Fan Overreactions: A History

We'll have a series recap later, but for now, the Small Sample Size Clinic for Super Reactionaries proudly presents this short timeline of events to help put the 2013 Brewers situation into perspective...


April 4th, 2011: "An 0-4 to start the season? You gotta be kidding me! I knew this was too good to be true, we'll just always be on the outside looking in."

July 12th, 2009: "First place at the All-Star break! Nothing can stop us now!"

May 18th, 2008: "20-24...really? This team is completely hopeless with Melvin at the helm. Seriously, just fire everyone, we're never going to make it back to the playoffs with this regime running things."

May 9th, 2007: "FIRST PLACE! WE ARE IN FIRST PLACE!!! HONEY, PUT ME DOWN FOR WORLD SERIES TICKETS, CAUSE WE'RE RIDING THIS GRAVY TRAIN ALL THE WAY TO THE PROMISED LAND!"

December 25th, 2006: "Hey, did you hear? We signed Jeff Suppan! Finally, the big name starting pitcher we needed!"

June 1st, 1982: "This is ridiculous. We're 23-24, we just fired our manager, and now we expect the hitting coach to lead us to the World Series? Yeah, I'll believe that as soon as Pete Rose gets shut out of the Hall of Fame."

Brewers release Randy Wolf

In a move that was written on the wall, the Brewers released veteran LHP Randy Wolf, who was mired in one of the worst years of his career. Wolf was in the third year of a 3 year, $29.75 million dollar contract, and the team is on the hook for the rest of his salary. Wolf pitched fairly well in 2010 and 2011, and notched his first playoff victory in the 2011 NLCS against the rival St. Louis Cardinals. 2012 was a different story, as he put up a 3-10 record with a career-worst 5.69 ERA and whopping 21 HR allowed in 142 1/3 IP. Infielder Jeff Bianchi was called up to take his roster spot, and rehabbing RHP Shaun Marcum will take Wolf's rotation spot this weekend. With the news of Bartolo Colon's suspension, there has been speculation that Wolf could end up in Oakland with former teammate George Kottaras. However, I find this nearly impossible seeing as Oakland has plenty of depth and Wolf is considerably worse than any of their candidates.

The first auto-complete result for a google search of "Randy Wolf Brewers" is "contract", followed by "Randy Wolf Brewers jewish". I have no idea. 

For the Brewers, this is something of a lesson learned. Full disclosure, I liked the signing at the time, and occasional Wolf was fun to watch. And while Wolf's contract didn't turn out as badly as the fabled Jeff Suppan deal, he was not worth the money the Brewers paid him. Hopefully this will deter Doug Melvin from giving large contracts to old, low-strikeout pitchers, regardless of how "safe" they may seem. While those signings were viewed as a necessity for not being able to develop young pitchers through the farm system, the hefty paychecks earned by Suppan and Wolf prevented the team from boosting their roster in other areas. Considering the depth that is currently developing in the farm system due to recent drafts and the Zack Greinke deal, it would seem that deals like this one would be a thing of the past. I hope.