Brewers Release Claudio Vargas

The Milwaukee Brewers today released starting pitcher Claudio Vargas, despite a strong spring training camp which saw him produce an ERA under 4.00. This indeed came as a surprise to many, myself included, but manager Ned Yost had a fairly simple explanation: "In our evaluations, (Vargas) was the seventh guy on our staff." Yost went on to say "We feel, in all fairness to him, we didn't see him pitching in Triple-A. We feel like he's a big-league pitcher."
This is real nice and caring of the Brewers, but I believe, a bit misleading. Who cares if he wants to pitch in Triple A or not, if he's a decent pitcher and can provide depth, why not keep him in triple A? I think that they just didn't see him as that great a pitcher, and were willing to just let him go. I mean, if he were really any good, we'd be able to get something, anything, for him via trade. The fact that no one offered anything was enough proof for me that he was just average. Several years ago, a guy with Vargas' talent level would have been our # 2 pitcher in the rotation, which speaks volumes about where we are as a team. And in the 90's? He'd have been our staff ace!
Maybe it's just the warmth in the air today, or the sight of snow melting, but it sure is encouraging to see that we no longer hang on to "decent" players. The Brewers' are making a statement to the entire organization that we want the best players, and don't take it personally, but if that's not you, we're gonna move on without you.
I do wish Vargas all the best, he is a class act and I hope he finds a team soon. At the very least, by mid-season injuries will prompt a team to call him, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him starting at the back-end of someone's rotation come August.
For the full report, click the link below:

http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2008/03/25/brewers-release-vargas.aspx

P. Higgins
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