Every day brings us closer to the inevitable disappointing end to the Milwaukee Brewers 2010 campaign. Because of that fact, it’s time to envoke the ever present four word mantra consistently echoed throughout Wrigleyville: There’s always next year.
By Jake McCormick
The Brewers offense looks solid for 2011, as does a bullpen of young, talented hurlers like John Axford, Zack Braddock, and Kameron Loe. But as always, starting pitching has been a mediocre scrap heap of frustration throughout Doug Melvin’s tenure as the Milwaukee Brewers’ GM.
While the (hopefully) inevitable trade of Prince Fielder is expected to yield at least one young MLB-ready starter and a serviceable veteran or prospect, the team will still pick up at least one free agent to fill out the back of the rotation. Unfortunately, the options available this coming offseason make Jeff Suppan look like an average starter.
With the three year $26.5 million extension recently given to Comeback Player of the Year candidate Corey Hart, and hints that Rickie Weeks will soon receive a similar reward for his breakout season, the eight position spots in 2011 look to be filled for the most part (pending trades and fulfilled expectations.
C – Jonathan Lucroy
1B – Mat Gamel (pending the trade of Prince Fielder)
2B – Rickie Weeks
SS – Alcides Escobar
3B – Casey McGehee
LF – Ryan Braun
CF – Lorenzo Cain
RF – Corey Hart
P – Yovani Gallardo
P – Young Pitcher X
P – Randy Wolf
P – FA/Trade acquisition
P – Manny Parra/Chris Narveson
Obviously, the Brewers are not just one pitcher away from having a solid, consistent rotation, so at least one veteran not currently in Milwaukee will be brought in to shoulder 150-200 innings. The team has young guys like Cody Scarpetta, Jake Odorizzi, Kyle Heckathorn, and Dylan Covey two to three years away from their Major League debuts, but that obviously doesn’t fill the immediate rotation needs.
There’s good news and bad news associated with the oncoming offseason for the Brewers. The good news is that Bill Hall, Jeff Suppan, Trevor Hoffman, and Doug Davis will be officially off the books, and Milwaukee’s current salary commitments for 2011 plummet to $32 million from $90.4 million in 2010 (not including eventual free agents and arbitration signings).
As rough as those numbers are, Doug Melvin is guaranteed to have a good amount of cash to play with when going after free agents or potential trade acquisitions. Now for the bad news…
The 2011 crop of free agent pitchers is uglier than it was in 2010. Seriously, it’s like comparing 1980s Mickey Rourke to his current Silly Putty face. Cliff Lee is the obvious top choice, but the remaining scrap heap of 30+ year olds make Randy Wolf look like a youthful No. 2 starter.
Bronson Arroyo (34), Kevin Correia (30), Jorge De La Rosa (30), Ted Lilly (35), Javier Vazquez ((34), and Brandon Webb (32) are just six examples of available starters that will command two to three year deals from teams looking to patch up the back end of their rotations. The best of this collection will command Wolf-like contracts, so it seems (at least at this very early point) that the Brewers will be filling out their rotation with one year Doug Davis/Braden Looper-like deals.
Of course, all of this could be changed/dictated at the Winter Meetings, where most logical Brewers fans and analysts predict Doug Melvin will move Prince Fielder for a decent collection of pitching upgrades. Until then, just sit back and enjoy his final two months launching moonshots in a Brewer uniform, and try not to think about the starting pitching conundrum.