Dave Bush is one of those players (like Rickie Weeks) that I always loved even when no one else did. He was the key piece in the Lyle Overbay trade in 2006, and I don't think that most people realize how good he is. That's because with pitchers (unless they are super like Yovani Gallardo) you don't really notice them unless they are bad. And while Dave Bush has been really good a few times (he took 2 no-hitters into the 7th or 8th innings as a member of the Brewers) he's mostly been an average pitcher who has had a couple of bad outings as well. Aside from 2009 when he was injured, Bush was everything that you could ask for in a #4 pitcher. In 2006 he was 12-11 with a 4.41 ERA. In 2007 he was 12-10 with a 5.12 ERA. In 2008 he was 9-10 with a 4.12 ERA. He started off hot in 2009, but then a freak injury really messed up his entire season. I'll get to that in a little bit. But aside from being injured in one year with the Brewers, he was the most consistent starter. He gave you 185-210 innings of 4-5 run ball. As the #4 guy you can go with that, especially when he wasn't costing the Brewers a lot of money. I believe he's only going to be making something like $4 million this year, which is great considering that other pitchers who have the same statistics (Suppan at $12.5 million and Wolf at $9 million) are getting paid a hell of a lot more to basically do the same job.But what separates Bush from Suppan is that Bush has a sweet Mountain Man beard. In the offseason when most players go to warmer climates like Arizona and California, Bush goes back home to Maine where he enjoys woodworking, hiking and camping. But he also attacks the strike zone, sometimes to a fault. He hates to give up walks and he's not afraid to pitch close to a batter. He regularly lead the team in hit batters. The phrase that they always used to describe Bush was "Bulldog Mentality" because he attacked so fiercely and was relentless in throwing strikes. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not. Such is the tale of a .500 pitcher.
But what separates Bush from the majority of other .500 pitchers is that he has the stuff to be really good, and you have the feeling that he is due for a breakout season. His insistence on throwing strikes and getting ahead in the count to a batter almost cost him his job though, as it looked like he was headed towards the bullpen in 2010 because he does have experience pitching in relief. I would like to mention that he did not fare so well in that role. Some pitchers are starters and some are relievers. You'll rarely find one that can flip between the two roles effectively in the course of a season. You'll see pitchers that began their career as starters only to convert to relievers later on or vice versa. That's because preparing to start once every five days is a hell of a lot different than pitching every other day in the bullpen. Of the 7 projected starters (Gallardo, Wolf, Davis, Bush, Parra, Suppan and Narveson) only Bush and Narveson have proven to be effective coming out of the bullpen, and after an injury plagued 2009 and an effort to keep pitching depth, it seemed like he was ticketed for that spot. But then Macha named him the #4 starter, and I couldn't be happier for my man Bush.
One of the reasons that I had to wait until today to write this article because there was so much uncertainty of who would be the 5 pitchers in the starting rotation. A lot of that cleared up when Bush was named the #4 guy and Jeff Suppan went on the DL, and it also helps that the Brewers don't need a 5th starter until like April 15th or some shit. But back in 2009 Bush's future with the Brewers was pretty damn cloudy. On June 4th last year, Bush got hit in the right arm with a comebacker off the bat of Haley Ramirez, and he was never the same for the remainder of the season. After spending something like 6 weeks on the DL, he pitched so poorly in the 2nd half of the season that he finished with a stat line of 5-9 with a 6.38 ERA and only 114 innings pitched. You could tell that something was wrong and that his arm was bothering him because he just didn't look right. Remember that this was the same Dave Bush that pitched in Game 3 of the 2008 NLDS (the first Brewers playoff home game since 1982) with the Brewers down 2-0 in the series, and he ended up getting the win. To go from that high to this low must have surely disappointed him. So he came into Spring Training with something to prove, and his mentality and performance earned him the #4 spot. His right arm certainly helped too because you don't want too many lefties (such as Wolf, Davis, Parra and Narveson) in the starting rotation, plus Jeff Suppan was just so bad that Bush was pretty much handed the spot. But his history with the team also didn't go overlooked, and he will be a solid pitcher in that starting 5.
The other reason why I like Bush is because of his name. I love Bush. I always wanted to hold a sign like this one at Miller Park because unless I was blocking someone's view of the game, they couldn't ask me to put the sign away. So I would be able to say that I love Bush (referencing the player wearing #31 on the Brewers roster) while at the same time saying that I love bush (referencing female genitalia). I could even shout "I love Bush!" when he strikes out a batter because for all they know, I was cheering him on. Once again, I am making it look like I all I do is shout quasi-sexual things at the ballpark but it couldn't be further than the truth. Ask anyone who has been to a game with me, and they'll say that I waste more of my energy coming up with random and clever things to shout that going for the obvious sexual reference. But it's still fun to drop the Bush line, because even if they get what I'm really talking about, there was nothing they could do about it.One more thing on this topic and then I will cease to mention it. We used to have an outfielder named Gabe Gross. Let's just say that on days when Bush was pitching, the manager did not put Gross in the 8th spot in the lineup in front of the #9 batter Bush, no matter how funny it would look in the scorecard or up on the giant video board. And if you just realized that I am extremely childish, then you are pretty new to this blog. One thing that isn't childish will be Dave Bush's stat line in 2010 if he doesn't get struck by a line drive and sit out half the season with a freak injury:
4.35 ERA, 12-11 record, 189 innings pitched, 132 strikeouts and the distinction of being the only player on the roster where I can shout out his name and totally be referring to something else.
I always wanted a Dave Bush jersey. I almost got one a few years ago but at the time I was still trying to complete my set of all of the position players and Bush just kind of got lost in the mix. He's got to be a free agent pretty soon, and if he signs an extension or a new contract with the Brewers I will be motivated strongly to get one. I own only 2 jerseys of Brewers pitchers with one being Yovani Gallardo and the other being Manny Parra. The Brewers will do whatever they can to keep Gallardo in that blue #49 jersey for the remainder of his career, but Parra's #26 is in jeopardy. When I got my Parra jersey he was wearing #43, so that has already changed. And if Parra doesn't get out of his head and finally put it all together this year, we may see him in a different jersey but this time the front of the jersey will have changed. But that my friends, is a topic that will be covered tomorrow. Brewers! Brewers! Keep Turnin' Up the Heat!
- pookon -
www.pookon.com
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment