Hey, welcome back! It's been a while.

I know you sometimes wander off to watch that other sport during the fall/winter, but it's my understanding that the NFL season just ended and left you with some extra time on your hands. Fear not, though, because baseball is here to fill that gap in your life from now until October.

If you're just checking back in for the first time since September, here's what you missed:

• Pitchers and catchers report to spring training in nine days, a little earlier than usual because of the World Baseball Classic.
• Speaking of the WBC, the Brewers are going to have 14 players participating in it. The most notable names include Ryan Braun and Jonathan Lucroy on Team USA, Yovani Gallardo with Mexico, Carlos Gomez on the Dominican Republic team and Martin Maldonado catching for Puerto Rico. You can see the full list of 14 here.
• Hot stove season largely came and went without major Brewer news. Depending on your personal preferences, this winter's best new Brewer is either Burke Badenhop, Michael Gonzalez or Tom Gorzelanny. The 2013 payroll projects to be down about $25 million from 2012.
• Meanwhile, Corey Hart will open the season on the shelf following recent knee surgery. The initial prognosis was that he'd be out until late May, but he's already telling Adam McCalvy that he could be back as much as a month early.