From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt.
The Brewers reached agreement today with free agent right-hander Jeff Suppan on a four-year deal with a club option worth $42 million. A source familiar with the negotiations confirmed the agreement, which apparently took place Saturday evening.
Suppan has to pass a physical for the deal to be official but that is not expected to be a problem.
Suppan, who will be 32 on Jan. 2, pitched the last three seasons for the St. Louis Cardinals. He went 44-26 over that span to increase his career record to 106-101, including a 12-2 mark against the Brewers.
Though I do think Suppan’s new salary should’ve reflected the fact he won’t be padding his stats against Milwaukee any longer, of more pressing concern is how this may impact the Mets’ approach to Barry Zito.
Days after the Post’s Michael Morrisey did his part to cast doubts regarding Zito’s durabilty, the New York Sun’s Tim Marchman expressed full confidence in Surfin’ Barry’s long term prospects
Where most pitchers use their fastball to set up their other pitches, Zito works the other way, making hitters look like fools with the hook and then spotting a modest fastball that he’ll toss at 83 to 85 mph. Anonymous scouts have been caught murmuring in the papers about how he can’t keep things up with this sort of repertoire. They may have a point ” but then, Zito has been pitching in the big leagues with the same stuff and the same pattern since 2000, and hitters still haven’t quite figured it out. Unless one thinks that for some reason he’ll prove unable to keep throwing that curveball ” and Zito is a very sound, consistent pitcher mechanically ” there wouldn’t seem to be much cause for concern. Not everyone has to throw 95 mph to be effective. Some pitchers just throw a nasty sinker, some can spot the ball within the strike zone well, and some have a nasty curveball and a rubber arm. There’s more than one way to skin a cat or get hitters out.