12-24-2006, 06:14 PM
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#8 (permalink)
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| Senior Monk
Status: Offline
Join Date: Nov 2006 My Local Time: 12:10 PM Location: Wilson, North Carolina, USA
Posts: 969
vBookie Cash: 500
Casino Cash: $250
Rep Power: 2  | Milwaukee signs Suppan!
Milwaukee signs Suppan! Quote:
MILWAUKEE -- Jeff Suppan, the MVP of the NL Championship Series for the St. Louis Cardinals this season, has signed a four-year free agent contract with the Milwaukee Brewers.
According to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the deal is worth $42 million.
The Brewers said Sunday they also have an option for a fifth year.
The 31-year-old right-hander went 12-7 with a 4.12 ERA for St. Louis last season, and was 1-1 in four postseason starts -- including a win in Game 3 and seven solid innings in Game 7 of the NLCS against the New York Mets.
"He gives us a big-game pitcher, he's shown that last year," Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said on a conference call.
Suppan has pitched for Boston (1995-97, 2003), Arizona (1998), Kansas City (1998-2002), Pittsburgh (2003) and St. Louis (2004-06). He has reached double figures in wins seven times.
Suppan was one of the best pitchers available on the free-agent market. He will join a Brewers starting rotation that includes lefty Chris Capuano and right-handers Ben Sheets, Dave Bush and Claudio Vargas, who was acquired in a Nov. 25 trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Brewers went 75-87 last season and finished fourth in the NL Central. Melvin said the team went into the offseason hoping to make improvements.
"This obviously will be the largest improvement, adding a pitcher of this stature," Melvin said.
Suppan went 6-2 with a 2.39 ERA in 15 starts after the All-Star break this past season. He is 44-26 with a 3.95 ERA over the last three seasons, tying for ninth in the majors in wins during that span.
In the NLCS, Suppan pitched eight shutout innings for the victory in Game 3, then allowed one run over seven innings in Game 7, which the Cardinals went on to win 3-1 on Yadier Molina's two-run homer in the ninth.
Attanasio said that kind of performance was important to him as he tries to make the Brewers a "perennially competitive" team.
"What you want to do is add a winner," he said.
He described the deal as "a very significant commitment for our team."
Suppan's agent, Scott Leventhal, said the pitcher saw the Brewers as a team with potential.
"I think he feels like it's a team that has tremendous talent, it's got a mix of young guys and veterans, all with talent," he said.
Leventhal said Suppan was at a Christmas Eve Mass and could not be reached for comment.
Suppan generated some controversy during the World Series when he appeared in a television commercial and a print ad opposing a Missouri amendment to permit embryonic stem cell research. The amendment passed by a narrow margin.
Attanasio invited the pitcher and his agent to dinner at his home last week.
"It was a very relaxed evening," Attanasio said. "There was a lot of give and take, I got to know Jeff. I came away impressed."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
| This helps their starters out a lot, but don't expect him to be the Ace...Ben Sheets has that job locked up...expect Carlos Villanueva to be dropped off the rotation...being the rookie, it's tough luck, even though he's pretty good...
Thoughts? |
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