| Doug Benton. 15th June, 2005 - 1:57 am
 The Milwaukee Brewers have always said they were a team that was building for the future. However, the only thing that the future brought was more great commentary by Bob Uecker about a bad team. This all changed when they actually decided to build for the future by hiring Doug Melvin as their general manager and naming Ned Yost their manager.
Then they set out to build a team that would compete in the future and never tried to shorten the journey. First off, they struck gold in the draft on multiple occasions by drafting Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder, and JJ Hardy. They futher added depth to their roster by fleecing Arizona in the Richie Sexson deal. In that deal, they acquired Lyle Overbay, Chad Moeller, and financial relief that allowed them to tie Ben Sheets up in a recent extension.
So after spending multiple high draft picks to construct their infield for the next 15 years, the Brewers pieced together an underrated rotation with an underappreciated pitching coach. Yost had seen first hand in Atlanta what one Maddux could do on the mound and now he is seeing it again. Mike Maddux has taken pitchers like Doug Davis, Chris Capuano, and Victor Santos to create a very solid rotation. With ace Ben Sheets at the head of the rotation, the Brewers have a solid, inexpensive rotation with an ace that is only going to get better to lead them for another decade.
This past offseason, they added some power with Carlos Lee and added yet another young star in the making with Jose Capellan, who is currently in triple-A. Yost brought vast knowledge of the game that he learned from Bobby Cox, and created an environment that is beneficial to his players. With the backing of a general manager of Melvin’s caliber, this team is becoming eerily similar to the Braves team that stormed the league in 1991.
Their best years are just ahead of them as they have a nice blend of young athletes and veterans who know what it takes to win at the big league level. If they are able to keep this talent together and use some excess young talent, which they have, to add a player of two down the road, this team is worth watching. Until then, you can just listen to Bob Uecker talk about what is in store for this group from Milwaukee. |
