Doug Melvin has made the dumbest move of his tenure with the Brewers–informing his best hitter, Ryan Braun, that he’ll need to learn a new position, with the acquisition of Mike Cameron.
I admit I am biased–I played third base for two high school teams, as well as for numerous softball teams–and occasionally got stuck in the outfield. The skill sets are different: infielders mostly run sideways, field grounders and line drives, and make hard, straight throws in the infield; outfielders run north and south (also northwest, southwest, northeast, and southeast), often looking over their shoulder, having to deal with the sun or lights, and then have to make longer throws to the cutoff men.
Braun will need time in Maryvale to learn the nuances of playing the outfield–time that could have been spent improving his hitting. One only needs to look at Bill Hall’s drop off in ’07 to prove this point:
Hall’s BA dropped from .270 to .254, and his home runs dropped from 35 to 14, 
while his RBI’s dropped from 85 to 63.
Oh, and they’ll drop again this year, as Hall as to spend time getting re-acquainted playing the infield.
Has Doug Melvin even played an inning of ball to understand that these moves require additional time–time that cuts into BP time?
The Brewers need owner Mark Attanasio to intervene and tell him to quit mucking up the team…or at least to have Hall make the easier transition to left-field, and leave Braun at third base. Move a guy that has played third base for most of his career due to him making some errors as a rookie in less than a full season? If the Brewers don’t win the pennant this year, both Ned Yost and Doug Melvin should be fired.
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