Information and Bullet Points

By: Big Rygg

Just a quick note...

So many writers have a "News and Notes" stand by article that I didn't want to call this post that overused title. If anyone can think of something other than what I threw up in two seconds, please feel free to contribute your ideas for consideration in the comments section.

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After having completed my fairly lengthy article regarding the open spots in the Brewers' starting rotation and the competitors thereto, Chris Capuano has to go and tweak his elbow. Of all the low-down, dirty things that a professional athlete could do to a writer, I should just drive down to Arizona and...

Of course, I'm kidding around, but the news about Capuano could be some serious repercussions as it relates to the shake out of the aforementioned rotation.

Management has made it clear (and I use that term because I can't remember if both Ned Yost and Doug Melvin have said it on record, but I know at least one of them has and can't remember for sure which one) that their ideal rotation would have a left-handed starter. Does this give another edge to the already pitching-out-of-his-mind Manny Parra? You'd tend to think so.

The other question to ask right now is how serious is this tweaking? Is the injury severe enough that it would allow Yost to place Capuano on the DL, thereby saving one of his guys from the demotion to the minors and allowing him to do what he should do without having to bruise Capuano's ego?

It's becoming more and more obvious that Yost wants to give "Cappy" and "Bushie" every chance so that he can find a way to justify putting them both into the rotation. The unfortunate backfiring is that Cappy hasn't pitched very well yet this spring for any substantial length of time. Bush appears to have leveled off and finally seems to be improving, but when will the questions about Jeff Suppan begin to gain steam?

Suppan had another rough outing this afternoon, and it sporting a ERA for the spring of over 11.37! Folks, you all know if you read this blog fairly often that I'm one of the last people to get concerned over much of anything that happens in Spring Training outside of the injury report, but there comes a time when Suppan has to show that he's capable of dialing it up and sitting some hitters down. Yes, Derrick Turnbow and Eric Gagne had bad days too, but closer-types are a different breed. I truly believe that the mindset of those types of guys is very different during the season.

Bottom line on Suppan, there are only a couple of starts left for him to get it in gear. He said that today's goal for himself was to work in a cut fastball. Well, okay then. Can the goal next time be to keep him WHIP closer to 1.00 than 2.00? Maybe a goal could be to get that ERA under 10.00? Maybe we could even aim high and shoot for under a run an inning?

Look, I know that Suppan is an important part of this staff and that we need his September 2008 to resemble his September 2007, but would it be too much to ask for our #2 pitcher (if in title only) to maybe have 12 wins by the time September starts? Suppan went 4-1 in six September starts last year to finish with a personal won-loss record of 12-12. He started 34 games last season. If he could keep up his September average throughout the entire season, he'd win 22 games. Yeah, that's a bit ambitious, but winning 12 of your first 28 starts isn't asking too much.

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Look for another set of notes in a day or two honoring the request of one of our most loyal contributors Aaron, by discussing Luis Peña and Chris Narveson. I just don't have time to do it tonight.

And don't forget to keep it here for Brewers baseball discussions, but head over to Sports Nation to find out about other sports that South Side Rob and I follow. See the post below for more information.