Tomorrow Ben Sheets is starting for the Crew. Obie's been good, but I must say I'm glad the ace is back. It'll be interesting to see how he looks--we all know how much of a competitor he is, and it seems quite possible that he might be another week or two away from being completely recovered.
The big question is: what's the roster move to make room for Ben? The obvious choice is to send down Julio Santana, as he didn't break camp with the big club, but he's been quite useful, and Yost clearly likes having him as an option in the pen. If it were my move, I'd send down Tommy Phelps--and Ned seems to have gotten over his Tommy fetish, as Phelps hasn't pitched since the 20th. The one thing that I wouldn't even think about doing is carrying 13 pitchers, which would mean sending Magruder down or finally doing something with Wes Helms.
Sure--I don't think Magruder or Helms does much for the team, but the Brewers don't need more than 12 pitchers. In fact, if there's any team in baseball that doesn't even need 12, it may be the Crew. Virtually everyone in the pen can reliably go more than one inning, and once Sheets is back, there will be at least two starters in the pen: DLR and either Glover or Obermueller. Not to mention Santana, who has gone 2 innings multiple times, and Matt Wise, who is good for 3 or 4 whenever necessary.
What do you think? Who goes down when Sheets comes back?