The deal with Suppan

Yesterday, Brewers manager Ken Macha was asked what Jeff Suppan would be doing today, as it was his scheduled day to pitch. Manny Parra and Chris Narveson are scheduled to pitch in the Brewers’ Spring Training game, but Suppan’s workload hadn’t been announced. Here’s what Macha had to say: “Hopefully I’ll be able to answer that tomorrow. That’s my best answer.” As Haudricourt put it, since when do veteran pitchers not know what they’ll be doing the next day? Over on this morning’s Mug at BCB, Kyle wondered if Suppan would be pitching in a minor league game or some other such under-the-radar outing. Fan opinion is not behind keeping Suppan in the rotation and another poor outing that is reported on would not go over well here in Milwaukee. Suppan’s contract is for $12.5 million dollars this year, which I understand the Brewers have a hard time swallowing, but they need to take a cue from the Bill Hall trade and accept that it was a bad business decision. Forcing him into the lineup purely to justify the expenditure only complicates and multiplies the problem. Yes, Bill Hall is with another team while we overpay for much of his contract, but at least we aren’t being affected by his poor choices at the plate or negative presence in the clubhouse, nor is the club dealing with the fan’s negativity. Other than the negativity, it’s the same situation with Suppan. One week ago, ESPN’s MLB rumor page reported that scouts who watched Suppan pitch in AZ this spring have said that he is completely cooked and is no longer able to get major league hitters out. As I’ve mentioned before, Suppan’s last outing was questionable when he needed to be told to use his off-speed pitches. And now scouts are pointing out how crappy he is – meaning teams around the league must be rubbing their hands together at the thought of facing him every fifth day. Watch BrewCrewBall.com for more on this tonight.