Of course, Melvin didn’t always struggle in this facet of management. The first five years of his tenure (2003-2007) saw the Brewers draft Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo, Rickie Weeks, and Jonathan Lucroy, among others. Those players combined with Prince Fielder and Corey Hart, J.J. Hardy, and Bill Hall — whom the team had selected in the pre-Melvin seasons — to form a strong nucleus that helped the club make playoff runs in 2008 and 2011.

After that, however, the prospect well dried up — such that, for five years running, the Brewers have placed in the bottom five of BP’s organizational rankings:

[Note: These rankings began in 2008.]

With the aforementioned core heading to the Major Leagues, Milwaukee sorely needed to replenish its system. Melvin responded with the opposite due to the club’s competitive window. In deals for CC Sabathia, Zack Greinke, and Shaun Marcum, he sent away Matt LaPorta, Zack Jackson, Rob Bryson, Michael Brantley, Lorenzo Cain, Jake Odorizzi, Alcides Escobar, Jeremy Jeffess, and Brett Lawrie. Some of those players didn’t end up accomplishing much, but the prosperity of some of them — particularly Brantley and Cain, each of whom has played at a borderline-MVP level in the past couple years — have made many fans regret the trades retrospectively.

Inadequate drafting compounded the woes of those deals. Jack noted in his piece that the club’s picks from later years haven’t yet amounted to much. Over the past few years, teams such as the Rangers have managed to maintain a solid minor-league system despite swinging big trades, and they’ve done so by constantly restocking their affiliates through the draft and international free agency. Part of that is good scouting, too, while part of that is a willingness to spend money. Melvin’s Brewers partook in the former half of the equation while neglecting the latter half, though, and it has come back to haunt them.

With that said, Milwaukee has made recent strides. BP’s writeup of the farm system stated that it possessed “talent to makes several teams quite jealous” — a massive improvement from its standing over the past several seasons. After spending the first half of the decade in the minor-league cellar, the 2015 Brewers have taken the necessary steps to move back up to the top half.

Part of this, in fairness, happened before this year. In August, Julien Assouline analyzed the team’s drafts under Melvin, who had perhaps not received the credit he deserved. Some of Melvin’s strengths there stem from the early years, but even in the later part of his run with the Brewers, they fared moderately well. Derek Harvey commented that the club’s drafts from 2009 to 2014, under late scouting director Bruce Seid, provided them with numerous quality players that presently stock their system. Indeed, of the top-20 current Milwaukee prospects, eight — Jorge Lopez, Devin Williams, Monte Harrison, Tyrone Taylor, Jake Gatewood, Kodi Medeiros, Yadiel Rivera, and Michael Reed — came from drafts during that span, while Orlando Arcia and Gilbert Lara signed with the team as amateur free agents in that period.

Still, an improvement of this magnitude, and in this short a span, suggests something different in the past twelve months. Part of the difference stems from the 2015 draft, which has (to this point) yielded incredible rewards. Four of those top-20 prospects came to the team in June: Trent Clark, Cody Ponce, Demi Orimoloye, and Nathan Kirby. Clark stands out as the best of the bunch, but all four have intriguing upside and could continue to blossom further. New scouting director Ray Montgomery, as Harvey observed, seems to have taken off.

The team’s decision to finally rebuild has helped with that. July saw them deal away established starters Aramis Ramirez, Gerardo Parra, and Jonathan Broxton, as well as (relative) stars Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers. Those trades — which, as J.P. Breen correctly posited, meant the team had recognized that its window has closed — brought back a great deal of prospects. Yhonathan Barrios, Zach Davies, Malik Collymore, Domingo Santana, Brett Phillips, Josh Hader, and Adrian Houser now occupy various levels of the Milwaukee system; Phillips, Davies, Houser, and Hader ranked in the top 20, while Santana has already begun to contribute at The Show. Together with Marcos Diplan, an intriguing top-20 farmhand whom the team acquired in last January’s Yovani Gallardo swap, they amount to a formidable group.

Overall, David Stearns inherited a solid amount of prospects when he became the GM in August. Surveying the trove a couple weeks before Melvin stepped down, Derek Harvey concluded that the system had gone from the bottom to the upper half of the league — a prediction that, as stated previously, we’ve likely seen come true. Stearns didn’t stop there, though. In his four-odd months atop the organization, he’s made several trades to bolster the minor- and major-league depth, further improving the system as a whole.

The first two transactions came in mid-November. Stearns swapped Cy Sneed for the Astros’ Jonathan Villar, then followed that up by shipping Francisco Rodriguez to the Tigers in exchange for Javier Betancourt and a player to be named later (catcher Manny Pina). Seth Victor described Villar at the time as “a good acquisition for a team that needs middle infield depth and flexibility,” a player who won’t make a noticeable difference yet should still provide some value. Betancourt — who rounded out the top 20 — is, in Chris Crawford’s estimation, “a high-floor prospect with a fairly well-defined ceiling.” In other words, he could become a Villar-type player a few years down the road.

After BP published its top-20 list, Stearns has made a few more moves, evidently in an effort to muck up the rankings. First came the Adam Lind trade, which brought back three young pitchers: Carlos Herrera, Daniel Missaki, and Freddy Peralta. While I can certainly see the logic in Jack’s distaste for the deal — Lind gave us something to cheer for in this dreadful 2015 season, and those players always hurt to lose — I ultimately come down on the side of J.P., who expressed cautious optimism regarding it.

Not long after that, three more prospects came to Milwaukee. The day following Lind’s departure, the Red Sox sold Garin Cecchini to the Brewers for cash considerations. BP’s Bryan Grosnick called the deal “[t]he definition of ‘buying low,'” as a disastrous 2015 had caused Cecchini’s stock to plummet. Likewise, the players Milwaukee snagged in the Rule 5 draft — Colin Walsh from the Athletics and Zack Jones from the Twins — don’t carry elite pedigrees, or much upside, for that matter.

These deals nevertheless give the Brewers plenty of options for 2016 and beyond, as J.P. outlined a few weeks ago. (Plus, the quantity acquired from these transactions only increased thereafter, when the Brewers sent Jason Rogers to the Pirates, receiving Keon Broxton and Trey Supak in return.) Overall, the solid 2015 draft, along with Stearns’s willingness to trade anything not nailed down, has translated to a complete turnaround in Milwaukee’s minor-league system.

What does this mean for 2016? Well, as J.P. pointed out, the Brewers have more routes they can take at the Major League level; although few of those will likely lead to wins, the results should give the team some clarity for 2017. More immediately, it means the Triple-A Sky Sox will presumably play better in 2016. Michael Schwarz explained how that affiliate would progress with legitimate prospects filling its roster. The biggest takeaway here, though, is general optimism. Years and years of no future, at long last, appear to have come to an end. Now, more so than at any point in recent memory, there could be hope on the Milwaukee horizon.

Brew Crew Ball || On “selfie girls” and alienating your fans

I want to thank Nicole Haase (@NicoleHaase) for writing this piece and putting on Brew Crew Ball, allowing me to talk about this with a Brewers connection. This is an absolute must-read, if there’s ever been one in this space before. It’s time to make a change. I’m going to go in on this issue below, but please don’t take that as an excuse to skip Haase’s brilliant piece. I’m a straight, white, American male; I don’t know a damn thing about being ostracized at a sporting event. I am not the opinion that matters.

On Wednesday, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ TV crew of Bob Brenly and Steve Berthiaume completely embarrassed themselves by spending a full two minutes shaming a group of young ladies for having the audacity to take pictures of themselves during a lull in the action of a thrilling 1-0 game between the third- and last-place teams in the NL West. If you can get through it without rage-quitting I encourage you to watch the entire video of the incident, which is embedded in Haase’s piece, so you can get the full scope of how preposterously sexist these two act.

What is gained by this juvenile, gate-keeping mentality from the Arizona booth? By now, these women have assuredly seen themselves as the story has circulated around social media. We now know that this was a sorority from Arizona State – when it comes time to plan their next group event, I bet “go to a baseball game to be mocked by a regional sports broadcaster and then by the entire internet for being regular people in 2015” is not going to be super high on the priority list. Everyone takes selfies now. One of the last games I attended this year was the September 15th game between Milwaukee and St. Louis. I bet you can guess how that ended, and I would have had to at the end of the evening, because I spent the innings after Ariel Pena was pulled from his first MLB start exploring the wonders of the new Snapchat update with my girlfriend. We left in the eighth inning because it was Tuesday and the Brewers aren’t very good and literally who cares.

Never mind that this whole thing was happening during the between-innings break and the run-up to the first batter of the inning. Never mind that the segment literally begins with a promotion asking fans to take pictures of themselves and send them in. Never mind that while Brenly and Berthiaume are breathlessly lambasting these women for not paying attention to the game, they are also not paying attention to the game, even though doing so is literally their entire job description. Never mind that 15+ (the camera never pans out to show exactly how large the group is, presumably in fear of showing the rows of empty seats not occupied by Real Baseball Fans) women decided of their own free will to show up to a baseball game on a Wednesday in late September to watch two teams who had both long been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. No, never mind all of that. This is baseball, and if you’re going to ignore any part of a baseball game, you had better do in the Real Baseball Fan way — by getting up six times to buy a Miller Lite and fighting a guy because he’s wearing different colored laundry.

And if you want to keep your faith in Brewers fans, stop before you get to the comments section.

Grantland || The Great American Pitching Experiment: Why the Reds Won’t Stop Starting Rookies (Sept. 30, 2015)

Let’s get back to talking about the on-field product. During a September 18-20 series, Milwaukee and Cincinnati did something that hadn’t been done in over 100 years: in their three-game series, every starting pitcher for both teams was a rookie. Results went as one might expect. Two of the weakest offenses in the National League combined for 36 runs on 71 hits. It was part of a larger experiment for the Reds, who haven’t used a non-rookie pitcher since July 28th, while Milwaukee’s reliance on rookie pitching has been due more to extremely poor performance (Matt Garza, Kyle Lohse) and injury (Jimmy Nelson, Wily Peralta).

Of course, the Brewers haven’t been quite so extreme in their use of rookies on the mound. They’ve now used a rookie in 13-straight games as of Thursday night and will almost certainly finish the season with rookies as well, bringing their streak to 17 when it’s all said and done. Extending beyond that, Milwaukee’s starting rotation has been startlingly young for much of the second half of the year, particularly in September – the last Brewers’ starter who’s seen his 27th birthday is Garza, who last pitched during game one of a September 5th double header. Things haven’t gone well at all for the Reds during their rookie-heavy stretch, going 19-40 over that stretch as of Jonah Keri’s writing on Sept. 30, including an active 12-game losing streak that has allowed the Brewers to clinch fourth place (yay) in the NL Central.

FanGraphs || Projecting Milwaukee’s Slew of Late-September Call-Ups (Sept. 25, 2015) (Chris Mitchell)

Chris Mitchell (@_chris_mitchell) spent some time projecting out the first several years of the six prospects who were called up from the Southern League runners-up Biloxi Shuckers last Tuesday. He’s got some encouraging things to say about outfielder Michael Reed and right hander Jorge Lopez, each of whom had breakout seasons in 2015. If we want to get real optimistic with it, we can cherry-pick Bernie Williams and Jordan Zimmerman as comps for Reed and Lopez, respectively, according to Mitchell’s system. Mitchell doesn’t have too much positive to say about the rest of the Biloxi invasion, none of which are highly regarded prospects — Adrian Houser (#27) is the only other of the group on the MLB.com Top 30 prospect list for Milwaukee. He almost completely writes off Yhonathan Barrios, who has impressed during his short audition over the past week — though he fails to mention that Barrios, a converted infielder, has only been pitching for two years.

Did not play.

Biloxi Shuckers: (21-22), 4.0 GB

RHP Tyler Wagner:  4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 1 HR — 2.46 ERA
RHP Damien Magnifico:  (W, 4-1) 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K — 1.28 ERA
RHP Yhonathan Barrios:  (S, 3) 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K — 0.00 ERA
SS Orlando Arcia:  2-for-4, RBI, SB (21), K — .302 AVG
CF Brett Phillips:  1-for-4, 2B, R, 2 K — .219 AVG

Brevard County Manatees: (18-24), 8.0 GB

RHP Jorge Ortega:  (L, 8-8) 6.0 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR — 2.62 ERA
LHP Trevor Seidenberger:  2.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K — 2.45 ERA
CF Omar Garcia:  1-for-3, 2B, BB, R — .257 AVG

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers: (15-27), 15.5 GB

Did not play.

Helena Brewers: (3-8), 4.0 GB

RHP Joshua Torres:  (L, 2-2) 5.2 IP, 4 H, 6 R (1 ER), 2 BB, 6 K — 3.60 ERA
C Milan Post:  1-for-4, 2 RBI, 2 K — .177 AVG
2B Jose Cuas:  2-for-4, R, K — .255 AVG

AZL Brewers: (7-6), 1.5 GB

RHP Miguel Diaz:  2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K — 1.04 ERA
SS Gilbert Lara:  2-for-4, RBI, K — .247 AVG
RF Yerald Martinez:  1-for-3, BB, SB (3), R, K — .241 AVG

DSL Brewers: (26-35), 15.0 GB

RHP Nattino Diplan:  (W, 3-6) 7.0 IP, 11 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, 1 HR — 4.10 ERA
SS Franly Mallen:  2-for-5, HR (8), 4 RBI, R, K — .266 AVG
3B Josua Herrera:  3-for-4, 2B, HR (1), 3 RBI, 3 R — .224 AVG

Prospect of the Day:  RHP Yhonathan Barrios, Biloxi

Perhaps already forgotten, Barrios came to Milwaukee in the Aramis Ramirez trade this summer. He’s a converted infielder who features a fastball that touches triple digits, despite a small-ish frame. The right-hander also has a changeup and (at best) a show-me breaking ball and is a pure relief prospect. Although he’s still a thrower rather than a pitcher — primarily due to his lack of pitching experience — he has locked down three saves for Double-A Biloxi and hasn’t surrendered an earned run. The Colombia native has struck out seven in 7.1 innings, compared to a single walk. So far so good for the Shuckers’ closer.

The Brewers began indicating to both baseball media and front offices around the league that they would be sellers as early as May 7th. The Brewers have plenty of players worthy of trade speculation—Carlos Gomez and Ryan Braun perhaps the most interesting—but the most obvious trade candidate, the player most clearly on his way out was third baseman Aramis Ramirez. The 37-year-old will be retiring at the end of the season and is in the last year of a four-year contract with Milwaukee, making him a relatively painless option for a team in need of infield help.

And over the past few weeks, the Pirates swiftly became that team. First, Josh Harrison tore the UCL in his thumb sliding into second base on July 5th, forcing Jung-Ho Kang into action as the everyday third baseman. Then during the Brewers last series against Pittsburgh over the weekend, Carlos Gomez collided with Jordy Mercer sliding to break up a double play, a collision that resulted in a bruised and sprained left knee. Now, Kang will move back to his original position of shortstop with Ramirez taking over duties at third for the Pirates, as the Brewers have agreed to send Ramirez and cash considerations to Pittsburgh in exchange for hard throwing right-handed pitcher Yhonathan Barrios.

Ramirez’s April struggles were part of the nose dive that killed Milwaukee’s season in its first month. He hit a brutal .214/.236/.357 in 22 April games and walked just once against 12 strikeouts. Any time a player as old and with as much mileage as Ramirez—lest we forget, he made his MLB debut at age 19 and is 10th among active players with 2,138 games played and 8,772 plate appearance—starts so slowly, the natural instinct is to assume Father Time has finally caught up to him. But slow starts have been the norm for Ramirez throughout his career. Ramirez has just a .769 career OPS in April and a .781 mark in May—15 percent and 12 percent below his typical marks respectively, according to Baseball-Reference’s tOPS+. In every other month, he has posted a career OPS over .800.

Since his brutal April, Ramirez is hitting .258/.313/.455, a respectable line compared to the National League third base average of .268/.328/.431. That’s a far sight better than what anybody in the Pirates organization (Pittsburgh’s likely replacement third baseman was former White Sox starter Brent Morel, owner of a .225/.272/.325 career line) could have done. For a Pirates team within six games of the Cardinals in the division and leading the Wild Card race, Ramirez was an awfully cheap fix.

Barrios, Milwaukee’s return, is a somewhat fascinating prospect. It’s rare enough to see anybody hitting triple digits, but Barrios does it with just a 5-foot-11, 180 pound frame, and as FanGraphs’s Nathaniel Stoltz shared prior to the season, he does it with a surprisingly smooth delivery:

Barrios has yet to turn that blazing velocity into reliable results. He has just a 4.60 ERA in 13 games at Triple-A this season and posted a 3.86 ERA between two Class A squads in 2014. His minor league 6.6 K/9 is underwhelming, and his control has been shaky at every level. But he has only been pitching professionally for three years—the Pirates converted him from the infield to the mound after the 2012 season—and is only 23 years old. His off-speed pitches are understandably works in progress, and even for pitchers with as much power as Barrios has shown, it’s typically the off-speed pitch that racks up the strikeouts.

Barrios will be a project for Milwaukee’s coaching staff, but that’s about as much as could be expected in return for Ramirez. And even in order to get that, the Brewers had to eat a few million dollars—the Pirates are only paying for $3 million of the nearly $6 million left on Ramirez’s contract, according to Ken Rosenthal

Source: #Pirates taking on $3M of Ramirez’s remaining salary.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 23, 2015

It’s an earnest rebuilding move, though, as the Brewers attempt to assemble the young talent they’ll need to compete again like they did in 2008 and 2011. Ramirez, meanwhile, gets his chance to compete for a pennant in his retirement season, and, amazingly, he’ll be able to finish his 18-year career without ever leaving the comfortable confines of the National League Central.

Lead photo courtesy of Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports