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The guys that were going to turn the franchise around. Guys like JJ Hardy, who came up first in 2004, Prince Fielder who was drafted 7th overall out of high school in 2002, Rickie Weeks who was 2nd overall in 2003, Corey Hart and Ryan Braun. Ben Sheets was drafted 10th in 1999 and was supposed to be our ace for the next decade.

After Paul Molitor left and Robin Yount and Jim Gantner retired after 1993, the Brewers were clearly a team that needed to be rebuilt. Sal Bando was the GM of the 90s, and he made some pretty bad moves, and Bud Selig's daughter never really held him accountable. Dean Taylor was hired from Atlanta in 2001, and although his teams didn't have much on the field success, he started to load up the farm system with the prospects mentioned above. With Miller Park opening in 2001, that was the hope, that there was a farm system that would turn the franchise around.


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JJ Hardy- A second round pick in 2001. JJ was the first of the youngsters brought up in 2004. 22 years old. He was known for his defense and was regarded as light power hitter. Maybe he'd hit 10-15 HRs a year. JJ was our starting shortstop during the 2008 playoff run. He was a fan favorite amongst women, and I would say he was pretty underrated overall. He had a miserable 2009 season where he was sent down at one point. During the Winter of 2009 he was traded for Carlos Gomez, a disappointing prospect for the Twins looking for a change of scenery. Since the trade, Hardy played one season for the Twins. In the Winter of 2010 the Twins traded Hardy to the Orioles where in 2011 had a career season. In 2012 JJ won a Gold Glove and the Orioles made the playoffs. In 2014, Hardy cashed in and signed a 3 year $40 million deal to stay in Baltimore.



TO BE CONTINUED, FEEL FREE TO ADD YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS ERA OF BREWER BASEBALL

That was in my naive eternal optimist Brewer fan days. Every year I thought if they could get just enough starting pitching that it was going to be the year County Stadium (or Miller Park) would be rocking again. I rested my hopes on guys like Turner Ward, Ben McDonald, Mike Fetters, Marc Newfield... But many of the teams had a couple bright spots and the rest was garbage, like hot garbage.

The problem with that era is they went and got over the hill guys (Eric Young, Devon White, Charlie Hayes) and/or decent players on good teams but expected them to be stars here. Guys like Marquis Grissom is the first one that pops in my head. It was a half ass rebuild and the prospects always ended up being mediocre (e.g. Ronnie Belliard) or hurt (e.g. D'Amico). And anybody good in that era had to be dealt (e.g. Cirillo, Vaughn, Sexson, Burnitz).

Sheets was hurt alot but always felt bad he was stuck on poor teams b/c when he was on, he was a top notch pitcher I felt. I thought there was light at the end of the tunnel once he looked good, Jenkins always showed flashes, Weeks was highly regarded, and then towards the mid-2000s you could see that crop was going to be good. Too bad never got a Series out of them.

But for me the 90s and 2000s were bad teams but remind me of my youth, going to games with my Dad, destroying hot dogs at County Stadium where they still dipped them in Stadium Sauce, etc. I loved Doug Jones and our power guys of Sexson, Burnitz, Jenkins - but just were never good teams overall. Definitely an era that will go down as lackluster in team history.

Ben Sheets W-L record vs. his actual performance in 2004 is an injustice and single–handedly makes the argument against that stat. Don't feel like digging up a game log, but I recall him losing games 1-0, 2-1,etc over and over.

He was dominating at times and fun to watch. His games lasted about 2 hours flat because he worked so fast. No BSing around. Get the ball and fire it back.

ETA: I couldn't help myself. Look at that closing stretch in September. Yikes.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/gamelog/_/id/4571/year/2004/ben-sheets

That September and October is like Clayton Kershaw pitching like he has for the past 3 or 4 years in 35 starts and finishing with a 15-20 record.

Loved Ben Sheets when he was on. No messing around made him a great pitcher to watch.

He had that nasty curve & obviously could bring it. Injuries and poor teams early in his career really hindered how good he should've been remembered.

Also didn't he kinda leave on poor terms as he sat out towards end of 08 season? Thought I remember fans getting on him & he was surly back on his way out.

He sat out because of a torn flexor tendon. I remember he pitched in the second to last game of the regular season in 2008 and he was barely hitting 90 with no control. Ended up having surgery on his elbow in the winter and missed the entire 2009 season.

Fans were on him because the injuries had really piled on at that point, and we desperately needed him for the playoffs. If we had Sheeter, CC and Yovani (who had a freak ACL injury covering 1st base early in the year) all healthy that team would have gone deep. Instead we had Sup. Ugh.

Yeah, I believe Dave Bush threw the home playoff game we won in 08.

I didn't realize Weeks still in league. Never was really the same after that ankle injury. Coming up I thought he was gonna be a monster.