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Monday's Frosty Mug: A Different Kind Of Hunting Season

This weekend's top story is yet another buy-low acquisition for the Brewer bullpen.

By Kyle Lobner

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Christian Petersen

Some things to read while changing colors.

This week is gun deer hunting season in Wisconsin (and by the time you read this I'll be out in the woods), but for the Brewers it's always bargain hunting season. They added another arm to their organizational depth over the weekend by signing left-handed pitcher Zack Kroenke, not to be confused with the elite free agent with a similar name, to a minor league deal.

Kroenke is 28 years old, left handed and appeared in the majors with the Diamondbacks in 2010 and 2011. He posted a 5.67 ERA while splitting time between the rotation and bullpen for AAA Reno in 2012 in a notorious hitters' park.

Tom Haudricourt notes that Kroenke, like Frankie De La Cruz, was not invited to major league camp. FDLC's agent, however, told Noah he's likely to get some playing time in MLB games because of the World Baseball Classic. The WBC means a longer spring training with more games, and some players will likely be gone from camp to represent their company (although no Brewers have announced their participation yet).

Elsewhere in free agency:

Meanwhile, odds are we'll have more roster moves to discuss sometime today or early tomorrow: The Brewers have until tomorrow to add players to the 40-man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 draft. Pitcher Hiram Burgos is among the likely additions.

If you've always wanted to be a uniform designer, the Brewers have a new contest you might enjoy: They're asking fans for ideas to design an alternate uniform for the team to wear during their Cactus League game on March 22. Dayn Perry of NotGraphs has what will probably turn out to be the worst suggestion.

Looking back, our player-by-player profile series continued on Friday with this look at former Brewer Randy Wolf. The series will continue through this week.

In the minors: The Arizona Fall League is over and the Brewers' top story from the league has to be unexpected offensive hero Josh Prince, who finished with a .404/.491/.573 line. Prince is 24 and a career .253/.333/.335 hitter in the minors.

Frequent Mug readers are probably familiar with John Steinmiller and Caitlin Moyer's blog, which shares a fair amount of information from inside the organization. Moyer wasinterviewed as part of MLB.com's "Meet the Bloggers" series.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Signed outfielder Melky Cabrera to a two year, $16 million deal.
Marlins: Hired former Indians minor league coach Rob Leary as their new bench coach, and former college coach Chuck Hernandez as their new pitching coach and signed outfielder Juan Pierre to a one year, $1.6 million deal.
Mets: Signed infielder Brian Bixler to a minor league deal.
Padres: Acquired pitcher Tyson Ross and a minor leaguer from the Athletics for utilityman Andy Parrino and pitcher Andrew Werner.
Rangers: Signed pitcher Scott Olsen to a minor league deal.
Tigers: Signed outfielder Torii Hunter to a two year, $26 million deal.

The new Marlins coaches have a tough challenge ahead of them for next season, as the team is doing their best to sell off all their high-priced talent going into 2013. On Friday night Nate had a reminder that we as Brewer fans are lucky to have Mark Attanasio and not an owner like Jeffrey Loria.

In former Brewers:

Bob Uecker isn't a former Brewer, but he is a former Milwaukee Brave and Rowland's Office says he was also the 18th worst Atlanta Brave of all time.

This is how you can tell it's been a slow news weekend around baseball: Rob Neyer has an extended argument for changing the name of Wins Above Replacement (WAR).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to set my alarm for tomorrow.

Drink up.

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