Ben Sheets

or those slim pickings, in my very humble opinion, here are the top five free agent pitchers:

(1) Ben Sheets, (2) Oliver Perez, (3) Jon Garland, (4) Andy Pettitte, and (5) Randy Wolf

Sheets is unquestionably the best pitcher of the group, but his injury history is immensely discouraging. Even though he's the top gun remaining, I wouldn't touch him if I were the Mets. He'll get hurt and either Jon Niese or Bobby Parnell will be in the rotation before we know it. Can't have one of them on top of Maine and Redding.

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($10M)Roy Oswalt ($13M Gil Meche ($11.4M) Jon Garland ($12M)Jason Schmidt ($15.2M) Derek Lowe ($10M)Ben Sheets ($10.1M)Johan Santana ($16.9M)Pedro Martinez ($11.8M)Andy Pettitte ($16M)Mike Mussina ($11M)Carl Pavano ($11M)Matt Morris ($10M)Greg Maddux ($10M) Barry Zito ($14.5M)Chris Carpenter ($10.5M)Vincente Padilla ($11M)Kevin Millwood ($10.3M) AJ Burnett ($13.2M)Roy Halladay ($10M)

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er for the National League, and making his first ever trip to Yankee Stadium will be Brewers hurler Ben Sheets. He was selected by manager Clint Hurdle based on his stature among on the players ballots cast. His peers are the best judge of talent, and Sheets fails to gain criticism with his numbers. His 2.85 ERA is just about a full run lower than his numbers the past years and his 10 wins are only two shy of his career high which he set in 2004 and matched in 2007. Despite the brilliance Sheets has shown so far in his career, his tenure could be easily summed up by his strong potential for injuries which have clearly limited his career totals.  In his second All-Star campaign in 2004, his first since his rookie year in 2001, Sheets pitched 237 innings, leading the league strikeout to walk ratio but was limited to 12 wins due to his 6th place Brewers. But since that breakout year,

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ht of the federal investigation, will probably lead to another down year.

Milwaukee Brewers

Can Ben Sheets stay healthy?

Sheets always seems on the verge of becoming one of the best young pitchers in the game when he is healthy, but his seasons always end up broken up by frequent stints on the DL for one thing after another. The Brewers have some young pitchers with tons of potential in Yovani Gallardo and Manny Parra as well as some serviceable veterans, but they really need Sheets to become the ace of the rotation and innings eater that he is capable of. Unfortunately it is tough to predict if he is past his injuries as they have so often been the unforeseen and freak variety. With him in the rotation, a middle of the road staff becomes one in the top third of the league, something Milwaukee will need in order to compete with the Cubs.

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ung.  Gallardo and Villanueva are top young pitchers and need to continue to improve.  If Ben Sheets can stay healthy that would go along way to helping the rotation stay consistent.  The bullpen is pretty good also.  The Brewers brought in Eric Gagne to replace Fransico Cordero and I think Gagne should be much better than his two months in Boston last year.  Their bullpen is deep with Turnbow, David Riske, Torres and Shouse.  This may be the year the Brewers are ready to take that big leap and win a division crown.

Continue reading "Part II: NL Central"