Monday's Frosty Mug: A Golden Nomination

Some things to read while repurposing your moat.

It's been long expected, but the Brewers received good news on Friday when Rawlings officially announced that Carlos Gomez has been nominated for a Gold Glove Award. Gomez was the only Brewer nominated this year, and no Milwaukee player has won the award since Robin Yount in 1982.

Gold Glove voting has been heavily criticized over the years, with some really dubious decisions made from time to time. It's worth noting, though, that the sabermetric community appears to like this year's field of nominees. Tom Tango of The Book Blog compared the nominations to his 2013 Fans Scouting Report and found that the two line up pretty well.

Jonathan Lucroy was not nominated for a Gold Glove, but is still coming off arguably his best MLB season. The Brewer Nation looks at the likely members of the 2014 lineup and wants you to vote on where Lucroy should hit.

Elsewhere in career years, Tyler Thornburg burst onto the scene with a hot finish to the 2013 season and now projects to be a member of the Opening Day roster next season. We profiled him on Friday as part of our ongoing MVBrewers series. Check back this afternoon to see who we'll profile today.

A year ago at this time Thornburg was a fringe major leaguer, and now the Brewers have a new crop of young players who require them to make a roster decision: Jason Arndt of Brewers Farm Report notes that the Brewers will have to add Hunter Morris and Arizona Fall League standouts Jason Rogers and Tyler Cravy to the 40-man roster or all three players will be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this winter.

Meanwhile, Reviewing the Brew continues to hand out report card grades for the 2013 season. Here are the three players they profiled over the weekend:

Today in free agency:

• David Miniel of FanSided says Corey Hart's free agent market has decreased, but still thinks the Indians, Marlins or Mets could be interested if the Brewers don't re-sign him.
• Amazin' Avenue has a free agent profile of Indians pitcher Scott Kazmir.
• Let's Go Tribe asks if the Indians should make a qualifying offer to Kazmir, who does seem to be drawing a fair amount of conversation recently. Kazmir has had one good year since 2008, though, so paying him ~$14 million on a one year deal seems excessive.

In the minors:

• The Brewers have re-signed infielder Hainley Statia to a minor league deal for 2014. (h/t @BrewersPD). Statia turns 28 in January, played five infield and outfield positions for Nashville in 2013 and hit .241/.352/.326 in 114 games.
• Statia probably won't change this fact: Baseball America ranked all 30 teams by their representation on end-of-season prospect lists and has the Brewers dead last. (h/t @Mass_Haas)
• The Arizona Fall League is off on Sundays but morineko posted our first weekly look at Brewers in winter ball. Check it out for updates on hot streaks for Mitch Haniger, Jason Rogers, Tyler Cravy, Juan Francisco and Sean Halton.
• Francisco, by the way, went 0-for-5 yesterday in the Dominican Republic but still drove in two runs in Licey's 7-0 win over Este. (Box Score)
• Taylor Jungmann remains on the Surprise roster for the Arizona Fall League, but has sat out most of the last two weeks with a groin strain. Gord Ash told Tom Haudricourt the injury is not serious, but the Brewers are being very cautious with it and may hold him out of the rest of the fall schedule.

If you weren't around the site this weekend, you might have missed JP's weekly look at what we learned over the previous seven days. Offseason news is starting to pick up a bit, and that series is a great way to make sure you're not falling behind.

Around baseball:

Padres: Designated pitchers Tommy Layne and Colt Hynes for assignment.
Royals: Hired former Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu as bench coach and longtime minor league manager Mike Jirschele for an unspecified coaching position.
White Sox: Hired former minor league coach Todd Steverson as their new hitting coach.

If teams want to reach out to Japan for help this winter, the door is about to swing open. We had earlier reported that the posting agreement between MLB and Nippon Pro Baseball had expired, but the two sides are reportedly close to a new deal that's relatively similar to the old one.

Today in former Brewers: Frank Jackson of The Hardball Times makes the case for Marquis Grissom as the second-greatest World Series hitter of all time. Grissom played in the Fall Classic in three consecutive seasons as a member of the 1995 and 1996 Braves and 1997 Indians before joining the Brewers in 1998.

Finally, today is 2009 Brewer Braden Looper's 39th and 2002 Brewer Lenny Harris' 49th birthday. Plunk Everyone notes that Looper's 40 career hit batsmen are the third most ever for a pitcher born on October 28, and Harris 17 HBP are the fourth most ever for a hitter born on this day.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need a scrappier lawyer.

Drink up.