Trouble Brewing in Milwaukee: Doug Melvin 'Ticked Off' at Ryan Braun

On Monday, we shared Ryan Braun's request for action from the Brewers' front office after a rough trip to Wrigley Field exposed the shortcomings of their starting rotation.

Although Braun's impolitic handling of his teammates was acknowledged, it was hard to see his comments as anything more than a player in a leadership role making an honest assessment of his team's needs.

General manager Doug Melvin feels differently.

"It was inappropriate for him to say what he said, and I'm not happy about it," Melvin said. "To make the statements he made and also get on his teammates like that, it was irresponsible on his part. It just ticked me off."

Melvin pointed out the fact that none of the pitchers on the team criticized the lineup after the Brewers dropped a 1-0 game to the Mets or a 2-1 game to the Cubs. That's a fair point, so long as you ignore the fact that the Brewers score the fourth most runs per game in the National League and may have the worst starting pitching in the league. They're third from the bottom in starter ERA, rank last in FIP and at or near the bottom of most other significant pitching metrics.

Melvin's problem with Braun appears to go beyond his comments about a trade. He also expressed disappointment with his left fielder's comments about problems hitting at Miller Park during day games with the roof open. Melvin also contradicted Braun's claim that Brewers hitters weren't given a scouting report on Giants pitcher Ryan Sadowski before Sadowski shut them out for six innings in a recent game.

"I don't like criticizing players; it's out of character for me," said Melvin. "But I'm tired of it and I need to protect the people under us. Everybody's working as hard as they can to make this a winning organization. "He's too talented a player to be doing this so early in his career. He just has to be careful about what he says."

It's understandable that Melvin would chafe at a suggestion that he isn't doing his job, but it's still hard to find much rancor for what Braun said about his team. Part of being a leader is realizing when things have to change and calling for those changes. Perhaps it is something best handled in house and not in the newspaper, but Braun's heart was in the right place all the same.