Gallardo, Gallardo, we'll see ya, tomorrow...

Just for the record, we know we have a little bit of a man crush on Brewers rookie ace Yovani Gallardo. But, in our defense, we've been preaching his worthiness to our fantasy baseball leaguemates for months and when he finally arrived in the bigs we felt validated. Gallardo was 1-0, with a 2.79 ERA and 19 strikeouts over the 19 innings his three starts encompassed. He's gone now - sort of. Brewers manager Ned Yost is moving Gallardo to the bullpen, to make way for the returning Chris Capuano.

Now, Capuano is a far inferior pitcher, and Dave Bush is one of the NL's most inconsistent starters, but we think Yost is doing the right thing. The Brewers have an excellent shot at winning the NL Central this season, and if they do, they'll need Gallardo at 100 percent for the playoffs. Burning out his young arm in the month of July would make that unlikely. Perhaps the Journal-Times sums up the situation best:

So far, between Class AAA Nashville and Milwaukee, Gallardo has pitched 97 innings. He’s 58 innings away from heading into uncharted waters — not a place you want to go with a rookie pitcher. If Gallardo makes about 15 more starts this season and averages six innings a start, Gallardo will have around 187 innings. That’s a lot of innings for a youngster and doesn’t include the postseason. The list of pitchers who got burned by a team pushing them is long and large (just ask Chicago Cubs right-hander Kerry Wood) and the Brewers don’t want Gallardo on that list.
By moving Gallardo into the bullpen, Yost is keeping his youngster’s arm fresh for the playoff chase in August and September. That formula seemed to work for the Detroit Tigers last year when they rested rookie Justin Verlander during his rookie season. A healthy and rested Verlander helped lead the Tigers to the World Series.

Seems reasonable enough, doesn't it? Does it mean we'll have to calm our Gallardo juices over the next month while Bush pitches his way out of the Brewers' rotation? Yeah, it does. But we can handle that. Just don't take away our Grady Sizemore.