Suppan had been struggling of late with an ERA over 10 in his last five starts Jeff has been clearly struggling. His entire approach has been to keep the ball low hoping the batter chases or he gets the call. Previously Suppan would throw his 88 mph "heat" up and in to get guys to chase.

This allows the five guys throwing the best "right now" to stay put.

I said this elsewhere, but I like this trade for the Brewers, as much as it pains me to see it transpire. They may be giving up a future star, but the NL is so weak right now that they have to pounce on the opportunity to win it all now. They had to be the favorites to snag the wild card before this trade. Now they may have the tools to snag the Central if Sheets stays healthy. Nothing is a given, so I can't say this automatically makes them favorites to rep the NL in the World Series. But by the same token, nothing being a given is why they need to go all in now. The '06 Tigers and '07 Indians are two recent examples of teams that almost won it all, fell a bit short and for various reasons, have actually regressed instead of improved.

Suppan had been struggling of late with an ERA over 10 in his last five starts Jeff has been clearly struggling.

He's been noticably struggling, but they certainly kept this quiet - presumably not to affect their leverage in possible trade talks.

The Cardinals and Cubs are both pretty darn good, so I wouldn't say the NL is "so weak" anymore. At least not the Central.

The NL is weak as a whole, though. Outside of the Central, you have the Phillies and to a lesser extent, the Marlins and perhaps the Mets. The West, as usual, is a race to see who can be the least bad. By comparison, the AL boasts the Red Sox, Rays, White Sox, Twins, Tigers, Angels, and to an extent, A's.

The Cardinals and Cubs are both pretty darn good, so I wouldn't say the NL is "so weak" anymore. At least not the Central.


I think the NL needs to not get pasted one year before people are going to believe that again - the 102-149 this year is pretty bad.

Suppan had been struggling of late with an ERA over 10 in his last five starts Jeff has been clearly struggling. His entire approach has been to keep the ball low hoping the batter chases or he gets the call.

Hey, that's exactly what Ian Snell was doing before he went on the DL. Hopefully those 15 days have fixed everything. (sob)

Yahoo: Passan - CC rides into Milwaukee

About a month ago, Melvin pulled aside Brewers owner Mark Attanasio... and told him that the Indians might soon place Sabathia on the trade block. Melvin wanted to know whether he could pursue him.

“Of course I said yes,” Attanasio said, “though when he told me, I didn’t think that – “

Attanasio stopped and looked to his left. On the field, hundreds of Cub Scouts were walking around as part of a pregame ceremony, and one den leader, overwhelmed by the Sabathia trade, interrupted Attanasio’s thought and yelled: “Thank you! Thank you!”

(Our turn, in honor of Melvin, for a non-sequitur: This happened all afternoon. Attanasio now knows what it feels like to be Vince Lombardi in Wisconsin. It was like the Brewers had suddenly become the Packers. Brett Favre might want to un-retire, and the Packers might not want him, and all anyone in Milwaukee could talk about was CC Sabathia, and maybe it’s because he’d make a pretty good left tackle, but, no, they wanted to discuss his left arm, and how Melvin was a genius, and how Attanasio was the kind of owner they’d needed for years.)

Anyway, back to Attanasio. He didn’t think Sabathia would be available, and he gave Melvin the magic words: Get him. Forget the money. Attanasio said the Brewers might finish in the red this season, though that doesn’t matter right now, not with the rush of goodwill and their next game – Sabathia’s first start – evolving from standard-fare Tuesday baseball into a sellout event.