Brewers Warming Up in Spring

Feb. 22, the Milwaukee Brewers opened spring training at Maryvale Baseball Park in the teams’ 40th Anniversary season. The Brewers pitchers were the first to report, with the position players to report on Friday.
The Brewers come into the 2010 season with many new faces that hope to improve on their 2009 pitching woes. Randy Wolf and Doug Davis are the two guys expected to join Yovani Gallardo to improve the front of the rotation.
Many people I have talked to aren’t happy with the signing of Wolf because they think he may turn out to be another Jeff Suppan. When the Brewers signed Suppan he came off a down year and was overpaid in a four-year contract. In Wolf’s case he is a year younger than Suppan, came off a good 2009 campaign with the LA Dodgers, and though he may have been overpaid he only signed a three-year deal and was one of the best starters available in free agency.
The other thing being talked about with the Brewers are having six starting pitchers for five sports in the rotation. The top three in the order are set with Gallardo, Wolf and Davis most likely in that order. The following three spots are going to have to be fought out for in spring training between Dave Bush, Jeff Suppan and Manny Parra.
Parra is likely a lock for the rotation because he is out of minor league options, which leaves him too valuable for the Brewers to lose, which means the last spot is between Bush and Suppan.
With the way Bush’s contract is structured the Brewers can cut Bush before the season starts and only have to pay a fraction of his contract, which is a likely possibility if Bush pitches like he did after he took the line drive off his arm against the Florida Marlins. Plain and simple though, ever since Suppan has been and Milwaukee he has done very little to help the Brewers succeed. He’s had a few bright spots but it never last more than a month.
To me the last spot will go to Bush with Suppan going to the bullpen as a long reliever. The move gives the Brewers a decent reliever because Suppan won’t have to pitch more than three innings and also gives them an option if anyone goes down or struggles throughout the year.
As we know anything can happen and things can change throughout the spring, but best case scenario everyone pitches well or Suppan and his $12 million contract gets cut or traded.

Adam Billmann