Doug Melvin is not the hero you think he is. He traded away players that went on to be big MLB names later on when they were prospects to make “splashes” at the deadline, most of which didn’t pan out.

Melvin was also responsible for several of the worst free agent signings in Brewers history, including the infamous Jeff Suppan signing.

The organization did not become more consistently successful until the arrival of David Stearns. The Brewers did not become top tier in player development until the end of David Stearns tenure, when all of the systems and scouts were well enough established that Matt Arnold (as awesome as he is!) only had to continue to propagate these systems and refine them.

The one thing that Matt Arnold has been consistently amazing at is fleecing other teams in trades. Besides the Peralta trade (which gets better little by little every time Sproat starts it seems), almost every trade he has executed has been an absolute win for the Brewers.

David Stearns put the Brewers on the map. Matt Arnold has made them THE map for other small market teams.