Dear Mr. Attanasio,

I’d like to first start by thanking you for your investment in Milwaukee baseball. I’m old enough to remember the glory days, as well as the dry spell that came afterwards. As a diehard baseball fan, I appreciate all you have done to return Brewers baseball to respectability. It’s with the goal of keeping the Brewers relevant in the long term that I write this letter.

The purpose today is to plead with you not to make the same mistakes you have made over the last two offseasons. To make the playoffs, and win once we get there, will require a different approach than adding a couple of expensive veterans to fill perceived holes. This isn’t to say that veterans aren’t required to construct a championship ball club, but the team’s focus needs to be on the foundation that enables a mid-market team – like Milwaukee – to win.

I understand why management continues to invest money in free agents to make the team competitive. There is an obvious need to keep an eye on the bottom line by ensuring there are millions of fans attending games. However, I think this is a shortsighted approach to a long term challenge.

What I would like to discuss is looking towards the future. The 2013 St. Louis Cardinals are a prime example of wisely spending money while staying competitive. They had 50 playoff appearances by seven pitchers at the age of 25 or younger. St Louis drafted amazingly well and invested in their future each off-season by not surrendering their recent first round draft picks. How well did these youngsters play in October?

The Cardinals didn’t get all of that young talent by wasting first round picks. They certainly didn’t get all of that young talent by passing on studs like Sonny Gray and Jose Fernandez, while drafting duds like Taylor Jungmann and Jed Bradley.

By continuing to sign guys like Kyle Lohse and reaping the short term benefits, your Brewers will continue to be a middling franchise, topping out between 75 and 81 wins. While Lohse has many positives and helps accomplish the short term goals of remaining competitive, he destroys the ability of the team to maintain long term success by the forfeiture of a critical first round pick. The current philosophy is an inevitable losing strategy.

Mr. Attanasio, young pitchers are the key to Milwaukee’s long term success. With a medium payroll and a lower tiered local TV contract, the team must invest in young, talented arms in order to win in the playoffs. St. Louis thrived with young pitchers, and this core of youth helped carry the team within two wins of a world title. 

How important was their pitching? The Cardinals had a postseason batting average of .215 and an OPS of .596. To put those numbers in perspective, perennial disaster Yuniesky Betancourt has a regular season batting average of .212 and a slugging percentage of .595. St Louis got the offensive production equivalent of Yuni Betancourt in the playoffs and still came THIS CLOSE to winning a championship.

The management of the Milwaukee Brewers needs to take a hard look in the mirror and have some realistic self-analysis. This team can continue to cut corners and sign aging free agents to help the short term goals of winning. However, by forfeiting first round draft picks, they are essentially hamstringing their efforts to remain competitive long term. I simply can’t handle another torturous 20 years of losing baseball.

You need to focus your efforts on better scouting, better drafting and better player development. Based on his overall tracking record, I have little to no confidence that Bruce Seid can accomplish this goal. You need quit signing free agents on the backside of their careers and start drafting in a manner that doesn’t pass on a guy like Trevor Rosenthal twenty times. I can’t guarantee that my approach of wisely drafting and developing pitching will bring Milwaukee a world title, but I can guarantee that continuing to sign aging free agents will fail.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I wish you and Doug Melvin the best of luck in the coming months. 

Regards,

John Mumper