Wednesday's Frosty Mug: At last, Gold.

Some things to read while getting stuck.

I had been doing my best to keep expectations low for a while now, but today Brewers fans have something to celebrate: Carlos Gomez was announced as a Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner on Tuesday night, becoming the first Brewer to receive that honor since Robin Yount in 1982. Adam McCalvy has comments from Gomez and highlights of some of his greatest plays from this season. The Brewers made a cool graphic to mark the occasion.

Gomez now has a Fielding Bible and soon he'll receive a Gold Glove, but there's a chance he'll receive yet another fielding honor: Voting is open for the Platinum Glove, awarded annually to the single best defensive player in each league. Yadier Molina has received the honor in each of the last two seasons. Mark Simon of ESPN makes the case for Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons to win it this year.

Even if Gomez doesn't win a Platinum Glove, though, the fact that he made it this far shows that this award is isn't the farce it used to be. Gomez was up against Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen, who is a better hitter, played on a better team and won the award last year. None of those factors have anything to do with his fielding ability in 2013, but in past years they would've made him a near-lock to be chosen over Gomez. Kudos to the voters for figuring this out.

Meanwhile, Joe Block makes an excellent point in our Tweet of the Day:

Good thing #Brewers signed Gomez. He would've been a free agent this winter.

— Joe Block (@joe_block) October 30, 2013

The Brewers also officially announced a previously reported transaction yesterday, picking up Norichika Aoki's club option for 2014. Some of Aoki's previous incentives escalated the value of this year in his contract, but he'll still make less than $2 million next year.

Aoki spent much of the 2013 season hitting one spot ahead of Jean Segura, whose great first half tailed off a bit later in the year. Ryan Connor of Reviewing the Brew has a look at Segura's two halves, and an attempt to predict what we should expect going forward.

Our player-by-player recap of the 2013 season continued yesterday with JP's MVBrewers profile of Tom Gorzelanny, which you can see here. Check back after 1 to see who we're profiling today.

We profiled Tyler Thornburg as part of that series earlier this week, and yesterday Benjamin Orr of Reviewing the Brew gave him a B+ grade for his work during the 2013 season.

Today in free agency: Pinstriped Bible has profiles of two potential Yankees targets, Dan Haren and Ubaldo Jimenez.

In the minors:

• The Brewers officially announced the release of 14 minor leaguers yesterday, and Brewerfan.net has a quick note on all of them. The most notable names on the list are likely 2011 sixth round pick Danny Keller, 2013 Huntsville reliever Brian Garman and 2012 Nashville Sounds reliever Daniel Meadows.
• The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers officially announced yesterday that manager Matt Erickson will return for a fourth season in 2014. Erickson, an Appleton native and 2004 Brewer, has a 204-209 record in three seasons with Wisconsin, including their 2012 Midwest League Championship year.
• Erickson will have a complete new coaching staff to work with next season: Longtime Brewer farmhand Chuckie Caufield and Ken Dominguez will be Wisconsin's new hitting coaches, while Elvin Nina is their new pitching coach. Both Caufield and Nina coached with Helena in 2013.
• Meanwhile in Arizona, Jason Rogers went 1-for-4 with a walk and scored a run in Surprise's 5-5, eleven inning AFL tie against Glendale yesterday (box score). Adam Weisenberger also went 2-for-5 with an RBI in the game and Kevin Shackelford pitched a scoreless inning.
• Further south, Juan Francisco had a big night in the Dominican Republic last night: He went 3-for-3 with a triple, homer and a walk in Licey's 7-3 win over Aguilas (box score). Sean Halton went 0-for-3 with a walk in the game, while Chris Narveson allowed a single unearned run over five innings.

Earlier this week I shared a link to a Youtube video featuring Joe Block talking about how he uses Microsoft OneNote to prepare for games. If you missed that the first time or want to see more, there's a new expanded version.

Around baseball:

Orioles: Hired former Braves minor league coach Dave Wallace as their new pitching coach.
Rockies: Declined pitcher Rafael Betancourt's club option for 2014.

We've mentioned multiple times, of course, that the Brewers had gone 30 years without a Gold Glove before Gomez was honored last night. Here's a number to put that streak in perspective: The Giants will now take over as the team with the longest active Gold Glove drought. They last won one in 2006.

Finally, today is Manny Parra and 1994 Brewer Dave Valle's 31st and 53rd birthday, respectively. Plunk Everyone notes that Parra's 12 career hit batsmen lead all active pitchers born on October 30, and Valle's 63 career HBP are the third most ever for a player born on this day.

Now, if you'll excuse me, they've got me outnumbered.

Drink up.