Of course there is no way to know for sure, not all pitchers are created the same and not all innings are the same. Studies have been done that show a very strong correlation between large jumps in IP and injuries so they are just trying to play it safe.
He is doing about what I'd expect, he has played more against lefties than I had hoped because of the Hall injury. His OPS vs righties is down a little but all it takes is a couple HR's in the same week and its right back where you would expect it at .870ish. Platoons are nice and all but most players see a regression(from their good side) when platooned, not playing every day causes problems of its own.
He's completely useless against righties and can't play on a regular basis, not really a lot to love for a team like the Twins. He makes much more sense in a role with a playoff team.
If anyone should be replaced its Vargas but I don't see it happening. We don't want extra innings on the young arms, that is exactly why we signed Suppan in the first place, to not have to overwork/rush the young guys.
He is an average pitcher, he makes average pitcher money. That is what the market is now unfortunately. He is actually having a very normal year for him, he's just got a high ERA to show for it. Which isn't surprising since ERA isn't a stat you want to use to judge how good a pitcher is over the course of a year, I simply cannot say that enough.. I think this team would be in a lot of trouble without his signing though. With Capuano and Sheets going on the DL we already are bumping into innings limits with our young guys and Villaneuva saved the bullpen in the 1st half. If we hadn't signed Suppan I think the pitching staff would be in trouble right now.
The Cubs had a .700 OPS last month and yet scored more runs than almost every team in baseball over that period. Marshall and Marquis are looking shaky lately, Lilly lost command of his curve his last start, Zambrano is having some problems with his foot. If you have watched their games every little thing has bounced their way in the last month, errors, wild pitches winning games, bad calls by umps, ground balls finding holes every time a runner is on etc etc. Don't be blinded by the record, they have been extremely lucky to play much over .500 ball over the past month. I think the division is still up for grabs.
I dont' know what is going to happen from here on out but no team has played more over their heads than the Cubs the past 2 months, that team is nowhere near as good as their record over that span and it will eventually catch up to them.
If somehow one team had 2 games missed and couldn't make them up for some wierd reason it would still require a tie breaker I'm pretty sure. The two teams are tied for 1st right now.
I really don't think this is a hustle thing, Estrada busted his butt to get a double tonight. I think if there was a problem its with his pitch selection, Estrada looked good running the bases and hitting tonight.
It just shows how useless W/L is for judging a pitcher. In those 12 starts he has gone... 8 IP 1 ER 7 IP 2 ER 3.1 IP 1 ER 7 IP 2 ER 7 IP 2 ER More than one of those games should have been won by the Brewers.
I don't really get this line of thinking. A 9 game lead in May is like an NFL team having a 2 game lead after 4 games. That lead is nowhere near safe. The Cubs went on a complete tear and caught us, we are still playing .537 ball which is still a little better than what I expected from this team to begin with.
I would tend to agree. I think the key to this season is that we need to stay in the race so the team gets to play contending baseball late into the season. If we go on a losing streak now and are out of the playoff picture come next month then the season is a failure even if we end up with 83 or 84 wins. If we can find a way to make the playoffs that would obviously be huge too but I think thats going to take the Cubs finally having an injury(dempster and ward don't really count in my book) or falling apart in some way.
Its not the message that bothers me, heck I have never thought we are more than an 85 team win and that was probably not going to be the playoffs. Its posters (and I don't mean you) who contribute nothing to this message board except doom and gloom that drive me nuts. There are posters who don't post anything during/after a win and then come here after a loss to frantically post their negative posts (and not just in this thread). They seem almost excited that the Brewers are losing. Those are the specific people I was talking about in my original post.
Sorry but anyone that has spent the past 3 months chanting the cubs are coming the cubs are coming and are patting their backs now is not a real fan in my book. There are certain posters on this forum that NEVER post anything positive and just come here after a loss and post negatives and those fans are my biggest vent.
Cubs tied us for first place, now all the defeatists can go to bed happy that they finally caught us. Not exactly sure why you guys get so excited about it but I guess some people are just programmed that way. I mean really posts like Blazer's make me ashamed of our fanbase, you are almost giddy that they caught us to prove you 'right' that the Cubs are going to catch us, even though you have been saying the same thing for 3 months now.
yeah I don't disagree. Last night his AB against Sosa was not the Braun we all know and love. He swung at two pitches that Jenkins might have taken and ended up with a K where any ball in play would have won the game for us.
Braun has an .809 OPS vs righties. He has a .720 OPS from innings 6-9. My guess is its just from facing good righty RP's all of the time and never facing lefties late in the game.
Bases loaded, 1 out, Miller fouls off a ball with 2 strikes, it bounces off the ground and into the catchers mitt and they called it strike 3. Home plate umpire didn't see it hit the ground and didn't ask for help so no other umps can speak up.