As the Brewers audition starting candidates for the role of stopper throughout this dire 2002 season, the players in contention for the job should note the root of the word is "stop."

As in "a losing streak," of which the team has already had six lasting four games or longer, and there are still 99 games left to play.

A good percentage of those 99 will be losses until someone on Jerry Royster's staff takes it upon himself to personally earn a victory in the face of two or three consecutive defeats.

Prior to the season, Ben Sheets seemed like the logical candidate for the job, having won 10 of his first 14 decisions and earning an All-Star bid during his maiden season. Or Glendon Rusch, for whom the Brewers dealt one of their most marketable players (Jeromy Burnitz, a former All-Star himself) and 2000 staff ace (Jeff D'Amico).

Neither has been up to the task, and more than one-third of the way into the season, three-game winner Ruben Quevedo has been the team's best pitcher. And it's safe to say GM Dean Taylor wasn't looking for a staff ace last summer when he acquired Quevedo from the Cubs for David Weathers.

Yet beggars are not often presented with multiple-choice questions; Quevedo's 2.88 ERA across 12 starts has been just short of a godsend for a demoralized team.

But if the playoffs are eventually the goal around here, Quevedo is probably not the guy Taylor envisions pitching Games 1 and 5 of a National League Division Series.

Sheets, Rusch and Nick Neugebauer, however, could well be. And since Neugebauer is both a baseball infant and injury-prone, let's focus in on the former two for now.

At just 23 (he'll be 24 next month), Sheets has both the promise and makeup to be a stopper. He throws hard and has an attitude, as witnessed by his brush-up with Pittsburgh's Aramis Ramirez in April.

Of his 13 starts this season, nine of them have come after a Brewers' loss. The Brewers won only two of those nine starts, though the wins did snap three- and four-game losing skids. While that last stat may be good, this isn't: in the team's two losing streaks of at least six games (April 6-13, April 23-28), Sheets has started twice in both of them.

That's a troubling fact. Not only has Sheets been ineffective in ending losing streaks, he's had a tendency to contribute directly to them.

However, Sheets still has an ERA of 3.86, and the team has been shutout twice and scored just one run three other times in five of his starts. Another outing saw just two runs of support, resulting in a 3-2 loss.

Plus, Sheets is still a baby. He's had some tough losses, but he is still learning how to win in the major leagues. One can reasonably expect this trend to either reverse itself or taper off as the season wears on -- if Sheets is indeed a future ace.

Rusch, however, may be a different story. He's been around since 1997. Sheets has started just 38 games in his career; Rusch has started 127. With that many starts under his belt and at the age of 27, one would hope he'd be further along. {INSERT_RELATED}

In some ways, Rusch is a worse offender than Sheets. Like his teammate, he has started nine times after a Brewer loss, and the team has similarly won just two of those games. He's also squandered some very winnable games. He lost a 4-0 lead to the Dodgers on May 28, and just this weekend he was unable to hold an 8-4 advantage as he took the mound in the seventh against the Pirates.

(A couple caveats: on a team that loses 65 percent of its games, a pitcher is going to be pitching after a loss more than normal. Correspondingly, it's harder to stop a losing streak on a bad team by the very fact that the team is, indeed, bad.)

Rusch is also capable of getting bombed. After his no-decision against Atlanta on May 2, the lefty's ERA was a tidy 2.51. Since then, he's allowed seven or more runs three times, including the ignominious 1 2/3 inning outing against L.A. that began Shawn Green's record-setting day at the dish. He's now sitting at 5.18.

Everyone is capable of a bad month, of course. Then again, Rusch's career ERA is 5.02, and he's never allowed fewer hits than innings pitched in a season. He gets by on guile and control, and he hasn't had an over-abundance of either, thus far.

In Rusch's defense, no one expected him to become the staff ace when he was acquired. People did hope, however, that he would be a legitimate No. 2 or 3 starter, likely with Sheets as the eventual No. 1.

But an ERA in the 5s and 12 homers through 80 innings are more like No. 5 numbers. Burnitz may be hitting near the Mendoza line at Shea Stadium, but considering D'Amico (4-4, 3.42) was a mere throw-in on the deal, more is required from Rusch.

It's an educational season in Brewtown, however, and class is continually in session for young major league pitchers. If Sheets and Rusch learn something about being top-of-the-rotation starters this summer, a disappointing season will not have come and gone in vain.