As was discussed earlier on this blog, Manager Ned Yost has a checkered history of overusing his best relievers. This year is not starting out well on that count. The following projections for games pitched and innings are based on action in the first 16 games of the season:

Eric Gagne:  70.8 Games/ 67.8 Innings

David Riske: 81 Games/ 98.2 Innings

Guillermo Mota: 50.6 Games/ 53.6 Innings

Salomon Torres: 81 Games/  128.6 Innings

Brain Shouse: 81 Games/ 63.8 Innings

Derrick Turnbow: 40.5 Games/ 37.5 Innings

Seth McClung: 30.4 Games/ 67.8 Innings

The callup of Mitch Stetter was specifically meant to lessen  the load on Shouse, who is pitching too many games and too many innings, so that is a step in the right direction. Torres and Riske should be able to handle a high number of games, but both are being asked to pitch more than an inning at a time, and the inning totals are way over what should be asked. Torres simply cannot keep that pace up and stay effective and Riske is a long term investment that needs to be protected. Mota can be (and I suspect will be) used more if he stays effective. Both Mota and Torres can be used somewhat liberally, as they are only committed to the Brewers for one more year, but you want them to remain effective for the whole season.

There are several solutions here, beyond the obvious fact that the starters need to eat more innings:

1) Pitch Turnbow a lot more and McClung a bit more, to soak up some of those innings.

2) If Turnbow and McClung are not trusted enough to pitch with smallish deficits, then they need to find some guys that can be trusted to do so.

Personally, I think they need to pitch Turnbow more and find a replacement for McClung.