Late last week, Milwaukee Brewers had to make a decision about their starting rotation. We all knew that Jhoulys Chacin would be the Opening Day starter and try to break the curse of the many Opening Day starters that haven’t worked out for the Brewers in the last several years. After that, things were up in the air. You had five guys for four spots plus Jimmy Nelson who will start the year on the Injured List. Craig Counsell had a decision to make – Go with the youth movement or give the veterans some leash. Counsell went with the young guns, and that’s absolutely the right move based on performance, not their time in the league.

Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes are all getting the baseball before Zach Davies and Chase Anderson. Chase will be in the bullpen for Milwaukee to start the year while Davies will be the fifth starter. Some wondered if a young guy would get bumped to Triple A, but all three had better Spring’s than the veterans who struggled in Arizona. Spring Training is not an indictment on your season. Talk to Brooks Conrad if you disagree, but when people are competing for jobs, it is only fair to give it to those who are performing well. Brewers give Davies and Anderson the starting roles, it sends the wrong message to the team on the first week of the season.

The pressure will be there for all three pitchers, but hopefully, the end of last year plus the postseason will help cure some of those nerves. Peralta has been a star this Spring with fastball getting up to 94-95 mph and having the same type of devastating motion on it. He has been a killer. Same goes for Brandon Woodruff who could be poised for a breakout season. Woodruff pitched great out of the bullpen yet never got a chance to be a consistent starter. This will be his moment to take advantage of it. Burnes had an up and down Spring, yet, he has the most talent of any young starter. It is not unreasonable to think he might end up pitching the best out of all three.

It surprised me that the Brewers didn’t look for a trade involving Davies or Anderson. I guess there is always a need for pitching, but you would think that maybe either guy could gain some value for a struggling team. Davies has been inconsistent for his entire career as a Brewers with never a truly dominant stretch. Anderson continues to try and find what he had in 2017. It has not been working thus far, and we may have to admit we saw the peak of his performance.

Brewers starters will be one of the many headlines of this team to begin the 2019 season.

Charlie.