Milwaukee Chooses Peterson

World-renowned pitching coach/guru Rick Peterson, after a hiatus, is back in baseball as the Brewers new pitching coach. He’s got some serious work to do, as the Brewers pitching staff ranked second worst amongst all 30 teams in FIP and actually finished with an identical ERA and FIP of 4.84.

The rotation pitched horrendously with the exception of Yovani Gallardo, who posted the sole starting FIP sub-4. Manny Parra and David Bush were the only other two under 5.00, and free agent additions Braden Looper and Jeff Suppan had FIP of 5.70 and 5.74 respectively with ERAs over 5.00 as well. Looper made more than 30 starts, which means his 2010 option is now worth $6.5M instead of $6M and his buyout increases from $750K to $1M. It’s hard to see Milwaukee picking that option up given the potential grabs on the free agency market.

Trades could also be an avenue of injecting pitching talent. Shortstop J.J. Hardy could probably fetch someone who effectively becomes the Brewers second best starter. If the Brew Crew feel like placing Prince Fielder on the market, one would think they could land a legitimate equal to Gallardo. Maybe the good news is that almost any addition is effectively an upgrade given just how putrid the starters were.

The bad news is that Suppan is still due $12.5M and has a buyout after the season. Is there even another challenger to what Doug Melvin’s worst move is? Suppan’s strong post-season duped the then-uprising Brewers into inking him for veteran presence, playoff experience, and all the other terms that sounds good at a press conference but don’t quite translate to wins and losses – okay, they do translate to losses when you throw over 300 innings of replacement level ball while making over $20M.

Not as much work needs to be done with the bullpen, which had a FIP and ERA on level with the Yankees and Mariners. That’s middle of the road to slightly on the curb, but comparing that to the monstrosity known as the rotation is like comparing a grasshopper to Godzilla.

As for Peterson himself, he wasn’t entirely out of baseball last year, as he tried to fix Scott Kazmir mid-season and seemingly did a decent job at it. He’s one of the forefront supporters of advanced and rigorous physical testing of pitchers, and for that reason alone Milwaukee should welcome him with wide arms. Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but go back and read Derek Zumsteg’s excellent series on pitching prospects and attrition for a reminder of just how good the Athletics were at preventing arm injuries during some of Peterson’s time there.

Peterson also seems to know a little bit about how pitching works. As demonstrated in multiple interviews, he doesn’t pound the “first-pitch strike” philosophy; instead he focuses on winning the first three pitches. He knows the value of the swinging strike and groundball, and he doesn’t seem to carry a notebook of clichés and labels for each of his pitchers.

Milwaukee made a sound hire; now it’s time to get the man some talent to work with.