The stache

And this will determine home field advantage in the World Series. They need to do one of two things. Either leave fan voting out of it and take the best players (obviously not 9 outfielders or something) but the best group of players at their positions or my preferred option, stop with this farce that this exhibition game determines home field advantage for the championship. They completely overreacted to the 2002 all-star game. Instead of allowing players back in and just playing at half speed until some team "won" they had to stop the game for some reason. Even if they just keep going and throw like 50 mph meatballs to the plate and some team wins that way, it's talked about for maybe a week. The rules are tweaked a little so they prevent it from happening again and everyone just moves on. I feel that fan voting should count, but it shouldn't be the sole determinant of who goes to the game. Let the fans vote. Let he players themselves vote. Let the managers vote. Do a weighted average, which would, in essence, wipe out any massive ballot stuffing from one team's fans.

I would love to see Infante's sub .500 OPS (seriously, not a typo) start or even just get voted into the all-star game. I haven't checked the All Star voting in over a week. I seriously can't believe that the entire AL starting lineup will be Royals. By the way, good to see that Lucroy is starting to hit. 5-13 with 2 doubles and 5 RBI in the last three games. I hope that continues. If we're going to make any run at an even respectable season, he needs to have a good second half. Hopefully Wily comes back healthy, and he and Jimmy Nelson have good runs. Trying very hard to find a silver lining in this season.

Why even do that? Just DFA him...no point in putting him in the bullpen at this point. Dumping him for nothing would be pointless. Someone is going to be willing to give up something, even if it's just cash, for him. $50. I'll give the Brewers $50 to just dump him. He's been completely worthless this season. About to fall to 3-7 with a 6.44 ERA, and 17 home runs allowed in 84 IP. Over a full season of innings, that would be 51 homers allowed. The most home runs ever allowed in a single season is 50 by Bert Blyleven in 1986. Only, Blyleven pitched a league high 271 innings, and went 17-14 with a 4.01 ERA and 215 Ks. Lohse could only dream of that kind of season.

I see the Brewers are being schooled again. Escobar and Cain with four hits and 4 RBI. Good for K.C. Nice to see at least one small market franchise doing well, because ours is clueless.

Gomez too. A large amount of his value is in his defense and speed, which I believe doesn't age as well as other skills. His bat looks like it is dropping off again. I was kind of afraid it would. My guess for him would be a younger peak. I think Gomez will rebound, too. He's been plagued all year by some nagging injuries. He just needs to get healthy. I think frustration with those injuries probably has caused him to be less disciplined at the plate (and I mean less disciplined in terms of Carlos Gomez discipline, which has never been high to begin with). The lack of stolen bases is what alarms me the most. Only 6 for 10.

I think Braun's prime will extend for another two years after this one. His stolen bases might diminish, but his power output, and run production, should stick pretty close to his career norms, assuming no serious injuries. The guy's quite capable of .290/30/100 even if he misses 15 games a year because of his thumb treatments. The key to the run production is guys getting on consistently in front of him. That worries me more than Braun's ability to remain a near-elite hitter. I would really like to see Brauny hit career home run #300 in a Milwaukee uni. All these tremendous power hitters the Brewers have had, and yet nobody in franchise history has crossed what isn't really a big plateau.

Well, I have to say you could have given me 50 chances to pick our first two guys, and I'd have never come up with Clark and Kirby. I like what I hear about Clark-plus bat tool, loves taking walks, will have a high OBP at the next level. That would be a switch for us. The grip + swing is...a bit odd. Wonder if they tweak it? Kirby's injury concerns me. Lack of fastball velocity + location issues = uh oh (potentially). When our new GM brings in his staff, the pitching coaches will have to get to work with him. Tomorrow should be interesting. I'm lukewarm overall on these picks. Kirby dropped, so it could be we get an eventual steal. Or, it could be that the other teams sensed something that kept him off the radar.

Funny, I always thought that 31 was a player's prime years.

I think change in leadership (ie at the GM position) is needed, and a new group of scouts and coaches need to be brought in. But at the Major League level, we're not that far off from being a good team again (maybe not great, but competitive). Braun is producing at a pretty awesome clip right now. I think anybody on this forum would take a .285 35 home run 110 RBI, 20 stolen base season from him, and that's very possible. We have two other guys that have been MVP candidates within the last year in Lucroy and Gomez. We have a star catcher and center fielder. We have a shortstop that is starting to come into his own. Segura has been on fire. Will he keep that up? Only time will tell if he's taken that next step. But it's clear that he can still be the player he was in his first year in Milwaukee, or fairly close to it. It's amazing what he can do when he doesn't have his son's health weighing his every thought down. I know he is still grieving, and I feel terribly for him. Losing a child is something no parent should have to go through, especially one so young. But while he is still dealing with the pain, he has put himself together to the point where he is a good shortstop, and his arrow is pointing up. We need to cut some dead weight. No more spending tens of millions on thirty plus pitchers. If we're going to trade for pitching, I would much rather it be for pitchers who have potential, and are still in the first few years of their careers. They are less expensive, and have more tread on the tires. These are the kinds of pitchers the Braves, and A's, and Giants, and Rays seem to have in great supply.

At what point do we stop saying Braun has "had a nice little run", and open our eyes to the fact that he's getting closer to the offensive force he used to be? Hitting is down across the Majors. I look at my fantasy baseball team, and the majority of my starters are below a 3.00 ERA. I've got some guys hitting for big power, but most of them aren't hitting for average. And Ryan Braun? The last 41 games (39 starts) dating back to April 20th, his numbers: http://imageshack.com/a/img661/9580/iJ0qDp.jpg From 2007 to 2012, Brauny had a career .943 OPS. The last 1/4 season, he's had a .923 OPS. Not a "little run". A full quarter of a Major League baseball season. Between 2007 and 2012, he had a .568 SLG. He's slugged .574 over the last 41 games. Now, his average is down, but it's slowly creeping back up. That BAbip is still only .260. His career BAbip is .334. His BAbip from 2007 to 2012 was .340. His BAbip was at .275 at the end of April, and for the season, it's actually dropped since then to .269. Yet his production has skyrocketed. Meaning? He's among the league leaders in HR and RBI, and near the very top since the start of May, and the balls he's not hitting out are still not falling in anywhere near as often as they used to. Some of that is due to things like adjusted batters box discipline--what he's swinging at, and where he's driving those balls. But a big chunk of that is due to luck. He hits the ball---hard---yet, thus far, the balls have not been falling for him. This is going to change, guys. His BAbip should normalize over the remainder of the season. I expect by then, his BAbip will be in the mid .280s, or slightly higher. I think by the end of the year, Braun will be hitting in the high .280s, low .290s. His walk rate is 9.5% (20 in 210 plate appearances). In 2011, his MVP season, he walked 58 times in 629 plate appearances, a 9.2%. In 2012, when I felt he should have won a second MVP (and would have if the Brewers had made the playoffs, and if not for the PED test), Braun walked a career high 63 times, but in 677 plate appearances. A 9.3% walk rate. He's walking as often as he ever has. His power is where it was at his very best. The only drop off in his offensive game right now is his batting average, and his overall extra base hits. But the doubles are starting to come. Remember, he had no doubles in the first 27 games of the season. He got another one tonight, making it 7 in the last 25 games. That would be a pace for over 42 doubles over an entire season. So, he's getting the extra base hits. He's walking at the same rate. He's hitting for his normal power. It seems to me only his BAbip is off, and a large part of that is luck. Braun is too good a hitter to have that stay down for long. With his power clearly back, with the extra base hits coming, those singles are going to start falling in at a higher rate, too. To hypothesize that Ryan Braun is not the .900 OPS guy he used to be couldn't be further from the truth. I see nothing from my statistical analysis that would support this conjecture.

I would temper that enthusiasm a bit. Melvin made a terrible decision in bringing Broxton in. That shows me he hasn't learned at all from his past mistakes. And these young guys they have drafted with "nice upside"...I am hopeful, like you, Logan82, that they pan out. But let's see them against some real competition before we start getting excited, and pointing to them as a change for the better.

I almost completely agree. The only thing I would say is that what a prior regime did really should be of little or no consequence. You play to win the game. And winning the World Series should be the only measuring stick a team has. The Brewers, under Melvin's tenure, have come close to appearing in a World Series once in thirteen seasons. Those other twelve years were basically a complete wash (I see our 2008 playoff appearance the same way I see our neighbor's ribbon when they place 5th place in a race. They showed up, but really had no chance to win, and should not be rewarded, or complimented). Taken as a whole, Melvin has accomplished absolutely nothing. Now, was that nothing a little "prettier" than the nothing we got from the prior general manager + staff? Yes. We got our hopes up a little more this time around. We got over the .500 line, too (woo hoo, we weren't completely inept!). But it's still nothing. You can dump a gallon of Chanel No 5 on a pile of dog poo--then it becomes good smelling dog poo. The choice is up to Attanasio now. Does he want this team to continue failing, or does he want a start fresh, and give this franchise (and the millions of fans who love it) some signs of hope?

Spot on, Reilly. Seeing these guys today makes me appreciate the greats of the past that much more. Look at the kids today. Kris Bryant, as great as he will be, is striking out 36.7% of his at bats this year (and still managing a .280 AVG, and a .396 OBP). Giancarlo Stanton is only 25, and has 169 home runs (!) already. But he's struck out 32.7% of his career at bats--812 whiffs already, including 70 this season. Reggie Jackson, the all-time leader in strike outs (2,597) struck out just 26.3% of his at bats. One would almost have to think that the pitching is a lot better. However, I think it's just a lack of discipline in today's game. Ted Williams hit 521 home runs, and would have hit well over 600 had he not lost over 5 years of his career to the war effort. Yet, he only struck out 709 times in 7,716 career ABs (9.2%). Joe DiMaggio was ridiculous, striking out only 369 times while hitting 361 home runs. He had 6,821 at bats in his career. 5.4% strikeout rate. 5.3% home run rate. And these guys faced some pretty spectacular pitchers. Bob Feller and Early Wynn both managed to strike him out 9 times. 18 Ks in 263 at bats. No pitcher ever struck out Joltin' Joe ten times in his career. Even the great Henry Aaron only struck out 1,383 times (I say only because he had 12,364 at bats, lol). He walked 1,402 times. Aaron never struck out 100 times in a season. Here's something I break out every once in a while. In Major League history, there have only been ten seasons where hitters reached the 40 home run plateau, yet struck out fewer times than they homered. Barry Bonds is the only one to do it in this new century (2004, he had 45 home runs, 41 strikeouts). Along with Bonds, Joe DiMaggio and Mel Ott both did this once. Johnny Mize and Lou Gehrig each accomplished this rarity twice. But the only man to do this three times is Ted Kluszewski. He is, in my opinion, one of the truly underrated greats of the modern era. In 1953, Kluszewski hit 40 home runs, and struck out 34 times. In 1954, Kluszewski hit 49 home runs, and struck out 35 times. And in 1955, Kluszewski hit 47 home runs, and struck out 40 times. Only Johnny Mize accomplished this feat when hitting over 50 home runs. He hit 51 bombs, and struck out 42 times, in 1947. I feel we will never come near this level of discipline again, sadly.

The big man made his Major league debut for the Rangers tonight (of course, I could not get him into my fantasy lineup tonight in time). But what a splash. 3-4 with a single, double, and this 430 foot, upper-deck home run. He drove in 4 runs in all. I smiled when I saw this, because it means there will be even more fun at the ballpark. Josh Hamilton, while he will probably never be the hitter he once was, still hits some bombs. Prince, too. And now Gallo. When Beltre gets back, well, some balls will be flying out of the stadium here in Arlington. He's going to strike out 40% of the time, at least this year, and maybe next. I think he'll cut that down, and he has to, unless he wants to be the next Dave Kingman. But as a baseball fan, it's just fun to see a guy mash like that, isn't it? Scoring is down across the Majors, so I've read. But there are some real thumpers in the Majors right now, too, and when they connect, how can you not love it?! Somewhere, the Babe is smiling right now!

Really? Billy Beane has been the A's GM since 1997. In the last 18 years, the A's have made the playoffs eight times with one of the smallest payrolls in baseball. That suggests a pretty damned good GM to me. The As are competitive year in, year out. He puts a winning team on the field. As to this year's team "being worse than last year's", do you have any idea how many players they've lost to injury in the last year? Sure, a team like the Yankees can open up the checkbook and plug in replacement players. The A's can't do that. So, even as good as their system is, at some point, that well runs dry. The A's lost Brandon Moss, who had 55 home runs in '13 and '14 at first base, to Cleveland for a minor league player. They had to dump his $6.5 million salary. The A's lost Josh Donaldson, who had 53 home runs in '13 and '14 at third base, because his salary jumped from $400k to $4.5 million. They got some minor league players, and Brett Lawrie, making less than half of Donaldson's salary. The A's lost Yoenis Cespedes, who hit 48 home runs in '13 and '14. He made $8.5 million in 2013. The A's got Jonny Gomes and Jon Lester, who they promptly traded for prospects. They granted Bartolo Colon, who won 18 games with a 2.65 ERA in 2013, free agency when his salary was to raise from $3 million to $9 million. Them, the injuries. Coco Crisp has missed all but 13 games. Ike Davis, their new first baseman, is on the 15 day DL. Then, there are their pitchers. A.J. Griffin and Jarrod Parker, who won 26 games between them in 2013, have had three Tommy John surgeries between them, and there is no knowing when they will return. Three of their best starters are gone. Their big bats are gone. And there are more injuries I haven't touched on. And you're surprised they're flailing? And yet, I bet they turn it around before the Brewers do.

brewcrewdue80, ask me who I'd rather have at shortstop, a power bat like Xander Bogaerts, or a slick fielder like Andrelton Simmons. It's Simmons, no contest. He's slowly improving with the bat, and should provide some more consistent power as he matures more (he hit 17 out two years ago. I expect 12-15 annually at his peak). But his defense is absolutely world class. And yet, I can't help but get the sense that this Brewers regime (like others before it) treat defense like an afterthought. No one defensive play can have the effect that a three run homer can have, true (though the gap is not as big as some might think). But the greatest hitters come to the plate only 4 or 5 times a game, and they can be pitched around in a given key situation. Simmons is always out there. His range is incredible, and his feel is Ozzie Smith-like. Any ball hit within 100 feet of him (well, not really) is going to be an out. (it does feel like that at times). On a busy night, he might have 12 balls hit towards him. His ability to limit scoring between third and deep towards second has such a huge impact. And nothing kills a rally like a great shortstop turning two. Yet year in, year out, it seems like the Brewers are trying desperately to find positions for their big bats to play...because their defense is so suspect, they have no natural position. Braun eventually became a pretty decent left fielder. Yet, does anybody get how much worse our defense became when Braun was moved to right field (net effect for Braun, putting him in a place where he wasn't nearly as good), and putting Khris Davis in Braun's place (net effect, downgrading the defense in left field, too, by a considerable amount)? Davis has a pop gun for an arm. I don't know why that is. The guy is "strong like bull." It mystifies me how somebody that can hit the ball 450 feet throws a ball like a ten year old. But when Gomez isn't in center, the defense out there is pretty bad, especially if Parra is on the bench. And we wonder why our Garza and Lohse have been so awful. A big part of that is their fault. But a guys who have been in the league for a good long while, they expect a level of defense behind them, and I wonder on a given night how many more balls are falling in that shouldn't be. Those add up. This lack of emphasis on defense needs to be addressed, and the only way I see that happening is by basically rebooting the whole franchise.

Yes, you absolutely can. Because the comparison is all about what the two organizations feel is acceptable. The Packers before the twenty year drought had had massive success. And even when they were terrible, they gave people a few years to fix things, and when there weren't tangible results, they were sent packing. The Brewers have never had success. Never. They were good for about a 5 year span in the late 70s and early 80s, and made a single World Series appearance. Since the Brewers have never had any success at all, we have come to accept that level of mediocrity. By doing so, when you have a general manager like Doug Melvin, who (again, don't know how many times I have to say this...has never won a thing in the three decades he has been a Major League executive), you don't feel any urgency to expel him from the organization. "We're losers, we've always been losers, and under Doug Melvin, we've been less of a loser organization than ever before." When Melvin's track record is being glowingly compared to every other Brewer General Manager in franchise history (which is a flashing light substantiating my claim), there is a problem. Our measuring stick is our own failure! That's where this black hole of an organization has come to after four decades. Any rational baseball fan's measuring stick should be the record of a successful organization. Instead of saying "this is how far we need to go to reach the top", Brewers fans instead prefer to say "this is how far we've climbed up from the very bottom". And, here we are again, Brewers fans. At the bottom. The net effect of Doug Melvin's thirteen year tenure in Milwaukee is we're the worst franchise in the Major Leagues. Again.

And yet, Kansas City has is 28-19, leading the A.L. Central a year after losing the World Series to the Giants in seven games. They also have five of the top 100 prospects in baseball, including Raul Adalberto Mondesi. Hey, maybe we can get Alcides Escobar back in 2017! Yay! Cleveland? 23-26. The last two years they have gone 177-147. And, they have some of the best young talent in the game. Jason Kipnis is a blossoming star at second base, as is Michael Brantley. And there are few rotations I'd rather have than Cleveland's. Cy Young winner Corey Kluber was 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA last year, and 269 Ks. Trevor Bauer, who was one of the top 50 prospects in baseball two years ago, is 4-2 with a 2.97 ERA and 65 Ks in 63 IP at age 24. Danny Salazar, 25, is 5-1 with a 3.65 ERA and averaging 12 Ks per 9 IP. Carlos Carrasco, 28, is 6-4 with a 4.24 ERA, and averages 10.4 K per 9 IP. And Kluber is averaging 11.3 Ks per 9 IP this year. Kluber is 29. That foursome, baring injury or a trade, is going to be outstanding for the next four years. They also have the #3 prospect in baseball in shortstop Francisco Lindor, who will be up soon, and a real power bat in Clint Frazier, who will be hitting bombs in Cleveland a year from now. Cincy? Really? Let's look at them. Three playoff appearances in the last five years. 91 wins in 2010, 97 in 2012, and 90 in 2013. Last year was a down year, and thus far, they are five games below. But their offensive talent is deep, and their stud catcher, Devin Mesoraco, hasn't played at all this year to speak of. He hit 25 home runs in 393 at bats, with an .893 OPS last year. Joey Votto is showing signs of being the superstar he was. Todd Philips is a stud third baseman. Johnny Cueto was the Cy Young runner up last year. And when Toni Cingrani and Robert Stephenson are both up full time, they could have one of the best 1-2-3s at the top of any rotation in the National League. Pittsburgh? Besides currently having seven of the top 100 prospects in baseball, they have a wealth of young talent already at the Major League level. Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco were both top 25 prospects, and they are already showing their abilities. With 2013 NL MVP in center, Andrew McCutchen, they may have the best starting three soon. They have other bats on the way. And their pitching? Gerrit Cole is already a Cy Young contender now. 7-2, 2.11 ERA and 72 Ks in 64 IP. And wait until Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon get called up. Like Cleveland, they will have one of the best young rotations in the Majors. Pittsburgh is 26-23 now, they went 88-74 last year, and 94-68 in 2013. Clearly they are a team on the rise. Every single small market franchise you listed...every single one...is in a MUCH better position than Milwaukee for the future. Milwaukee has one top 100 prospect. And they have the worst record in baseball. How you can even compare Milwaukee to these other teams is a real head scratcher. What happened ten years ago is completely irrelevant. Ten years ago, the Brewers were drafting Ryan Brauns, Prince Fielders, etc. I don't see anybody in our minor league system with that kind of impact potential. And pitching? Every single team you listed is light years ahead of the Brewers. Peralta and Nelson might both have good careers. Every other team you listed has at least one Cy Young contender, if not two. I don't see a single pitcher like that in Milwaukee, and I don't trust the development our coaching staff will provide to turn them into that level of a starter. Today, and the future is what matters. And all those teams you listed have much brighter futures than we do. Now, will they win? Time will tell. But if you asked me to GM the Brewers, the Reds, the Pirates, the Royals, or the Indians, given the current Major League talent level, and the minor league talent, guess which team I would choose last?

The frustration is 13 years into Melvin's tenure, we're about as bad now as we were when he came in, with nothing to show for it. And considering how easy it is to make it into the playoffs in the Major Leagues now, to not at least have more appearances is an embarrassment. "I enjoyed '08 and '11" So because we made the briefest playoff appearance in history one year, and had one decent playoff run in another, you're willing to gloss over the other 11 years where we did nothing? You referenced the money analogy being a bad one (as a stockbroker, I agree). But show me anywhere in the world, any industry, any sport, where success in two years out of thirteen is at all acceptable. And I have a hard time calling 2008 a success. We caught lightning in a bottle (Sabathia's unbelievable second half), and that lightning dried up once we made our five minute appearance in October. Herein, folks, is the difference between the Brewers and the Packers. I love both teams, so please don't even bother questioning my loyalty. But the Packers are winners, and the Brewers are losers. It's that simple. Do you think two playoff appearances in a thirteen year span would stand in Green Bay now? No way. I realize the Packers stunk in the 70s and 80s. I also realize that Green Bay had just had perhaps the greatest dynasty in NFL history in the Lombardi years, winning five World Championships, including the first two Super Bowls. But even when the Packers were stinking it up in those two decades, how long did they stick with any one general manager? Not long. Nowhere near thirteen years. Even then, the Packers didn't settle. Here are the Packer executives post Lombardi: Phil Bengston 1969-1970 Head Coach, General Manager Dan Devine 1971-1974 Head Coach, General Manager Bart Starr 1975-1980 Head Coach, General Manager Tom Miller 1981-1983 General Manager Forrest Gregg 1984-1986 Head Coach, General Manager Tom Braatz 1987-1991 Executive V.P, Director of Football Operations (no GM listed) Ron Wolf 1992-2000 General Manager Even when the Packers were God awful, they didn't stand pat. Now they didn't bring in anybody better. The Packers languished under the control of Dominic Olejniczak as President until 1981, and then Robert Parins from 1982 to 1988. It wasn't until Bob Harlan became President, Chairman and CEO in 1989 when the Packers started to turn it around. But notice, there were no Doug Melvins in Green Bay. When a GM didn't produce, he was gone. The Packers were the Siberia of the NFL after the Lombardi era, but losing was not acceptable. The Brewers are another animal altogether. I liken Milwaukee baseball to being stuck on a deserted island for years. You haven't had fresh water for years. You've had to build some contraption to either purify sea water, or collect condensation to drink. When you're rescued, and on that ship, and have a glass of water that you didn't have to labor to produce, it tastes so good, that, well, it's the best water you've ever had! The Brewers went so long without any kind of playoff appearance--twenty six years--that just making the playoffs in 2008 was such a huge switch, that Brewer fans recall that season with an uncanny amount of affection. Hell, the 2005 season was the first in thirteen years where we even finished at or above .500, and Brewer fans were dancing in the streets. We've lowered our expectations so much that we're willing to basically accept these few scraps Doug Melvin has given us, and we're content. When you haven't had any success at all for a quarter century, seeing the Milwaukee Brewers name in the sports section in October is just incredible! But that's just sad. I am just amazed by the laissez-faire attitude I am seeing from some Brewer fans. "Hey, we had a little fun for two seasons, things will just work themselves out. Doug Melvin hasn't really been that bad. I mean, look at all the other General Managers Milwaukee has had. Why, Melvin has the second best winning percentage in Brewers history. We should keep him because replacing him will be difficult." Melvin was GM in Texas from 1994 until 2001. The Rangers, like the Brewers, had no post season success. Under Melvin, Texas had made the post season for the first three times in franchise history. As recently as 1999, the Rangers had won 95 games, and won the AL West. They lost to the Yankees 3-0 in the American League Divisional Series. Yet at the end of a 73-89 2001 season, he was canned. Why? Because the Rangers identified that they would never win it all with Melvin at the helm. This team who had tasted the first post season experience in franchise history (they were the Washington Senators from 1961-1971, and the Rangers from 1972 forward), who had just won their division two years before, wanted more. And they canned the guy in charge. Melvin was a consultant for the Red Sox in 2002 before the Brewers grabbed him. And, he's basically continued on with the same status quo in Milwaukee that he started in Texas. "Hey, this franchise has never won anything at all. I'll dump prospects, get us in the playoffs once every six years, and I'll have job security." Why not? There's no demand for excellence in Milwaukee, certainly not from the owner, and apparently, not the fans, either. We say we want to win in Milwaukee, but we don't back it up. And while other small market teams enjoy success with far more frequent playoff, we just keep chugging along, accepting mediocrity. Those Rangers teams that made the playoffs three times under Melvin? They won one game in ten. Three times they went against the Yankees, who were, admittedly, a great team. But they were walked over because the Yankees could hit and pitch. After four years wasted with Jon Hart, Texas brought in Jon Daniels, the youngest man ever hired to General Manage a Major League Baseball team. Daniels arrived in 2005, and for the first four years, while building the team through the draft, and some carefully constructed trades, the Rangers were a below .500 team. But then starting in 2009, the Rangers won, including back to back trips to the World Series. They were one caught fly ball from winning it all. After a terrible 2014 season, where their team was absolutely decimated by injuries, they are back to .500, playing great ball as of late. And the Rangers have done it, largely, by having one of the best minor league systems in the Major Leagues. They can trade away for players and it doesn't greatly diminish their organizational depth because they have so many good players in the pipeline. They are one of the top two or three teams in all of baseball when it comes to scouting Latin America and beyond. And while the Rangers have been making moves at the General Manager position, even going through bankruptcy in 2009 (only to appear in the next two World Series), the Brewers keep chugging along with the same General Manager, just so happy with any little taste of success that we get. We've become Oliver Twist... http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/8/24/1314207708786/oliver-twist-007.jpg "Please, sir, I want some more playoffs."

Agreed 100%.

Don't get me started on their "total quarterback rating" nonsense. It's basically "hey, we threw a bunch of numbers into a blender, and this is what came out." I didn't think too much of it to begin with. When I read a comment from one of their NFL writers stating "Colin Kaepernick actually outperforms Aaron Rodgers when his runs are included", it made me want to vomit.

More fine work from ESPN, a sports website with whom I have the highest regard. Ok, I almost said that with a straight face....

Guys, my initial post was written just as I was starting to get sick..real sick. For the past few days, I've been throwing up everything I've had to eat or drink, so I apologize if it was a bit disjointed. I'm a bit better tonight...hoping to keep some rice and apple sauce down /fingers crossed. Let me try to be a little more clear. You have to remember that my perspective is not only one of being a Brewers fan since about 1978 (and a diehard one at that), but a Brewers fan living 15 minutes from Arlington, Texas, where the Texas Rangers play. Everything that Doug Melvin has done, he did while he was the GM in Texas, too. So, not only have I seen his efforts up close for going on thirteen years as a Brewers fan, I got to see his bumbling moves on the ten o'clock news for years while he was with the Rangers. Those Rangers were a carbon copy of the Brewers-a team that occasionally made the playoffs, but was really never a threat to go all the way. Those Rangers teams were loaded with offense, too. They could hit the ball out of the park with any team in the Majors. But they lacked fundamentals. They made dumb mistakes running the bases. Defensively, they were pretty much inept, though they did have the best catcher in baseball, who Melvin inherited. When I saw we need to build a strong core, I mean to include starting pitching within that construct. And it is clear, or at least, it should be, that Doug Melvin is incapable of finding pitching talent. Either he is incapable, or he is incapable of hiring people to accurately gauge pitching talent at a young age. Either way, the end result is the same. In order to get those great pitchers you need to challenge for a world title, you have to trade away a boat load of prospects. There is no way we were going to keep all those players I cited, and nowhere was I suggesting that we could have. It was merely a way of showing how much talent he's let go. No, we couldn't have known what Cruz was going to do. And perhaps we wouldn't have waited for Brantley to blossom the way he did. Maybe they would have dumped him like JJ Hardy after one bad season. Who knows. The point is, though, that Melvin is a poor judge of pitching, which is one half of your baseball team. And, too often the moves he does make are wasteful. Now, it sucks being a small market team. We'll never compete financially with the Yankees, Dodgers or Red Sox. But it is very possible for a small market team to compete, and win, with the right management team in place. They haven't won a World Series since 1989, and they're having a down year, but look at what the Oakland A's have done since 2000. While we've made two playoff appearances in the new millennium, they've made the playoffs eight times. And a 19-32 record isn't so hot (not much better than Milwaukee), but I'd bet the house that they rebound before we do. The three years prior, they made the playoffs, winning 88, 96 and 94 games. Unlike the Brewers, they draft and develop great young pitchers. When they get hurt, or traded, they find more. I mean, in the early 2000s, the A's had Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder. Those three won 485 games, and had Mulder not blown out his rotator cuff after winning 88 games in 5 seasons, that total would have been higher. They also brought Huston Street to the Majors, and he's at 290 saves. More recently, they've drafted studs A.J. Griffin, Jarrod Parker and Sonny Gray. Griffin goes down and needs Tommy John after going 21-11 with a 3.60 ERA, 235 K in 282 IP, and Jarrod Parker steps up. Parker goes 25-16 over a few seasons with a 3.68 ERA, and needs not one, but two Tommy John surgeries. Eventually, hopefully, one of them at least comes back. They'll join Sonny Gray, one of the best young pitchers in the game. Look, too, at the Twins. After a pretty bad four year run, they're 28-19, a game out of first place. They're a home grown club, too. No big trades there. Joe Mauer, Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe, Torii Hunter...all drafted by the Twins. Kyle Gibson, their best pitcher, drafted by the Twins. And wait until their minor league players start coming up. The Twins system is stacked. The #1 prospect in baseball, Byron Buxton, a masher third baseman in Miguel Sano (#11 MLB.com prospect), two starters in Alex Meyer and Jose Berrios--both top 30 prospects in baseball, shortstop Nick Gordon is the #31 prospect in the game, and Kohl Stewart is the #33 prospect. Six of the top 33 prospects in baseball are in Minnesota. Milwaukee has one top 100 prospect. The Twins and A's haven't won it all lately. But I think every Brewers fan would trade their level of success for our lack of. As far as our making the playoffs in 2008 goes, it was basically a miracle. CC Sabathia had one of the best half-seasons by a Major League starter in recent history. If he pitches just great, we don't make the playoffs. He started 17 games for Milwaukee, and 15 of those were quality starts (6 innings or more pitched, 3 or fewer earned runs allowed). By comparison, in 50 games this year, we have 18 quality starts. Sabathia pitched out of his mind, and basically willed us into the post season. We sneaked in. We've really only had one great season in the thirteen that Doug Melvin has been here. It's just time for him, and this entire coaching staff, to go. I hope Mark Attanasio has the wisdom, and the courage, to make this move.

Seriously? Pretty much stopped reading your long post after this statement because apparently you were never really a fan to begin with. I've been a Brewer fan for close to 40 years. I've seen much worse than this. I've been a fan of the Brewers since I was about 7 years old, about 1977/78. Calling somebody out for not being a "true fan" is pretty cold, man. I'm as diehard a fan as there is, but I've stopped watching the games of late because I can't stomach what this team has become.

So the measuring stick we're using for Doug Melvin is all the other GMs the Brewers have had? I'm sorry, but that's pretty weak. This franchise came to Milwaukee over 41 years ago, and we're made it to one World Series, and we've been to the playoffs, what, four times in 41+ years? How about, instead, you compare Melvin against GMs from similar small market franchises? If you have competent people in place, you can win, and at least be competitive on a consistent basis. Maybe you're not winning the World Series every year, but an occasional appearance in the Series would be nice.