Tuesday's Frosty Mug: Welcome And Welcome Back

Some things to read while not answering the phone.

A busy November continued for the Brewers yesterday as they added a pair of pitchers to the organizational depth chart.

First, the team announced they've signed 28-year-old right handed reliever Jairo Asencio to a minor league deal and invited him to spring training. Asencio has played in the majors with the Braves, Cubs and Indians and has a career 2.52 ERA over 118 appearances in AAA, with 10.2 strikeouts and 2.9 walks per nine innings. @Mass_Haas pointed out that Asencio is formerly known as Luis Valdez.

Then late last night Frankie De La Cruz's agent reached out to Noah to let him know that the Brewers are bringing the 2011 Brewer back on a minor league deal for next season. FDLC opened 2012 with the Cubs before requesting his release and finishing the season in Taiwan.

Today in free agency:

• Dustin Parkes of Sports On Earth has an offseason preview for the NL Central and predicts the Brewers will pursue Tigers pitcher Anibal Sanchez, "given that he’s the most likely to keep baseballs in the park while pitching at that bandbox stadium of theirs."
• Jon Heyman has contract predictions for each of this winter's top 40 free agents, including a six year/$150 million deal for Zack Greinke.
• Mike Axisa of FanGraphs is listing Nyjer Morgan as a possible bargain on a one year deal.

Heyman is predicting Shaun Marcum will receive two years and $20 million in his free agent contract this winter. We profiled Marcum yesterday as an honorable mention in our MVBrewers series.

Moving on, award season continues this week with one of baseball's biggest no-brainers: Carlos Gomez was honored as the Brewers' top defender as part of the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Awards on Sunday.

Two other awards were announced yesterday but Ryan Braun won't need to dust off any space on his mantle: Buster Posey beat him out for the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America's NL MVP Award, and Andrew McCutchen passed him in the voting for the Players Choice Award for Most Outstanding NL Player. Braun is, however, a starter in the outfield on David Schoenfield of ESPN's MLB postseason All Star team.

Braun is also one of several Brewers closing in on career milestones. The Brewer Nation has a great look at the big numbers on the horizon for the defending NL MVP and several other Brewers.

Corey Hart ranks eleventh in Brewer franchise history with 154 home runs, but this number would suggest that many of them have come in low leverage situations: Matt Klaasen of FanGraphs listed Hart 143rd out of 143 qualified players in his 2012 "King of Little Things" rankings.

Nonetheless Hart will get a 2013 bobblehead, and so will the Polish Sausage: Racing Sausage #2 will have his bobble given away on Sunday, June 23 when the Brewers host the Braves.

If you're coming out to Miller Park to see the 2013 Brewers, getting in and out on a shuttle might be easier next season. Don Walker of the JS reports that the team is upgrading the shuttle unloading area to accommodate more shuttles and reroute foot traffic.

In the minors:

• Jean Segura picked up three hits for Cibao last night in their 6-4 win over Oriente in the Dominican Republic. You can read about that and more in today's Winter League Recap.
• Hunter Morris had a solo home run for Phoenix in the Arizona Fall League yesterday, capping off a day where he was also named the Topps Southern League Player of the Year.
• John Steinmiller is in Arizona, by the way, and in his introductory post yesterday he noted that Brewer reliever Santo Manzanillo has left the fall league with a sore shoulder.
• Elsewhere in Arizona, yesterday noted leisured gentleman Carson Cistulli of FanGraphs noted that Josh Prince is among the AFL leaders in his SCOUT stat for hitters, while Nick Bucci is one of the leaders among pitchers.

If you haven't yet, please take a moment today to vote in this week's BCB Tracking Poll. The poll will remain open through the day today and results will be posted tomorrow.

Around baseball:

Astros: Hired Dennis Martinez and Eduardo Perez as their new bullpen and bench coach, respectively.
Cardinals: Promoted assistant hitting coach John Mabry to hitting coach.
Orioles: Utilityman Steve Tolleson has rejected an outright assignment to the minors and is now a free agent.
Rays: Signed pitcher Joel Peralta to a two year, $6 million deal with a club option for 2015.
Twins: Signed pitchers Samuel Deduno and Esmerling Vasquez to minor league deals with invitations to spring training.
Yankees: Claimed catcher Eli Whiteside off waivers from the Giants.

Today in former Brewers:

• Hank Aaron is batting fifth and playing right field for the all-righty team and Ted Simmons is catching and batting eighth for the switch-hitter team in Joe Posnanski's epic matchup of right vs left (vs switch).
• Brooks Conrad has signed with Japan's Hanshin Tigers.

Finally, today would have been 1961-65 Milwaukee Brave Mack Jones' 74th birthday. Plunk Everyone notes that Jones' 77 career HBP are the most ever for a player born on November 6.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to consider the options.

Drink up.