Brewers June 1 Pitching Staff

Gallardo

Wolf

Bush

Narveson

Parra

Capuano

Estrada

Coffey

Axford

Hoffman

Villanueva

Braddock

There is just no room and no reason to keep Suppan and Vargas. For that matter, there is no reason to keep Doug Davis. The above 12 are the best arms the Brewers currently have. I suppose the jury is still really out on Capuano but keeping Suppan and Vargas around while losing the possibility of an arm that can actually contribute is foolish.

We'll see how Melvin actually plays it. I'm guessing there is no way he swallows his pride and jettisons Suppan but as I am the constant pessimist, I'd love to be proven wrong.

Jake Peavy is an Idiot

The east coasts version of the Journal Sentinel ran a piece yesterday about Hoffman struggling, and the evil organization that refuses to stick with him. Jake Peavy was more than willing to bash the Brewers:

“He’s the epitome of what the game’s about, playing the game the right way and being the ultimate professional,” said Chicago White Sox starter Jake Peavy, a former teammate.

“You can’t help but to pull for a guy like that, and I hate to see what’s happened. I don’t necessarily agree, looking from the outside in, with how they treated the situation. Everybody goes through tough times. And for him to throw the eighth inning of a game and then somebody else save it, I just think that’s as disrespectful as can be.”

I can only assume Peavy is crossing his fingers and hoping his White Sox never have to respect Hoffman. I really doubt he'd be hammering Ozzie for taking Trev out of the closers role if it was his wins Trevor was pissing over the outfield wall.

Hoffman, despite a total inability to get guys out or throw his fastball for strikes, continued to insist he was still perfectly find and demanded the ball in the 9th. How is this not disrespectful? To his teammates, his fans and the organization Hoffman basically said "screw you, I can still do this!" Reminds me of a 95 year old grandma who refuses to give up the keys to the Oldsmobile.

Thankfully, it appears Macha is ready to end this grave injustice that has been inflicted upon the Closer.

Hoffman, for whatever reason (yet again a simple lack on the sunk cost concept is likely in play) the Brewers feel it is imperative to get Hoffman back in the closers role. I assume/hope that this is an attempt to increase his market value in order to make him tradeable. Excellent in theory but in practice...who could Melvin possibly get for Hoffman? Hardy was cheap and Melvin was able to turn that tarnished brass into a center fielder likely to set the organization back at that position for two years. Hoffman is at best an untrustworthy closer owed $8 million. Any club taking him off the Brewers hands will also have to pay him a half million buyout if they don't want him in 2011. There's just no value there, even if he does start to pitch well for the next couple weeks.

Trevor Hoffman has proven he can no longer pitch well in high leverage situations. What exactly has he done to "earn" the spot back? Let Braddock or Axford save games for the rest of the year. They'll learn to pitch to major leaguers or we'll learn that they don't belong on a ball club that has a chance to win (meaning next year's team of course).

A Cold Weather Super Bowl

They should absolutely play the Super Bowl anywhere and everywhere. Why?

1. There is no such thing as “neutral” or “ideal” conditions.

Sometimes the Super Bowl is in hot weather venues that get hot. Sometimes it rains. Sometimes indoors they blow off a bunch of smoky fireworks at halftime. Sometimes the punt hits the scoreboard. You get the idea.

I’ve heard many people (some named “Mike”) argue that cold weather would have some sort of special impact on the game, but there is no such thing as “normal” weather. Normal is in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes the snow causes a fumble, but sometimes the sun causes a muffed punt.

2. I don’t care about the people actually attending the game.

The vast, vast majority Super Bowl viewers will watch the game on TV. Since the type of fan who attends the Super Bowl is different than your run-of-the-mill football fan, I could envision a scenario in which there are empty seats if the weather is bad, but I find it more likely that those tickets would find their way into the hands of someone who wanted to use them. And I don’t care. If you didn’t want to use them, you could have given them to me.

3. I don’t care about the media.

The Super Bowl is not media vacation day. Your job if you are a reporter, in case you forgot, is to provide news coverage of a football game. It is not to gawk at scantily clad enhanced women on South Beach.

If you can’t find a hotel in Green Bay, tough. Stay in Appleton or Milwaukee or Sheboygan or even Chicago, and drive or hop on a Megabus. Don’t like the nightlife? I don’t care. Find a dive and talk to Rusty the trucker at the end of the bar for awhile. You are there to report. If you want a vacation, take a vacation.

4. Bad weather games are fun to watch most of the time.

Sometimes they suck. Rain can really muck things up. But sometimes they’re awesome. ESPN replays the Ice Bowl every year for a reason. The snow globe game was awesome. Viniateri kicking in the snow was cool. I even liked the old Fog Bowl, where not being able to see was half the fun. Snow games rule in general. There is no reason that it should not snow on the Super Bowl.

5. It’s fair.

There are 32 teams in the NFL, but only about 6 of the home cities benefit from the Super Bowl. Basically, the media’s desire to gawk at women on South Beach costs Chicago and Green Bay and Buffalo and Cincinnati and Cleveland and Pitt and Denver and Kansas City and every other cold or small city with a team millions of dollars by not allowing them to have the Super Bowl.

6. Detroit had a Super Bowl. So did Jacksonville.


7. Baseball plays their championship in cold weather.

The November Classic could be played in Florida or LA or Arizona every year. I know it’s a series and so you can move back and forth between venues, which is different, but baseball doesn’t care about weather or city size, and they easily could.

8. “No one wants to go to X in February” isn’t true.

Denver has skiing. Green Bay has all sorts of history, as does Pitt. Chicago is a huge city with a ton of stuff to do, as is Philly. New Jersey is close to New York. If you are concerned with selling these Super Bowls, there are ways to sell these Super Bowls.

9. I don’t care about the players.

If you are playing in the Super Bowl; if you have earned the great honor of playing in the Super Bowl, I don’t care about whether or not you have enough night clubs to go out to in the 3 days before the Super Bowl. I really don’t. After you win, you can go to New Orleans all you want.

All of the arguments against having a Northern Super Bowl strike me as serving a group of people that I could not care less about. Weather is part of football. When you play football as a kid, you play in whatever weather you have. If you play on Thanksgiving, you’ve probably played in a cold game or two. High school kids play in cold and in slop, and don’t earn a cent for doing so. Weather is normal. The Super Bowl is already fake enough. The NFL should open the field to everyone for the simple reason that it would make the game more interesting, and I would argue, better.

If the Brewers do not call up Cappy, everyone should be fired.

I’m not going to tell you that Cappy is going to show up and be an All-Star and save the season. I’m not going to tell you that he isn’t going to hurt himself again. I will tell you that:

1. Cappy > Suppan and a bunch of other guys.

2. Cappy is cheap.

3. You need pitchers.

4. He might be quite good.

5. Even if he is bad, he will still be better than Suppan.

They have to call him up in 4 days or he can become a free agent. They must do this.

And you thought it couldn't get any worse

I kind of feel like Attanassio just shot my dog.

Of Melvin, the GM whom Attanasio inherited when he purchased the Brewers in September 2004, Attanasio said, "Doug Melvin is very, very secure. You're not going to see any GM changes here. Absolutely not. Doug Melvin has built up too much credibility. You're going to have to a lot more than even a bad season for him to have any issues with his job security. To all of our fans, look, it feels great to get it off your chest, but you're going to have to be dealing with our general manager for a long time."

40 Man Roster Shuffle

Gregg Zaun's injury last night is going to require some serious shuffling (and some hard decisions about) the 40 man roster. Your Milwaukee Brewers may look quite a bit different in a few hours.

And hey, it's nice to know that they can still occasionally beat the Pirates.

UPDATE: Lucroy has officially been added to the roster, to make room the Brewers moved Riske to the 60-day DL opening a spot on the 40 man (I have no idea why that didn't happen earlier, Riske is recovering from Tommy John).

That leaves Gomez (if activated Stern would obviously ship out) and Braddock...whose call up would make things very interesting. If they really want to add a pitcher, at this point it would make sense to even Melvin as Braddock needs a 40-man spot and there aren't a lot of other places to turn.

-ESK

2.100

That is Trevor Hoffman's WHIP after the disaster today. It is the worst on the team.

Update: Baseball Reference has him at 2.154. The reason that they are correct is that I credited Hoffman with an extra 1/3 of an inning, however, as he failed to record an out, he apparently pitched 0 innings, not 1/3.