It Has Begun

(Note: A piece by Cheddar Ben about the top 10 stories to keep your eye on in the months ahead follows this post by Sip.)

I picked up the post today and got my first whiff of that promises to be an exciting offseason of Yankee hating.

The Yankees are interested in... Jeff Suppan.

Coming off a monster postseason, Jeff Suppan is the 2006 equivalent of Derek Lowe. He is hot, hot, hot in what could be a very thin pitcher's market.

Translation: Insert Yankees here.

I pray Jeff Suppan ends up in the Bronx. If Derek Lowe's success in Los Angeles is any indication of Suppan's future, than there should be funny headlines coming out of the Bronx.

A few big differences between Suppan and Lowe.

Lowe was once a big time starter. He was a Cy Young candidate. He won 38 games between 2002-2003. He was going from a hitter's ballpark in Fenway to the pitcher friendly Dodger Stadium.

Lowe has strung together a couple of nice seasons in Los Angeles. But Derek Lowe has always been a "nice" pitcher.

Now we look at Suppan's situation.

No one is denying how great he looked this October. He carried the Cards on his back in some ways and deserves all the credit in the world for that.

But this guy isn't Derek Lowe. He isn't even Jeff Weaver, a guy who at one point was considered to have front-of-the-rotation stuff.

This guy is at best a #3 starter.

And now we bring him to the Yankees.

He goes from the NL Central, baseball's lightest hitting division, to the AL East, arguably baseball's toughest division.

He goes from the NL to the AL where ERA's are known to jump (read: Josh Beckett, Carl Pavano, etc.)

He goes from Busch, a somewhat spacious ballpark, to Yankee stadium where popup homeruns to right field make Jason Giambi look like Babe Ruth.

Suppan has looked like a decent pitcher in KC, Pittsburgh, and now St. Louis. These are three places where fans hug you when you lose and smile when you win.

His one run in Boston, where he was the prize piece of the deal that sent Freddy "NL batting Champ" Sanchez to the Pirates, was not so good:

3-4, 5.57 ERA in Boston's stretch run.

I love that baseball is a game where Jeff Suppan will get 10 million dollar a year.

I pray that baseball is the game where the Yankees are the team that gives it to him.

This guy could make Jaret Wright look like Nolan Ryan.

Vaya con dios,

Sip