Some things to read while waiting to see if you'll be able to get Trenni and the MLB Network in your area. Here's more on what the network will offer.

Ben Sheets appears to be the top story today: Jerry Crasnick has a nice piece on him at ESPN.com that touches on his injury history and mentions the Rangers and Astros as possible candidates to sign him. Baseball-Intellect rates Sheets the third best free agent, behind Manny Ramirez and CC Sabathia. Citi-Blog wants Sheets to be a Met.

On the subject of Sheets, I've added a new poll to see what you'd like the Brewers to offer him. Cast your vote today.

View From Bernie's Chalet wants Seth McClung to be the Brewers' next closer, now that Salomon Torres has retired. I'll have more on the bullpen later today, so be sure to check back after noon.

Between the Green Pillars is calling Bruce Seid's hiring as Director of Amateur Scouting "the biggest little hire of the week," and wants to make sure you didn't miss the significance. I guess I figured no one commented on it because I made a terrible joke in the Fanshot.

Tomorrow is the first day when free agents are allowed to talk money with other teams. Tom H. has a preview of the Sabathia sweepstakes. Before it gets too hot, let's see what else is on the stove:

D-Backs: Randy Johnson still has not filed for free agency, and is hoping to reach a deal to remain in Arizona.
Dodgers: The team is denying reports that they're listening to offers for C Russell Martin.
Marlins: The next Marlin on the move may be reliever Kevin Gregg, who spent much of the season as their closer before injuring his knee.
Padres: Could be on the verge of trading Jake Peavy to Atlanta for the Snorks.
Reds: David Weathers has not received a contract offer from the team yet, so he's assuming they're not interested in retaining him and preparing to move on.
White Sox: Jermaine Dye could be on the trading block, and team scouts are reportedly in Arizona watching Mets prospects play in the AFL.

Two interesting notes from the Mariners today: First, GM Jack Zduriencik is mulling over adding three more candidates to the list of potential hires before conducting second interviews. He says two former major league managers have been in touch regarding the opening. He stopped short of calling them "NY" and "WR."

Then, in a meeting with season ticket holders, Zduriencik said the Mariners are looking to create a "Department of Baseball Research." If they need someone who wanders around the web and gathers links every morning, I'll listen to offers.

Oh, and if you're out doing routine maintenance on your baseball field today, watch out for military training devices.

Drink up.

Some things to read while staring out the window waiting for spring.

As noted in the FanShots, the NL Gold Gloves were handed out yesterday. No Brewers were selected. Meanwhile, Baseball Musings' Probabilistic Model of Range ranks Brewer shortstops first in all of baseball, and J.J. Hardy as the best full-time defensive shortstop in baseball. The first award will get more publicity, but the second one is the one with the actual correlation to being good at defense. Rollins, by the way, was about the sixth best full-time shortstop.

While we're on the subject of awards, here's two more: CC Sabathia finished fourth in the voting, behind Tim Lincecum, Johan Santana and Brandon Webb in the SB Nation NL Cy Young Voting. Sabathia took third, behind Lincecum and Santana, in Baseball Prospectus' awards.

Also, as noted in the FanShots, CC Sabathia is still telling friends he won't play in New York.

As I write this, 72% of voters in the poll think bringing Mike Cameron back for 2009 was the right decision, with 15% voting no and 12% voting for cheese. That's about what I expected public opinion to be, which is why I was surprised to see almost 60% of voters at JSOnline vote no.

If you are one of the small percentage of BCB readers (or large percentage of JS readers) who want Cameron gone, then you'll be happy to note the rumor that he could be traded to the Yankees for Melky Cabrera and pitching. I guess Cabrera is young and cheap, but for this deal to make sense to me it'd have to net a lot of pitching.

We haven't talked about Corey Hart in a while. According to Beyond the Box Score, Gabe Gross and Nelson Cruz were among the top 25 right fielders in 2008, but Corey Hart was not.

Hot stove notes:

Brave Elmer Dessens filed for free agency.
Dodger Brad Penny had his option for 2009 declined. Also, Russell Martin may not be on the move after all, even for a package that could have netted Scott Olsen and Dan Uggla.
Marlin Scott Olsen could be acquired for a catcher - the Marlins have targeted Ranger Max Ramirez.
White Sox Javier Vazquez and Nick Swisher are reportedly on the trading block.

Drink up.

So the morning after election day used to be a huge hangover day for me. This year, I didn't drink and I'm still sick. That's just not fair.

Let's start with awards today. We all know Jason Kendall had a pretty good season defensively, but would you have guessed he was the second best catcher in all of baseball? The Fielding Bible Awards ranked Kendall second at catcher.

They also ranked J.J. Hardy second at shortstop, which fits in nicely with Beyond the Box Score ranking him as the fourth best shortstop overall.

Some other rankings, while I'm on the subject:

• Walk Like a Sabermetrician ranks Brewer leadoff hitters (mainly Rickie Weeks) 20th in all of baseball in 2008.
• Baseball Musings' Probabilistic Model of Range ranked the Brewers as the 8th best team in baseball defensively.
• Want further proof that all free agents cost more than you think they should? Beyond the Box Score rates Ray Durham as the 20th most valuable free agent this offseason...and says he's worth $10 million.

Marc Hulet of FanGraphs has a review of the Brewer minor leagues in 2009. Players featured include Manny Parra, Jonathan Lucroy, Brent Brewer, Jake Odorizzi and Efrain Nieves.

Here's a quick walk around Rumorville: Bleeding Blue and Teal lists the Brewers as one of the four teams most likely to acquire Mariners closer J.J. Putz. There's also whispers out there about a trade involving Braves 2B Kelly Johnson and Ryan Ludwick, which Al thinks could evolve into conversations about Corey Hart.

Speaking of rumors, Jon Heyman of SI.com has one you almost certainly haven't heard every day for two weeks: the Yankees are interested in CC Sabathia.

He's not getting as much of an opportunity to play in the AFL as I'd like, but The Official Site has a nice profile on Lorenzo Cain and his efforts to be more patient at the plate.

If you're excited about the new MLB Network in January, here's reason to be even more excited: the lead studio host for MLB Network will be former Brewer TV guy Matt Vasgersian. Also, while I haven't seen this confirmed anywhere, Al says Trenni will be there too.

No Brewers filed for free agency Tuesday, but here are some players that did generate hot stove news:

Blue Jay A.J. Burnett officially opted out of his contract Tuesday, leaving him free to seek more than 2 years, $24 million on the open market.
Cardinal Mark Mulder filed for free agency.
Dodgers declined their option on C Gary Bennett and also may be willing to make Russell Martin available.
Marlin Luis Gonzalez filed for free agency.
National Dmitri Young was outrighted to AAA. He accepted the move and is due $5 million in salary in 2009 anyway. He could be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft.
Padre Jake Peavy is reportedly down to three potential teams for next season: the Braves, Cubs and Dodgers.
Yankees Jason Giambi and Carl Pavano both had their option declined for 2009.

Oh, and after three straight nights of waking me up in the middle of the night, I'm about ready to offer Gorman up as a tester for AirDog Hover Vests.

Drink up.

So, in this morning's Mug I included this stat, to get people thinking a bit about the Brewers' catching situation:

The Brewers have what I consider to be a disturbing trend going on with their catchers, dating back to last season, but also visible during the Damian Miller era: They play their starting catchers a lot, often to the point of impacting their performance. Last year, despite being unavailable for some significant stretches of time, Estrada caught more innings than all but 7 NL catchers. He caught nearly everyday despite being nearly unable to move in August and September.

Make no mistake, Jason Kendall is catching a lot this season too. Consider this list: the top 10 NL Catchers by percentage of team innings caught.

Jason Kendall, 88.6%
Brian McCann, 88.1%
Russell Martin, 86.7%
Geovany Soto, 85.2%
Yadier Molina, 79.3%
Bengie Molina, 76.0%
Paul Bako, 71.8%
Chris Snyder, 70.0%
Josh Bard, 70.0%
J.R. Towles, 64.0%

An important note regarding this list: Brian McCann is 24. Martin and Soto are 25. In fact, there's only three catchers on this list over 30: Bako (37), Kendall (34) and Bard (30).

There were only five catchers in the National League who caught 1000 innings last season. Kendall is on pace to catch 1282. That's more than any NL backstop caught in 2007, and it'd be the second highest total of his career. Again, he's 34 years old and has already caught over 14,000 innings. Maybe this would all be irrelevant if he was hitting. But as I mentioned above, there's a visible decline in play. His OPS is down over 150 points in May. And he's still got 4 full months of catching nearly every day ahead of him.

At the same time, he has a capable backup. Mike Rivera battled it out in spring training and beat out an established major league catcher (Eric Munson) and a fan favorite (Vinny Rottino) to earn the right to wear his catcher's gear just 8 times and get just 25 plate appearances in the opening 47 games. It's hard to imagine he's having any luck staying sharp when he's playing less than once per week. But he's still 7-for-24, hitting 27 points better than Kendall.

I don't think one can make an argument that Rivera should play every day, or even that a 50/50 split is in order. I like Kendall's contributions to this team, and I've bought into the hype on his defensive skills and game-calling abilities. I have one simple recommendation that I think would keep Kendall stronger and healthier, keep Rivera getting consistent plate appearances and give the team the best chance to win:

When Manny Parra starts, Mike Rivera should too. This is win-win all around. It gives Kendall consistent rest, Rivera consistent plate appearances, and it gives Parra a familiar catcher to throw to as he works to improve his game at the big league level. Parra has a 4.09 ERA this season when pitching to Rivera, and a 4.50 ERA when pitching to Kendall. Plus, Rivera caught Parra's perfect game in AAA last season.

What do you think?