Friday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while setting an example.

I haven't mentioned it yet this week, but I probably should have. Take a moment this morning to read Adam McCalvy's story about the family of Treyton Kilar, then go vote for them to receive $250,000 from Pepsi to construct a baseball field in his honor. Go now. The Mug will be here when you get back.

Actually, you probably didn't need to come back, as there's not much going on today. There is this, though: ESPN still doesn't care about the Brewers. They unveiled their plan to televise ten spring training games in March and, as you might expect, the Brewers won't be covered. In fact, the Worldwide Leader is covering just two Cactus League games, both involving the Cubs. Here's a quick breakdown of teams covered:

Actually, let's look at it another way:

ESPN isn't the only one sleeping on the 2011 Brewers: Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is predicting the Reds and Brewers will battle for third and fourth place in the division, behind the Cardinals and Cubs.

Planning on heading to Brewers On Deck next weekend? If so, you may want to take a look at this schedule.

In the minors:

• We're down to the final two spots in our Community Prospect Rankings. Follow this link to vote for #16, if you haven't already.
• Baseball America has posts on Mark Rogers and Logan Schafer, but they're subscriber-only.

Around baseball:

Giants: Avoided arbitration with reliever Javier Lopez ($2.375 million) and signed Jeff Suppan to a minor league deal.
Mariners: Signed Jody Gerut and pitcher Nate Robertson to minor league deals.
Mets: Signed reliever Tim Byrdak to a minor league deal and designated pitcher Tobi Stoner and outfielder Jason Pridie for assignment.
Reds: Signed pitcher Johnny Cueto to a four year, $27 million contract, buying out his arbitration seasons and one free agent year.
Royals: Designated pitcher Dusty Hughes for assignment.
Yankees: Signed outfielder Andruw Jones to a one year, $2 million deal.

Suppan's deal above will pay him $1 million if he makes the Giants and allows him to opt out in late March if he doesn't.

Elsewhere in former Brewers: It appears Brett Lawrie is done at second base. The Blue Jays plan to play him at third this spring.

This doesn't exactly qualify as "former Brewer news," but it's close enough: Jaymes Langrehr of The Brewers Bar noticed Kendall Rogers of Yahoo's story on Dylan Covey's adjustment to life with diabetes in college. It's well worth a read, and I'm glad to see Covey is back on track.

Today in baseball economics: The Orioles are 13 years removed from their last winning season and drew just 1.73 million fans last season, their lowest total since 1988. Things don't project to get much better in 2011, but they're raising ticket prices anyway. It's the first increase since 2006, but that doesn't make the decision any more popular.

Today in sabermetrics: Jeff Zimmerman of FanGraphs has part two of his look at starting pitchers and the disabled list. Follow that link for interesting notes on age and a potential difference between high school and collegiate pitchers.

Another slow news day, another discussion of facial hair: Carson Cistulli has a look at baseball's leading study on the connection between awesomeness and beards.

On this day in 2002, the Brewers traded Jeromy Burnitz, Jeff D'Amico, Lou Collier, Mark Sweeney and cash to the Mets for Lenny Harris, Glendon Rusch and Alex Ochoa. B-Ref estimates Harris, Rusch and Ochoa's combined Brewer value at 0.4 WAR. It's possible the cash by itself was worth more.

With help from Brewerfan.net and the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:

• Brevard County Manatee Shawn Zarraga, who turns 22.
• 1971 Brewer Bob Reynolds, who turns 64.
• 1954-57 Milwaukee Brave Danny O'Connell, who would have turned 84.
• 1901 Milwaukee Brewer Irv Waldron, who would have turned 139.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm almost at the bottom.

Drink up.