Bob Cook

Like the steady success of the Minnesota Twins and the Oakland A’s, the Milwaukee Brewers’ sudden rise to power proves that rich teams giving to the poor helps, but having someone with a brain and a heart at the top of the operation helps even more.

It’s been quite a turnaround for the Brewers. They have gone from being Bud Selig’s self-inflicted argument for revenue sharing and/or contraction to having the best record in the majors. This from a team that hasn’t finished over .500 since 1992, meaning there are freshly
minted drivers heading to Miller Park who, entering this season, had no memory of the Brewers being anything but the dregs of baseball.

Milwaukee is following a make-the-most-out-of-your-limited-budget path taken by the Twins and A’s, one pioneered by the early 1990s Cleveland Indians: put smart people in charge, rely on homegrown prospects for the bulk of your roster, sign them to long-term deals as soon as you can, and toss in the occasional free agent acquisition to round out the roster. Also, have an owner who, while money might be tight, isn’t committed to a payroll less than what Alex Rodriguez makes in a season.

Wendy Selig-Prieb, who ran the Brewers from 1998 to 2004 so her commissioner father/owner wouldn’t appear to have a conflict of interest, made many dumb, short-sighted, bottom-line-driven decisions that managed to make the Brewers bad aesthetically and financially. But her best decision was hiring ex-Texas general manager Doug Melvin, who oversaw the Rangers’ first three division titles but was fired in 2001 after the team had swooned.

Melvin entered after the 2002 season, which at 56-106 was the worst in Brewers’ history, making Miller Park a joyless mausoleum in only its second year of existence. Melvin’s first decision was to hire as manager Atlanta third-base coach Ned Yost, who had been a backup catcher on Milwaukee’s 1982 World Series team.

He then began turning assets the Brewers couldn’t afford into greater assets they could. After the 2003 season, Melvin traded first baseman Richie Sexson to Arizona for a package that included present ace (5-0, 2.31 ERA) Chris Capuano and first baseman Lyle Overbay, who in 2005 would be traded to Toronto for starting pitcher Dave Bush and backup outfielder Gabe Gross. More important, the Overbay trade open up first base for Prince Fielder. In his second full year in the majors is high up the NL leader board with a .287 average, 10 home runs and 29 RBI. And Fielder just turned 23 on May 9.

Fielder highlights another smart decision Melvin made — not firing chief of scouting Jack Zduriencik, who had stocked the Brewers pipeline with soon-to-be-ready-for-prime-time talent that this year is most definitely ready for prime time.

The Brewers’ starting lineup relies heavily on prospects the organization developed. At second base, Richie Weeks, 24, has only one error in 30 games this season after two seasons of being a botched play waiting to happen (more than 20 errors each year — in less than 100 games each season). At shortstop, J.J. Hardy, 24, is hitting .341 with nine home runs and 27 RBI, and is quickly ascending to the first rank of the National League’s hot young shortstop crew that presently includes Philadelphia’s Jimmy Rollins, Florida’s Hanley Ramirez and the New York Mets’ Jose Reyes.

After a few years jumping around different infield positions, last year’s team MVP Bill Hall, 27, is now the starting center fielder, and he has a new four-year, $24 million deal that locked him up at a relative discount. Hall, who played seven games in the outfield before this season, is struggling defensively — he has four errors, has been lifted for defensive replacements, and has had a slow start at bat (.268, four home runs, 14 RBI). But it’s expected as he grows more
comfortable as a center fielder his bat will start to pop. Hall’s more frequent appearances late in games show that comfort is coming. Then there is Corey Hart, 25, who is platooning with Kevin Mench and Brewers lifer Geoff Jenkins in the other two outfield spots.

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For all of Melvin’s wisdom, things wouldn’t have developed quite so quickly had owner Mark Attanasio not bought the Brewers when the Selig family put them up for sale in 2004. Attanasio, a Los Angeles investment banker, is a self-described baseball fanatic who is no out-of-town dilettante. Attanasio wants to win and make money, and sees the two as intertwined.

Attanasio has doubled the payroll in three years to more than $70 million (about the same level as Minnesota), and he has also reached out to longtime fans with retro nights hearkening back to the Brewers’ early 1980s glory days, and went so far as to put Brewers hero Robin Yount in
his employ for a time. With attendance increasing — so far, it is ninth in the NL, up from 13th when Attanasio took over — and about $23 million in his pocket from revenue sharing, the Brewers have found the budget to open their wallet without putting their team on the financial
skids.

Some of that money (four years, $42 million worth) went to free-agent acquisition Jeff Suppan, who at his current pace (5-2, 2.63) will have the best season of his career. Some of it is also going to pay the $5 million salary of closer Francisco Cordero, who Melvin acquired (along with Mench and others) from Texas for Carlos Lee right before the trade deadline last year.

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