Brewing Up Some Moves

I think my goal this year as a blogger is to see how many Brewers headlines I can start with the phrase "Brewing Up....". It's a classic go-to headline that I am going to do my best to overuse. I start with that phrase on this Thursday, as the Brewers made some moves which are sort of significant.

The more significant of the moves they made is the official signing of starting pitcher Braden Looper. He'll make a base salary of $4.75 million this year, with an additional $750,00 to be earned through incentives (I love contracts with incentives, whoever came up with this idea is a genius). He's signed through 2010, however the second year of the deal is a mutual option between both him and the club.

The sad news in this story is that Vinny Rottino has been designated for assignment. Rottino has always been a favorite of mine, if only for the fact that we share the same university alumni catalogue. The Brewers now have ten days to either release, trade, or sign him to a minor-league deal, but it doesn't look like this La Crosse hometown hero will ever get the same chances that another La Crosse hometown hero, Damian Miller, was privy too. Trust me, La Crosse goes crazy for Damian Miller, but it doesn't look like you'll see a daily Vinny Rottino box score in the La Crosse Tribune anytime soon.

The other move the Crew made was another last ditch effort to improve their starting pitching depth, as pitchers and catchers are set to report on Saturday. Milwaukee claimed Nick Green off waivers from the Angels, a pitcher who was made available after they signed Bobby Abreu. To make room for him on the 40-man, the Brewers DFA'd 26-year old Luis Pena.

With the start of baseball season just days away, it's probably a good time to get caught up on the position battles that will be going on in Arizona this spring for the Crew. Thankfully, Jim over at Bernie's Crew apparently never goes to class and just works on his blog all day, and because of that he is able to give us this wonderful Spring Training Primer. He's definitely Brewing up some good research.