Milwaukee Brewers 2004 Season Preview

by David Marasco

It's been an interesting off-season in Milwaukee...

September 28, 2003 The Brewers put the finishing touches on their 2003 season, losing to the Houston Astros 8-5. They finish 68-94, and while it is an improvement over 2002's dismal 56-106, it marks the 11th straight losing season in Beertown, and the second consecutive sixth-place finish. Depressingly, this is the closest the Brewers have come to the Central crown since they moved to the National League:

2003 20
2002 41
2001 25
2000 22
1999 22.5
1998 28

Even with the existence of the wildcard, the fact that the Brewers haven't been able to finish better than 20 games out gives an idea of how much the team has struggled recently. The glory years of this franchise are now ancient history. As their last playoff appearance was in 1982, anybody college-age or younger in Wisconsin does not know the Brewers as a post-season team.

November 7, 2003 Brewers President/CEO Ulice Payne spoke out on the 2004 budget. The team's board of directors wanted to slash the player payroll to around $30M, which would place the Brewers dead last in spending in baseball. Payne publicly questioned this plan, feeling that it would be hard for the Brewers to compete on such terms. When asked if the payroll doomed the team, Payne responded "That's a legitimate question to ask."

A firestorm erupted. Wisconsin residents, who voted to raise their own taxes to finance the construction of Miller Park, were livid. They had built the Brewers a nice new home with the understanding that the Brewers would at least try to field a competitive baseball team. Some numbers to ponder... The final cost of Miller Park came in at roughly $425M. The Brewers were asked to pay $90M. They covered $41.1M of this by selling the naming rights to Miller, and got a $36M loan from the governmental agency that built the park to help pay for the rest of their share. Later, the $36M loan was forgiven when the Brewers agreed to pay for repairs to the stadium (something that most teams are required to do). The end result is that the Brewers contributed roughly $13M to the construction of Miller Park. Putting it another way, on a $250,000 house, the Brewers would have had to pay only $7,647.

Tommy Thompson, now a member of W's cabinet, was the Governor who helped pass the legislation to fund Miller Park. He summed up the feelings of the populace quite well: "The Brewers made it clear that if we built a modern, state-of-the-art stadium, it would provide them with the resources to field a winning baseball team. They promised to go out and get the star players that would allow them to compete for a World Series. The taxpayers stepped up, built the stadium and kept Wisconsin a major-league state. Yet the Brewers have not upgraded the quality of their team, and now they are apparently cutting their payroll further. The Brewers need to put an end to the games. They need to invest in a winning team."

In the end, Payne and the Brewers reached an agreement where he stepped down and agreed to not comment on the Brewers' finances. This cost the team somewhere between $2.4M and $2.7M in a direct payment to Payne, and we can only guess what it cost the Brewers in terms of lost ticket sales because of the bad publicity of the event. Ulice Payne was a successful Milwaukee lawyer brought in to replace Wendy Selig-Prieb, the idea being that it would bring some credibility to a franchise that was sorely lacking. He was the first African-American to be a team president in MLB. But a year into his contract he was given the boot for speaking his mind rather than being a puppet of the board of directors. Chairperson of the board? None other than Wendy Selig-Prieb.

November 30, 2003 The Brewers trade their best (and most popular) player to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The major players involved were Richie Sexson from the Brewers and Craig Counsell, Junior Spivey, Lyle Overbay, Chad Moeller from the Diamondbacks. Sexson hit 45 home runs and posted a 272/379/548 season and is only 28. Needless to say, he's a valuable commodity. In theory the Brewers should have been able to get a good basket of talent for him. Sadly, they got a bunch of players who don't improve the team by that much. Counsell, who is 34, will play middle infield. That probably won't last very long. Junior Spivey isn't that much better than Keith Ginter, and both will have to make room for Rickie Weeks, the Brewer's hottest prospect. Overbay is a huge downgrade from Sexson at first, and Chad Moeller has never played more than 76 games at catcher in any season. So for their best player, the Brewers got a middle infield that will be replaced in around two years, a mediocre first baseman, and a catcher who would be pleased if he achieve journeyman status. One of the justifications given was that they couldn't afford a player like Sexson. Well, this trade managed to save them $1.7M in 2004, which is kind of silly when you look at the payoff given Payne.

January 16, 2004 In a move that sent shock waves across Wisconsin, the Selig family announced that the Brewers were up for sale. In addition to sweeping years of bad decisions out of the front office, it also clears up a conflict of interest that has made the Commissioner position a laughingstock for a half-decade, "Now it is time for me to formally sever my ties to the Milwaukee Brewers. It is the correct decision for myself, my family, and, while I have played no role in the administration of the Brewers, putting my ownership share in trust in 1998, I am convinced and have been for many years that it is in the best interests of the game. As commissioner, it is inappropriate for me to root for any one club, but I must admit, and I hope people will understand, that I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the Milwaukee Brewers." The sale price of the Brewers will be an interesting number. Miller Park was built to keep the Brewers in Wisconsin. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the Brewers sell for $125M. If that is the case, then the government could have paid that price and saved the additional $300M it cost to erect Miller Park. Of course, the $125M figure is for a team with a nice new home, whatever the sale price is, a non-Miller Park franchise would have cost far less for the state to purchase.

So where does this leave the Brewers going into 2004? Not with many fans, due to the on-field ugliness of the past decade and the off-field disaster of the past winter. While the team has a strong farm system, Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder look to form the right hand side of the infield for years to come, the best thing that can be said about the current roster is that it is different from last year. The only players still in the lineup from last year are up-and-coming center fielder Scott Podsednik, oft-injured Geoff Jenkins and third baseman Wes Helms. Podsednik, after a long minor league career, finally hit his stride. He put up an OPS of .822 over 154 games, not too shabby from a center fielder. Toss in 43 steals and his only downside is his age - at 27 he probably won't be getting too much better than he already is. Brewers fans are crossing their fingers and hoping his 2003 was not a flash in the pan. Geoff Jenkins looked ready to break out a few years back, posting .900+ OPS seasons at ages 24 and 25. But instead of breaking out he broke down instead, his brittle nature has so far overwhelmed his talent. Although he hasn't developed the way the front office wishes he has, he was rewarded with a long-term contract this spring. The nicest thing that can be said about Atlanta cast-off Helms is that he has achieved the journeyman status that Moeller wishes he had. Last season he bumped up is OBP to .330 and Slugging to .450, notching an OPS+ season of exactly 100. Mediocre, but in the "he's not good, he's not bad" sense of the word. We've already covered the additions from the Sexson trade, this leaves us with right field, which looks like it will go to Ben Grieve, a cheap free agent pickup. He's another guy who people thought was going to set the world on fire based upon good numbers at a young age, stats good enough at 22 to win him rookie of the year. But in 55 games for the Devil Rays last season he could put up only a 230/371/345 line. It's nice to see such a high OBP, but when it's 25 points greater than your SLG, perhaps you shouldn't be given a corner outfield slot.

This pitching looks brutal. In the final game at Milwaukee County Stadium one of the loudest cheers was for Olympian Ben Sheets, flown in fresh from his victory in Australia. He was supposed to be the future. Like Jenkins and Grieve, he hasn't seen anything close to his projected ceiling. Granted he's still a youngster, but he wouldn't even be the #2 guy in many rotations in the league. But he's the ace based upon the talent level of folks like Doug Davis, Wayne Franklin, and Matt Kinney. The bullpen features Danny Kolb, who came out of nowhere to collect 21 saves. The real interest is Brooks Kieschnick, who was once one of the many third baseman of the future for the Cubs. His career as a hitter flamed out, but Brooks also pitched at University of Texas, so he reinvented himself as a late inning pinch hitter who could stay in the game and toss an inning or two. If he were a little less talented he would be a freak show, but maybe a bearded lady or two would help Brewers attendance.

In the end, if the Seligs do dump the Brewers, it will be the dawn of a new day in Milwaukee. Otherwise, this season might just be another year of nasty in a very long string.