It may not be the haul that the Red Sox are likely to bring in with John Lackey and possibly Mike Cameron, and it's certainly not as newsworthy as the trade that's looking to go down involving Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, but it's still something, as the Brewers continue to make a couple of moves in this still very young offseason.
One of those moves was the resigning of Craig Counsell, who will get about $2 million to be our utilityman extraordinaire this season. Signings like Counsell aren't really sexy so to speak, but they are crucial when trying to make a smaller market team a contender. Craiggers did very well in spot starting duty last season, and I'm glad to had him back in a Crew uniform. It also appears that Claudio Vargas is coming back as well. Vargas came back to Milwaukee last season in a relief role, and filled that job very nicely. Expect more of the same next summer from Vargas.
Obviously, these are two moves that are overshadowed quite a bit by some of the bigger moves happening in baseball lately, but that's alright with me. The Brewers have already made their "splash", and from here on out it looks like we're just going to be filling out the roster. You'd think there might be a second starting pitcher signed sometime, but that remains to be seen.
1 comments:
Vargas came back to Milwaukee last season in a relief role, and filled that job very nicely. Expect more of the same next summer from Vargas.
I am not expecting that in the least. Vargas stunk in 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2008, and was average in 2003 and 2006. I put a lot more faith in those 700 innings than I do 40 last summer.
Now, one might say it's because he's a reliever now and not a starter. But he wasn't very good in relief stints in 2004 or 2008.
Bill James' projection for Vargas in 2010 is very similar to what I expect: 4.77 ERA, 66 innings. I will be thoroughly surprised if we see more of the same from Vargas in 2010 that we saw in 2009.
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