Tuesday's Frosty Mug

Some things to read while throwing four outside.

There's not much for Brewer news out there today, so we'll start this morning with a look back: Adam McCalvy has a recap of the 2011 season and says most of the Brewers are viewing the glass as half full at this point.

Here's today's notes on Prince Fielder:

• Dodger Thoughts doesn't think the Dodgers can afford to offer the kind of long term deal it would take to land Fielder, even if their ownership situation does get resolved quickly.
• MLB Trade Rumors has a look at the market for first basemen available via free agency and trades this winter.

Today won't be Fielder's day, but it's probably coming soon: Ryan Braun is blowing out the field in the voting for the #1 spot on our list of 2011's Most Valuable Brewers. Voting for #2 will open later today.

Casey McGehee probably won't make our MVB list this year, but is there hope for his future? David Golebiewski of Baseball Analytics has a look at how opposing pitchers used inside sliders to hold him in check this season.

Corey Hart hit 26 home runs this season (plus two more in the playoffs), and did so while swinging a RockBat. Barry Adams of Madison.com talked to bat manufacturer Roland Hernandez about the work he's doing to prevent dangerous broken bats.

For the most part it doesn't look like any 2011 Brewer coaches are candidates for jobs elsewhere this winter. Here's the one exception, though: Dale Sveum's name came up again yesterday as a dark horse candidate for Boston's managerial opening.

In the minors:

• Kentrail Davis went 2-for-3 with a walk, double and stolen base in Peoria's 8-4 win over Scottsdale in AFL play yesterday. You can read about that and more in today's Winter League Notes.
• Meanwhile, Wily Peralta's winter league season is off to a tough start. He's 0-2 with a 9.95 ERA following his first two Dominican Winter League starts. He last pitched on Saturday, so he should be in line to start again Thursday.
• Huntsville Star Brock Kjeldgaard is playing for Canada in this week's Pan-Am games, and Rattler Radio has a photo of his mustache shot during yesterday's 5-3 win over Mexico.
  

Many years Ron Roenicke would probably win NL Manager of the Year, but this season is an exception: The Sporting News handed their version of the award to Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson yesterday.

Around baseball:

Astros: Signed pitchers Alberto Arias, Xavier Cedeno and Jose Valdez to minor league deals.
Phillies: Declined 2012 club options for pitchers Roy Oswalt and Brad Lidge.

If you missed last night's World Series Game 5, then you missed some puzzling decision making, some drama and surprisingly, a fair amount of cursing. Fox caught video of Chris Carpenter letting out a pretty significant stream of expletives at Rangers catcher Mike Napoli after a fly out, roughly the same kind of thing that led to an incident with Nyjer Morgan earlier in the year and caused Zack Greinke to say some non-flattering things about him before the NLCS (FanShot). You can see video of the incident here (h/t @BerniesCrewRyan), or just read Howie Magner's cleaned-up Mad Libs.

I've mentioned the work a couple of times now, but MetsBlog is the first place I've seen a visual estimate of what the new fences at Citi Field in New York will look like once they're done being moved in. Meanwhile, NotGraphs has some additional renovation suggestions.

Here's today's baseball economics note: After a relatively disastrous attendance drop in 2011, the Dodgers are cutting the price of 2012 season tickets by as much as 60% in some areas.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I've figured it out.

Drink up.