What we learned this week: November 23, 2013

The Brewers offseason is starting to pick up.

We finally started to see some offseason movement for the Brewers in the last week.  Their first set of moves this week was about protecting players, as they added four minor league players to their 40-man roster.  Two of the moves were expected with Hunter Morris and Jason Rogers, but two were a little more of a surprise as they also added Kevin Shackelford and Brooks Hall as well.  These four are now protected from the Rule 5 draft this winter, though other minor-league players will be eligible when it is held.  Rogers and Shackelford, along with some of those Rule 5 draft candidates, are still playing in winter ball, and morineko recapped their previous week on Sunday.

While those moves filled the 40-man roster, a spot was cleared on Friday when a trade was made.  The Brewers sent Burke Badenhop to Boston for minor league reliever Luis Ortega.  Badenhop was a non-tender candidate so his trade is not a complete surprise.  Ortega could be a good piece for the Brewers in the future, or he could just sit in the minor leagues for years.  However, at best, he's at least three years away from making an impact in Milwaukee.

Those were the only moves, but the rumors kept coming out this week.  The Brewers connection to Corey Hart remains, but there's still no movement on that front.  Earlier in the week, it was reported that in addition to the Brewers, the Rockies, Rays, and Red Sox all have interest in signing Corey Hart.  It also came out that Hart would not be cleared medically until early December.  If that's the case, it could be a few weeks before he signs with anyone.

That was the more reasonable rumor of the week.  This next one isn't as reasonable.  A couple of weeks ago, we discussed the possibility of Norichika Aoki getting traded to the New York Mets, and that trades had been discussed with them but had gone nowhere.  Within the last week, some new speculation came out that the Brewers would be more willing to trade Ryan Braun than Norichika Aoki.  You can file that one as a ridiculous rumor, and Doug Melvin even came out and eliminated that possibility after it came out.  The Brewers still appear committed to Ryan Braun, and they hope he will regain fan support when he gets back to playing meaningful games in April.

Members of the Brewers know how donating to charity should work.

When we think of charities, we can sometimes get a bad impression of them.  We can see them as these organizations that spend more money on the organization itself than the actual cause they are raising money for.  It makes us hesitant to donate because we don't know if our money is being used properly.  With the charities the Brewers have, we don't have to worry about that.  Kyle post a report from the Appleton Post-Crescent, who looked into charitable spending from charities.  They found that the Brewers charities spend over 95% of their expenses on the charitable cause.  So, if you're looking for some charity to donate money to, the Brewers have some good choices for you.

The Brewers had varying levels of impact on the different awards winners for the 2013 season.

Were the Brewers responsible for any of the award winners in 2013 winning their awards?  Probably not.  However, they might have had some contribution to who won and didn't win.  Kyle looked into that idea on Monday, analyzing the Brewers performance against the award winners compared to their actual performance.  Some of the candidates were helped by the Brewers, while some were hindered.  It doesn't mean much at the end of the day, but at least it gives us something to talk about for a little bit.

Reviewing the MVBrewers Series

Lesser Brewers: Mike Fiers
Lesser Brewers: Juan Francisco
Lesser Brewers: Chris Narveson
Lesser Brewers: Johnny Hellweg
Lesser Brewers: Alex Gonzalez

The Collection of Mugs

11/18/2013: Counting to 40
11/19/2013: Reasons for optimism
11/20/2013: Rule 5 day of reckoning
11/21/2013: Four more
11/22/2013: Responding to a rumor

Test Your Knowledge

The Thursday Thinker: 25 and over