Tomorrow is Opening Day. Now don't get me wrong I love baseball more than anyone else and I'm super excited for the season to begin, but at this very moment, at 11:26 PM the night before, I am more excited to be done with "25 Brewers in 25 Days." This thing has been downright brutal and I only slipped up once (when I was too drunk to write the Dave Bush article a few nights ago). I was going to do a recap of this series, and I may still do that, but for now I'll just say that I was right on 23 of the 25 men to make the Opening Day roster when I planned out this project back in early March. The only ones that I had missed were George Kottaras (my pick was Jonathon Lucroy because I'm so high on him) and Carlos Villanueva. Carlos would have been an automatic lock if not for the Brewers need to hold on to both Manny Parra and Chris Narveson or risk losing them. What threw a big wrench into the machine was that Carlos Villanueva had a minor league option remaining, and they could send him down to AAA Nashville and still hold on to him. So I held off on including him in this feature until it shook itself out. And then Jeff Suppan went on the DL with "cervical disc pain" in his neck. And just like that, Villanueva made the team. But for how long? That question will be answered once Suppan's DL stint is over and he is reactivated.
Carlos Villanueva came up to the Major Leagues as a starter, then flipped back and forth between the starting role and the bullpen. In his first 3 years with the team (2006-2008) he was fairly effective. Take a look at these stats so you can understand why Carlos Villanueva has been an important member of this pitching staff. 2006 - 3.69 ERA, 2-2 record, 6 starts and 53.2 total innings pitched. 2007 - 3.94 ERA, 8-5 record, 6 starts and 114.1 total innings pitched. 2008 - 4.07 ERA, 4-7 record, 9 starts and 108.1 innings pitched. Then 2009 hit and Carlos hit rock bottom - 5.34 ERA, 4-10 record, 6 starts and 96 total innings pitched. A quick glance through those stats and the first thing that stands out is that he got progressively worse as the seasons went on. But last year he did have a 4.84 ERA as a reliever, which is a little on the high side but still not that bad. It seems like the Brewers now see him as just a reliever, and if he knows his role and sticks with that, he might be able to have more success with it. Some guys (like I mentioned in the LaTroy Hawkins article) are just better at one role versus the other. If Villanueva makes it through the entire season as a reliever we just may have the stats to back that up.
But he may not make it through the entire season. I would go so far as to say that no team in the history of baseball has ever gone throw the entire season with the same 12 pitchers that were on the Opening Day roster. It has to be impossible. Between injury, trades and poor performance guys go on the DL, go to another team or go down to the minors. So given that he has an option remaining, and the fact that there are a couple of promising prospects down in the minors (Zach Braddock, John Axford and Josh Butler to name a few) who should see some playing time this year. And then a player has to go when Suppan returns. Because you know with his $12.5 million dollar salary he's going to get at least 10 starts to prove that he belongs in the starting rotation. If he's healthy that is. So it is up to Carlos to do whatever he can to stay in Milwaukee instead of Nashville. Because after the year he had in 2009, he's got a big ol' target on his back. But if he goes down to Nashville at least he can share an apartment with Mat Gamel. Because unless Casey McGehee totally falls apart ("I hope not") Gamel's going to be down there for the whole year. So it took an injury to shake out the pitching staff and we still don't have a body occupying that 5th spot in the starting rotation. That spot (when it is needed on April 15th or 16th) is still listed as TBA and could be filled by Suppan (assuming he only needed 15 days on the DL), Parra or Narveson. So there are still a ton of questions to be answered. But as of today, the 25 man roster is set for Opening Day.
So Carlos Villanueva made the cut... for now. But he will definitely have to pitch better than he did in 2009 to stay there. This is going to be another difficult one to predict, but I'll go ahead and give it the "old college try":
4.84 ERA, 4-6 record, 52 innings pitched all in relief and the first one to get sent down to the minors when a roster spot is needed. But he will also be the first one recalled back the Majors should someone get injured.
Well, that's it. 25 days, 25 articles, 25 men on the Opening Day Roster. It's been a very interesting journey but it's time for Opening Day and time for the games to start counting for real. I'll come on here every now and then and do some kind of Brewers write up because I know that this won't be the last time this season I'll have something to say. Just think, the minute that Corey Hart says or does something stupid I'll be on here to rant about it. And we all know that it is coming sooner rather than later. But I can't help feeling like I forgot something. Kind of like when you leave to go on vacation and you feel like you left the oven light on or you forgot your 8-year old son Home Alone when you went with the rest of the family to France. It's nagging in the back of my mind. What could it be?
BUT WAIT!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THERE IS ONE MORE PLAYER WHO HAS $42 MILLION REASONS WHY HE DESERVES TO BE FEATURED IN "25 BREWERS IN 25 DAYS". AND THAT WOULD BE EVERYONE'S FAVORITE BREWERS PLAYER - THE ONE AND ONLY JEFF SUPPAN. It may take me a couple of days to write this one, because I do need a day or two to recharge my batteries. Hell, I just gave you 25 feature articles in 25 days. But I do thank you for following along with me, and I do promise you that the Suppan article will be a fantastic grande finale to close out this segment of Brewers coverage on Pookon's Ill Blog. Because everyone who has followed the Brewers over the last 3 years can agree with me that there are plenty of things to say about Jeff Suppan. And surprisingly enough, not all of them are bad. SAY WHAT!?! I know you're dying to find out what good I could possible say about "Soup", but that my friends is a topic that will be covered tomorrow (or in the next few days). Brewers, Brewers, Keep Turning Up the Heat!
- pookon -
www.pookon.com
email:pookondotcom@gmail.com
But he may not make it through the entire season. I would go so far as to say that no team in the history of baseball has ever gone throw the entire season with the same 12 pitchers that were on the Opening Day roster. It has to be impossible. Between injury, trades and poor performance guys go on the DL, go to another team or go down to the minors. So given that he has an option remaining, and the fact that there are a couple of promising prospects down in the minors (Zach Braddock, John Axford and Josh Butler to name a few) who should see some playing time this year. And then a player has to go when Suppan returns. Because you know with his $12.5 million dollar salary he's going to get at least 10 starts to prove that he belongs in the starting rotation. If he's healthy that is. So it is up to Carlos to do whatever he can to stay in Milwaukee instead of Nashville. Because after the year he had in 2009, he's got a big ol' target on his back. But if he goes down to Nashville at least he can share an apartment with Mat Gamel. Because unless Casey McGehee totally falls apart ("I hope not") Gamel's going to be down there for the whole year. So it took an injury to shake out the pitching staff and we still don't have a body occupying that 5th spot in the starting rotation. That spot (when it is needed on April 15th or 16th) is still listed as TBA and could be filled by Suppan (assuming he only needed 15 days on the DL), Parra or Narveson. So there are still a ton of questions to be answered. But as of today, the 25 man roster is set for Opening Day.So Carlos Villanueva made the cut... for now. But he will definitely have to pitch better than he did in 2009 to stay there. This is going to be another difficult one to predict, but I'll go ahead and give it the "old college try":
4.84 ERA, 4-6 record, 52 innings pitched all in relief and the first one to get sent down to the minors when a roster spot is needed. But he will also be the first one recalled back the Majors should someone get injured.
Well, that's it. 25 days, 25 articles, 25 men on the Opening Day Roster. It's been a very interesting journey but it's time for Opening Day and time for the games to start counting for real. I'll come on here every now and then and do some kind of Brewers write up because I know that this won't be the last time this season I'll have something to say. Just think, the minute that Corey Hart says or does something stupid I'll be on here to rant about it. And we all know that it is coming sooner rather than later. But I can't help feeling like I forgot something. Kind of like when you leave to go on vacation and you feel like you left the oven light on or you forgot your 8-year old son Home Alone when you went with the rest of the family to France. It's nagging in the back of my mind. What could it be?
BUT WAIT!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THERE IS ONE MORE PLAYER WHO HAS $42 MILLION REASONS WHY HE DESERVES TO BE FEATURED IN "25 BREWERS IN 25 DAYS". AND THAT WOULD BE EVERYONE'S FAVORITE BREWERS PLAYER - THE ONE AND ONLY JEFF SUPPAN. It may take me a couple of days to write this one, because I do need a day or two to recharge my batteries. Hell, I just gave you 25 feature articles in 25 days. But I do thank you for following along with me, and I do promise you that the Suppan article will be a fantastic grande finale to close out this segment of Brewers coverage on Pookon's Ill Blog. Because everyone who has followed the Brewers over the last 3 years can agree with me that there are plenty of things to say about Jeff Suppan. And surprisingly enough, not all of them are bad. SAY WHAT!?! I know you're dying to find out what good I could possible say about "Soup", but that my friends is a topic that will be covered tomorrow (or in the next few days). Brewers, Brewers, Keep Turning Up the Heat!
- pookon -
www.pookon.com
email:pookondotcom@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment