PHOENIX (AP) -Carlos Villanueva has no plans to change his loose approach to winning a spot in the starting rotation. Dave Bush, Chris Capuano and Claudio Vargas have been sticking to their notoriously difficult and regimented workouts.
And Brewers prospect Manny Parra? He’s been throwing well, showing he belongs, too.
Milwaukee has eight pitchers trying to lock down five rotation spots, and the competition isn’t much clearer now than it was when training camp opened.
“I’m serious about competing for a spot and trying to win a spot on the team. I don’t know if that makes me a man on a mission, but I think everyone here is serious about doing that,” said Capuano, an All-Star in 2006 who slumped to 5-12 with a 5.10 ERA last year and had offseason surgery on a torn labrum in his nonthrowing shoulder.
The top of the rotation seems set with ace Ben Sheets followed by Jeff Suppan, who signed a four-year contract worth $42 million before the start of last season, and Yovani Gallardo.
Gallardo, who went 9-5 with a 3.67 ERA with 17 starts and three relief appearances as a rookie, has been rehabilitating from arthroscopic left knee surgery after he got hurt just before camp began. He’s not sure when he can make his first start in the rotation, so a couple of spot starts might be available.
But after those three, five pitchers are competing to be the fourth and fifth starters in what’s been an extremely tight competition.
“(I) have enough things to worry about myself to worry about how other people do, how other people perform,” said Villanueva, who is easily the most relaxed of the five. He discovered early in his career that he became mentally fatigued before games when he focused all day on his starts. “I want everybody to do good. I want to earn whatever slot they give me. I want to earn it myself.”
The number of pitchers won’t matter if none of them can get through seven innings to save their bullpen from being overworked. Last year, Milwaukee’s starters went seven innings 33 times compared to 61 such starts in 2006, which forced the bullpen to work 48 additional innings last year and falter down the stretch.
“You’ve got to get at least some games with seven, at least through six innings,” Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said. “We’ve got quantity. The quality of our pitching will be determined by the performance of the players.”
Brewers manager Ned Yost said the team will do everything it can to protect the depth it has at the position, and Melvin has been reluctant to make a trade so far this spring.
“You just want to be real careful you don’t go and make some move and then somebody gets hurt and then you’re thin,” Melvin said.
Another factor in the Brewers’ favor is that all five candidates have options to be sent to the minors except Vargas, meaning that Milwaukee can protect itself from being forced to trade a player or lose him in the waiver process.
“I feel good here, but this is business. They have a lot of guys here that have played less than me, and have options, but they do the job here, too,” said Vargas, who threw five hitless innings earlier this week. “We’re fighting here for a spot.”
However, sending down Capuano or Bush could be an expensive proposition.
Capuano makes $3.75 million this season, and Bush makes $2.55 million. Both Parra and Villanueva have significantly less major league service time and make just a fraction of what Capuano and Bush do.
Parra has arguably had the best spring of all.
The 25-year-old left-handed prospect’s career had been slowed by injuries, but he has only given up one run in nine innings and struck out a team-high eight so far this spring.
“Manny’s in the midst of a big fight right here. That would make you a little apprehensive, give you a little anxiety when you’re battling,” Yost said. “But Manny shows no signs of that.”
And no one else shows signs of backing down.
“It makes (us have) really, really tough decisions, but that’s what you want,” Yost said. “You want to have a bunch of tough decisions at the end of spring training, all of which are good.”
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