What we learned: January 16, 2015

Brewers News and Analysis

• The Brewers avoided arbitration with Martin Maldonado, signing him to a two-year, $1.95 million deal. He will earn a $50,000 signing bonus, a salary of $800,000 in 2015, and $1.1 million in 2016.
• With pitch clocks set to be implemented in the minor leagues starting with the 2015 season, there's discussion going on about how much they will help the pace of the game. Yesterday, Noah had a conversation with some of the other MLB site managers around SB Nation about how the pitch clock will affect the game.
• What is the next step of the development of Wily Peralta? Jordan looked at the next steps for Peralta, breaking down what he does well and what he can still improve on.
• Our Brew Crew Blasts series continued with a look at the longest home runs hit by opposing batters off of Brewers pitchers.
• Adam McCalvy of Brewers.com notes that while the offseason has been slow, the Brewers sale of season tickets is 20% ahead of where it was during the previous offseason.
• With more sites revealing their 2015 projections, Justin Schultz of The First Out At Third blog put together his projections for the Brewers hitters in 2015.'
• Jonathan Lucroy will attend the State of the Union address next week as a guest of Senator Ron Johnson. While that's a big honor for him, Enrique Bakemeyer of The Brewers Bar has an issue with it, believing that sports and politics should remain separate.
• The World Dog Awards were aired last night, and Hank the Ballpark Pup took home the top honor at the awards. Cait Covers the Bases has pictures from the event, as well as some video shown during the broadcast.

Around Baseball

• The Cardinals avoided arbitration with starting pitcher Lance Lynn by signing him to a three-year, $22 million deal. The deal will cover all three of his years of arbitration.
• The Cubs avoided arbitration with LHP Felix Doubront, signing him to a one-year, $1.925 million deal.
• The Rangers avoided arbitration with RHP Neftali Feliz, signing him to a one-year, $4.125 million deal.
• The White Sox will retire Paul Konerko's number 14 next season. He will be the 11th player in White Sox franchise history to have his number retired.
• The season hasn't started yet, but the guarantees are already coming out. Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs is one of the first to make a guarantee, saying that the Cubs will win the NL Central in 2015.
• David Schoenfield of ESPN SweetSpot has a list of the ten worst defensive seasons ever. Two Brewers make appearances on the list.
• MLB Network began relieving their top 10 rankings by position last night, beginning with center fielders and shortstops. The Brewer Nation blog has a rundown of the rankings by position, which will be filled in as the remaining positions are filled.
• Former Brewer Kameron Loe was suspended 50 games yesterday for a second positive test of a "drug of abuse". He was subject to drug tests under MiLB policy, and would have been protected had he been on a major league roster.
• The City of San Jose lost a federal appeal of the dismissal of a lawsuit over MLB's antitrust exemption, which would have allowed the city to pursue the relocation of the Athletics. The next step will be to take this to the Supreme Court, who could have the power to overturn the exemption.
• During Bud Selig's final owners meeting, he became emotional as the owners looked back on everything he has done to improve the game during his tenure as commissioner.
• San Diego's Petco Park has been announced as the host site for the 2016 All-Star Game. They beat out Camden Yards in Baltimore, which had been believed to be the favorite to host the 2016 game.