How much longer for Jeff Suppan? -- Latest: Suppan signs with STL, starts 6/15

[Flood Pants]

Who knows, maybe St. Louis is magical to Suppan in the same way that Milwaukee was magical to Cirillo.

[RockCoCougars]

I'm stunned this guy found another job- with a competitor none the less. Maybe the Brewers do have a chance to catch the Cardinals after all. If a starter goes down, and Suppan gets the ball every fifth day, things could work out nicely.

[CheezWizHed]

The Cardinals will be on the hook for the pro-rated minimum, we owe the remainder. In other words, we save somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000 if he stays on the major league roster for the rest of the season.

That was my first thought when I saw the news. Best thing Suppan has done for us all year. Now hopefully, he can help us again come July 1-4...

[BrewCrewRising]

Who knows, maybe St. Louis is magical to Suppan in the same way that Milwaukee was magical to Cirillo.

Take it back.

Everybody else knock on wood.

 

[Invader3K]

This is funny. I figured that Suppan would have to ride out the season on the sidelines, and maybe get a spring training invite for next year. Instead he's on the roster of a team that's in first place. I guess this just goes to show how pathetic the pitching overall is in MLB beyond the surface, even in this so called "Year of the Pitcher".

[yount19.u]

Any other team picks up Suppan and I am thrilled. The fact that the Cardinals picked him up so quickly worries me. I'm guessing Duncan noticed some kind of mechanical flaw he feels he can fix, otherwise there would be no other reason to nab him. I'm not predicting Soup is going to have a Carlos Silva type run, but I bet he's an average starter with the Cardinals. I have nothing to base this on except for pure bad luck observations with Brewer pitching. I hope I'm wrong and we can all relish in easy Brewer victories when/if Suppan pitches against us.

[Ennder]

With a realistic defense behind him he is a 5 ERA pitcher, nothing amazing but hardly as bad as most Brewer fans think he is.

[dadofandrew]

His FIP is almost identical to his career mark, so I see no reason he can't put up an ERA in the high 4's or low 5's. He gave up a few rockets, but mostly ground balls through the hole and bloopers that fell.

[ELCABALLO45]

He was giving up more then a "few" rockets.

 

And I don't think a defense up the middle of Felipe Lopez and Skip Schumaker is gonna save him.

[RockCoCougars]

LaRussa and Duncan picking up Suppan is akin to Mike Shanahan drafting Clarett in the 3rd round with the arrogance that anyone can succeed in their 'system'. If Suppan has an E.R.A. south of 6 down there with that stuff, those guys are genuises, but I don't think that it will happen. Hopefully, the Cardinals remain short on pitching so they have to keep him around. He won't get 30 starts, but wouldn't it be awesome for the Brewers if he could get 12 years in a row of 20 starts?

[joepepsi]

This really worries me. He'll no doubt pitch a shutout against the Brewers come July.

 

I suspect the Brewers' pitching woes had more than a little to do with the pitching coach and adjusting to his "system". Getting Suppan under Duncan's wing will resurrect his season. The Brewers will be paying $12 million to help the Cardinals win the division.

[RockCoCougars]

This really worries me. He'll no doubt pitch a shutout against the Brewers come July.

 

I suspect the Brewers' pitching woes had more than a little to do with the pitching coach and adjusting to his "system". Getting Suppan under Duncan's wing will resurrect his season. The Brewers will be paying $12 million to help the Cardinals win the division.

I would imagine that the Brewer hitters are salivating about the chance to hit against Suppan after having to endure standing on the field while he pitched for the past 3.5 years. Unless Duncan can add 5 mph velocity to Suppan's fastball and make it move, he is going to get rocked down there. It's not like he has good enough stuff where catching a 'mechanical flaw' is going to matter.

[endaround]

His FIP is almost identical to his career mark, so I see no reason he can't put up an ERA in the high 4's or low 5's. He gave up a few rockets, but mostly ground balls through the hole and bloopers that fell.

As mostly a reliever. Make him a starter and he's the same as he was last year, below replacement level.

[joepepsi]

I don't know if this site is reliable, but brooksbaseball.net has Suppan throwing his 4 seamer in the upper 80's to low 90's in his last outing on June 4th.

 

http://www.brooksbaseball..._slnmlb_1%2F&prevDate=64

[RockCoCougars]

I don't know if this site is reliable, but brooksbaseball.net has Suppan throwing his 4 seamer in the upper 80's to low 90's in his last outing on June 4th.

 

http://www.brooksbaseball..._slnmlb_1%2F&prevDate=64

I noticed that during the game, I think he hit 91 or even 92 a few times. Must have been a fast gun, because I highly doubt that he went from topping out at 87 to that out of no where.

[Invader3K]

It could just be he was starting to throw harder as a reliever, due to not having to conserve his arm strength. Just a thought. It is hard to imagine him adding 4-5 mph on his fastball, though.

[JohnBriggs12]

With a realistic defense behind him he is a 5 ERA pitcher, nothing amazing but hardly as bad as most Brewer fans think he is.

What exactly is a "realistic defense"?

 

Cardinals defense isn't very good. Lopez is below average at SS. Schumaker is below average at 2B. Freese is average at best at 3B. Rasmus isn't better than Gomez in CF. Holliday's okay, but no gold glover. Ludwick is slightly above average in RF.

 

The 2 places where the Cards have superior defenders are catcher and 1B and those aren't positions that will help Suppan much.

 

Unless Duncan who specializes in helping pitchers get more sink can get some for Suppan, he'll be just as bad there.

[Funketown]

The 2 places where the Cards have superior defenders are catcher and 1B and those aren't positions that will help Suppan much.

I think you're underestimating how much better Holliday is than Braun in the field. The Cardinals are a pretty average defensive club, while the Brewers are one of the worst in the majors.

 

I viewed Suppan as a 5.5-5.75 ERA pitcher on the Brewers, and he may well be a 5.25-5.50 ERA pitcher on the Cardinals, although it will be lower when he no-hits the Brewers with 6 walks, 2 strikeouts and 3 home runs pulled back by Rasmus.

[JohnBriggs12]

The 2 places where the Cards have superior defenders are catcher and 1B and those aren't positions that will help Suppan much.

I think you're underestimating how much better Holliday is than Braun in the field. The Cardinals are a pretty average defensive club, while the Brewers are one of the worst in the majors.

 

I viewed Suppan as a 5.5-5.75 ERA pitcher on the Brewers, and he may well be a 5.25-5.50 ERA pitcher on the Cardinals, although it will be lower when he no-hits the Brewers with 6 walks, 2 strikeouts and 3 home runs pulled back by Rasmus.

I'll grant you Holliday is better, but unless he and Rasmus play 10 rows deep in the stands, he's not worth 0.25 runs per game. He's worth maybe 10-15 runs in a 162 game season over Braun. At best that's 1-2 runs per starting pitcher per season. That's a difference of less than .10 over 200 IP.

[Ennder]

The cardinals have a 1.8 UZR/150 so far on the year which is slightly above average, the Brewers a -10.7 good for 2nd worst in baseball. A lot of the pitching issues for the Brewers are due to the defense, not the quality of our pitchers. A guy like Gallardo who strikes a lot of guys out can live with a bad defense, guys like Suppan just can't. He isn't going to be good no matter where he plays but it won't surprise me at all if he puts up a 5 ERA for the Cardinals.

[monty57]

Don't discount a 1B who can actually reach bad throws and scoop some balls. Pujols is a good first baseman who can make his infield defense look better. Fielder is not a good first baseman, and makes his fellow infielders' defense look even worse.

 

That said, the Cardinals' official scorer is a big homer, as was evidenced in the Brewers' series when he gave an error to the CF on a near impossible play that tipped off his glove, saving the pitcher an earned run. With that type of scoring, Suppan's ERA could be lower than it was as a Brewer. I'd also guess that it helps the Cardinals' team ERA over the course of a season, making their pitchers look a little better.

[jeffy]

This really worries me. He'll no doubt pitch a shutout against the Brewers come July.

 

I suspect the Brewers' pitching woes had more than a little to do with the pitching coach and adjusting to his "system". Getting Suppan under Duncan's wing will resurrect his season. The Brewers will be paying $12 million to help the Cardinals win the division.

That will be disgusting, if it goes that way. Not only will the Brewers be paying to help them win the division this year, we already (over) paid Suppan for what he did for them in previous seasons.

[Funketown]

The 2 places where the Cards have superior defenders are catcher and 1B and those aren't positions that will help Suppan much.

I think you're underestimating how much better Holliday is than Braun in the field. The Cardinals are a pretty average defensive club, while the Brewers are one of the worst in the majors.

 

I viewed Suppan as a 5.5-5.75 ERA pitcher on the Brewers, and he may well be a 5.25-5.50 ERA pitcher on the Cardinals, although it will be lower when he no-hits the Brewers with 6 walks, 2 strikeouts and 3 home runs pulled back by Rasmus.

I'll grant you Holliday is better, but unless he and Rasmus play 10 rows deep in the stands, he's not worth 0.25 runs per game. He's worth maybe 10-15 runs in a 162 game season over Braun. At best that's 1-2 runs per starting pitcher per season. That's a difference of less than .10 over 200 IP.

The Cardinals are a +4.7 UZR thus far. The Brewers are a -25.4. That's thirty runs over two months. Now, I don't think the Brewers are as bad defensively as they have been, nor do I think the Cardinals are much better than average, but projecting them for a -25 and the Cardinals for a 0 from here out seems pretty reasonable, and that would be .25 runs per game.

 

And how will having a good 1B and elite catcher not help Suppan? The difference between Fielder and Pujols is probably ten runs alone, and the difference between Kottaras and Molina is probably about ten runs as well, although that's a bit harder to measure, and could be significantly more.

[monty57]

...and the difference between Kottaras and Molina is probably about ten runs as well, although that's a bit harder to measure, and could be significantly more.

 

With Kottaras' weak arm, and Weeks' inability to catch a ball, every team in baseball will run wild on the Brewers for the remainder of the season. A large number of walks and singles will turn into doubles, and that's not going to be good.

 

That's not even taking into consideration all the balls that Kottaras should easily catch or block that simply go right through him. His defensive deficiencies have become glaringly apparent since Zaun went down.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

He's not good enough to play for the team with one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball, but look who's getting the start on Tuesday for the Cards...

 

Soup to Start