Brewers Sign Jeff Suppan

by battlekow on Dec 24, 2006 2:16 PM CST in Milwaukee Brewers News

The Brewers reached agreement today with free agent right-hander Jeff Suppan on a four-year deal with a club option worth approximately $42 million.

Wow. I didn't think it was going to happen. Say what you want about payroll flexibility, but at least Suppan does improve the '07 club.

The Brewers coveted Suppan to fill the final spot in their starting rotation behind Ben Sheets, Chris Capuano, Dave Bush and Claudio Vargas. Suppan has averaged 203 innings per season since 1999 while never missing a start due to injury.

I guess Villanueva gets the shaft then, though he's obviously next in line if Vargas sucks. Suppan's durability is a nice plus.

Update [2006-12-25 2:57:31 by battlekow]: Dan Szymborski at BTF has a projection up for Suppan:

2007 ZiPS Projection -  Jeff Suppan
-------------------------------------------------------------
            W   L   G  GS   IP    H   ER  HR  BB  SO   ERA
-------------------------------------------------------------
Projection 11  10  29  29  177  191   86  23  59  95  4.37 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Opt. (15%) 15   8  32  32  199  199   81  20  59 114  3.66  
Pes. (15%)  7  11  25  25  143  167   85  25  53  74  5.35 
--------------------------------------------------------------

Looks pretty good to me.

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Interesting

I could see this rotation leading the league in quality starts, all five with an ERA between 4 and 5 (maybe with Sheets sneaking in under 4.00). It doesn't sound that impressive, but it's probably one of the better staffs of the league, especially at the back of the rotation.

Now, if only we can figure out how to score 4 runs a game, we could actually be a contender for 2007.

"C'mon, boys, let's get 'em some RUNS!" --- Daron Sutton, pretty much every game of the 2005 season.

by roguejim on Dec 24, 2006 2:40 PM CST reply actions

playoffs

do i hear playoffs

by baseballdan1092 on Dec 24, 2006 3:40 PM CST reply actions

Claudio Vargas????

I'm not at all comfortable with him in our rotation. ZiPS projects him to have a 5.03 ERA. I'd be much happier with Villanueva (4.59 projected ERA), Tomo Ohka (4.53 projected ERA), or Doug Davis (don't know his projected ERA) if we wouldn't have traded him away. And Vargas is 29 already so it's not like he's poised for a breakout season.

And we're going to need a couple of our young guns to step up if we're going to make the playoffs. Our offense is still pretty weak, but I like our pitching staff a lot. Suppan fills a huge hole. I wasn't thrilled when I heard we might sign him, but now that we have, I'm much more optimistic about this coming season.

by conan for president on Dec 24, 2006 4:05 PM CST reply actions

I feel the same way

I was kind of pessimistic about signing him too, but now that he's signed, I feel a lot better about 2007.

If Moustache is smart, though, he'd better not say that we don't have any money to make a run at a decent corner ourfielder.

"C'mon, boys, let's get 'em some RUNS!" --- Daron Sutton, pretty much every game of the 2005 season.

by roguejim on Dec 24, 2006 7:49 PM CST up reply actions

Vargas

Since when is Zips the authority on how a player will perform? I think Vargas will be better than Ohka and Villanueva. He has better stuff than both of them. I worry about Ohka's shoulder and Villanueva did well last year but really is just a 5 starter. I can see Vargas sporting an ERA in the low 4's, and I don't think he's on the decline. Just because he's 29 doesn't mean he can't have a breakout season, or at least continue to improve, i.e. Carpenter was 29 when he began to have success in St. Louis.

by Dutch on Dec 25, 2006 12:47 AM CST up reply actions

A couple things

First of all, the mythical late-20s peak mostly applies to hitters. Second, ZiPS is the authority on projecting pitchers, though it's only able to explain less than 50% of performance. Still, better than the rest, at least last year.

by battlekow on Dec 25, 2006 1:38 AM CST up reply actions

Merry Christmas!

Awesome. It makes me a lot more optimistic for the season...

by engbjm06 on Dec 24, 2006 9:23 PM CST reply actions

'Soup'

While anybody can see this'll make our rotation that much deeper, does anyone know if Vargas still has options left? I'd hate to see limited flexibilty if Villanueva has a kick-a$$ spring and still has to be sent down. As posted before, Carlos V., in my mind did enough to at least get considered for the #5 spot. In the post about our newfound pitching depth, a rotation of Sheet, Cappy, Bush, Suppan, and Villanueva/ Vargas dos sound as though it could be the most consisent in the NL. Now if we could only trade a couple of our outfielders for one decent one...

by kgaul on Dec 25, 2006 12:46 AM CST reply actions

Vargas

I'll go with the under on his ZiPS projected ERA but not by much. I was wrong about his age; he doesn't turn 29 until June. He does throw pretty hard (apparently can hit 97 mph) but gave up 27 HRs last year, which could be blamed on the little league-sized Chase Field. He's always had trouble giving up bombs though because he has trouble keeping the ball down in the strike zone. I don't know how he'd manage an ERA in the low 4s. Unless his closest comp is Chris Carpenter, which it could possibly be, then I'll stick with high 4s which I probably shouldn't complain about. Ahh screw it. If he throws 97 then I might as well hope for a 4.00 ERA which is pretty close to his minor league career ERA anyways.

by conan for president on Dec 26, 2006 6:05 PM CST reply actions

comp

I wasn't really trying to compare him to Carpenter, they are very different pitchers, I just meant to point out that Carpenter had a breakout year at age 29. Vargas won't be around 97 much, but his comfort zone is usually around 93-95.

by Dutch on Dec 27, 2006 1:35 AM CST up reply actions

Jo-Jo Dancer

Claudio Vargas, the bullpen is calling.

"C'mon, boys, let's get 'em some RUNS!" --- Daron Sutton, pretty much every game of the 2005 season.

by roguejim on Dec 27, 2006 4:34 AM CST up reply actions

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