Brewers have come out smoking
The picture is in black and white, a snapshot of glory from far too long ago.
The camera catches the aftermath of the last playoff game in Milwaukee. Fans linger on the field, celebrating their beloved Brewers, skipping merrily beneath a huge billboard for Winston cigarettes. Long ago, indeed.
On the scoreboard, a polite nudge: “The 1982 American League champion Milwaukee Brewers will return for a bow after all fans have returned to the stands.”
They took their bow, and they left for St. Louis, one victory from a World Series championship. The Cardinals won Game 6, then Game 7.
Milwaukee still awaits its parade, and its next taste of October. New ballpark, new management, even a new league: The Brewers have tried ‘em all, but the playoff drought is up to a quarter-century, and counting.
So, at least for today, a toast to the championship-deprived fans of Milwaukee: The Brewers have the best record in the major leagues, 25-11.
And, at least for this weekend, a toast to Doug Melvin, the Brewers’ general manager, the architect of this overnight sensation.
“You can’t do it overnight,” Melvin said, “without spending a whole lot of money. We’re not spending hundreds of millions.”
You can’t, and they’re not. The Brewers haven’t had a winning season since 1992, and the roots of success can be buried amid the wreckage. We’ll dig up two: Melvin remains with the Brewers, and Carlos Lee does not.
This is the Brewers’ third season under the ownership of Mark Attanasio, a Los Angeles investment banker. When Attanasio bought the team in 2005, Melvin had run it for three years. The Brewers lost 104 games in Melvin’s first year and 96 in each of the other two, and yet Attanasio decided against bringing in his own general manager.
“I saw it as a work in progress,” Attanasio said. “I felt it already had turned around, even though it wasn’t evident in the won-lost record.”
Melvin had credentials. He ran the Texas Rangers for seven years, which included the only three playoff appearances in club history.
He had players too, a wave of players slowly rising into a contender.
He had building blocks, from the draft, not all from his tenure. He had an ace in Ben Sheets, infielders in Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy and Rickie Weeks, outfielders in Bill Hall and Geoff Jenkins.
He found two bullpen gems, Derrick Turnbow and Matt Wise, in the Angels’ discard pile. He traded slugger Richie Sexson, on the verge of free agency, to the Diamondbacks for starter Chris Capuano and first baseman Lyle Overbay. Two years later, he flipped Overbay to the Blue Jays for starter David Bush, clearing first base for Fielder.
The Brewers climbed to .500 two years ago but slipped again last July, as Lee approached free agency. He rejected a $48-million contract extension -- the Astros would give him $100 million four months later -- so the Brewers decided to trade him.
Not for prospects. Not this time.
“If you’re trading for prospects, you’re always rebuilding,” Melvin said. “I don’t think you can always rebuild. I’m interested in helping the Brewers win, not so much in stockpiling talent in the minor leagues.”
Attanasio had heard too many stories about players not giving their all because they did not believe management was giving its all.
“If we went for prospects,” he said, “that might not help us change the culture.”
So Melvin said no to the Angels, who offered infielder Erick Aybar and catcher Jeff Mathis for Lee. He said yes to the Rangers, gambling on two veterans -- Francisco Cordero, who had lost his job as the Texas closer, and surplus outfielder Kevin Mench.
Over the winter, he swapped starter Doug Davis to the Diamondbacks for catcher Johnny Estrada and starter Claudio Vargas. And he went shopping, completing the rotation by spending $42 million for Jeff Suppan, the largest contract in club history.
So far, so good: Hardy leads the National League in runs batted in, Fielder and Hardy are tied with Barry Bonds and Adam Dunn for the league lead with 11 home runs, and Estrada, Jenkins, Fielder and Hardy all are hitting above .300. Mench is at .295.
Cordero leads the majors in saves; he’s given up one run. Capuano, Suppan and Vargas each have an ERA at 3.00 or below.
The cast might not yet be complete. Tony Gwynn Jr., an outfielder, is hitting .406 off the bench. The third baseman of the very near future, Ryan Braun of Granada Hills, is slugging away at triple A. His teammate, Yovani Gallardo, might be the best pitching prospect in the league.
This brew could cool off. The Brewers didn’t face a team with a winning record between their first series, against the Dodgers, and their current series, against the Mets. But these are heady times and happy days for the fans in Milwaukee, where hope had been limited to the pages of Baseball America.
“Whenever we brought kids up, they were getting standing ovations on their first major league at-bat,” Melvin said. “Now they’re getting standing ovations for other reasons.”
If this keeps up, great. If not, they’ll always have 1982. On Friday, it’s Paul Molitor bobblehead night.
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