Friday's Frosty Mug Is The Best Bargain You'll Get Today

Some things to read while planting a seed.

As expected yesterday was something of a quiet news day for the Brewers but Adam McCalvy does have a nice reflection piece up on Ben Rouse, the leukemia survivor who attended all 162 Brewer games in 2012 and recently got engaged.

You know you're coming off a bad season when "not last" is a surprise: Dan Lependorf of The Hardball Times did some advanced math to use WPA to grade bullpen management, and the Brewers were only 27th by his measurement. The Dodgers, Red Sox and Nationals were all worse.

2013 will be Yovani Gallardo's seventh major league season, but to me it already feels like he's been around longer than that. Nicholas Zettel of Disciples of Uecker was present for and remembers Gallardo's major league debut against the Giants in 2007.

In the minors: It's still much too early for this, but Minor League Rundown is predicting the Brewers will select California high school LHP Stephen Gonsalves with the 17th overall pick next June.

BCB took most of the day off for the holiday yesterday, but if you weren't around you might have missed this week's Thursday Thinker on Brewers born in November. Take a look at it if you haven't and let me know if I should do eleven more of them.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Signed pitchers Neil Wagner and Alex Hinshaw, second baseman Jim Negrych and outfielder Ricardo Nanita to minor league deals.
Cubs: Signed outfielders Brian Bogusevic and Johermyn Chavez, infielder Alberto Gonzalez and catcher J.C. Boscan to minor league deals and sold first baseman Bryan LaHair to Japan's Fukuoka Softbank Hawks for $950,000.
Pirates: Signed pitchers Brooks Brown and Eric Cordier to minor league deals.
Red Sox: Signed outfielder Jonny Gomez to a two year, $10 million deal.
Reds: Signed infielder Emmanuel Burriss to a a minor league deal.
White Sox: Signed outfielder Dewayne Wise to a one year, $700,000 deal.

It was also reported over the weekend that the Jays had signed Cesar Izturis, but it turns out they actually signed his half-brother Julio.

Elsewhere in former Brewers: MLB.com has a nice story on Cubs pitching coach Chris Bosio and his foundation to help cancer patients. Bosio is spending the offseason recovering from a recent double knee replacement.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to make my guess.

Drink up.