Wednesday's Frosty Mug: A Few Extra Dollars In The Budget

Some things to read while fixing your ballot.

The Brewers have some tough decisions to make on the free agent market this winter, but at least now they've got an extra $1.15 million to play with: Jonathan Lucroy finished three days short of the service time cutoff to become what's known as a "Super 2" player, which would have paid him an extra $2 million over the length of his long term deal and a little over a million extra in 2013.

Lucroy, by the way, was the winner of the #6 spot in our MVBrewer rankings, and you can see his profile here. The voting for #7 will remain open until 1:30 today, and the winner will be announced at 2. As of this writing Carlos Gomez leads Zack Greinke by eleven votes.

Speaking of Gomez, The Book Blog named him as one of five defensive center fielders tied for first place in 2012's Fans Scouting Report.

Even without starting on the season's final day, Yovani Gallardo has thrown 430.1 innings since Opening Day 2011. Bill Petti of FanGraphs listed Gallardo as one of 40 pitchers who lost at least .9 mph on their fastball in 2012, a potential sign of long term issues.

If you thought Yovani Gallardo's injury potential was something you didn't want to read about, wait until you see this: Mike Woods of the Appleton Post Crescent used the recent Lance Armstrong news as a springboard to raise more doubts about Ryan Braun.

Today in free agency:

• Parker Hageman of Twins Daily says Shaun Marcum could be a fit for Minnesota.
• Randy Wolf, who might have been a long shot to catch on with a major league team this winter anyway, will have Tommy John surgery and miss the 2013 season.

In the minors: Hunter Morris went 1-for-6 yesterday as Phoenix played to yet another eleven inning Arizona Fall League tie, this one a 7-7 game against Mesa (box score). John Sickels of Minor League Ball has video and a scouting report on the reigning Southern League MVP.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Claimed pitcher David Herndon off waivers from the Phillies and designated pitcher Tyson Brummett for assignment.
Cubs: Hired former major league infielder David Bell as their new third base coach and removed the "interim" tag from hitting coach James Rowson.
Diamondbacks: Received cash from the Orioles in lieu of a PTBNL in the Joe Saunders trade.
Marlins: Fired manager Ozzie Guillen and bench coach Joey Cora.
Nationals: Pitcher Sean Burnett is expected to decline his contract option for 2013 and become a free agent.
Padres: Are expected to release pitcher Micah Owings.
Red Sox: Hired former Blue Jays first base coach Torey Lovullo as their new bench coach.

As I'm sure you've heard, the World Series opens tonight and features a couple of notable former Brewers. Jon Morosi of Fox has a story on Prince Fielder's run to the Series in his first year as a Tiger, while Tom Haudricourt has a reminder that Marco Scutaro was in AAA with the Brewers in 2001. Fielder and Scutaro are two of David Schoenfield of ESPN's ten reasons to watch the Series.

If the infield looks a little yellow in San Francisco tonight, there's a good reason for it: The Giants had to borrow 3,000 pounds of infield clay from the A's to repair damage done during Monday night's deluge during Game 7 of the NLCS.

By the way, there's still time to make plans to join us for a BCB meetup to watch Game One of the World Series at The Tracks Tavern and Grill in Milwaukee tonight. I'll be there, but don't let that keep you away.

If you're lucky enough to be in San Francisco tonight, keep an eye out for remarkably underpriced memorabilia. The team accidentally sold the bat from Hunter Pence's now-famous triple hit double for $400 at one of the park's game-used memorabilia stands.

This morning's edition of Today In Brewer History marks the 42nd anniversary of the Brewers signing pitcher and future longtime coach Bill Castro as an amateur free agent. Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes that it's also been 1000 days since the Brewers signed Jim Edmonds as a free agent.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to turn up the thermostat.

Drink up.