There is growing unrest in the Brew City about the struggles of Marco Estrada after tonight's 6-2 loss to the Mets. Tonight's start was a disaster in New York in which Estrada gave up two longballs (a 2-run shot and a grand slam) to add to his major league leading tally of 20 homers given up on the season, which is even worse when the second most is almost a third less at 14. Marco's season has been somewhat Braden Looper-esque when in 2009 it seemed as though every fly ball left the yard. After starting off the season well, Estrada has only managed one quality start in his last five games. Even though he has pitched well at times he has been unable to put it all together in any starts not having a single outing in which he hasn't allowed a run, largely in part to the fact he has allowed at least one homerun in all but one start. Marco hasn't been abysmal by any stretch but when you compare it to what the other starters have done, and what the potential to replace him is, it's easy to question whether or not he should retain his rotation spot.
The Brewer's starters as a unit have put together the 8th best rotation ERA in the bigs even with a down year from Matt Garza (4.42) and Marco's 4.55 after tonight which is the highest in the rotation. Combine that with the success Brewers pitchers have had in AAA-Nashville you wonder why they would even accept an average start every fifth day from their starter. The clear cut fan favorite (and my personal choice) to replace Marco Estrada would be Jimmy Nelson. The Brewers had said they didn't want to bring Nelson up yet but when he pitched in place of Yovani Gallardo and wasn't scored on it's hard to agree. Nelson is almost to the point of diminishing returns in AAA as he is just blowing away the competition. He is 7-1 with a 1.51 ERA in 11 starts. Even more impressive is that opponents are only batting .167 against him and he has a sub-one WHIP (.88). I believe Estrada is out of options so the Brewers would have to either attempt to trade him or just move him to the bullpen, but either way the Brewers do not have to settle for bad pitching anymore with a combination of free agent pickups and their farm system. It's time to sit Marco and let him figure his stuff out and bring up a guy that can get the job done every fifth day for the second best team in the NL.
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