Many real and digital trees have already died this spring trying to figure out and debating what should happen with the young southpaw who pitched his way back into the long term plans of the Brewers in 2007 after years lost to injury. With every successful outing (and so far, they've all been good) the crowd sharpening their rhetorical knives for Ned Yost should he dare send Parra down to AAA to open the year grows.

Anyone reading this is probably well aware of the fact that Parra has never pitched over 140 innings and that there is some evidence that suggests that young pitchers asked to vastly exceed their previous IP marks are at increased risk for injury or loss of effectiveness. It has been reported that the Brewers themselves use 30 innings as a general guideline for where to cut off young pitchers inning increases. A full years work is likely to exceed 200 innings, which would be a jump of over 60 innings.

The way I see it, this leaves two major options:

1) They can put him in the rotation from the beginning of the year and plan to leave him there as long as he is healthy and productive.
2) They can find some way to limit his innings.

I cannot see letting a pitcher of Parra's upside take the risks associated with number one. As much as I want the team to win this year, I also plan on being a fan of this team the next 5 years. If the team plans to contend in the coming years they should protect assets of Parra's value and not just cross their fingers and hope for the best while ignoring legitimate concerns.

Now, there are several ways to accomplish number two:

A) They can pitch him every 5th day from the start of the season, and then shut him down when he reaches whatever inning mark the team deems safe.
B) They can pitch him out of the bullpen (in the majors or minors) to limit his innings at some point.
C) They can hold him to strict pitch counts to limit his innings while starting him every 5th day in the majors.
D)  They can send him down to the minor leagues and control his innings while starting him every 5th day for a month to six weeks and then bring him up and pitch him as normal
E) They can use the off days to skip starts early in the year to keep his innings in line.

To me, A isn't a legitimate option because a team in contention is vulnerable to being pressured to abandon the plan and because I think it would be good to have him available for a potential post-season run. C puts undue pressure on the bullpen, because for it to be effective you would have to limit him to many 4-5 inning starts. B is a legitimate option, though the team seems reluctant to exercise it.

The most likely options at this point appear to be D and E. Considering just how effective Parra has been this spring to this point, they probably need to seriously start looking at option E, even if they don't like the idea of him missing starts and working irregularly.

There doesn't seem to be a perfect answer here, but letting Parra pitch in the majors out of the 5th spot in the rotation and skipping starts does seem to be the lesser evil at this point.