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Milwaukee Brewers: An Inept Franchise Still Stuck In Neutral

By Steve Contursi

Apr 21, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; The Miller Park logo outside of Miller Park prior to the game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. Cincinnati won 16-10. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 21, 2015; Milwaukee, WI, USA; The Miller Park logo outside of Miller Park prior to the game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. Cincinnati won 16-10. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Milwaukee Brewers play in a small but rabid market. They have a beautifully set ballpark that gets filled with two and a half million fans a year no matter how bad the product on the field is. And, with the exception of one freakish year in 2011, they haven’t won anything in 35 years. What’s up with that?

For a city that once played host to the talent of players like home run king Hank Aaron and the lefty with the most wins ever, Warren Spahn, it’s hard not to wonder why the Milwaukee Brewers are so irrelevant.

All you really need to know about the Brewers franchise is that when they put a good product on the field, a minimum of 3 million fans will come to watch them play. And that’s double the population of the greater metropolitan area of Milwaukee, or the equivalent of the Yankees drawing 24 million for one year.

Milwaukee likes Miller Lite and baseball. And maybe the problem is that ownership is making money whether or not the team wins and they simply don’t really give a hoot. Because consider this: Despite a 9 percent attendance decline in 2015, the Milwaukee Brewers revenue increased 3.5 percent and operating income was up 139 percent, according to the latest estimates from Forbes. I wish my “operating income” would jump that much.

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This is the problem though when every team in baseball is making money regardless of the fact that a team can finish 30.5 out of first place and 32 games out the year before that, and still draw profits as the Brewers have managed to do.

But, let’s say it’s not about that. Instead, let’s say that it’s more about a front office that is inept and indecisive. The front office, for instance, that has traded and untraded Ryan Braun seventeen times since last summer. Or the front office that maybe thought they were making a big splash by signing the likes of Will Middlebrooks, who now merits only a minor league deal he just signed with the Rangers. Or, how about the signing of Chris Capuano, who pitched a total of 24 innings for the Brewers for a bargain basement price of $1.5 million.

Or (need more?), how about the Brewers signing of Chris Carter , who had the dubious honor of leading the league in home runs and strikeouts while hitting a robust .222.

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Now, I don’t read the Milwaukee newspapers much, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a conundrum of protest rising from the rabid base of Milwaukee Brewers fans these days. And if there is, maybe they need to shout a little louder. Because it doesn’t appear that anyone that can fix the problem is listening.

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