Bernie Miklasz looks at Jeff Suppan, his contributions and the future of St. Louis Cardinals pitching.
Bernie’s article starts off discussing Jeff Suppan and his efforts. He gives props to Suppan:
Isn’t that what Suppan always does? Isn’t that a concise summation of his solid but largely unspectacular career? Suppan isn’t nuking bats with 95 mph fastballs. Overwhelming talent doesn’t flow from his fingertips. He just grinds away, a hard-working pitcher giving his best, honoring his craft with constant professionalism. Suppan is reasonably content to be underestimated as long as he’s given the starting assignment every fifth day.
In baseball, we have an affinity for rooting for the player that doesn’t come heralded. The player that simply does their job day in and day out. Even though they make millions of dollars, the unassuming players are the ones that catch our eyes.
He even gets Tony La Russa into the mix:
“That’s the Jeff who cranked out so many of those games last year,” manager Tony La Russa said. “He looked like himself. He was really aggressive and had good stuff. That was outstanding.”
Bernie always seems to get Tony to comment on things others don’t think of. It’s a good trait and one that serves Bernie well.
Bernie turns the article to the sports fans who call for a Suppan replacement if he pitches poorly. He follows with another quote from La Russa that shows the confidence in Suppan:
“Those guys are not ready to pitch here yet,” La Russa said. “They need every inning they’re going to pitch in AAA this season. And it’s all for the good, because when you do need them, they’ll be ready.”
Interesting. When I first read over the article I thought it was going to be a fawning piece about Suppan, but it turned into a piece enlightening us on what La Russa thinks of the prospects.
It would have been better for Bernie to follow-up on the La Russa quote, but overall this is a solid piece.
Score: 8 out of 10