Brewer Pitching

[Steve-o]

Who do the Brewers cut? This will be the most interesting thing about spring training for the Brewers.

Right now the Brewers have 19 pitchers under major league contracts. They will need to cut that down to at least 13 (maybe 12). Sheets, Suppan, Gallardo are starters, while Gagne, Turnbow, and Riske are in the pen. That leaves 13 pitchers for 7 spots.

Stetter, Pena, and Dillard all have options left, so they go back to the minors. 10 pitchers for 7 spots.

Breaking those 7 spots left down further, it's 2 starters, 1 long reliever/injury starter, and 4 bull pen arms. I think Capuano and Bush (Bush is not under contract right now, but the Brewers did agree to arbitration with him) end up being starters (though I would prefer to see Parra in there). That's 8 pitchers for 5 spots (1 long relief, 4 bullpen).

Parra, Villanueva, Vargas, Torres, Mota, Shouse, McClung, and Choate are left. I figure we cut Choate (because he sucks). 7 for 5.

Starters first: On solution involves Parra having an option left, but I would hate to see him sent down because he is a better pitcher than half the guys on that list. Villanueva likely is the long relief guy because he has experience with that in the past. That leaves us with no place for Vargas. Vargas has already been DFA-ed once by Washington and traded from the D-Backs. They will not be much of a market for him. I bet he gets cut or traded for a bag of balls, even though he just signed a 1year 3.6M deal on 1/16/08. Brewers may have to eat that contract.

That leaves 4 guys for 3 spots (assuming Parra is not optioned down, Vargas is cut/traded, and Villanueva gets the long relief spot). Who sucks the most among Torres, Mota, Shouse and McClung? Torres and Mota make 3.2M, Shouse 2M, and McClung .75M. Since I am assuming we eat Vargas' salary, I believe there is no way the Brewers can cut Torres or Mota. The Brewers simply cannot afford to wast 7M, or approximately 10%, of their overall payroll. Having Mota kills us here. Terrible move by Melvin to trade for him - they should have just not offered Estrada arbitration. Estrada is still without a job btw.

Shouse is the only lefty in the pen (other than Choate - who I already have cut). That means we have to keep him.

That leaves this as our BP and SP (this is what I think we will do, not what I would prefer):

SP
Sheets
Gallardo
Suppan
Bush
Capuano
Villanueva (long relief/injury)

RP
Gagne
Riske
Turnbow
Parra
Torres
Mota
Shouse

[jeter2411]

I do not think they will keep Parra on the roster unless he locks down a spot. He has options and they want him groomed to start, so he would get better work at AAA. I think they really have to trade Bush, Cappy or Vargas or a combination of them. I would really like to see Parra in the rotation (as a fan and because I have him in my keeper league), and he has outperformed the above mentioned trio (although in a short frame of about 9 IP). His best shot at making the rotation is if Yo isn't ready. I would love to see a:

Sheets
Suppan
Parra
Bush
Cappy

With Yo taking over the 2 or 3 spot (although he may be our best pitcher) once he gets back and bouncing whoever is struggling between Parra, Bush and Cappy.

It's really a great problem to have, with so many options!