After playing their first meaningful October baseball games in a quarter century the Milwaukee Brewers have a tough road a head of them. They will dearly miss all 6 feet 7 inches of CC Sabathia, as well as injury plagued Ben Sheets. The 2009 Brewers will rely on young talent in their pitching staff, which is generally not a recipe for success. Maybe they should give the Rays a call.

 It appears that the pitching rotation will be head lined by young star Yovanni Gallardo, who missed the majority of last season with a torn ACL. He was sharp in the beginning and the Brewers had enough faith in him last year to start him in their first playoff game. Lefty Manny Parra was solid in the beginning of the year, but as with many young pitchers faded towards the end of the season. Jeff Suppan will hopefully be a solid veteran pitcher towards the end of the rotation. Offseason acquisition Braden Looper will also have a spot in the rotation. The fifth spot is open to Dave Bush and Seth McClung and anyone else that might be able to produce. With this weak inexperienced rotation the Brewers will have to produce more runs than they did last year to have a result anywhere close to their 2008 finish. Rotation Grade: 77  C+

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