The Wisconsin Sports Rant

Is this what we get for $42 million? 8-8, a 5.00 ERA, and a poor ratio of walks to striketouts of 2:3? Jeff Suppan started out hot. He looked like a brilliant acquisition when he was at 5-2 with a 2.63 ERA. Now he looks like yet another average pitcher that got WAY too much money for what he has brought to the table. The guaranteed contract in baseball is ridiculous. If a guy comes in making this much money, he should be held to a higher standard. Instead, he can throw out the same numbers as any bum in the league and it doesn’t matter. I know, I know, this kind of discussion has been around since players started making 7 figures for playing a game. Still, it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. On the TV broadcast of last night’s game in DC, the guys were saying how Suppan coasted through four innings, giving up only a single hit. That’s great…if you are a middle reliever. We pay this guy to pitch at lest 5 innings of good ball, and even that is the minimum for a starter. Gallardo has been much better than Suppan, but you can’t stick your $42 million man in the bullpen just yet.

Incidentally, last night’s loss to the lowly Nationals cements this road trip as another Brewers failure, regardless of the outcome today. They went on the road and played their nearest competition in the division and dropped the series. Then they played two poor teams, and again, even if the win today, will finish below .500 for the trip. This is just poor. Their once huge division lead has dwindled to 4.5 games. There are a lot more games to play, and again, that inner Brewers fan still can’t believe that a total collapse isn’t imminent. Don’t get me wrong, being no less than 10 games over .500 at the All-Star break is a major achievement for this franchise. However they should/could be much further over the Mark of Mediocrity had they only taken care of business on the road.

Notice how since the last Brewers rant post I made when they had reached their nadir of 34-30, the Crew turned it on and returned to 14 games over .500 at 46-32. Why didn’t I post when things got good again, you may ask? Well, if you had read the rant post carefully, I talked about being fooled again. Having dropped 2 of 3 games to the Cubs and then 3 of 4 to Pittsburgh, things have started to go downhill yet again. I understand they remain in first place, and I understand they remain significantly over .500. However, losing a series, especially 3 of 4 to a team like Pittsburgh is unacceptable for a team that is supposed to be blowing the rest of the division away. In addition, the Cubs are getting too close for comfort. There is a whole half of a season left to play, and the little voice of Bernie Brewer is in my head reminding me of all the failures of years past. I constantly worry that it is too good to be true when they are doing well, and then when they have weeks like this last one, the eternal Brewer pessimist in me says “Yep…that’s more like it”. Sad but true. The only cure all is to keep that nice lead by beating teams that are worse…which I guess is still the entire National League. Wow..did I just make myself look silly?