Brewers willing to take risks

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Long-term baseball contracts are always risky in a market like this, where the margin for error is somewhere between the thickness of the Chenequa phone book and a Milwaukeean's wallet on free-admission Mondays at the public museum.

It wasn't that long ago when the Jeffrey Hammonds deal took down an entire administration. A three-year, $21.75 million contract might represent loose change in George Steinbrenner's sofa, but it was the finishing torpedo to the side of the S.S. Dean Taylor.

To an extent, conditions have since picked up for the Milwaukee Brewers. The twin cushions of revenue sharing and Miller Park have somewhat eased the financial burden. And the clueless Taylor regime, already badly listing before Hammonds' collapse caused the last of the '02 season-ticket base to stage a two-man protest march, has since been replaced by a management team replete with clues.

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