However the remainder of the 2014 MLB season plays out for the Milwaukee Brewers, it’s been a hard fall from the heights experienced the first few months. The Brewers now face virtually insurmountable odds in their quest to reach the postseason, and while surely the front office, coaches and players feel bad about what’s happened to the team’s prospects this year, it’s the fans who are most demoralized. Most fans don’t get to rest in million-dollar mansions all winter. The fans, who pack Miller Park month after month, follow the team week in, week out and compose Brewer Nation from day to day, got the short end of the stick here. They spend significant amounts of money on this team to support the cause. The fans also pour their time and energy into this team when they could be doing practically anything else instead. The potential for despair has to be alarming for the franchise as they begin to survey the damage this disappointing plummet has had on the fans and their willingness to do it all over again next year.
Principal owner Mark Attanasio could make significant changes following the season, which the Brewers will wrap up this weekend at Miller Park against the Cubs. As Kyle Lobner of Milwaukee Magazine pointed out in Monday’s Frosty Mug, the Pirates set a PNC Park record with about 2.4 million tickets sold this season. The Brewers have surpassed that at Miller Park in each of the last eight years. With another blown chance in 2014 (and they really had a good chance to do something this year, which makes 2014 especially gruesome), I would think Mark Attanasio would direct his front office staff, whether that includes Doug Melvin or not, to take it up a notch in an effort to win immediately in 2015. The fans deserve a winner in Milwaukee. They’ve earned it with their steadfast support, even in the face of nearly endless lessons in humility.
Think about it. This team is composed of young players on the fringes of impact but mostly a battle-tested and veteran core who should know how to steady the ship when water begins to pour in. Aramis Ramirez could be brought back via the option on his contract to man third base for one more year. Yovani Gallardo could and likely will be back for one more year. After that? Segura, Davis and Gennett are sprightly players but Lucroy, Gomez and Braun aren’t getting any younger. When the Brewers got bounced out the playoffs in 2011, it seemed something they could learn from. They made a run in late 2012, which presumably would have been another learning experience. So why did everyone look so dumbfounded and dazed in 2014 as they pissed away a great opportunity to win the division and avoid the precarious Wild Card playoff game? If I’m Mark Attanasio, heads roll after this debacle.
Unlike in the NFL, where teams can seemingly be revamped from one season to the next, real chances are fewer in baseball. When you start off the season as blisteringly hot as the Brewers did, you have to take advantage. Going into this April, like many before it, observers wondered if the Brewers could finally get off to a good start for once. Well, they got off to an unbelievable start. And yet, as if it were inevitable, reality crashed in to ruin the party. Well, this story is getting a little bit stale.
Just what is the issue with the Brewers? Many have tried to pinpoint this or that area of the club responsible for the collapse and of course the hitting must rightfully shoulder a lot of the blame for the results in the last month. But perhaps it’s a philosophical or systemic concern. The Brewers offense was the same free-swinging craziness as in past years, and it worked for a while. When that homer-happy approach works, look out, it’s a sight to behold. But when those home runs turn into strikeouts and popouts, missed opportunities and disastrous production, it’s not so sexy after all. In addition, Ron Roenicke’s had nearly four seasons to clean up the bone-headed defensive play and base-running miscues, which continue to plague this team. They look like the same old Brewers, kicking the ball away straight into October-less baseball oblivion. I don’t singularly blame Roenicke or Melvin for the failures of the 2014 Brewers, but going with status quo heading into 2015 is a mistake for this franchise. They need to think bigger and better. Better hitters: perhaps a guy or two who can hit for average to begin to balance out the offensive attack. Bigger vision: how can they survive baseball’s gauntlet rather than be destroyed by it? They have to figure out how to neither burn out nor fade away.
Once you get to October, hey, anything goes. It’s a crapshoot. But to throw away great chances to try it out, well that’s shameful.
In the midst of the unwatchable horror show which is the 2014 Brewers, I flinch as I receive untimely and repugnant emails, such as the one from the other day for Brewers on Deck. Hey, everybody, get on the train to Brewers baseball! It’ll just be a few months waiting until the fan event and then a couple months after that and we’ll be right back in business!
Mark Attanasio runs this team like a business. He has invested mightily into this product and wants to see it succeed. It’s got to sting to see the outcome of this season, but the best way Attanasio can repair the damage is to go for a bigger and better 2015. The Brewers at the least proved that they’re a better team than most people thought this year. Yeah, the fall from grace has been excruciating, but in a way it should be affirmation that there’s still something good going with this roster. Some fat should be cut, and the roster should be strengthened, particularly concerning first base and the bench. But this team can get over the hump if the right chain of events is set in motion. The fan support continues to be there. Brewers fans must be among the hungriest for success in MLB. But it’s going to take more. It’s going to take serious consideration given to every aspect of the ball club, its personnel and operations, to divine which decisions to make going forward.
The Brewers have little choice. They must go for it while they have players like Lucroy and Gomez in the prime of their careers. Braun will be here. Ramirez and Gallardo will probably have their swan songs with Milwaukee. The starting rotation is solid, but it can’t make up for an all-or-nothing offense and little league errors and decisions on the field. Despite the popularity of the Packers, Brewers fever has been in effect since the Crew started to get their act together in the mid-2000s. However, that flame may wane unless the Brewers’ ownership and its front office can right the ship. Doug Melvin and Ron Roenicke have done some great things for the team, but they’ve also made costly mistakes. It will be telling to see which way the wind blows should the Brewers find their pilot light go out in the coming hours.
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