Monday- Roenicke remains

 
Some things to read while seeing the correlation.

Today, the Milwaukee Brewers open the third week of their offseason, and we finally have an update on the decision we’ve all been waiting for: On Friday, the team announced that Ron Roenicke and most of his coaching staff will return for 2015, with the exceptions of hitting coach Johnny Narron and first base coach Garth Iorg.

Johnny Narron was one of the shortest-tenured members of the Brewers coaching staff, having joined the team when Dale Sveum left to manage the Cubs in 2012. His younger brother, Jerry, remains on the staff as the bench coach. Under Johnny’s tutelage, the Brewers finished near the middle of the pack in most offensive categories in 2014, but several prolonged slumps at the plate contributed greatly to the team’s late collapse.

2014 was Iorg’s fifth partial or full season as a Brewers coach at the big league level, as he was promoted from a minor league role to finish out the season with the team when Ned Yost was fired in 2008 and rejoined the team as a permanent coach in 2011. 

I’ve already mentioned that bench coach Jerry Narron remains with the team, but pitching coach Rick Kranitz, bullpen coach Lee Tunnell, third base coach Ed Sedar and assistants John Shelby, Mike Guerrero and Joe Crawford will all also likely return for 2015. Sedar has been in the organization since 1992 and on the major league coaching staff since 2007. Kranitz, Jerry Narron and Shelby are all original members of Ron Roenicke’s first coaching staff from 2011.

The next Brewers hitting coach will likely face a challenge trying to get Jean Segura to go back to being the hitter he was during the first half of the 2013 season. Segura showed some improvement in the second half this year, hitting .271 with a .330 on-base percentage and .345 slugging in 58 games, so it appears Mike Beisbol of Beisbol’s Org was correct to predict a bounce-back from him.

Jonathan Lucroy, on the other hand, is coming off a career year and may not need to make as many adjustments. Caitlin Moyer has the details on how you can meet Lucroy at the Muscular Distrophy Association’s Muscle Team Gala on Thursday, Nov. 13.

The Brewers still have a decision to make in the next few weeks regarding Yovani Gallardo, but it seems likely they’ll exercise his $13 million club option for 2015 and keep him around for one more season. Gallardo failed to complete 200 innings for the second consecutive season, but his 3.51 ERA in 2014 was the best of his career, and Steven Jewell of Reviewing the Brew has him as the runner-up in that site’s Brewers pitcher of the year voting.

In the minors:

• The Arizona Fall League is off on Sundays, but outfielder Tyrone Taylor still had a big weekend for the Glendale Desert Dogs. He had two hits on Friday and two more on Saturday in a pair of losses, and is 5-for-12 in his three games in the prospect league.
• Wei-Chung Wang was the starting pitcher for the Desert Dogs on Saturday and allowed a single run on two hits over two innings. Also, 2014 Huntsville Star Michael Strong pitched a scoreless inning in that game.
• Meanwhile in Venezuela, 20-year-old shortstop Orlando Arcia has already played in four games for Caribes and hit his first home run of the fall season on Friday. He is 4-for-13 at the plate with four walks in four games.
• The Mexican winter league is also underway, and so far, the only 2014 Brewers minor leaguer to appear in a game is Huntsville Stars reliever and minor league free-agent-to-be Manny Barreda. He retired two batters without allowing a run for Culiacan on Saturday.

Closer to home, if you recently “liked” the Milwaukee Brewers on Facebook, you might have been the 1,000,000th fan to do so. Caitlin Moyer got the Racing Sausages together to celebrate.

Around baseball:

Rangers: Claimed infielder Ed Lucas off waivers from the Marlins.
Yankees: Signed general manager Brian Cashman to a three-year contract extension and fired hitting coach Kevin Long and first base coach Mick Kelleher.

Meanwhile, we learned a little more about the state of the international market over the weekend. Drew Silva of Hardball Talk spotted a report saying Korean infielder Jung-Ho Kang is expected to make the transition to the United States this winter after hitting 38 home runs while playing shortstop in the KBO in 2014.

If you missed Sunday night’s National League Championship Series game, you missed another classic postseason contest in an October that’s been full of them. The Cardinals and Giants were tied 2-2 in the sixth, 3-3 in the seventh and 4-4 in the ninth before St. Louis second baseman Kolten Wong hit a walkoff homer to clinch a 5-4 lead and tie the series at one game apiece. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina left the game with an oblique strain. The two teams are off today before playing in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Royals take their unlikely 2-0 ALCS lead back home to Kansas City for Game 3 tonight. Jeremy Guthrie will pitch for Kansas City against Wei-Yin Chen and the Orioles at 7 p.m. on TBS.

Sunday night’s win more or less assured the Cardinals will remain active in the NLCS long enough for Adam Wainwright’s spot in the rotation to come up again, and it’ll be interesting to see how the team handles that situation. Wainwright has allowed nine runs on 17 hits over just nine postseason innings and is dealing with “aggravation” behind his throwing elbow. The Cardinals ace missed the entire 2011 season but has thrown 726 1/3 regular season and postseason innings in the three years since, an average of 242 per season.

Elsewhere in the NL Central, the Pirates will have a tough decision to make this winter regarding one of the top players from their 2013 and 2014 playoff teams. Catcher Russell Martin’s two-year, $17 million contract will expire after the World Series, and he’s likely due a raise after having arguably his best offensive season. Charlie Wilmoth of Bucs Dugout spotted a report saying the Pirates tried to work out a deal with Martin during the season but were unable to do so.

Today’s collection of former Brewers notes is full of players making a postseason impact:

• Lorenzo Cain remains one of the postseason’s breakout stars, and MLB Statcast has a couple of videos of his remarkable defensive plays over the weekend (h/t BBTF).
• Cain also drew attention last week when he named his son Cameron Loe Cain, but he says the boy isn’t named after former teammate Kameron Loe.
• Alcides Escobar hit a go-ahead home run for the Royals in the first game of the ALCS. He hit just three home runs in 162 regular season appearances and has 21 in seven MLB seasons.
• Jon Morosi of Fox Sports has a story on Cain and Escobar, traded together from the Brewers to the Royals in the Zack Greinke deal (h/t BBTF).
• Meanwhile, Travis Ishikawa had a go-ahead hit in Game 1 of the NLCS on Saturday. Ishikawa is playing out of position in the outfield but made a nice defensive play over the weekend, and David Brown of Yahoo says he’s the right guy to play out there.
• J.J. Hardy and the Orioles have some work to do if they’re going to overcome their 2-0 deficit in the ALCS. Dan Weigel of Beyond the Box Score says Baltimore made the right decision by signing Hardy for three more years. David Golebiewski of Gammons Daily looked at Hardy’s recent power decline and asked if it will continue.
• Former Brewers aren’t just playing in the championship series round this season, they’re also involved in the coverage. Cards Conclave talked to Gabe Kapler about his role in the alternate sabermetric TV broadcast of NLCS Game 1.
• Michael Trzinski of Reviewing the Brew says the 1991 Denver Zephyrs were the fourth-best minor league team in franchise history. That squad featured pitchers Cal Eldred and Doug Henry, and infielder Pat Listach.
• Trzinski also has the third installment in his five-part series on Brewers history, looking at the 1990s.

And in baseball economics:

• Mike Petriello of Dodgers Digest looked at rumors that the Dodgers, who had baseball’s highest payroll in 2014, could look to trim salaries to less than $200 million for 2015.
• The Nationals’ payroll could go in the other direction: Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post reports that Washington is due nearly $300 million from MASN as part of an arbitration ruling from June. The court battle over that money continues.
• The Padres may also have some money to spend, with San Diego chairman Ron Fowler stating that new general manager A.J. Preller will have payroll flexibility for moves he’d like to make during the offseason.

Finally, with help from the Baseball Reference Play Index, we’d like to wish a happy birthday today to:

• 2005-07 Brewer Damian Miller, who turns 45 (Today In Brewer History).
• 2009-10 Brewer Trevor Hoffman, who turns 47.
• 1990 Brewer Mike Capel, who turns 53.
• 1983-84 Brewer Andy Beene, who turns 58.
• Hall of Famer and 1953-65 Milwaukee Brave Eddie Mathews, who would have turned 83 (Today In Brewer History). 
• Muscoda, Wis., native and UW-Madison alum Bob Allen, who would have turned 120. Allen played in the majors as a member of the 1919 Philadelphia Athletics.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to see if there’s any food left.

Drink up.

Don’t forget to follow Kyle on Twitter @BrewFrostyMug, and check out and “like” the Mug’s Facebook page. The Frosty Mug runs mornings Monday-Friday and is brought to you by Legends of the Field, a sports memorabilia company you can trust.