Milwaukee Brewers: What is David Stearns' Legacy?

Imagine this, it's September 2015, the Milwaukee Brewers are about to finish a sub .500 season that saw Manager Ron Roenicke fired after a 4-17 start and the reigns turned to Craig Counsell, a former Milwaukee Brewers player who had been working in the front office for a few years.

Then comes an announcement that the Brewers have hired a new General Manager, David Stearns, who would be taking over for Doug Melvin. Stearns was just 30 at the time of his hiring in 2015, was a Harvard graduate and had made stops in Cleveland and Houston before taking the reigns in Milwaukee. 

The Milwaukee Brewers were 63-86 on the day Stearns was hired and had suffered through three consecutive average-at-best seasons after a trip to the NLCS in 2011. In 2012 the Brewers won 83 games, in 2013 just 74, and in 2014, 82. They were essentially treading water as a franchise, having made the playoffs just two times in the last generation and reminiscing on the 1982 Brewers for their closeness to winning a world series.

But a new legacy was about to begin with the hiring of Brewers General Manager David Stearns.

Baseball in Wisconsin was essentially just a fun way to get out of the house in the summer, do some tailgating, and enjoy some stadium food while being content with the fact that the Brewers may have less than a 50/50 shot at winning that day. 

The David Stearns hiring, though, represented a shift in mindset of the front office of the Milwaukee Brewer, to finding more minor league talent, developing it, and making timely trades when possible. While some were obviously better than others, let's take a look at what David Stearns' legacy is for the Milwaukee Brewers.