Bush avoids arbitration, signs one year deal worth $4.125 mil plus incentives

[Invader3K]

Reported by McCalvy and Haudricourt. Salary info likely forthcoming shortly.

[Funketown]

Haudricourt reporting the two sides settled at $4.215 million plus an incentive for games pitched.

[kalle8]

imho this is a mistake of the front office. bush should have been non tendered. 4.215 for one of the worst member of a rotation that was The Worst in NL is way too much. those 4M should gave the brewers that flexibility Melvin always talks about.

[Ennder]

Without the injury Bush probably would have been our 2nd best pitcher last year, I don't really think $4.2M is excessive for him. There is really no reason to expect him to be worse than Suppan or even Parra for 2010, unless you are just really invested in a small sample at the end of last year where he was hurt.

[dlk9s]

bush should have been non tendered.

 

one of the worst member of a rotation

That's just crazy talk.

 

In 2008, after being recalled from his short stint in Nashville, Bush had a 3.83 ERA and a slash line of .225/.278/.416/.694. His numbers were even better from July 1st on.

 

In 2009, before his injury, he was not as good as in 2008, but still a solid pitcher, posting a 4.38 ERA and a line of .250/.322/.491/.813.

 

When right, Dave Bush is a pretty decent pitcher. He's no #1 or #2 or anything, but I'm more than happy to have him in the rotation. Heck, we've seen that when he's on, he even has no-hit stuff!

[TooLiveBrew]

All the 'cut Bush' stuff this offseason has really gotten old. Cut Weeks while you're at it, he didn't even play most of last season!

[mletto157]

I agree... what's with all the Dave Bush hate? Not just on here either - everyone I talk to seems to hate the guy. I really don't understand why... him pitching well is going to have a big impact on our success this year.

[CheezWizHed]

I've heard non-tender Bush so often this year, it made me second guess my take on him (average SP). So I looked back at his past few years:

 

Year	Age	Tm	Lg	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9	SO/BB	Awards
2004	24	TOR	AL	5	4	.556	3.69	16	16	0	1	1	0	97.2	95	47	40	11	25	2	64	6	0	3	412	131	1.229	8.8	1.0	2.3	5.9	2.56	RoY-8
2005	25	TOR	AL	5	11	.313	4.49	25	24	1	2	0	0	136.1	142	73	68	20	29	3	75	13	0	2	575	99	1.254	9.4	1.3	1.9	5.0	2.59
2006	26	MIL	NL	12	11	.522	4.41	34	32	0	3	2	0	210.0	201	111	103	26	38	2	166	18	0	6	869	103	1.138	8.6	1.1	1.6	7.1	4.37
2007	27	MIL	NL	12	10	.545	5.12	33	31	2	0	0	0	186.1	217	110	106	27	44	1	134	11	0	3	810	87	1.401	10.5	1.3	2.1	6.5	3.05
2008	28	MIL	NL	9	10	.474	4.18	31	29	0	0	0	0	185.0	163	92	86	29	48	3	109	10	1	2	763	101	1.141	7.9	1.4	2.3	5.3	2.27
2009	29	MIL	NL	5	9	.357	6.38	22	21	0	0	0	0	114.1	131	84	81	19	37	2	89	15	0	2	508	63	1.469	10.3	1.5	2.9	7.0	2.41

 

Two years jump out: 2007 and 2009.

 

2009, its pretty easy to remember his injury in June:

		G	GS	W	L	SV	BS	HLD	CG	SHO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	BAA
April		5	4	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	26.0	24	14	13	3	9	18	4.50	1.27	.253
May		6	6	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	37.2	34	19	18	10	9	27	4.30	1.14	.248
June		4	4	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	17.1	25	20	20	5	8	14	10.38	1.90	.342
August		1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4.2	4	5	5	0	3	3	9.64	1.50	.222
September		6	6	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	28.2	44	26	25	1	8	27	7.85	1.81	.361

So discounting injury, he has had one bad year in 6 (and that bad year is still better than Suppan). And the 5 years were a pretty average MLB SP.

[1992casey]

That's just crazy talk.

 

We don't need that.

[wishicouldhit]

Thank you for people finally backing up Bush! He was the only pitcher to win a playoff game for the brewers in 26 years. Just because he doesnt have dominating stuff doesnt mean he should be cut. 2 times (I think) he has worked in to the 8th or 9th inning looking for a no hitter. I just get the feeling that the people that want to dump bush dont know what they are talking about. They certainly cant make a sound argument why Bush should be dumped.

 

If we dump his 5/6th of his 4 million contract it wont give us enough room to get another pitcher. Not to mention he is more reliable than Suppan and Parra. I say put Sup in bullpen and use him as a 6th starter, if Naverson proves himself worthy in spring training it will be worth cutting Suppan.

[Dragonbait]

I was there when he went perfect into the 8th... He's not flashy, but reliable.

[monty57]

I was at that one as well. There was a group of girls that got up between innings and said "We're going to beat the traffic home," completely unaware of what was going on in the field. Without mentioning the perfect game going on (superstition), the guys I was with and I said that they may not want to leave. The girls had no idea why we said they shouldn't go, and they left. Almost missed history.

 

I just get the feeling that the people that want to dump Bush dont know what they are talking about.

 

I think there are some who only look at stats, and disregard outlying circumstances, such as injuries. Stat lines will never tell you if someone is playing injured, which Bush obviously was last year when his stat line fell apart. He isn't a world beater, but when healthy he is a productive part of the rotation and definitely worth what he's being paid. My guess is that he'll have a decent year and sign somewhere for $7-9MM/year as a free agent after the season's over.

[joepepsi]

There was a group of girls that got up between innings and said "We're going to beat the traffic home," completely unaware of what was going on in the field. Without mentioning the perfect game going on (superstition), the guys I was with and I said that they may not want to leave. The girls had no idea why we said they shouldn't go, and they left. Almost missed history.

I will never understand this. Why spend a hundred bucks on an event when your top priority is to beat the traffic home? Why not just save the money and stay home in the first place. I was at an afternoonTwins game two years ago. After the 7th inning in a one run game, I bet half the fans stood up and left.

[CheezWizHed]

I will never understand this. Why spend a hundred bucks on an event when your top priority is to beat the traffic home? Why not just save the money and stay home in the first place. I was at an afternoonTwins game two years ago. After the 7th inning in a one run game, I bet half the fans stood up and left.

My guess is that most of those people go for the pre-game and atmosphere more-so than the actual game.

 

I don't live in Milwaukee, so when I go to a game, I squeeze every last drop out of it. Last time, I got (politely) kicked out of the stands because we stayed too long. Then almost got kicked out of the concourse for the same reason (herding people out). http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[kalle8]

i don't say i don't like bush at all

i say 4 M and some, could be used for the flexibility needed during the season.

imho this is a mistake. we'll see and i hope it is just crazy talk...

[battlekow]

McCalvy has the incentives details:

Learned breakdown of Dave Bush's performance incentives today: $25K for 170ip, $25K for 180ip, $30 for 195ip, $30,000 for 205ip.

[sheethead]

Why spend a hundred bucks on an event when your top priority is to beat the traffic home?

 

Because if they don't even know what a no hitter is, they should be on their way out anyway.

[Baldkin]

i say 4 M and some, could be used for the flexibility needed during the season.

imho this is a mistake.

I don't know, 4 million is not a lot to add a TON of flexibility to your rotation and bullpen.

 

If a guy doesn't perform, he can get sent down. If a guy doesn't perform, he can be replaced in the rotation. Exactly the things that weren't an option last year, are now an option this year.

[GAME05]

i'm a big fan of Bush and also think the non-tender talk is going too far. right now, he's just what you'd want in a 4/5 pitcher. he'll have his share of bad outings, but i see him as a .500 pitcher. and my impression of the games he loses is that it's usually due to one disastrous inning where he loses focus. in that respect, i think there's a lot of potential that if he could fix that problem he'd be a solid #3 guy.

 

come to think of it, didn't we pay Suppan $12M per season in the hopes that he would put up numbers that are only slightly better than what Bush is doing right now?

[Ennder]

I will never understand this. Why spend a hundred bucks on an event when your top priority is to beat the traffic home? Why not just save the money and stay home in the first place. I was at an afternoonTwins game two years ago. After the 7th inning in a one run game, I bet half the fans stood up and left.

 

Because sitting in the parking lot for an hour after the game is annoying as heck and unless the game is close I don't mind listening to the end on the radio on the ride home? I rarely stay for an entire game mostly because i have young kids and the games are too late. Even without the kids I'd probably leave games that aren't all that close before the end. Then again I enjoy watching/listening to the game as much as going to them so maybe I'm just different.