SAN FRANCISCO -- Everywhere you look these days, you see a juicy trade rumor connecting the Brewers to a starting pitcher. Toronto's J.A. Happ before he went to the Yankees. Cincinnati's resurgent righty Matt Harvey. The Mets' Zack Wheeler, who has been a Brewers target before.
But then you watched Craig Counsell empty his bullpen for a 7-5 win over the Giants on Thursday and wondered about a different scenario. What if the Brewers resisted paying the high prospect price for this year's crop of middling starting pitchers and focused their efforts elsewhere?