Wednesday's Frosty Mug: Predicting Peralta

Some things to read while showing your good side.

We are 93 days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale, and today we're looking at the challenges of evaluating Wily Peralta's first full season in the majors. Nicholas Zettel of Disciples of Uecker highlights the Brewers' lack of replacement options for Peralta when he struggled in the season's early months, giving him some credit for continuing to battle when he perhaps should have been replaced in the rotation.

Meanwhile, Peralta's 2013 performance plays a key role in Bryan Grosnick of Beyond the Box Score's argument that we should replace ERA as a pitching stat with RA9, which is simply runs allowed per nine innings and includes "unearned" runs. Peralta allowed a lot of unearned runs in 2013.

Today in free agency: The Brewer Nation has a video of one of Corey Hart's offseason workouts. Hart continues to work to prove he's healthy as he searches for a new contract.

Meanwhile on the trade market, we've got some good news for the portion of the fanbase that wants Rickie Weeks out of town by any available means. Benjamin Chase of Tomahawk Take says the Braves would "have to think about it" if Weeks was available cheaply.

Trading Weeks, by the way, is one of six moves The Book of Gorman says they'd make to rebuild the 2014 Brewers.

Here are some quick and sundry notes about three of Weeks' teammates on the 2013 team:

• John Steinmiller and Caitlin Moyer have a look at the t-shirt the Brewers are selling to commemorate Carlos Gomez's Gold Glove Award.
• Matt Klaasen of FanGraphs credited Logan Schafer with 2013's best sacrifice bunt for his walkoff squeeze on September 17.
• Cards Conclave has a look at reliever Michael Blazek's time with the Cardinals and says there's "no obvious reason why he can't be a serviceable bullpen arm for Milwaukee in years to come."
• Yesterday we discussed Martin Maldonado as part of our player-by-player look at the 2013 season. Stop by this afternoon to see who we're profiling today.

The Brewers aren't likely to receive any BBWAA awards this week, but one longtime Brewers minor league coach is receiving a pretty significant honor. Former Nashville manager Mike Guerrero, who was added to the Brewers' MLB staff earlier this offseason, will receive the sixth annual Mike Coolbaugh Award at baseball's winter meetings in December. The award is given to "an individual who has shown an outstanding baseball work ethic, knowledge of the game and skill in mentoring young players on the field."

Elsewhere in the minors:

• Taylor Jungmann's Arizona Fall League season wrapped up with a whimper yesterday, as he started for Surprise and allowed four runs on two hits and four walks over two innings. Mitch Haniger went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, though, as Surprise overcame the rough start to beat Scottsdale 9-7 (box score). Adam Weisenberger went 1-for-5 in the game, and Jason Rogers went 0-for-3 with a walk.
• Adam McCalvy has more on Jungmann's rough outing.
• Bernie Pleskoff of MLB.com (via Twitter) suggested Jungmann was struggling with his rhythm.
• Speaking of the AFL, Eno Sarris of FanGraphs has a look at MLB success rates for AFL All Stars and says that 31% of them have experienced success in the majors. Reliever David Goforth represented the Brewers in the game this year.
• The AFL season wraps up this weekend but Jason Rogers' offseason work will continue. Yesterday he announced that he'll be in the Dominican Republic in five days.
• In the Dominican, by the way, Juan Francisco went 0-for-3 with a walk in Licey's 3-1 loss to Escogido last night (box score).
• And in Puerto Rico, Jose De La Torre pitched .2 scoreless innings in Caguas' 6-3 win over Santurce (box score).

Meanwhile, back in Milwaukee, the Miller Park Stadium District has approved their budget for 2014. Debt service on the stadium's construction is going up from $1.9 million to $3.4 million next year, and the team and district will combine to spend $675,000 on roof maintenance.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Infielder Mark DeRosa announced plans to retire yesterday.
Phillies: Signed outfielder Marlon Byrd to a two-year, $16 million deal.
Rangers: Hired former Cardinals assistant hitting coach Bengie Molina as first base coach.
Reds: Hired former Diamondbacks minor league coach Jeff Pico as their new pitching coach and former Pirates hitting coach Don Long as hitting coach.
Yankees: Signed outfielder Antoan Richardson to a minor league deal.

Meanwhile, one possible free agent import made headlines yesterday by announcing he's staying in Japan. Former MLB pitcher Randy Messenger, who has posted a sub-3.00 ERA over three seasons in Nippon Pro Baseball, re-signed with the Hanshin Tigers.

In former Brewers: Baseball Card Vandals had some borderline-nsfw fun with a Chris Bosio card.

It's been widely publicized that the 2014 MLB season will open overseas, with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks playing a two-game series in Australia. Before that, though, spring training will also extend outside the US: The Yankees and Marlins are expected to play a pair of exhibition games in Panama City.

Finally, with help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy 45th birthday today to 1993-97 Brewer Mark Kiefer.

Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to change poses.

Drink up.