Ouch

Yovani Gallardo's knee surgery isn't going to hurt him nearly as much as it will hurt the Brewers. Between his emergence last year and the continued development of Carlos Villanueva, Milwaukee looked to be able to bump one of the 88 ERA+ club -- Chris Capuano or Claudio Vargas -- out of the rotation and drastically reduce the damage the other could do. Now they'll be counted on.

The only possible silver lining is that Gallardo's young arm -- which, along with the rest of him will turn 22 in a week or so -- won't log as many innings this season as may have been expected. That won't provide much solace if the Brewers are sitting at home in October having finished two games behind the Cubs, but it could mean he'll be around for more innings in 2009 and beyond.