In 2017, no one expected the Brewers to compete for anything & they had the lowest payroll in baseball & just missed the playoffs by one game. But they didn't win the World Series, so who cares? Might as well have spent the whole summer watching the Tigers win 64 games with 3rd highest payroll in MLB. In 2018, the Brewers splurged. Yelich & Cain (& Wade Miley too!!). Payroll all the way up to 22nd. Fans were excited, but even then no one was predicting 5th most wins in MLB & Game 7 of the NLCS. But they didn't win tbe World Series, so what did they really accomplish? Probably would have been just as fun to spend half the year watching the Orioles win 47 games with the 10th highest payroll in MLB. In 2019, the payroll went up again (17th!!), but despite spending considerably more than in 2018, the team did not win as many games. Even so, they still made the posteseason (where they were 6 outs from knocking out the eventual WS Champs) after going on an historic September run without the reigning league MVP. They didn't win the WS though, so...BORING. Could have just watched the Mariners win 68 games with the 10th highest payroll if I wanted to watch a team NOT win the World Series. If winning the WS is the only successful outcome, 25 teams have nothing to show for the last five years. Out of those 25 teams, the Brewers have objectively been among the most interesting to follow on a day to day basis, which is all I can really ask for from an entertainment product. This is a great post. I think sometimes people get a player's mentality when it comes to fandom. As a player your goal is always a championship, win at all costs, 2nd is nothing, etc. and it has to be that way as a player, you can't really be satisfied because when you are, you get passed by someone else. As a fan though, you can kind of view things in a broader picture, for me I enjoy watching a competitive team all summer and I hope the Brewers can advance as far as possible. That does not mean anything short of a championship is failure, if you have that mentality, basically every year will be failure. What would be the point of devoting any time to following something like that?