Sweet Sixteen

You really can't say it enough: "Brewers sixteen."  It sounds great every time, especially when followed by something like "Diamondbacks five."  Yeah, yeah, it's spring, but our guy pitched well, their guy didn't; our guys knocked the crap out of the ball, and their guys didn't.  Let's take a closer look:

Clark: 2/4
Hardy: 2/3 + BB
Jenkins: 2/4
Fielder: 2/4 + BB, 4R, 3RBI
Koskie: 2/3
Braun: 2/3
Gross: 3/3, 2RBI

and...I'm putting this in bold for a reason:

Doug Davis: 1/3 + BB.

Doug was great on the mound, as well, despite a 3-run HR in the 5th.  Justin Lehr was a bit shaky, giving up 2 hits and 2 walks in 1 2/3, but he did strike out 4.  Newcomer Allan Simpson gave up a hit, a walk, and an unearned run in his Brewer debut, and Justin Kershner threw a spotless ninth.

The inevitable daily roster notes

Yost is still leaning toward a 12-man bullpen.  Obviously Turnbow, Wise, Kolb, Capellan, and DLR are in.  Lehr, probably, and Fernandez, probably.  That leaves one spot for Helling (if he's healthy) or Justin Thompson, or Jeff, a 25-year-old right-handed junkballer who doesn't rely on the strikeout.

Here's what I'm wondering: if you've got eight guys in the bullpen, included two "long relievers" (Helling & Fernandez), when do they pitch?  Presumably we're expecting an average of six innings (hopefully more, but let's be conservative) from our starters, leaving two or three innings for the bullpen.  With one day off per week, that's a maximum of 18 innings, and probably more like 12-15.  Less than two innings per pitcher per week?  Hmmm.  I can't say I have a better idea--throwing an extra guy on the bench leads to the same problems with at-bats.  Frankly, as I've said before, we don't need a 25-man roster.  We could make do with 22 or 23, actually, especially in April.

Baseball today

After a bunch of us have our fantasy draft, the Brewers go on at (say it with me!) 2:05 CT.  It's on the radio with Bob and Jim.  They're at Maryvale; Chris Capuano for the Crew, Shawn Estes for the forces of evil known as the Padres.  I'm embarrased to say I didn't even know Shawn Estes was a Padre.  Then again, it is his seventh team since the end of 2001.  We can be thankful for one thing: the Shawn Estes tour of pitching mediocrity never touched down in Milwaukee.  We had to settle for Glendon Rusch.