Is Eric Byrnes our best last hope for dealing Suppan?

[JohnBriggs12]

D-Backs current depth chart has 3 solid (if healthy) starters in Haren, Jackson, and Webb. Beyond them it's a bit of a jumble of young guys, none of who has had success in the big leagues so far, Ian Kennedy, Billy Buckner, Kevin Mulvey, and Brian Augenstein and Aaron Heilman who may be converted to a starter. That's not a very imposing group. Suppan might be as good an option in their 5th spot as those names.

 

Byrnes is owed $11 million and is not figuring in their starting lineup due to 2 straight bad years. Yet he does fit the profile of a guy that the Brewers would have some use for. He's righthanded, can play all 3 OF positions, and might benefit from a change in scenary.

[And That]

As sad as it is, I don't think the Brewers can trade Suppan until they bring in at least one more starter. This might be something to investigate after they get another pitcher, especially if they have to trade Corey Hart to that end.

[HiAndTight]

As sad as it is, I don't think the Brewers can trade Suppan until they bring in at least one more starter. This might be something to investigate after they get another pitcher, especially if they have to trade Corey Hart to that end.

I think if the Brewers were given the chance to deal Suppan, they'd do so in a heartbeat. Especially for a guy like Byrnes whom I don't think is very good, but who could give the Brewers some value with a questionable CF situation.

 

And yes, I understand he's not a CF'er, but he would give you some protection in the event that Carlos Gomez didn't give you much.

[RockCoCougars]

In every Suppan post, I have to give my Jose Guillen suggestion. I once doubted the fact that the Royals would be this stupid, but based on the fact that they just signed Jason Kendall to a multi-year deal, I'm not so sure anymore.

[dadofandrew]

I gotta agree they need another arm before Suppan's 200 innings can be dealt. They can't afford to add another arm if they don't save salary in that swap. No way Burns' types can be expected to give you 190 frames at a 5ish ERA.

[endaround]

And neither can Supppan. He's 160 innings of 5.25 ERA.

[nate82]

I believe Narveson could easily replace Suppan's production for the Brewers. Suppan hasn't pitched 200 IP for a while now. I would rather have Narveson as the #5 than Suppan and I wouldn't mind trading Suppan for Byrnes as long as Byrnes is only going to be a platoon guy and we are not looking to have him being a full time starter.

[thebruce44]

If we learned anything last year it is that 6 pitchers isn't even enough (especially when we would be lucky to have 2 of our SP go over 200 IP next year).

[Invader3K]

You basically need 7 starting pitchers to get through a full MLB season. That's why I agree that as bad as Suppan was this past season, you can't trade him until you find someone to replace him, even if it's just in the bullpen for now.

[igor67]

Just to chime in that Byrnes has been pretty bad those last couple of years, so I'm not convinced he isn't worse than most minor league FA types.

[Invader3K]

Yeah, he's had an OBP over .315 only once in the past five seasons. I think Suppan actually has more value than him at this point, just based on the fact that he can take the ball every fifth day for most of the season. The only way I'd do the trade at this point would be for a decent amount of salary relief.

[JohnBriggs12]

Just to chime in that Byrnes has been pretty bad those last couple of years, so I'm not convinced he isn't worse than most minor league FA types.

 

Isn't Suppan theoretically worse than some minor league FA types too and doesn't having a guy like that in your rotation have a bigger negative effect than a backup OF?

 

Look, neither of these guys is a net plus to your team considering their contracts. That goes without saying It's about eliminating the guy who would be in a position to do the most damage and that would be a starting pitcher.

[naivin]

With the money being roughly equal, the Brewers are better off keeping the SP, even if he is bad. Once he's gone, he's gone. Dollar for dollar, Byrnes would be a much bigger waste of money. The danger of course is Mahca throwing Suppan out there ahead of some other guys who should potentially be getting the starts, but that doesn't appear to be the case at the moment, so Suppan is a much better option for the brewers than Byrnes would be.

[dadofandrew]

Byrnes still has value as a platoon player, but in no way is that as valuable as a SP with a 5 ERA.

[Oldcity]

Suppan is below replacement value. If they can add, say Mulder and another SP, I'd do this in a heartbeat. Imagine all the throwflips in Miller Park. That's gotta be worth something.

[Ennder]

Suppan is better than people are giving him credit for in this thread. He still isn't good though. I would rather walk into opening day with Suppan as the 5th starter than say Narveson though. We need more pitching depth, not less of it.

[thebruce44]

I think if the Brewers were given the chance to deal Suppan, they'd do so in a heartbeat. Especially for a guy like Byrnes whom I don't think is very good, but who could give the Brewers some value with a questionable CF situation.

 

And yes, I understand he's not a CF'er, but he would give you some protection in the event that Carlos Gomez didn't give you much.

The idea of trading what little SP depth we have for more OF depth doesn't make any sense to me with the present construction of our team.

[RockCoCougars]

Suppan has negative value. Let's face it, if he was making 1.2 million next year instead of ten times that, he'd be cut in spring training. If he can't be traded, they should just fake another injury for him, but make it season ending this time. This would allow the team to save face somewhat and also save Jeff from embarrassing himself further.

[HiAndTight]

And neither can Supppan. He's 160 innings of 5.25 ERA.

In all fairness to Jeff Suppan, that was the worst season of his career.

 

In the previous 11 seasons, his low excluding last year was 177 IP.

[HiAndTight]

I think if the Brewers were given the chance to deal Suppan, they'd do so in a heartbeat. Especially for a guy like Byrnes whom I don't think is very good, but who could give the Brewers some value with a questionable CF situation.

 

And yes, I understand he's not a CF'er, but he would give you some protection in the event that Carlos Gomez didn't give you much.

The idea of trading what little SP depth we have for more OF depth doesn't make any sense to me with the present construction of our team.

 

I guess I'm of the opinion that we can fairly easily replace the innings Suppan gives you, and that we don't have a lot of OF depth.

 

I certainly understand that position and I was just on another thread talking about how people are a little TOO hard on Suppan.

 

Anyway, I really, REALLY don't have strong feelings either way on this one. To be honest, Byrnes may be my least favorite baseball player in the game today and you're talking about dealing one black hole for another.

 

I think that Byrnes on our team could provide some value and could be useful given the question marks surrounding Gomez. Not that he'd be a 3-4 win guy or anything outrageous.

[Roderick]

Would anyone want to do this deal if we had a deal in place to move Hart (and change) for pitching?

 

Would make it Gerut and Byrnes in RF. The downside it would seem to me is that if Gomez can't hit at all and you want to put Gerut in CF, then you are counting on Byrnes being available everyday in RF.

[thebruce44]

I guess I'm of the opinion that we can fairly easily replace the innings Suppan gives you, and that we don't have a lot of OF depth.

You would hope that is the case this year, but certainly wasn't last year thanks to the likes of Mike Burns, McClung, and Dillard. Right now, I don't know that we are any deeper at SP, and trading what we have could be disastrous in my opinion. It is also way easier to find replacement level OF help during the season than replacement level SP help.

[Invader3K]

"I don't know that we are any deerp at SP."

 

That's exactly it. We replaced Looper with Wolf, essentially. Other than that, what other SP depth do we have? We still have the same guys at the MLB and AAA levels. As bad as Suppan is, at least he will usually take the ball every fifth day and give the Brewers at least some chance to win, more often than not. You can't necessarily say the same about whatever current "throw 'em at the wall and pray they stick" options exist in Villy/Burns/etc.

[Ennder]

Suppan has negative value. Let's face it, if he was making 1.2 million next year instead of ten times that, he'd be cut in spring training. If he can't be traded, they should just fake another injury for him, but make it season ending this time. This would allow the team to save face somewhat and also save Jeff from embarrassing himself further.

I disagree with this 100%. If Suppan were a FA he would sign for more than $1.2M with some team. He isn't a good pitcher but his value isn't negative either and the idea that they faked an injury has pretty much no merit either imo.

[TooLiveBrew]

We replaced Looper with Wolf, essentially. Other than that, what other SP depth do we have? We still have the same guys at the MLB and AAA levels.

Narveson, Butler, Jones, Braddock (Villy, like you said)... there's not just more depth, it's better quality depth too (at least imho)