Milwaukee placed both LHP Valerio de los Santos and RHP Todd Ritchie on the disable list on Tuesday. De los Santos has lost velocity as a result of tendinitis in his left shoulder, and the Brewers want to give him time to rest and return to full strength. He easily could return by the third week of May. However, Milwaukee has several other left-handed relievers, so the Brewers are likely to wait until they know he is healthy before activating him.

Ritchie first reported shoulder fatigue during his third start of the season. Nevertheless, he held his place in the rotation and made two more starts before he and the club decided it would be better to address this problem now. Milwaukee hopes that rest and rehab will allow him to pitch effectively, while if he attempted to play through the problem the quality of his performances would have suffered.

The Brewers called up RHP Leo Estrella and OF-L/RHP Brooks Kieschnick to replace de los Santos and Ritchie on the roster. Estrella has not appeared in the majors since the 2000 cup-of-coffee during which he made his major league debut with the Blue Jays. The 28-year-old has split the last two seasons between the AA and AAA affiliates of several organizations. His 1.80 ERA at AAA Indianapolis caught the Brewers' eye, leading to this promotion. Unfortunately, Estrella has failed to display the command necessary even to hold a AAA position, so I doubt he will bring much to the Brewers' pen. He'd allowed 9 H and 1 HR while compiling a 12:6 K:BB in 15 IP over 7 appearances at AAA.

Kieschnick should have broken camp with the Brewers, as they have little to lose in experimenting with him as their 25th man. Last season, the White Sox organization gave Kieschnick the tools to secure a major league job for several seasons. The former college pitcher and 10th overall pick of the 1993 draft spent the first nine years of his professional career trying to make it as an outfielder. Chicago returned him to the mound while also continuing to use him as a DH for AAA Charlotte last year. On the mound, he compiled a 30:10 K:BB with 30 H and 1 HR allowed in 31 IP for a 2.59 ERA. At the plate, he hit .275 with a .320 OBP and .540 SLG on 52 H, 11 2B, and 13 HR with a 14:46 BB:K in 189 AB. The sample size for his pitching stats is a bit small, considering how long it has been since he pitched regularly. Meanwhile, his plate discipline has kept him away from the majors to date. However, as his initial pitching results were positive, his power potential deserves an extended trail.

Milwaukee demoted Shane Nance yesterday in order to open up a spot for Ruben Quevedo, who will replace Ritchie in the rotation. Nance and de los Santos were two of four left-handed relievers to break camp with the Brewers. While in the majors, Nance compiled a solid 9:3 K:BB with only 1 HR allowed in 9.1 IP. Unfortunately, he also allowed 20 H, leaving him with a 6.75 ERA. The 25-year-old's numbers would likely look much better if Milwaukee didn't have the second worst defense in the National League.

I don't envision the Brewers bumping LHP Matt Ford, who they stole from the Blue Jays in the Rule 5 draft, from the roster. Toronto drafted Ford out of high school with their third round pick of the 1999 draft. He spent the remainder of that season with Medicine Hat in the Rookie-level Pioneer League before advancing to A Hagerstown in the South Atlantic League for the 2000 season. Ford split 2001 between A Charleston, West Virginia in the SAL and A+ Dunedin in the Florida State League, settling in at Dunedin for a full year in 2002.

While he's taken his time moving through the minors, the 22-year-old can easily afford to spend a year as a reliever in the majors before resuming his development track as a starter. So far this year, Ford has compiled a 10:6 K:BB with 7 H and 1 HR allowed in 12.2 IP for a 2.84 ERA. I suspect he'll continue to struggle with his walk rate through the rest of the season, but those are numbers with which the Brewers can definitely live, especially since when the year's over this mediocre reliever will turn into a decent bottom of the rotation starting prospect. With Ford's position secure and de los Santos due back at some point, Nance probably won't see the majors again unless he blows apart AAA or LHP John Foster begins to struggle.

The Brewers are hoping to see a much different Quevedo than the one who took the mound last season. In addition to making an effort to lose weight over the off-season, he reportedly changed his game plan this spring. In an article for MLB.com, Adam McCalvy quotes Quevedo as saying "About 80 percent of my pitches are sinkers now. I've never gotten so many ground-ball outs in games. I've always been a fly ball pitcher." Last year, Quevedo posted a ground fly of .60 and allowed 1.8 HR/9. There are still a lot of what ifs about his upside as he's struggled with his control for several years and injury troubles have affected his strikeout rates. However, as long as major league hitters don't find his sinker much easier to hit than the AAA batters did, Quevedo should pitch solidly for Milwaukee. Before his call-up, he'd compiled a 23:8 K:BB with 24 H and 1 HR allowed in 25.2 IP for a 2.10 ERA over 5 starts for AAA Indianapolis.