Milwaukee Brewers: RtB Podcast – On The State Of The Rotation

In the latest episode of the Reviewing The Brew Podcast, David Gasper and Paul Bretl discuss the latest news and rumors surrounding the Milwaukee Brewers.

Listen to “Reviewing The Brew S2E11 – On The State Of The Rotation” on Spreaker.

It’s been a busy and wild week for the Milwaukee Brewers with lots to discuss and David Gasper and Paul Bretl get to the bottom of it all.

What We Discussed

To start off, the discussion focuses on Corbin Burnes, the hot shot young starting pitcher who has gotten off to a rough start to the season and has been demoted to Triple-A San Antonio after four poor outings. Is his future in the rotation? What does he need to work on? When could he make it back? We answer all those questions.

Burnes’ demotion has left an opening in the rotation and old friend Gio Gonzalez is back on the free agent market after being released by the Yankees. We both agree that Gonzalez makes sense for the Brewers to add to their team but how would the fit work out when the rotation is at full strength? There are a number of factors that could prevent a reunion between them.

One of those factors is Jimmy Nelson, who is reportedly close to going on a rehab assignment, and if he’s just about big league ready, is there really a need to sign Gonzalez? Could the Milwaukee Brewers just wait on Nelson to be ready? Also, we discuss what Nelson could perform like when he finally returns and how the rotation would look when he gets there.

In the meantime, the rotation spots have been filled by Chase Anderson and Adrian Houser. We discuss how they’ve filled in and if they’re deserving of any more starts in the future.

On the offensive side, the Brewers have seen prolonged slumps from Jesus Aguilar and Travis Shaw. We talk about the impact this has had on the lineup and whether or not they can break out of the slumps they’re in. During the recording of the show, Travis Shaw hit a home run, his second in as many days, and he slugged another one shortly after the show ended. It appears Shaw is breaking out of that slump.

But Aguilar is still struggling, and we discuss his viability to remain as the starter at first base, and who could end up getting some action at first if his slump continues. Yasmani Grandal got the start there on Tuesday, and perhaps Shaw could see some time as well.

Christian Yelich is on another planet yet again, slugging eight home runs in the past week to win yet another Player of the Week award. It’s getting hard to describe the level he’s at and Milwaukee Brewers GM David Stearns made some comments on extension talks with Yelich this week that we discuss.

In the mailbag segment, there are a lot of good questions, including ones about the best hitter for the 3-hole, Yelich’s possible home run total, and the destinations for Burnes, Peralta, and Kimbrel. We talk about all of this and much more in the Reviewing The Brew podcast. Take a listen.

The RtB Podcast records each Tuesday night and can be found on a variety of podcast platforms including iTunes, Stitcher, and Spreaker.