Three playoff appearances in 41 seasons. That's all the Milwaukee Brewers can boast. But a thrilling offseason has the fans at Miller Park wondering if 2011 just might be their year.
The Brewers won their only division title and only League Championship in 1982. That year, a power-packed lineup led by Cecil Cooper and Robin Yount helped overcome a pitching staff whose only star was closer Rollie Fingers. Milwaukee, then an American league team, advanced all the way to the World Series but lost in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Brewers did not return to the postseason for 26 years until, in 2008, general manager Doug Melvin scrambled to acquire lefty CC Sabathia from the Cleveland Indians, shipping a bounty of prospects away for what amounted to a three-month rental of the workhorse ace. The Brewers didn't clinch the NL Wild Card until the very last day of that regular season and were ousted in the first round of the playoffs.
During the team's 41-year history, Milwaukee has had no trouble producing homegrown hitters. Yount was drafted by the Brewers in 1973 and played 20 seasons without donning another uniform. More recently, the team has drafted and developed sluggers like Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun.
Pitching, however, has been another story.
Since Melvin took the reins in 2002, the Brewers' farm system has yielded just one elite starting pitcher, right-hander Yovani Gallardo, while enduring plenty of busts. The high-profile failures have ranged from Rolando Pascual — a widely touted Dominican who signed for $710,000 as a 16-year-old in 2005 but has walked more batters than he's struck out in five seasons in the minors — to Evan Frederickson, the team's 35th overall pick in the 2008 draft, who is still toiling in Single-A ball. Two of the top current pitching prospects in the minors, the Royals' Mike Montgomery and the Astros' Jordan Lyles, were among the next three players drafted after Frederickson.
With that track record hanging like an albatross around his neck, Melvin decided this offseason to adopt the motto, "If you can't beat them, join them." The Yankees imported Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. The Phillies brought in Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and then Cliff Lee again. And now, despite operating with a payroll less than half the size of the Yankees', the Brewers will field one of the most formidable rotations in the league.
Melvin shocked many fans this winter by exchanging the few quality prospects in his pipeline to acquire 2009 Cy Young winner Zack Greinke from the Royals and underrated No. 3 starter Shaun Marcum from the Blue Jays. Combined with Gallardo and lefties Randy Wolf and Chris Narveson, those two acquisitions should help Milwaukee improve vastly upon its 4.65 rotation ERA last year, the second-worst mark in the majors.
The Brewers have taken risks before, such as in 2008, when in addition to reeling in Sabathia, Melvin fired manager Ned Yost with just 12 games remaining in the regular season. The bold move paid off, as Yost's replacement, Dale Sveum, helped the team overcome a skid during which they fell behind the Mets in the Wild Card standings. After going 7-4 under Sveum, Milwaukee returned to the playoffs for the first time in over 25 years.
For small-market teams like the Brewers, which operate with a relatively tight budget, the windows of opportunity to make runs at the playoffs and contend for championships are short. Because Milwaukee traded away young prospects and spent an awful lot of money in pursuit of the pitching excellence that has been so elusive to them, the window of opportunity becomes even shorter.
If Milwaukee doesn't win it all this year, Melvin will once again have to scramble and rebuild for the team to make another run before Gallardo and Braun are eligible for free agency in 2015. After trading the team's best pitching prospects — Jake Odorizzi and Jeremy Jeffress — to get Greinke, Melvin may need to start that process from the ground up.
Yet with star first baseman Prince Fielder set to become a free agent after the 2011 season, the Brewers decided that they couldn't afford to squander a shot to once again chase what would be the first championship in the organization's history. That's why Greinke and Marcum were brought in, and why a new manager — former Angels bench coach Ron Roenicke — was hired.
Even though the Cardinals lost their ace, Adam Wainwright, to Tommy John surgery, the Brewers will face stiff competition in the NL Central from the defending champion Reds and the revamped Cubs — and St. Louis isn't entirely out of contention either. While Cincinnati and Chicago have the prospects necessary to trade for reinforcements during the regular season, the Brewers will hope that the players they put on the field on Opening Day can stay healthy and productive enough that the Brewers' fourth trip to the postseason will be in the cards.
