Thursday, April 17, 2008

Why Weaver?

Here in Wisconsin, the Brewers have very quickly become a sexy team. What I mean by that is that they have become very popular...very quickly, because they have gotten very good...very quickly. So the hot button issue right now with the Brew Crew is that they've signed former post-season hot shot Jeff Weaver to a minor league deal.

My question is why? I haven't really understood the moves the Brewers have made with their pitching staff this year. There are major concerns for me in this pitching staff.
  • I get that Ben Sheets looks really good, but I wonder if he's going to stay healthy?
  • Chris Capuano is gone for the year, getting the second Tommy John surgery of his career. After the season he had last year that might be a good thing.
  • Jeff Suppan is your #2, I Like Suppan but I don't think that he's a #2 on a world series contender (am I wrong?)
  • After Sheets and Suppan, the rest of the rotation is either unproven (Yovani Gallardo, Manny Para and Carlos Villanueva) or incredibly streaky (Dave Bush a.k.a. "The Human Light Switch")
  • Move to the Bullpen and you get more stability. Pitchers like Guillermo Mota and Seth McClung have been a great addition to the staff...
  • ..But move to the closer role and again their are concerns. With the departure of Coco Cordero to Cincinnati, the position has become a weakness. How long will Eric Gagne hold up in the closer role (he hasn't been the same since he got hurt with the Dodgers...a brief appearance of the old Gagne in Texas last year was erased by a horrendous stint with in Boston)? and if he falters who's set to take over the closer role? Derrick Turnbow who was dubbed Derrick "Turnblow" by many in Milwaukee (Turnbow just hasn't been the same since his bobble head day at Miller Park).
The NL Central is still going to be decided between the Cubs and Brewers, and the cubs have their own problems too, but the Brewers' pitching staff concerns me...a lot.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

...and Out Come the "Sue" Birds

Former Seattle Supersonics' (yeah I called them supersonics!) owner Howard Schultz isn't very happy with new owner Clay Bennett's plans to move the team from Seattle to Oklahoma City.

If you're a sports fan you've no doubt heard this story already. But, this morning it was discovered that Schultz isn't going to take the move lieing down. There are reports that Schultz is planning to sue Clay Bennett for breach of contract. Schultz is arguing that when he sold the team to Bennett, Bennett agreed to make a "good-faith effort" to keep the Sonics in Seattle.

I found this local news report from Seattle's NBC King 5 (I swear to god, that's their tag line) from this morning.