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Yovani Gallardo continues to dominate the PCL with yet another Quality Start for Nashville. He took the loss yesterday giving up 2 ER while pitching 6 innings, surrendering just 5 baserunners (4 hits, 1 walk) while striking out 12. 12! Twelve! That’s two per inning, in case you’re bad at math. That’s more than twice as many K’s as baserunners. (If this isn’t an indication of how dumb W-L record for pitchers is, I don’t know what could be.) That’s dominant.
On the year, he got 110 K in 77.2 IP against 28 BB. His HR/9 is 0.45. Tell me, what’s this guy git left to prove in the minors? If the Brewers want to field the best team possible, they should bring him up immediately. Even if they limit him to 80 pitches per outing, the way he can pitch, he should be able to get at least 5 IP from those pitches if not 6. Claudio Vargas has yet to go past 6 IP in any of his starts, and 6 of his 11 starts have been for less than 6 IP. Granted, he’s got a pretty good ERA and a good K/9, but he throws a lot of pitches in a little time. That said, Vargas is still doing pretty well, provided he can get out of his own jams like he has been.
While bringing up Gallardo and limiting his pitch count means that we’d have to rely on long-relievers more, it also means that we could move Dave Bush to the bullpen and have him, Villanueva, and Capellan as long relief guys, with Shouse, Wise, Turnbow, and Cordero at the back end (I’m assuming Spurling would be sent down). We have 3 guys who are potentially quality long relievers.
One drawback might be that Bush seems to start out crappy and then settles in. Let’s take a look:

Dave Bush, 2007
Pitches 1-30
20 IP
10.35 ERA
1.70 WHIP
1.35 HR/9
11.0 K/BB
Pitches 31-75
44 IP
2.43 ERA
0.91 WHIP
0.45 HR/9
5.0 K/BB

Maybe he needs to do a better job warming up. Also, you see that his K/BB in those first 30 pitches is an unbelievable 12 K/BB. He’s just getting hit that hard, and considering how many hits he’s given up in those pitches, he really hasn’t given that many HRs. His BABIP is still an unlucky .343 on the year, almost 40 points above league average. This is mostly a very good pitcher getting pretty unlucky. If it wasn’t for the ERA thing, I’d move Vargas to the ‘pen.
Or consider trading one of those guys.
And that’s why it’s important to insert Gallardo now. Because if he’s not ready for the Majors, we need to know for sure so that when the deadline comes, we either feel comfortable trading Bush, Vargas, or whoever knowing that Gallardo is solid, or know for sure that we need them.
I have to think that Carlos Villanueva has the most trade value of our “expendable” guys right now.
How ’bout a trade for Adam Dunn (providing he’ll keep his club option intact with a trade) to keep the bed warm for Matt LaPorta. Better yet, Carl Crawford. Ah, pipe dreams.
On a different note, I’ve been wanting some “baseball expert” to reassure me about the Brewers. I mean, I’m starting to get really worried here. No-hitters happen, I know, but we’ve flat out sucked lately. For the last month, really. It hurts. It’s gotten so that I am nervous to watch a game, or even to look at a box score when I miss a game. Maybe I’ve lost faith. I’ve been telling myself that the bats will get hot again, that Bush will come around, etc.
Can anyone help me?