Forget the game -- Lord knows we'll try -- the big news on Sunday was Jeff Suppan being removed from the starting rotation in favor of Chris Narveson.

It was an announcement that created mixed emotions for me.  Suppan out of the rotation?  That's fantastic.  It's everything we've been waiting for ever since the (stupid) decision was made to put him in the rotation when he returned from the disabled list.  Replacing him with Narveson?  Not exactly what I had in mind. 

Yes, Narveson was great in September last season and again during spring this year.  But what has he done this year in a relief role?  Take a look at Narveson's stats so far this year, and compare them to what Suppan has done in his two starts:

Narveson - 10 IP, 17 H, 9 R, 8 ER, 7 BB, 6 K, 7.20 ERA, 2.40 WHIP
Suppan - 9.1 IP, 16 H, 10 R, 9 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 8.68 ERA, 2.04 WHIP

Incredibly small sample size, yes, but the production has been eerily similar.

It just doesn't make much sense to me, and neither do the comments made by Ken Macha about why the Narv Dog is being moved into the rotation instead of Manny Parra.  His reasoning?  Narveson has struggled in the bullpen, Parra's been great, so let's give Narveson more innings.  As the guys from Guinness would say, "Brilliant!"

Was Narveson the best starter in the so-called "open competition" this spring?  Yes.  Does he represent a significant improvement over Jeff Suppan at this point, though?  I'm not so sure.  What I am sure of, though, is that Manny Parra will get some starts down the line, and depending on how those pan out, Ken Macha might end up looking like a fool.  Again.

W: Randy Wells (2-0)
L: Dave Bush (1-1)

CHC HR: Kosuke Fukudome (3), Tyler Colvin (3), Geovany Soto (2), Derrek Lee (4)
MIL HR: None

The season is filled with peaks and valleys.  The Brewers were at a peak following their 20-0 drubbing of the Pittsburgh Pirates.  Now they're in one of their deepest valleys after getting swept at home by the Chicago Cubs.

The big news of the day came before the game -- Jeff Suppan is (finally) being removed from the rotation, and Chris Narveson will move into the 5th starter spot.  Dave Bush responded by getting shelled worse than Suppan did in the series opener, giving up more home runs (4) than he had innings pitched (3.2).  It was a hard way to regress back to the mean after he was the Brewers' best starter through the first three turns through the rotation. 

Randy Wells, meanwhile, shut down the Brewers' offense, allowing just two runs in 7 innings.  After outscoring the Pirates 36-1 in the previous series, the Brewers were outscored 25-4 in this series.  Like I said in last night's recap, I'm sure a lot of people will make a big deal out of the offense's struggles since the 20-run output, but all we really learned about the offense in this series is that the trio of Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly, and Randy Wells is a lot better than the trio of Charlie Morton, Zach Duke, and Dan McCutchen.

As I said last night: Getting swept stinks, getting swept by the Cubs stinks even worse, but getting swept by the Cubs at home after everyone sold their good seats to Cubs fans flat out sucks.

It was a frustrating series, but the Brewers just got outplayed in every facet of the game.  The only thing they can do is suck it up and get ready to play a Pirates team that will be motivated to prove that they're not as bad as they looked last week.

W: Ted Lilly (1-0)
L: Doug Davis (0-2)

After the Brewers managed to win in one of Doug Davis' disaster starts, I guess it was only fair for the Brewers to lose the first game in which Davis looked like the "good" Doug Davis.  Oh, ye cruel baseball gods.

Sharpie was strong by his standards, going 6.1 innings, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits, striking out 6, and only walking 2.  The Brewers were unable to get anything going against Ted Lilly in his first start of the season, though -- Lilly threw 6 shutout innings and only surrendered 3 hits.  The Brewers were able to score a run off Carlos Zambrano in the 8th to avoid getting shut out.

The Brewers have now only managed 2 runs in the 18 innings since scoring 20 on the Pirates, and while I'm sure a lot of people will repeat those numbers until the offense breaks out again, the only thing it proves is the fact that Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly are a lot better than anyone on Pittsburgh's roster.

Instead, my main concern is with the way Chris Narveson has pitched out of the bullpen.  Despite struggling in a relief role, his name keeps coming up in the "Who Should Replace Suppan?" discussion, but as some people said on Twitter, perhaps we shouldn't have bought into the small sample size of Narveson's success in September last year and spring this year.  He gave up 3 runs in 2 innings of work tonight while also walking 2.  Narveson has a 2.40 WHIP in 8 innings pitched so far this season and hasn't had a clean outing since April 12 (coincidentally, he also pitched 2 innings of relief in a Doug Davis start against the Cubs in that game).

It'll be up to Dave Bush to stop the sweep tomorrow afternoon.  Getting swept stinks, getting swept by the Cubs stinks even worse, but getting swept by the Cubs at home after everyone sold their good seats to Cubs fans flat out sucks.

Brewers' manager Ken Macha still has no idea what to do with pitcher Jeff Suppan...after another poor showing against the Cubs on Friday evening (5 ER's over 4 1/3 IP, 10 hits, 2 K's and 2 BB's...and now an ERA for the season of 8.68), Suppan's status in the rotation is, or at least should be, in jeopardy.

The Brewers will need a 5th starter again on Wednesday against the Pirates.  In all likelihood, Suppan will get the nod for this start simply because a) he's only had two starts on the season; b) both were against the same team, the Cubs; c) he is coming off an injury; and d) he's getting paid way too much to be a middle reliever.

It is probably safe to start Suppan against the Pirates (after all, the Brew Crew's offense hasn't really had any trouble against Pirate pitching so far in 2010)...but if Suppan struggles against one of the weaker teams in the National League, then what?

Why not try a piggyback?

For those not familiar with the concept, a team designates two "starters" for the game--one actually starts the game and only pitches a set number of innings, usually 3 or 4, while the other pitcher pitches the back half of the game.  Piggybacking is used quite a bit in the minors, especially when needing to stretch younger pitchers out or to prep two potential starters.  Usually, one pitcher starts and goes 3-4 innings, while the second pitches the following 3-4 innings, and then they swap the next start--the second pitcher used will start or pitch the first four innings in the following start.

To some extent, the Brewers have already been doing this with Suppan, as he is having trouble going 5 innings anyway.  Formalizing the process, however, could take some pressure off of Suppan, as well as save face with the fans.  But to save face with the fans, Macha would probably have to announce that he is going to piggyback Suppan...meaning the Brewers' opponent knows that Suppan will be yanked after 4 even if he does have a good start.

But the Cubs' still plated four runs (three earned) in the first four innings on Friday night, so "Soup" might not even benefit from a piggyback system...so the best thing to do if he is still pitching badly after the game against the Pirates--"Zambrano" him into the bullpen and let Manny Parra or Chris Narveson have a chance.

W: Ryan Dempster (2-0)
L: Jeff Suppan (0-1)

CHC HR: Kosuke Fukudome (2)
MIL HR: None

There's really no way to understate how bad Jeff Suppan is now.

The first time he faced the Cubs this year, the Brewers got lucky and managed to get him out of the game before he could do too much damage, all while outscoring the Cubs.  This time, they weren't so lucky -- Ryan Dempster shut down an offense that scored 20 runs just a day ago, and Suppan was drilled for 6 runs (5 earned) on 10 hits in 4.1 innings.

You knew things were going to be bad when the first pitch of the game was driven into the gap by Ryan Freaking Theriot.  Kosuke Fukudome followed with another double to drive in the game's first run, and realistically, the game was over from that point on.

By the 5th inning, the Brewers had a win expectency of just 9%.  Maybe this is how Pirate fans felt on Thursday.

It's just incredibly frustrating to watch this team trot out Suppan when there are at least two better options on the big league roster, and likely a couple more sitting in Nashville.  Manny Parra pitched an impressive two innings tonight and has yet to give up a run this season.  Chris Narveson certainly couldn't do any worse.  And yet Ken Macha and Doug Melvin decide to keep Suppan in the rotation despite the fact that they're obviously a worse team because of it.

I'm not usually one for fans booing their own players, but when it comes to Jeff Suppan it seems like there's only one thing we can do...