.

"People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."- Rogers Hornsby

by icecreamman on Dec 21, 2011 11:57 AM CST reply actions

I don't know what the normal posting habits are on Royals Review (looks like numbers might be similar to BCB).

However, over the last 22 hours, between two Betancourt front-page stories and a FanShot, over 1000 comments were posted, mostly grieving fans over the signing of Betancourt.

Contributor on Brew Crew Ball, Commissioner of Prognostikeggers, Owner of a broken sarcasm detector

by -JP- on Dec 21, 2011 12:38 PM CST reply actions

If the Brewers had re-signed Yuni, I'm guessing our numbers would've lit up for a day too.

Now that's great tasting chicken!

by Kyle Lobner on Dec 21, 2011 1:46 PM CST up reply actions

As one of his most voiciferous critics

I may have accounted for 1000 posts on my own. Man I would have been apoplectic. As is, I’m joyously content for myself and feeling pretty bad for the Royals fans and major league baseball, in general.

Would you rather overpay for a mildly good player or sign a useless sack of poo like Betancourt? One hamstrings the GM from improving the team in other ways while the other takes up a bench spot (let alone whether the manager plays the game 150 games.

by ecocd on Dec 21, 2011 2:40 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

I'm only sad we don't get to pitch against him.

Mark Attanasio is the best.

by nullacct on Dec 22, 2011 1:20 AM CST up reply actions

June 12-14

We have an interleague series in Kansas City (if he’s still on the roster by then).

"People ask me what I do in the winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."- Rogers Hornsby

by icecreamman on Dec 22, 2011 10:12 AM CST up reply actions

I bet he's on the roster

but I doubt he’s going to play much.

Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.

by sjlee on Dec 22, 2011 10:14 AM CST up reply actions

Out of curiosity

How do you handle the “former Brewers” section each day, Kyle? There must be a lot of players that fall into that category, so how do you keep up to date with all of that news?

Contributor on Brew Crew Ball, Commissioner of Prognostikeggers, Owner of a broken sarcasm detector

by -JP- on Dec 21, 2011 1:18 PM CST reply actions

There's really no rhyme or reason to that.

I read a lot of stuff, and if a name catches my eye I clip the story. My formula for that probably doesn’t actually exhaust all options, it’s more of a collection of things I stumble across while reading something else.

Now that's great tasting chicken!

by Kyle Lobner on Dec 21, 2011 1:45 PM CST up reply actions

So what are the odds K-Rod is still dealt?

Payroll is teetering over $100M (especially if they add Aoki). I think he’s going to be moved.

If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!

by SRB on Dec 21, 2011 4:03 PM CST reply actions

I'm not sure if the posting fee counts towards the payroll

but it is likely going to exceed $100M even without him.

I think if DM can find a trade that doesn’t involve eating a portion of his salary it happens. Otherwise, they could always trade him later in the season if they need to.

Pujols is the Barack Obama of baseball.

by sjlee on Dec 21, 2011 5:12 PM CST up reply actions

For what?

They aren’t going to get anything for him, and his salary isn’t isn’t keeping them from doing anything they would otherwise do. If they make the playoffs I doubt they lose money this year, even with a $100 million payroll.

When there is a scuffle in Ireland, there’s no need to specifically mention in the news story that alcohol was involved

by Getting Yosted on Dec 21, 2011 7:15 PM CST via mobile up reply actions

Why wouldn't they get anything from one of the best relievers in baseball?

The Brewers got him for nothing because he had a $17.5 million option looming that prevented him from closing. If the Brewers eat half his salary or so, K-Rod at 1/$6M is very attractive.

If Plush had to pick Wearwolf or Vampire, I'm a Wearwolf!

by SRB on Dec 21, 2011 7:28 PM CST up reply actions

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