Shouldering the Load (One Sixty-Two: Day 64)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Sixty-Four: Yovani Gallardo, Milwaukee Brewers

With just one week to go before he can sign as an NBA free agent, LeBron James is most definitely weighing his options. When you find yourself carrying your team, it’s hard to feel great about your championship options. You start to wonder what it would be like to play with another franchise.

For the past seven years, James has been the dominant player on the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he has lacked the caliber of supporting players enjoyed by Kobe Bryant of the champion Los Angeles Lakers. Of course, whatever James has had in Cleveland is far better than what he’d have with the New York Knicks next year. But, after five straight playoff disappointments, James just might feel as though he needs a change.

For more than five years now, the Milwaukee Brewers have danced on the periphery of baseball playoff contention. Milwaukee has always had the hitters; it’s the pitching that has slowed them down each year. In 2008, the Brewers made the daring move of trading for starting pitcher CC Sabathia during the summer playoff race. The addition of this front-line starter was a difference-maker, and Milwaukee made its first playoff appearance in 26 years.

In 2010, the great Brewers hitters are still in that lineup – Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Corey Hart, and others. However, the pitching is absolutely pitiful – except for one man. And that’s just not enough.

Yovani Gallardo, a 24-year-old flame-thrower, has started 16 games, won seven of them, and compiled a 2.36 earned-run average to go with 115 strikeouts. These are superb, All-Star numbers. But to show you how far removed Gallardo’s performance is from the rest of his team’s, check this out: Every other Brewers starter has yielded at least twice as many runs per nine innings as Gallardo. No Brewers starter has even half as many strikeouts as this man. The Brewers have two complete games and two shutouts from their starting rotation – both coming from Gallardo.

This is simply not enough. Starting pitchers get the ball once every five days. The way Gallardo is throwing, he’s as good a bet as any to win with that lineup. But there are four other games in between his starts. As a team, the Brewers are giving up five runs per nine innings. No one in the National League scores as many runs as Milwaukee; and yet, even this offense can’t score as many runs as the pitching is giving away for free. This is why the team is 32-40 nearly halfway through the season.

Sadly, it doesn’t look like a championship year for the Brew Crew. As for Gallardo, he’s not yet eligible for free agency. But when that time comes, you have to wonder if he’ll be willing to stay around Wisconsin if there are no other decent pitchers around him. The Brewers have time to re-tool; LeBron would surely advise them to get started.