There are only three things I know about Braden Looper. One, he apparently has some sort of relationship with Lou Pinella. Two, he's very in touch with his faith. And three, his middle name is LaVern. There may be a fourth piece of information I'll know about him, which could be that he is a member of the Milwaukee Brewers.Does that paragraph seem familiar to you in any way? If it does, it's because you've probably seen it before, as I straight just cut and paste that sucker. I took it from an article written on December 21st, 2008, from a blog I enjoy very much. That author? Me.
Yeah, we've been down this Braden Looper might be a Brewer road before, but apparently this time it's actually going to happen. Mustache Melvin confirms that a deal is close, and it appears a deal could be reached later this week, pending a physical of course. Looper would then service the Brewers as a back-end of the rotation starter. I'm guessing he'd start as the five man until Suppan collapses.
A move like this would have the biggest effect on the man who is possibly my favorite Brewer, Seth McClung. I would love to see Big Red as a starter, but I have to admit he's probably more effective as a late-inning set-up reliever. While Gallardo/Parra/Bush/Suppan/Looper isn't the most fantastic rotation in the bigs, it's certainly enough to at least relieve some of the panic I've had about our staff.
However, when you realize the Yankees rotation is Sabathia/Wang/Burnett/Pettitte/Chamberlain, it becomes apparent how insignificant this signing would be.
3 comments:
The Yankees' rotation isn't as great as you make it out to be.
Sure, Sabathia is awesome. We all know this. He's also overweight and has thrown a ton of innings the last two years.
Wang is steady but unspectacular. He can't really strike anybody out, and that low K rate will doom him at some point. This year? Maybe, maybe not. Also, he's coming off an injury.
Burnett has thrown 200 innings just twice in the last six years. When he's on, he's great. But there's a distinct possibility that he'll only make 20 starts this year.
Andy Pettitte is going to be 37 years old this summer. He's getting up there. But he's likely the second surest bet of this group to last a full season, and he was thoroughly average in 2008.
Joba is talented, but a group that includes Peter Gammons and Rob Neyer and Keith Law and Jon Heyman and Jerry Crasnick and Ken Rosenthal point out that he can't be counted on to get much more than can't be counted on to get much more than 140 innings this year himself.
The upside is obviously higher than that of the Brewers', but there is an awful lot of room for uncertainty with the Yankees rotation as well. I don't think they should be the group that we measure greatness by.
I screwed that link up. Damn.
Yet another smart acquisition by Doug Melvin. Braden Looper pitched more innings than any Brewer starter last season & put up better numbers than Jeff Suppan, another finesse pitcher that Looper has been compared to. And here we get Looper for $5 mil. with an option & we won't owe a draft pick because StL never offered Looper arbitration.
BTW McClung won't be a late inning set-up reliever. I admit he could do very well with a role like that, but he's more valuable to the Crew as a long reliever.
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