Monday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while investigating a possibility.

The managerial search is still in play, but two Brewer coaches are now guaranteed to return (or at least get paid) for 2011. Dale Sveum signed a two year deal over the weekend to return for a third season as the Brewer hitting coach (FanShot). Sveum has been with the team in one of four roles (third base coach, bench coach, interim manager and hitting coach) since 2006. Tom Haudricourt says it's not unusual for new managers to inherit some of their coaching staff.

Speaking of Haudricourt, he's also hearing that Bob Melvin and Joey Cora have had their second interviews for the Brewer managerial vacancy. We're still not sure who the other two finalists are, but we know Pat Listach isn't one of them (FanShot).

Dale Sveum and Ken Macha had both interviewed for the Pirates' job, but both have been informed they're no longer being considered.

Last week the Milwaukee chapter of the BBWAA named Casey McGehee the Brewers' 2010 MVP. That convinced Jaymes Langrehr of The Brewers Bar to host the 2010 Brewer Blogger Awards, which I'm hoping will become an annual tradition. Here are this year's winners:

You can follow this link to check out the detailed results and see who we voted for. Nicole, Noah, Jordan, HangWith'em Rach and I participated in the balloting.

It's entirely possible one of the offseason's biggest storylines will be the team's efforts to sign Rickie Weeks to a long term deal. Nicholas Zettel of Bernie's Crew has a look at the market and some comparable deals and doesn't believe Weeks can be extended for under $40 million.

With that said, the Brewers do have some cash available: MLB Trade Rumors says the Brewers have just $32.371 million tied up in contracts for 2011. That number is somewhat deceptive, though, because it doesn't include salaries the team will pay to arbitration eligible players.

In case you've forgotten: Ryan Braun is still pretty good. He's 31st on Plunk Everyone's list of active career BACON (batting consistency) leaders.

It was a busy weekend for Brewers in the Arizona Fall and Caribbean Leagues: Carlos Gomez made his Dominican League debut on Friday (Winter League Update) and Jeremy Jeffress impressed Keith Law with his performance for Surprise, hitting 97 on the gun with "a hard curveball."

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Are expected to hire Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell as their new manager.

Today in former Brewers:

• At FanGraphs, Jack Moore has a look at third basemen with pending contract options, and says Bill Hall "deserves a multi-million dollar deal, and he probably deserves the chance to compete for a starting job somewhere around the league."
• The Chicago Tribune is reporting that a tight offseason budget might cause the Twins to non-tender J.J. Hardy.
• Baseball Brew has a list of the six former Brewers working for the Rangers.
• Kevin Mench nearly won Capitol Punishment's search for the Most Random National.

It's relevant to nothing, but here's a story I thought was interesting: The A's are parting ways with their team medical staff and pitcher Dallas Braden intends to sue them over a procedure where a cyst was removed from his foot without anesthesia, and a nerve was cut that's causing numbness and pain when he pitches.

The World Series doesn't start until Wednesday so, once again, you've got a couple of days to kill without baseball on TV. There are probably better ways to do it than infomercial analysis.

Either way, we can only hope that the World Series is as good as the NLCS was: Jeff Fletcher of AOL notes that the two teams were within two runs of each other in 47 of the 54 innings.

Happy birthday over the weekend to:

• Helena Brewer Tyler Roberts, who turns 20 today.
• 1985-86 Brewer Danny Darwin, who turns 55 today.
• 1954-57 Milwaukee Brave Bobby Thomson, who turns 87 today.
• Brevard County Manatee Darren Byrd, who turned 24 Sunday.
• 2002 Brewer Mike Matthews, who turned 37 Sunday.
• David Riske, who turned 34 Saturday.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a phobia to name.

Drink up.