General Manager Doug Melvin

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Melvin finds some real gems in Texas

An hour or so before the fourth member of Doug Melvin's Texas alumni club faced the Los Angeles Dodgers Tuesday night, the third member paid the general manager a compliment.

"He's not a suit," Doug Davis said.

Melvin's more of a golf shirt actually, but if he were a suit he'd come with a cowboy hat. It's no coincidence that two of the Milwaukee Brewers' starting pitchers, their centerfielder, their closer and another relief pitcher were underappreciated by the Texas Rangers at some point in their careers.

Davis, Scott Podsednik and Dan Kolb were all in the organization when Melvin was generally managing there. Melvin didn't have much to do with Tuesday night's starter, Victor Santos, or reliever Dave Burba before they were sent away by the Rangers, but why break the habit?

Davis' point was that Melvin is an approachable fellow with a mind as open as his collars, which is why he passed on four other offers to join Milwaukee as a minor-league free agent last July. Six weeks later, he was in the Brewers' rotation and now he's their second-best starting pitcher.

"This is the land of opportunity, I'm telling you," Davis said. "There are a lot of guys where the team that brought them into the minors never really had the time to let them mature into the ballplayers they can be.

"This was the place where I thought I'd get the best chance, where I wouldn't have to wait until somebody got hurt or something bad happened."

There's no question the Brewers clubhouse is packed with opportunists, players who might have greatly rewarded some other organization's patience. Podsednik, Kolb and Lyle Overbay leap to mind, but nobody's made better use of changing scenery than Davis.

After Texas and Toronto put him on waivers, he finished last year with six quality starts in eight tries and a 2.58 earned run average, and he hasn't given up more than three runs in any of his last eight appearances this year. He's 3-3 but he could just as easily be 6-3, if the Brewers hadn't lost leads after he left the game.

"I think he feels at home," Ned Yost said. "I think he feels settled. Last year he went through waivers twice, and then we picked him up and he went to Triple-A. It helps to be settled."

It wouldn't hurt the manager's rotation, either. Yost has had to improvise, with Chris Capuano being hurt and Wes Obermueller and Matt Kinney being generally unreliable. Santos' adventures Tuesday night didn't make Yost's life any easier. But Davis and Ben Sheets have provided a plausible explanation for why the Brewers' starting pitching has been just good enough to keep them above .500.

Davis is definitely comfortable here. He says part of that is he came up through the minor leagues with many of these players, part of it is that he's older and smarter now, and part of it is that pitching coach Mike Maddux comes up with new information every time he talks to him.

And a lot of it is Melvin.

"Exactly," Davis said. "I felt extremely comfortable with him at Texas, too. A lot of general managers in suits and ties don't want to talk to you. They'll say talk to the vice-GM, he'll take care of your contract. It's nice being able to talk to the man in charge."

If Davis keeps pitching the way he's pitching, he'll enjoy that conversation when his contract comes up after this season.

"I guess they just look at what I've done for them," Davis said. "Maybe they don't look at the past when I haven't done as well."

That would be the definition of opportunity.