Denver Brewers staff ace
Jim Atwell helped cap off a tremendous week for Denver nation when he signed on to pitch for the team for 8 more seasons, which means he should be in Brewers purple and gold for most if not all of his career. The deal was announced the day after
Atwell turned 29 years old. Although
Atwell may not long be considered the staff ace, especially with the rise of
Eric Maisch, he is very durable, a true innings eater, a hard worker, and has perhaps the best curveball in the game. And given that WPK analysts believe that he signed well under market value to stay with his original club, it is hard to imagine a less sure bet than this one. (Though, hey, he's a pitcher and he'll be 30 next year, so, you know, no such thing as an actual sure bet.)
Here are some details about his contract:
And for comparison, here are the current top 5 highest paid players in the game, including the comparable ace Aaron McNally and
Atwell's teammate
Brett Taranto, who is a free agent at the end of the season and almost surely will be holding out for over a million dollars a year starting next season. (No word yet on any movement for the Brewers to work out an extension with
Taranto.)
In other WPK superstar news, we may have jinxed poor Steve Whitehead here lately by discussing his push for the MGL MVP but also mentioning that he is injury prone but has been lucky for several seasons. Because now that luck has run out and, having suffered a torn rib cage muscle, the St. Louis third baseman is expected to miss 3 months of the season, hopefully getting back in time for the stretch run of this season. It is a blow to his chances to get that MVP award as well as his quest to set a new single season home run record and it might just be a fatal blow to his team's chances to contend this season.
