Goodbye Vargas

I feel shocked!

I'm really surprised by this.  I guess I'd like to see how much of his salary they'd save --- if it's a substantial amount, then it's probably a good move.  Just the same, given his newfound commitment to conditioning and his very solid spring, I thought he was a pretty good gamble as an overachieving #5 starter.

I guess there's a small chance they'll regret letting him go, but if they save $3 million by doing so, it's worth it.  (Though I can't believe there isn't a medium AA prospect somewhere that we could have traded him for.)

I have to say I'm surprised, too. I'm not particularly saddened that he was released, but he would've been nice depth. I wonder where he'll end up.

I was positive that my next post at FNY was going to be about Villanueva being sent down.

I'd say Vargas catches on with the Nationals or the Cardinals.  Off the top of my head, I can't think of teams with worse pitching.  Maybe the pirates.

Article IX of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement has this to say about termination pay:

I think the championship season is considered to start this Sunday, even though the Red Sox and A's have already played. Unless there's other weird rules, by releasing Vargas now, the team only has to pay him for 45 days, or about a quarter of his salary.

played some part in the Crew pretty obviously "dumping" salary with Vargas.  The 3Mil they save this year is roughly equal to the figure they are going to eat for Cappy's salary this year right?  I'd say that Mark A. was pretty set on a total payroll figure that he liked, and this move just offsets Cappy and clears up the rotation situation at the same time.  

Either that, or the powers that be are really just "Ned-proofing" the entire 25 man roster so that there is only 1 obvious person for each position.  Either way, it's hard for me to get too angry about this, but it's just strange.  

I like the fact that Vargas is out of the rotation and that Villy and Parra are in, but isn't Vargas a better option for long relief than McClung?  And if you end up needing your 7th best starter due to multiple injuries (and hopefully we won't), is Vargas better than the alternative now that Cappy is out for the year?  Who IS the 7th best starter for the Brewers now that Vargas is gone.

I know that Vargas and McClung were both out of options and that one of them might end up released if Parra or Villy didn't go down to AAA to start the year.  But this outright release surprises me a bit.  

And the salary of a mop up guy you pick up who's talent level isn't likely to be much worse than Vargas.  Maybe it's just the fact that I wasn't expecting it that has me second guessing the move.  

New blog entry

They can save $2.7 mil by releasing him.

But I'd like to point out that Vargas made more in Spring Training than Fielder will make all year.

Baseball owners have a great racket.

... and then my tears gave up five runs without retiring a batter in the 6th.

I like the move, it's bold, it's beautiful, and I hope no one gets injured to expose the weakness of this move.

Any trade interest they felt in Vargas required the Brewers to cover some of his salary, that is possible in MLB right? With the choice of paying a chunk of his $3.6 million (probably more than $900,000) plus whatever the salary of the guy they got in return (whatever the average AA or whatever guy makes now-a-days), I think I would rather pay $900,000. That would leave an extra $2.7 million to put into the signing bonus or first year of a long-term deal for whichever young guy we try to lock up. Was this Vargas's last year under contract or will it save us some $ in the future as well?

He must be pumped about this opportunity.

I was shocked to find out he was just let go, but it's not the least bit upsetting. If he did develop and extra pitch and has actually improved, I just hope he lands somewhere outside of the NL Central.

-there's no value in spending $3.6 million on a long relief guy.
-he had no trade takers otherwise they would have done it.
-i love villaneuva in the rotation and would have blasted management if they would have started him in triple A (which is probably coming after gallardo comes back, but still).

there's about 100 claudio vargeses out there that we can always pick up if we have to. hell, we probably have 3 pitchers in triple A that can give up 4 runs in 5 innings.

This makes the Doug Davis trade look pretty mediocre in hindsight, doesn't it?

Was Vargas really just auditioning for a trade for the entire spring training, without knowing it?  

He had one of the better springs on the staff. (I'm curious --- anyone know where spring training stats can be found?)  What else did he need to do?

I wonder if the plan --- assuming there was one --- was to keep him until the end of spring, in case we had several Cappy-like injuries and needed him, or in case our youngsters pitched horribly.  If he does well, then we trade him, if not we release him.

I can see why he'd be pissed.

I should be interesting to see how Mota and Kendall do throughout the year. Both guys came in under much scrutiny from the national media after falling off last year and apparently our coaches found mechanical flaws in both players that could be altered to help fix those fall offs. That raises the question, is our coaching staff, etc. that much better at watching and analyzing players than the Mets/Cubs/athletics or are they blowing a little smoke up the media's arses to help justify questionable moves?