Friday, November 23, 2007

Linebrink Signs With ChiSox

Not surprisingly, the Brewers lost Scott Linebrink. The White Sox shelled out $19 million over 4 years for a middle reliever who's getting worse the last 3 years, not better. Ah, the state of bullpen relief in baseball.

Assistant GM Gord Ash seemed downright giddy about the number of compensatory draft picks Milwaukee will receive. That's all well and good, but those guys don't help us win a division this year. In fact, I'm scared as hell about the bully going into 2008. Let's face it: the bullpen (along with defense) was by far our biggest weakness last year and the only two guys worth a damn were CoCo and Linebrink. Both will probably be gone. That makes an already poor situation a disaster. I know relievers can come out of nowhere (see Colorado, Arizona), but that's more hoping and praying than anything. Not something you want to do going into the season with very high expectations.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shouse wasn't bad....

The worst part about losing Linebrink to the ChiSox, is that their 1st rounder is a protected pick. We only get their 2nd rounder as compensation. We'll still end up getting a good pick for CoCo too, so that ought to excite Gordy even more.

I know it sucks to lose these guys, but until/unless we deal Vargas, Cappy, Parra, or Bush you have to figure that a few of those guys will also be added to the pen rather than being in the starting rotation. I mean, Sheets, Gallardo, Suppan, Villy are most likely #1-4, and probably Cappy/Parra filling out the requisite lefty in the starting 5. There's still a decent amount of depth on the pitching staff, and supposedly we are in the market for Percival too. Don't get too worried about the pen yet Brad.

Everyone seemed to hate Linebrink anyway....

Anonymous said...

AP - Point noted about Shouse. I keep forgetting about that guy.