Yovanni Gallardo and MLB Thinking

The Brewers are considering sending hot-shot prospect Yovanni Gallardo, he of the 2.70 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in 2 sterling starts, to the bullpen when Chris Capuano returns. Here's what I wrote my friend and fantasy baseball co-owner:

There's absolutely NO REASON to send Gallardo to the pen. If they do this, the Brewers are hurting themselves in every possible way. I would probably prefer that Gallardo go back to the minors.

1) Gallardo is their 2nd best pitcher overall - Ben Sheets - and gives them the absolute best chance to win now. They are built to win this year, in a very weak division and league in general. Putting Sheets and Gallardo out there gives them a good chance to win 40% of the time, not to mention Capuano and whoever else they run out there. Allowing Vargas and Bush to start makes NO SENSE.

2) Pitching Gallardo out of the pen is nothing if not damaging for his career, long term. I can understand you want to cut his innings - but yanking him in and out of the game, pitching everyday, and for short stints, is definitely not the ideal career path for a future staff ace. This idiotic.

3) Starting pitching is a valuable commodity. If you have surplus - TRADE IT. Bush or Vargas would probably fetch a nice bench hitter or good middle reliever (say, Heath Bell) that would improve the Brewers by leaps and bounds.

Conventional baseball wisdom is idiotic. Everyone is so afraid to go against the grain. Just an abject lack of common sense in terms of managing and player moves just kills me about baseball. If we managed a law firm or a company the way some teams manage their teams, our economy would tank.
No one wants to try something different, so we can a bunch of automotons just cycling through old baseball addages. And most time they just shoot themselves in the foot, or it takes repeated beatings to get the lesson through. Here's just a few examples:

1) It took the Red Sox months to move Julio Lugo, who is hitting under .200 and has an OBP hovering right above .220, to the 9th spot in the lineup.

2) It took the Nationals 3 months to move Felipe Lopez, who has an OBP of .275, from the leadoff spot to #2. Why? Because he's a "leadoff hitter."

3) The Brewers allowed Craig Counsell and Tony Graffanino to platoon at 3B despite the fact that Ryan Braun had an OPS over 1.100 at AAA and hit major league pitching in spring training.

4) The Marlins traded a good prospect, Yuermio Petitt, for Jorge Julio. Then, they allowed Julio to blow 4 saves in spectacular fashion. Then, they traded Julio for BH Kim. Unbelievable.

5) The Phillies yanked their staff ace out of the rotation after one - ONE - bad start and made him a middle reliever turned closer when their real closer got hurt. Then they pitched him almost everyday for a month until he broke down.

Those are just the ones I can think of.