The stache

This. You know, I don't even care enough to type out a long response. Everybody knew this was going to be the result. Mark A. said he was losing sleep at night, wondering why we had these long losing streaks...But he is going to "find out who wants to be on this team! Who cares about winning and losing in the clubhouse!" LOL. After what was no doubt an exhaustive review of the organization from top to bottom, the hitting coach and the first base coach got fired. There's no stopping us now! What a joke. Make sure to keep the parking spot next to the owner's open. We have to make sure Doug Melvin and Ron Roenicke have a spot close to Miller Park where they can park their little clown car.

I have a terrible feeling that this time next year, we're going to be having the same discussion. The Cardinals will be going to their fifth straight NLCS, and we'll be discussing what we need to do to improve on our 85-77 record. Mark Attanasio will say "we're going to look at the coaching staff, Doug and I, and figure out what needs to be done. We realized some improvements this year, and it showed in the standings as we won three more games than we did in 2014. We're headed in the right direction." Sadly, as long as Doug Melvin is our GM, we won't win. As I have pointed out several times. Doug has been an Assistant GM/Head of Player development or a GM for 27 years now, and his teams have won one playoff series. That's kind of a trend, Mark. We lucked into the playoffs in 2008 because we got C.C. Sabathia for a half season, and he was unhittable. He earned a 5.2 WAR in 17 starts, and went 11-2. The Brewers were 14-3 in his starts.

My fingers are crossed. Come on, doc, work that magic.

I always liked Rickie Weeks. Even when he struggled, you never saw or heard anything from him. He did his job to the very best of his ability. The results weren't always there, but it wasn't from a lack of effort, in my opinion. That injury he suffered stepping on first base in 2011 just tore my heart out. He was asked to learn to play left field, and I do think, too, he was asked to try first base. He didn't want to do either. That bothers me a little bit, but that was his decision. There's no way he could have lived up to the massive expectations that his draft slot came with. But when he was at his best, he was one of the most dynamic players in the game. I wish he'd been able to stay healthier, because the sky was the limit. But anyway, thank you Rickie. Good luck to you.

I thought Michael Brantley, Lorenzo Cain and Alcides Escobar were going to be good. But I think they've surpassed the expectations I had for them. Brantley, especially, has really had a breakout year. I don't know if you all have looked at his stats lately. He's having an MVP caliber season, though Trout will win it going away. But still: 200 hits, 94 runs, 45 doubles, 20 home runs, 97 RBI. 23 stolen bases, 1 caught stealing. .327 AVG. .385/.506/.891 A 7.0 WAR, are you kidding me? I think the stolen bases numbers are what shock me the most. He had pretty good speed, but had never stolen 20 bases before this year. And he got a high percentage of the time. Some guys put it all together a little later. While I don't think he'll be quite this good going forward, his ceiling is higher than I thought it would be. Lorenzo Cain is pretty darned good, too. 142 hits, 55 runs, 29 doubles, 4 triples, 5 home runs, 53 RBI. 28 stolen bases, 5 caught stealing. .303 AVG. .341/.415/.756 He doesn't have a lot of power, but I don't think we ever expected that he would. The .303 average is quite nice. He needs to walk more (24 BB) and strike out less (107) for a guy batting in the top two of the order. But he plays incredible defense. Cain will end up missing 29 games this season, but he has a 5.0 WAR anyhow. Alcides Escobar is starting to show some signs of stepping his game up, too. He had a terrible season in 2013 after a breakout year in 2012 where he hit .293 and stole 35 bases. He's hitting .283 this season. 163 hits, 74 runs, 33 doubles, 5 triples, 3 home runs, 50 RBI. 31 stolen bases, 6 caught stealing. .283 AVG. .315/.373/.689 OPS. Though he only hit .234 last year, he stole 22 bases in 22 tries. Over the last two seasons, he's made it safely stealing 53 times in 59 tries. Surprisingly, he's only had a 2.2 WAR this year. Escobar has been red hot the last ten games, right when the Royals needed somebody else to step up. He's gone 17 for 44 (.386) with 2 doubles and a home run. If anything, it's good to know that these guys are having some success. Nori Aoki, Alcides Escobar and Lorenzo Cain will give me somebody to cheer for in the playoffs .

Doug Melvin has been putting the same team together for 27 years. He did it in Baltimore. He did it in Texas. He's done it in Milwaukee. Teams that can score a lot of runs by hitting the ball out of the park. But when they aren't doing that, they have no other way to win. They can't play small ball. They make too many stupid mistakes on the bases. They play poor defense. Team after team, year after year, this Brewers team keeps making the same dumb mistakes, over and over and over and over. Next year, we'll hit a lot of home runs. Steal a lot of bases. And we'll win 83 games. And our hitters will strike out a lot, swinging at balls that are a foot out of the strike zone. And opposing pitchers will keep getting away with it, because there's nobody in our lineup that will make them throw strikes. Meanwhile, our starting pitchers will run up their pitch counts. Hitters on other team have the discipline we do not have. They will work the count. Even if they cannot get a hit, or a walk, they will make our pitchers work for the out. And while their pitchers will get through innings throwing 12-15 pitches, sometimes less (I especially love those 6 itch innings), our starters will go out there and throw 20-25 pitches. Roenicke will have his 7th inning guy get up. Then his 8th inning guy. Then his closer. Because, he's not capable of looking at the hitters coming up, and picking the best matchup from our bullpen. And Doug Melvin will find some 36 year old over-the-hill first baseman, another short term solution (well, not really a solution). And he will hit .200 with 21 home runs, and strike out 150 times. Next year will be 2014 all over again. Why? Because when our general manager is incapable of figuring out why we have those cold stretches where we go 3-11. We'll be treated to a couple young guys who will look great for a half season, giving us hope. They they'll crap out, and our whole team will crap out. And Mark Attanasio will be mad again, and Doug Melvin will pull his pants up, and give the "we're going to find out who wants to be here" speech. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting different results."

LOL You might want to look in a mirror there, Dougie. Because as far as I can see, you've never won anything. 27 years as an Assistant General Manager/Head of Player Development, or General Manager, and you've won one playoff series in those 27 years. You've taken a lot of money over your more than quarter century of mediocrity, but you haven't given anybody a winner. So, save your tough talk, because nobody puts any merit in your tough talk.

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

No, but you can bet they were testing Braun more often, and looking for every marker of possible steroid use.

2012 was a PED-free Braun. Minor quibble. Braun did not fail any tests in 2012, that does not necessarily mean he was PED free. Yes, I'm sure that after winning an overturn of his suspension in 2011, Braun thought, "oh good, now I can start taking PEDs again, and get back to baseball."

Making the playoffs twice in the twelve years that Doug Melvin has been the Brewer GM is a decent job to you? Let's compare where we were in 2005, Melvin's third year as GM, and where we are now. In 2005, the Brewers finished the season 81-81. Ben Sheets and Chris Capuano were both 26 years old. Capuano had just won 18 games, Sheets was 10-9 with a 3.33 ERA. Yovani Gallardo was 19, and two years away. The Brewers had JJ Hardy and Rickie Weeks at short and second. Prince had his first 62 big league at bats. Corey Hart his first 63. Nelson Cruz hadn't yet been shipped out of town with Carlos Lee for Kevin Mench and Francisco Cordero. Ryan Braun was coming soon. The future looked so bright. How does that future look today? Fielder left Milwaukee, and had two good seasons in Detroit, topping .300 for the first time before being sent to Texas. JJ Hardy has been one of the best power hitting shortstops in the game with 77 home runs the prior three years. And he won two Gold Gloves at short. Corey Hart is gone, and there are serious concerns that Braun's thumb injury might curtail his offensive ability the rest of his career. That you can't blame any manager or GM for. But the black hole that's existed at first base for three years now since Prince left..that we can blame on Melvin. He had to know that Fielder wasn't going to take the offer from Milwaukee. Signing Braun long term was the right decision. But as we got closer to Prince leaving Milwaukee, why wasn't Melvin able to find his successor? They sure didn't give Mat Gamel any consistent playing time, having him bounce back and forth between Nashville and Milwaukee. The injury to Gamel was also not Melvin's fault. But going into the next season with nobody of note backing Gamel up if he got hurt again, which he did, was a tactical error. Our minor league system might be better off than it was just two years ago. That's not saying much. Besides catcher, there isn't a single position in Milwaukee's infield that is settled. Not one. First base, that black hole I mentioned. Matt Clark homered in three straight games. The power is legit. But can he hit when he's not launching balls into the seats? Stop me if you've heard this before. Second base, Scooter Gennett is pretty good, so long as the opposing pitcher is the right handed variety of human. We need to find somebody that can play at second when a lefty starts. Somebody, hopefully, that can play multiple positions. Shortstop looked like a strength when last year ended. Jean Segura looked like the future of the club. He looked lost pretty much the entire season. Nobody blames him for being down, and maybe unable to concentrate on the game. Will he ever bounce back to his 2013 first half performance level? Third base is up in the air, too. Who knows how much longer Aramis Ramirez can keep playing. He missed some time this year, and amazingly enough, the rest of the offense was able to compensate. Will he be back next year? If not, I don't want to think about our opening day starting lineup. If anything, I would say this organization is worse off than it was at the start of Melvin's tenure. The two playoff runs were fun. But we emptied the cupboards to reach for it all. With Bruce Seid's passing, now might be the time to start from scratch with a new GM and coaching staff/manager, the new director of scouting. I want to see Mark being proactive. This terrible loss has afforded us the opportunity to revamp out system. We'll see what happens.

I feel your pain. I entered the playoffs with a shot to knock off my league's #1 seed, and play for the championship, but then J.J. Hardy, my shortstop, went out. I was told my first baseman, Anthony Rizzo, who was second in the NL in home runs, would be back. That didn't happen. Then, Giancarlo Stanton got beaned. So in 24 hours, I went from having a shot at winning that league for the first time to having no shot at all. I managed to pick up Matt Kemp, who had been on a tear, but he slowed down. Still, it was impossible to replace two guys and their 70 home runs on the fly. Oh well.

You are absolutely right. You are not owed anything. Nobody is owed anything by the Brewers. But if the franchise wants to continue seeing people come out to the ballpark, having a team that can compete for, and even win a World Series once every twenty years or so, isn't an unfair expectation, either.

Yup, we were taught that, too. I played second base. Before every pitch was thrown, I was thinking to myself "if the ball comes to me, this is what I'm going to do."

I'm sorry, but this is another nail in Doug Melvin's coffin, if you ask me. In fact, it should be the final one. Yes, he asked the Sounds' owner Frank Ward to tell them if they were not going to renew their contract with Milwaukee so the Brewers could find another attractive AAA affiliate as a replacement. And yes, doing so would have been the classy thing to do. But Doug's expressing anger is comical. Like any owner, Frank Ward is out to make money. This beautiful new stadium is opening up, and Ward wants a winning product on the field to put butts in the seats. The Brewers were better this year, but after ending up 30 games below .500 in 2012, and 10 games under in 2013, is anybody really surprised this happened? Melvin said there was another affiliate that appealed to them. Well, in lieu of a firm commitment from Ward, Melvin should have grabbed the sure thing. Now all the Brewers have left is the ugly girl at the dance, and a General Manager who is trying to deflect the blame off of himself.

Thank you. I'll go back and look for that, and see if I can delete this one. Well, I can't delete the topic, I guess, once a post is made. Can a mod please delete this? Thanks.

I apologize if this has already been posted. I did not see anything on the minor league board. Mods, please feel free to move. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/276775371.html Nashville owner severed ties with Brewers for lack of winning So, who will the Brewers have as their AAA affiliate for the 2015 season?

Jim, that's a great post. I need to amend my post. This team is only sad from a competitive standpoint. Have they provided me, and all Brewer fans, with some incredibly entertaining baseball over these four decades? Absolutely. Have some absolutely incredible players come through Milwaukee? Yes. You can't make the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame without Aaron and Yount. The first and last name on the list has Milwaukee written all over their jerseys. Mathews. Molitor, Aaron, Yount, Schoendienst, Fingers, Sutton. And I know the Brewers team and players have done a lot of good in the community. Everything else, they're good at, except winning championships. I hope that will change, because I think the fans of the Brewers have been incredible. And such loyalty should be rewarded.

So, this is how the Brewer season ends. After one point being 19 games over .500, with a 98% chance of making the playoffs, to struggling to stay over .500 at the end of the season. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. I don't know what hurts worse. Going into the season with no expectations, then tearing it up, getting to 19 over, and blowing it, completely missing the playoffs -- or -- being expected to compete for a championship, and playing horribly all season long. Because right now, I don't know how to describe what I'm feeling.

I'm not watching the game guys, watching this new Schwarzenegger + Stallone movie in stead. I just can't get the motivation to flip to the Roku. We've scored our one run for the night, how's the mood looking in the dugout?

Mesoraco is going to be a pain in our butts for years to come, fellas. The Reds offense has been very hit and miss this year (more miss). But if Votto can come back, which I think he can, look out. I don't know how much Brandon Phillips has left in the tank. But if Hsmilton improves getting on base, I'm really not looking forward to seeing these guys come to Miller Park. 1. Hamilton CF 2. Frazier 3B 3. Votto 1B 4. Mesoraco C 5. Bruce RF 6. Winker LF 7. Cozart SS 8. Phillips 2B Yeah....no thanks.

The PEDs did not make Braun an elite hitter. I promise you.

I don't think I've accused most Brewer fans of anything. I said that some of you, ie the members of this forum, have done that, but not most. And the members of this forum make up a very small portion of Brewer fans in total. I haven't met or talked to most Brewer fans, so I can't make a generalization about most Brewer fans. There are people here that are trying to say "we get 2.5 million at our park every year. We have made the playoffs twice." There was more, I don't remember it off the top of my head. But what I saw being expressed was accepting of complacency. I'm 43. I have watched this team for 35 years, and I don't know how many years God is going to give me. I would like to see this team get to, and win, a World Series, for once. I think I've said that Brewer fans, if anything, are more patient, more loyal. We come to the park every year, supporting this team even though we don't win championships. If anything, I've been very complimentary of our fan base. I don't care what other people think of our franchise. But I am tired of hearing them rag on us. There's an older Cardinals fan (I forget his name), but he comes to the ESPN discussion board seemingly every time I am there. And he just talks trash about our team, our state, etc. I am sick of hearing how great the Cardinals are. I agree with pretty much everything you have said. It isn't an even playing field. But teams that have been near the very bottom in salary cap have made it to the World Series. Expansion teams--all of them--have made it to the World Series in the last 15 years. Arizona won it four years after the franchise was created. I picked out a few years where the payroll gap between one of the teams in the World Series and the Brewers wasn't the incredible chasm it's been made out to be. In 2010, for example, the World Series winning team, San Francisco, only had $16 million more in payroll. The loser, Texas, had $26 million less in payroll then we had. The point? Both these teams found a way to get to the World Series because they had both drafted some exceptional talent. Now, $16 million more in payroll could have made a huge difference, of course. Maybe we could have added another pitcher, or another hitter like you mentioned. Or, maybe we just could have spent the money we did have more wisely. Giving Jeff Suppan $12,750,000 wasn't the best idea. $7,500,000 to 42 year old Trevor Hoffman also was not wise. $20 million spent on two pitchers who would go a combined 2-9 with about a 6.00 ERA. 1/4 of our payroll went to those two guys. Of course, there are other years where the Yankees, or the Red Sox, who had the #1, or #2, or #3 highest payroll make it to and win the World Series. In fact, it's not close. Teams with more money will generally do better in Major League Baseball. But other teams have managed to get to the World Series at least once, or a couple times. The Florida Marlins, as bad as they were the rest of their years, still managed to make it to, and win two World Series. They didn't have the superstars. The two years they won, they had 92 and 91 wins. In 2003 they had Mike Lowell, Derrek Lee, and a very young Miguel Cabrera. Young Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett were the young pitchers, with Brad Penny and Carl Pavano. How did they manage to get to the Series? They had no Prince Fielder or Ryan Braun. They didn't have any Cy Young winners on their roster for a half season. What I am saying is that there are other teams besides the Yankees, Red Sox, and the other highest payroll teams making it to the World Series, and occasionally winning it. Yet while all these teams are getting there, and a lot of them winning it--we can't even get to the game. Why? Why should we continue on with such complacency? After 32 years, don't you want to get back to the World Series? Of course you do. Do you realistically think we'll get there? Doug Melvin has been calling the shots for a Major League team for nearly 30 years. I live in Texas, and I watched him when he was the GM for the Rangers. I moved to Dallas in 1989. From 1994 to 2001, he was the Ranger GM. Look at the numbers I put up. He even managed to take the division four times. Yet he couldn't win a single playoff series. Things are not going to get better if we give him more time. Doug Melvin has had an awfully long time at his job, in three places, and he has demonstrated he can't.....win. He can't win in the post season. He had a team with Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro, Will Clark, Jose Canseco, Ivan Rodriguez, Dean Palmer and Rusty Greer in Texas. I want Brewer fans to be honest with themselves. If we keep this group, we'll get more of the same. And every Brewer fan should ask themselves if they're ok with that. Doug Melvin has shown he does not know how to pull the strings. I agree with this, too. And Mark, as an owner who wants to bring a championship to Milwaukee, who I believe will bring a World Series title to Milwaukee, needs to see that this group trusted to operate his franchise is not capable of taking it to that next step. And that's ok. It's not an admission of failure. The relationship hasn't been bad. But it hasn't been as good as we want it to be. So, now it's time to find some new people, and task them with taking this franchise to the next level.

I've put together a salary comparison showing what the two World Series teams, as well as the Milwaukee Brewers, paid their players each year, going all the way back to the 2000 season. The common perception is that the Brewers cannot be perennial contenders because of the market they are in. Quite simply, we don't have the financial means necessary to build, and maintain, a team of talent comparable to the eventual World Series participants. Here it is. http://imageshack.com/a/img538/102/z8lCHM.png What I find interesting is that in a few of these seasons, the financial gap is really not that great. In 2010, for example, San Francisco's team payroll was only $16,720,554 higher than our own. That's a substantial chunk of change, of course, but not as wide a gap as I expected to find. In 2012, we were $19,966,739 in payroll behind the San Francisco Giants, again the winners of the World Series. In 2011, the gap between the World Series winning St. Louis Cardinals, was a mere $19,936,199. As a percentage of payroll, the difference is substantial. But in terms of absolute dollars spent, the gap isn't as big as one might think. Between 2007 and 2010, three of the teams that lost the World Series, Colorado, Tampa Bay and Texas, got there spending substantially less money on their team. It is possible to get to the World Series with a smaller payroll, and it happens more often than we might have been led to believe. If our Brewer team were well constructed, I can't think of any reason why we couldn't get to the World Series, and have a shot to win it. Texas spent $147.5 million (approximately) to get to the World Series in 2010 and 2011. If Nelson Cruz breaks differently, and catches a ball that is just over his head, the Rangers beat the Cardinals in 2011. Meanwhile, the Brewers spent in excess of $166 million those two seasons.

First of all, nowhere have I guaranteed that we would do better over the next 5 seasons if we made major changes. In fact, if we bring a whole new group in to run this franchise for Mark Attanasio, we will likely do worse than we have been for the next few years. All I do know is that if we keep the current regime, from the General Manager on down, we will not see any appreciable improvements; not over the next year, or the next five years. If we kept Doug Melvin for the next decade, I feel confident in saying that we wouldn't make it to the World Series during that time. Now, anything is possible. After yet another season of comparative futility, maybe Doug Melvin completely rethinks his drafting strategies. Maybe in 2015 he would be much more aggressive in free agency. That could happen. But more than likely, not. I feel we will keep getting more of the same for as long as Melvin is here. 27 years of baseball is a sizable sampling, and based off of the data from that nearly three decades of Doug Melvin baseball, I feel we will be experiencing the same highs and lows, with more lows. Who Mark Attanasio brings in is up to him. I'm sure he has other people in baseball he talks to. He knows which other Major League Teams are run well.