No Return Investment on Brewer Pitching

When Milwaukee Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio lent his ear to general manager Doug Melvin on the need for more pitching help, he listened.

So Attanasio, who guards his pocketbook with his life, reluctantly spent—I'd say overspent—too much money on pitching in the offseason.

He forked out $67.35 million on left-handed starter Randy Wolf ($29.75 million) and reliever LaTroy Hawkins ($7.5 million).  That also includes the $30.1 million extension the Brewers gave ace Yovani Gallardo over five years.

And don't even talk about Jeff Suppan. 

The Brewers overpaid him when he came to us, based on his postseason performance with the St. Louis Cardinals.  Now he's an overpaid reliever, having lost his starting spot as the fifth starter.

This is a problem for new pitching coach Rick Peterson. 

I believe he's trying to see what's in the heads of his pitchers.  He should try to find out why they're slacking off at the job before he finds himself out of a job.

Ask previous pitching coach Billy Castro what happened to him last year.  When the pitching staff gave up all those runs, he was fired.

Since manager Ken Macha, who's in the last year of his two-year contract—it's unlikely that he'll get an extension—is the overseer of the players and coaching staff, the axe will fall on him, maybe before the All-Star break.

A pitching staff that's 23rd in the majors with a 4.76 ERA and giving up 39 home runs should ask themselves if they spent the bosses' money very wisely. 

It's too early to tell right now. 

Wait until July to ask that question.