Are we seriously going to keep rehashing this argument over and over again in various threads. The Brewers did this in the early/mid 2000's (drafted and developed a core of young players). They had Fielder, Weeks, Braun, Hart, etc. However they had no pitching. By the time they waited for their system to develop pitching, they would have lost other components to free agency. Also, not every prospect that is drafted is gold, many don't pan out (even the "can't miss" guys). You say "augment" the system with the occasional Veteran. How should they have "augmented" their pitching staffs in 2008 and 2011 without trading away prospects? They are not a team that is going to compete in the FA market for pitching arms like Grienke and Sabathia. Name a pitcher, other than Gallardo, in the Brewers system between 2006 and the present that was going to help them get to the playoffs the way Grienke and Sabathia did? To me, under your plan, it seems like would be competitive every year...but just always miss the playoffs because we are missing key components because we are unwilling to make the necessary trades. Yes, all those former Brewers you mention on one team sound like a great team, but if you think the Brewers have the payroll flexibility to keep all of those guys together you are fooling yourself. If I'm calculating correctly, the combined 2015 salary of just those players is $54 million and growing and again, just one pitcher in the bunch and 4 outfielders (where do Braun and Gomez play??). Also, we didn't offer Fielder enough?? We should have offered the $24Mil per year that he's currently making? Funny how over the last two seasons everyone was thankful how we dodged a bullet with Fielder and now that he's having a good year, we should have offered him more. Ah, the power of hindsight. I'm all for rebuilding for tomorrow, but when tomorrow comes, you have to go for it. You can't endlessly build for tomorrow without the willingness to trade of those "tomorrow" pieces for today. my thoughts exactly, great post!