Oldcity

So do the Brewers keep Stetter in then?

Well pitched inning there by both CV and Stetter. Is Marmol even available today?

Yikes, he hung that slider on pitch one to Bradley.

Why does BA pronounce Theriot "teer-iot." It's almost annoying as Ben Sheets' "groan" injury.

So glad DiFelice pitched in garbage time yesterday instead of using him against Soriano, Theriot and Lee today.

Who is this guy and what happened to Jeff Suppan?

Nate, he almost scored. It was a perfect throw. That's the right call with two outs.

Don't think that was an awful call by the third base coach. Not sure Suppan can be so slow, and it still took a perfect throw to get him.

Bases loaded nobody out, first and second nobody out twice and one run. Fun game.

If not starter, then at least move him back into the high-leverage role he was in before he got injured. Why Coffey has moved ahead of him in the pecking order is beyond me.

Lincecum and Cain were mentioned earlier in this thread. Just because those two are still pitching well doesn't mean they still aren't at risk. What the Giants, a non-contending team, did to Lincecum last year was criminal. I was angered by it, and I'm not even a Giants fan. If I was I'd be irate. It's about picking your spots. When the game situation calls for removing a young pitcher, why not do it? The risk outweighs the reward by far.

Topper, the Brewers could bank on Yo being an exception to the rule like Ryan or Spahn, or they could assume he's like the vast majority of pitchers who eventually break down under such a workload. Which approach do you think is in their best interest? Nobody suggested a 100 pitch limit on each start. Using pitches per start on Sheets in 2008 is misleading because he was pulled early from a few games due to injury. Throw out his last two starts of the season when he was clearly hurt and couldn't go, and he averaged 102.5 pitches per start. Again, it's not that the average is that bad overall, but it's how many times he was 115+. Sheets was number 8 in pitcher abuse last season; you can't convince me that his current injury isn't related in some way to pitcher abuse.

Sheets always wanted to go out for that extra inning too. Sometimes what the player wants isn't in his best interests, and it's the job of the manager to realize that. Of course Yo looks fine now. Now isn't when it would affect him. It would affect him in August/September of this season or next season.

It's great that you say this, but what's your reasoning for it? Just because you say Gallardo will be fine doesn't make it so. All sorts of evidence/studies on pitching indicate what the Brewers are doing to Gallardo is putting his health in jeopardy. Are they supposed to ignore the fact that he threw less than 40 innings last season?

For the most part, I've liked what I've seen so far from Ken Macha. Watching a team as closely as we do, it's inevitable that you'll find things to disagree with. By far my biggest complaint about Macha, more than his handling of Mat Gamel, is how much he's abused Yovani Gallardo already this season. It's so reminiscent of Yost with Sheets last season. Yo will be throwing a good game and finish an inning around 100 pitches, and rather than take him out, Macha will push it and send him out for an extra inning. It's alright to do that every now and then, but it's been happening way too much. Yo has thrown 110 pitches or more six times already this season. There have been multiple examples of times that Macha has attempted to squeeze an extra inning out of him when it was completely unnecessary. Look no further than his last two starts. Against San Francisco, he was right around 100 pitches after the seventh--an inning which he was lucky to escape unscathed. The Brewers had a 5-0 lead at that point. There was no reason not to turn it over to the bullpen for the last two innings; the game wasn't even close! Of course, he put Gallardo back out there, and he couldn't even finish the eighth--and racked up 118 pitches in the process. Today was another example. He was at 100 pitches after the sixth, was leading off the bottom of the sixth, and the Brewers were down 1-0! There was no reason not to pinch hit for him. Instead of taking six great innings and jumping at a chance to remove him without running up a high pitch count, they sent him out for another inning and he hit 114 pitches. As of yesterday, Gallardo ranked 11th in baseball in pitcher abuse points. He'll likely move up after today's start. There's no reason a young pitcher who missed almost all of last season should be anywhere near that high! Yo is the most irreplaceable player on the team, and they need to start treating him that way.

Yuck. I don't know why anyone would put him on their major league roster right now.

The eight-paragraph story about concerts he's seen thrown in the middle of the article is just bizarre. I think there was more content about his stories of famous people than anything related to baseball.

I believe a win tonight would be the very definition of "stealing one."

Yeah, funny that TH acted like he "proposed" this.

I'm only pointing this out because I was also under the impression that Wandy was "youngish" until I saw this, but he's actually 30 years old. I'd have guessed like 27

Desperado and Hotel California make me cringe. Nothing kills a party like Hotel California.

Even Gallardo is struggling lately (for him). It's disgusting that Suppan is the only pitcher pitching up to his capability at the moment. They need to add a starter somehow if they're going to make the playoffs. There doesn't seem to be much available through trade. I might be desperate enough to try Villanueva again in the rotation.

It depends on the team. Hardy probably has more value to a contending team with a need at shortstop (Boston), while Escobar is going to have more value to a rebuilding team. Teams likely to trade away pitching that the Brewers want are likely to be the rebuilding teams.

Just curious why you put Buchholz in the mix with the other 3. I dont think Buchholz would cost heavy in prospects. He's just a AAA prospect himself. Not an established "Ace", or even #2 like the other 3 guys in that grouping. Escobar (blocked AAA stud) for Buchholz (blocked AAA stud) straight up seems about right to me. I figured Buchholz would cost more because he's under control for several years, while Bedard is only through this season. He's also dirt cheap compared to every other pitcher I mentioned, which would make him pricier in terms of prospects as well. Escobar-Buchholz is probably fairly even, but the goal in this case is finding someone without giving up Escobar or Gamel. You can do that if Bedard is the target.

I don't think Bedard is bad news. He'd cost less in prospects than Peavy/Buchholz/Cain/Lee but would probably be just as good this season.