​Note: This piece was written before the Brewers traded for Lance McCullers Jr. on Wednesday. Ultimately, I don’t believe the Brewers are putting much stock in the oft-injured and otherwise ineffective McCullers as a person to do much besides eat a few innings, so I don’t think that trade materially changes any approach that I suggest they might take below.Welcome back to the trade deadline primer series here at Brew Crew Ball. In part one, we examined the team’s needs — which, of course, have changed completely since I wrote that piece two weeks ago — and looked at the landscape across the league to see who might be selling (another fool’s errand to do with a month remaining to the deadline). In part two last week, we looked at potential targets that could bolster the Brewers’ bullpen.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementToday, the focus is the starting rotation. Since I first wrote the initial piece of this series, Brandon Woodruff got injured and received ominous news that makes it sound like he won’t be pitching again this season. Kyle Harrison was placed on the IL, and while everyone is saying the right things to make us believe it’ll be a short stint that’s geared more toward rest than anything else, the term “forearm tightness” is never something you want to hear.The point is, the Brewers’ desire for starting pitching is very likely a bigger priority today than it was two weeks ago.The way I see it, there are two ways the Brewers could go about targeting starting pitching at this deadline, so I’m going to structure this piece a little differently than I did the relief pitcher article. Here, I’m going to break things into two different categories. The first group we’ll look at would be splashier moves aimed at raising the ceiling for the team’s postseason rotation — players who the Brewers would expect to make a start or two in a playoff series. The second (and larger) group is what I’d consider “innings eaters” — players who would maybe would not be expected to start in the playoffs barring injury, but who would be able to capably take some innings and pressure off of the younger starters throughout the rest of the season, thus keeping those arms fresh for the stretch run.I’ll also try to not just discuss the players themselves, but also how realistic (or not) it might be that the Brewers could or would acquire them.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLet’s get the big one out of the way first.Tarik Skubal is a free agent after the season. He has won the Cy Young Award in the American League each of the last two seasons. The assumption is that the Tigers will not be able to afford to keep him. Detroit is 44-52 and in fourth place in the abysmal AL Central.Since the AL is so bad, the Tigers aren’t completely out of it, and they have played good baseball in July. But they’re still not good, and Skubal, even as a two-month rental, could net them a fortune. While I’m not sure that addin