MA is on his way.....

[danzig6767]

KRod, the closer that Melvin gave a 2yr 13mil contract to. And that player failed. But the only reason he had the opportunity to fail is because Melvin signed him, and Roenicke summoned him to pitch.

I am pretty sure that MA himself is the guy that gave KRod that contract, not Melvin. It's pretty well documented that he gets in bed with Scott Boras and does deals himself of this magnitude.

You can believe that. I don't in the KRod signing. The Brewers were looking for a RP/potential closer. This wasn't the Lohse signing where it came way late. Show me your link that has you believing this.

 

About a week before K-Rod was signed, this was in the paper.

 

From today's JS notes column by Todd Rosiak:

 

Melvin wouldn't comment on the state of possible talks with the Phillies, but acknowledged the lines of communication have remained open with "K-Rod."

 

"I don’t know if it’s active, but we still have conversations," Melvin said. "Mark deals more with that. (Agent) Scott (Boras) keeps calling Mark."

[bork]

All of this talk about GMs drafting players in baseball... shouldn't we be past that by now? The Scouting Director conducts the amateur draft, not the GM.

 

This I agree with. The Brewers are where they are now in no small part due to Jack Z.'s poor drafting of pitching and Bruce Seid's (rip) poor drafting of almost everything, sad to say.

 

 

I disagree with the first part. Jack Z built the team that won 96 games and won the division in 2011. 13 players on that team were either his draft picks or from trades using his draft picks, including the majority of the starting lineup.

 

I agree completely with the second part. The first few drafts after Jack Z left were disasters and that is what we are living with now.

[PeaveyFury]

I disagree with the first part. Jack Z built the team that won 96 games and won the division in 2011. 13 players on that team were either his draft picks or from trades using his draft picks, including the majority of the starting lineup.

 

I agree completely with the second part. The first few drafts after Jack Z left were disasters and that is what we are living with now.

 

I won't disagree with you about the lineup, and obviously it was our home-grown position players that drove the team's success from 2007 to now, but I did specify "Jack Z's poor drafting of pitching." Considering that Sheets and Gallardo were the only two starters that Jack drafted that stuck in the majors in ten drafts, I stand by my point.

[Outlander]

I agree completely with the second part. The first few drafts after Jack Z left were disasters and that is what we are living with now.

 

It is kind of interesting that he may end up being one of the main people responsible for the collapse and ultimately one of the main people responsible for the resurgence with the last draft and signing of Lara.

[bork]

I disagree with the first part. Jack Z built the team that won 96 games and won the division in 2011. 13 players on that team were either his draft picks or from trades using his draft picks, including the majority of the starting lineup.

 

I agree completely with the second part. The first few drafts after Jack Z left were disasters and that is what we are living with now.

 

I won't disagree with you about the lineup, and obviously it was our home-grown position players that drove the team's success from 2007 to now, but I did specify "Jack Z's poor drafting of pitching." Considering that Sheets and Gallardo were the only two starters that Jack drafted that stuck in the majors in ten drafts, I stand by my point.

 

I was including Greinke and Marcum because both of those came using Jack Z draft picks. I'm not sure how much you can blame the current team on Jack Z any more, since his last draft was 7 years ago. Players from the last couple drafts are still around, but most of the earlier drafts would be FAs by now. And certainly, the entire minor league system now is on Seid.

 

Though I will grant that 5 of the top 7 starters for the Brewers are now homegrown, largely thanks to Seid.

[JohnBriggs12]

We can go back and forth on the merits of player acquisition during Melvin's tenure. He's done some good and some bad. It is what it is. He's not been creative or overly aggressive. Again that's good and bad.

 

But the negative that stands out is his selection of managers and that is a huge part of judging a GM. He's got one now who has a record of letting bad stretches get completely out of hand and completely clueless on what needs to be done to minimize slumps. Under Roenicke, one bad week and this team gets tighter than a peanut butter jar lid. It happened in May of 2013. Again just before All Star break last year, and the one they are in now that's lasted nearly 50 games.

[BrewCrewForever]

I believe that Ray Montgomery was hired to be a heir apparent to Melvin and the plan all along has been for Melvin to retire at the end of the season.

 

Also, it happens regularly for owners to give a "vote of confidence" to a coach/manager before firing them within days of that comment.

 

The offer to extend the contract of Melvin is likely just PR to say thanks to Doug for his years of hard work.

 

At least that is what I'm hoping is happening

 

This is a theory that does make a lot of sense. Montgomery is young and very highly regarded around baseball circles. He will head up the draft for the Brewers this year and then possibly take over as the GM/Baseball Ops President going into 2016.

[bork]

Also, if we're going to credit Jack Z's drafting with much of the success, then how much credit should go to Taylor and not Melvin for hiring Jack and rebuilding the minor league system? Of course Taylor's trades were terrible and lost any talent left on the big league team. But was most of Melvin's success due to keeping Jack Z on?

[reillymcshane]

The tough thing about our drafts in the late 2000s that we missed badly on our premium picks (1st and 2nd rounders). Brent Brewer, Cody Adams, Kyle Heckathorn, Kentrail Davis, Eric Arnett, Evan Frederickson, Cutter Dykstra, Seth Lintz, Max Walla.

 

Jimmy Nelson and Jeremy Jeffress are the only guys from the 2006-10 draft era that are still on the team and look like they could be decent (neither has done much yet, but there is some promise).

 

In all fairness, we traded the two best players - Lawrie and Odorizzi - so you have to acknowledge those picks are looking decent. Another traded pick, LaPorta, bombed.

 

Still, that 2006-10 era of top picks is a mostly a black hole. We missed on so many picks, and these are the premium picks that have the best chance to turn into all stars. By comparison, from 2001-2005, we produced J.J. Hardy, Gallardo, Braun, Weeks and Fielder in the early rounds. Each of those guys has been to the all-star game, and they provided the core around the decent clubs of 2008-11.

 

Thankfully, we hit on some lower picks in the draft during the 2006-10 time frame - Davis, Lucroy, Thornburg, Fiers. These guys have been, so far, far more productive than the upper picks.

 

We should add into this the team's horrible track record in Latin America. Outside of Wily Peralta, we have failed badly to develop players from the international arena.

[Baldkin]

We should add into this the team's horrible track record in Latin America. Outside of Wily Peralta, we have failed badly to develop players from the international arena.

 

And Escobar.

[monty57]

All of this talk about GMs drafting players in baseball... shouldn't we be past that by now? The Scouting Director conducts the amateur draft, not the GM.

 

Part of being the boss. You get the credit and the blame. If the Apple Watch has a fatal flaw in it, it will be Tim Cook, and not the engineer at fault, that will be grilled for the error.

[SoupTown]

I only now read the Mark Fly In Interview closely. I cannot believe the owner can speak so long about a serious situation and not give one intelligent insight. What scares me is the calculations Mark talks about that 'proves' the 25 man team is a very good team. He talks about career averages. And how MLB players do the same performance year after year. On that basis, he has used the wee calculator to

 

-expect ARAM to have career average year

-expect Braun to return to his career norms

-expect Broxy to pitch like he did when he was a world beater

 

And on it goes.

 

So now you know why the Brewers, year after year, end up with vets on the end of their career. Because the owner, GM, and manager think a 37 year old guy will do the same as he did when he was 27. And note the dripping disdain for rookies by Mark. He notes we dont have 'newbies'. Did Mark just find out about the internet and he is catching up on the lingo.

 

Just spending the last 24 hours having a serious think and read about this franchise, I can only conclude it is owned, run, and managed by baseball fools.