Pitchers and catchers may not *officially* report to Maryvale until tomorrow, but some of them are already in attendance and today they were joined by AP photographer Morry Gash.

I was so excited when I learned this that I felt I needed to share it immediately. Click "Browse more photos" on the picture above to see more.

Obviously, we all know about the questions regarding Ryan Braun in 2012. Depending on the outcome of his pending appeal the reigning NL MVP could be eligible to play 162 games, 112 or something in between this season, and Major League Baseball is taking every possible delay to avoid telling us what's going on. With that said, even if Braun is suspended for the full 50 games there are a fair number of interesting milestones he could pass this season.

First of all, Braun finished the 2011 season with 898 career hits. 102 more will make him the eleventh Brewer to reach 1000:

Prince Fielder finished his Brewer career with 996 hits, so Braun needs 99 to pass him for eleventh place. Braun has averaged about 1.23 hits per game for his career, so both Fielder's spot on the list and 1000 should be attainable even if he plays a short season.

Braun also finished the 2011 season with 506 runs scored, tied with Jeff Cirillo for 12th on the Brewer all time list. With 91 runs in 2012 he could move all the way up to sixth:

* - Obviously, Weeks is still active and will likely add to that total this season.

Braun stole a career-high 33 bases in 2011, and is now 96-for-120 (80% success rate) for his career. Four more steals are all he needs to join Rickie Weeks and nine other Brewers with 100 steals. Braun's success rate is better than most of the others:

Some things to read while displaying withdrawal symptoms.

We're just one day away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale, so it's time for another batch of spring training previews: Brian Anderson has a list of important dates and a Ron Roenicke story from last season. Nick Prill of The Brewers Bar has a look at five questions the Brewers will face this spring.

One of those questions, of course, is about Ryan Braun. It's been nearly a month since Braun's appeal was heard (and roughly four months since his alleged positive test), but Jeff Passan of Yahoo says Braun may report to camp before this is resolved, and that there's hope for a resolution next week, but it "could bleed into the week after."

Tom Haudricourt says it's "somewhat understandable" that we're still waiting for a decision, but I respectfully disagree. The official reporting date for Brewer position players is a week from today, but most of the players will be there before that. Many of them are there now. The fact that the team still has this hanging over their head is not acceptable. All parties involved have had plenty of time here. It's long past time to resolve this and move on.

While we wait to see what will happen, View From Bernie's Chalet has an early 25 man roster projection with Cesar Izturis, Brooks Conrad and Brandon Kintzler claiming the final three spots. UmpBump has Conrad as the Brewer representative on their list on the NL's best non-roster invitees.

Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com released his list of baseball's top ten defenses lately, and the Brewers appeared as an honorable mention. If they can simply be an average team defensively it'll be a big improvement over what we've seen in recent years.

The team will get an opportunity to show off that defense to a national audience early: Their Monday, April 9 game against the Cubs has been moved to 6 pm to accommodate an ESPN broadcast.

We're 49 days away from Opening Day, and Brewer Nation's "Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers" series continues with a profile of the Brewers' #49, Yovani Gallardo.

In the minors: John Sickels of Minor League Ball listed pitcher Sean Albury (drafted in the 31st round) as one of the potential sleepers selected after the 20th round in 2011.

The Brewers experimented a bit with demand-based pricing last season, and they're expanding the project for 2012: The team announced yesterday that they'll use the flexible price system for loge outfield and bleacher seats for nine games this season.

Sometimes we all need a reminder that we're living in one of the best times ever to be a Brewer fan. Plunk Everyone notes that the Brewers had a .545 winning percentage in Paul Molitor's games, the best mark in franchise history, but four current or recent Brewers (Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder and Corey Hart) are in the top ten.

If you'd like more Brewer coverage today but you're sick of reading, @Mass_Haas has links to Adam McCalvy and Brian Anderson's appearances on WSSP last night.

Around baseball:

Pirates: Won their arbitration case with 1B/OF Garrett Jones, who will make $2.25 million in 2012, and signed third baseman Casey McGehee to a one year, $2.5375 million deal to avoid arbitration.
Rays: Signed catcher Chris Gimenez to a minor league deal.

Now that McGehee has settled, the 2012 arbitration season is over. There were 142 arbitration-eligible players but only seven hearings, with the team beating the player in five of them.

Of course, all of today's news is overshadowed by the fact that Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter, who was just 57 years old, has passed away after a long battle with cancer (FanShot). There's a lot out there about Carter this morning, but I'd recommend you check out what Joe Posnanski had to say.

Today in former Brewers:

In baseball economics: There's a report floating around that private investors in Seattle are working to develop a new arena to host potential NBA and NHL teams in the city. U.S.S. Mariner has a look at the financial impact that could have on the Mariners.

If it wasn't for the Braun non-news, this might have been today's top story: The Rays are unveiling a new alternate mascot, "DJ Kitty."

This morning's edition of Today In Brewer History marks the 12th anniversary of John Jaha signing with Oakland as a free agent, ending a 14 year run in the Brewer organization. Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes that it's also been 3000 days since the Brewers sent Richie Sexson to the Diamondbacks in a nine-player deal.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my luggage is gone.

Drink up.

On this day in 1999 first baseman John Jaha signed with the Athletics as a free agent, ending his Brewer career. Jaha had been in the organization for 14 years, having originally been drafted by the Crew in the 14th round of the 1984 draft.

Jaha had some great seasons in Milwaukee, including a two year stretch in 1995-96 where he hit .305/.395/.556 with 54 home runs. Unfortunately those impressive moments were a little too few and far between: Over his last two seasons for the Brewers his OPS dropped below .800 and he played in just 119 of the team's 324 games.

The A's, meanwhile, got a great deal here. Jaha made the only All Star appearance of his big league career in his first season in Oakland, hitting .276/.414/.556 with a career-high 35 home runs. It was his last season as a full time major leaguer.

With help from Brewerfan.net and the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:

Yovani Gallardo is coming off what you could call the best season of his career. He posted a career-low 3.52 ERA while pitching a career-high 207.1 innings in 2012, earning Cy Young votes for the first time and making three appearances in the postseason.

Since missing nearly the entire 2008 season Gallardo has been pretty durable, making at least 30 starts in each of the last three seasons. If he extends the streak to four in 2012, he'll only be the fourth Brewer to do it:*

* - Mike Caldwell did it five times in six years from 1978-83, with the lone exception being the strike-shortened 1981 season.
** - Slaton made 34 starts as a Tiger in 1978, then came back and made 31 again as a Brewer in 1979.

Gallardo is also currently sixth on the Brewer all-time list with 732 strikeouts. It's unlikely he'll break 1000 this year, but he could move up three spots if he strikes out 200 again:

Gallardo is already, by the way, the only Brewer ever to record three 200 strikeout seasons.

In this morning's Mug I linked to a High Heat Stats post that mentioned a game where Mike Fetters faced six batters while throwing just six pitches. That got me thinking of Brian Shouse, who holds the Brewer franchise record (since 1988, anyway) with nine relief outings of exactly one pitch. I wandered around a bit after that, but ended up here: There are 20 relievers in Brewer franchise history who have compiled a career win probability added (WPA) over 1.000. How many can you name in five minutes?

Here are a couple of hints that might help you:

The rules remain the same: Post your score in the comments but do not comment on any specific answer until after 6 pm Central time, so everyone gets a chance to try it out without having it spoiled for them. And, of course, there's no reason to cheat here, because there aren't any prizes.

It's highly unlikely anyone can get all of these without cheating. If you do, be sure to post your time along with your score in the comments.

Have fun, and don't forget to post your score in the comments!

If you've finished that one and you're looking for more Brewer Sporcle today, here are this offseason's other quizzes:

Some things to read while catching up on your reading.

We're still two days away from the official start of spring training in Maryvale, but as of yesterday Gord Ash reported that 19 Brewers are already in camp getting ready for the 2012 season. There's still a chance this could be the Brewers' last spring at the facility: Their lease expires in April but the team holds a series of three two-year options to extend the deal if they can't find a better alternative in time.

Not that long ago, guys like Jeff Suppan, Braden Looper and Dave Bush were competing for the #2 spot in the Brewer rotation. But times have changed quickly, and Zack Greinke and Yovani Gallardo have given the team two bona fide frontline starters. Ryan Smith of Cream City Cables has more on the development.

With that said, Shaun Marcum isn't bad either. He was listed as an honorable mention on Albert Lyu of FanGraphs' ranking of baseball's top five changeups in 2011.

Of course, Greinke and Marcum are both still on pace to be eligible for free agency this winter. MLB Trade Rumors says the Brewers will almost certainly receive compensation if Greinke departs, and could possibly get draft picks for Marcum too.

Brewer Nation's "Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers" series continues today with a profile of Kameron Loe.

It's a little too early to set your DVR, so I guess you'll have to mark your calendar for now: The Brewer episode of MLB Network's "30 Clubs in 30 Days" series will air on March 19 at 7 pm.

"I'll be in Arizona," however, is an acceptable excuse for missing the show. EAS Sports Nutrition is giving away a three day trip to spring training to one lucky fan on their Facebook page.

In the minors:

If you spend any time at all on the internet you're probably already familiar with and sick of the "Sh*t (insert group of people here) Do" meme which continues its slow crawl across our collective conscience. With that said, I did laugh a couple of times at Nyjer Morgan's contribution to the collection.

For my money, this video is a better use of your time: Grim Spandango is back as Fake Doug Melvin with his rendition of "You're My Deputy," a parody of Jewel's "You Were Meant For Me." Personally, I think it's the best one in the series.

Around baseball:

Giants: Re-signed outfielder Justin Christian to a minor league deal.
Orioles: Released pitcher Clay Rapada.
Red Sox: Signed pitcher Ross Ohlendorf to a minor league deal.
Twins: Signed infielder Alexi Casilla to a one year, $1.4 million deal to avoid arbitration.

If Livan Hernandez pitches in the big leagues in 2012 it'll be his 17th major league season, and the Astros will be his eighth team. Despite the fact that he's made over $50 million over the last two decades, though, his wages with the Astros this season will likely be garnished to help pay off nearly $500,000 in delinquent bank debt.

Today in former Brewers:

This morning's edition of Today In Brewer History remembers one year ago today when the 2011 Brewers officially opened spring training. Chris Jaffe of The Hardball Times notes that it's also the 59th anniversary of a four team trade that brought slugger Joe Adcock to the Milwaukee Braves, the 32nd anniversary of Harvey Kuenn's emergency amputation of his lower right leg and the eleventh anniversary of the death of longtime Milwaukee Brave Bob Buhl.

Today is also 1970's Brewer Bobby Darwin's 69th birthday. Plunk Everyone notes that his 37 career HBP are third all time among batters born on February 16.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to round up some outlaws.

Drink up.

On this day one year ago, pitchers and catchers reported to Maryvale for the first official day of spring training in 2011. It was a simpler time, certainly. We didn't know yet that Zack Greinke was reporting to camp with cracked ribs that would force him to open the season on the DL. We hadn't seen Yuniesky Betancourt in a Brewer uniform, and we had no idea that Ron Roenicke was going to start Mark Kotsay in center field in an NLCS game.

We also didn't know, however, that the team was about to sign Rickie Weeks to a long term deal, that one of the 2011 team's biggest stars (Nyjer Morgan) was still weeks away from joining the roster or that John Axford was about to post a sub-2 ERA while leading the National League in saves.

All told, given the opportunity I'd most certainly go back and experience 2011 all over again. I guess we can only hope the 2012 season is that much fun.

With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to: