Some pitching ideas?

Despite good starts recently from Bush, Parra and McClung, the Brewers starting pitching situation is precarious at best. While it would be great if this was a signal of the pitchers settling in and finding their rhythm, I'm skeptical. McClung had a great outing last night, but the outing before that couldn't have been worse. Bush and Parra are getting past the 5th inning, which had previously been the killer. So let's say we can't assume that all those troubles mysteriously disappeared.

Looking at the Brewers schedule for June shows that the off days would allow us to skip the #5 spot in the rotation all but two times this month. Should we move to a 4 man rotation that ensure that no-matter what, Ben Sheets pitches every 5th day? Ben's been the only constant and is holding up much better than any of us were willing to hope he would.

Conversely, if we pitch him consistently every 5 days, are we playing with fire and exposing him to what many consider the inevitable injury?

Switching to the 4-man rotation would allow us to get the pitching situation straightened out before July, in which our only off-days are the All-Star Break.

Yost has had a much tighter leash on the pitchers this year, which I've been a big fan of. I'm no Yost-lover, but I can applaud the way he handled Ben Sheets on Saturday. It was completely appropriate to let him try for the complete game and completely appropriate to pull him after the 11-pitch walk to Lance Berkman in the 9th. 111 pitches with one out to get is one thing. 122 with a man on first is another. Don't tempt fate or risk Sheets' arm. I have often felt Ned is on the wrong side of the window to pull pitchers. He either pulls them too soon or leaves them in too long, so I was happy to see the right amount of leeway with Sheets.