Brewers' swing-happy ways have unlikely Milwaukee off to fast start

Carlos Gomez and the Brewers are one of baseball's least patient teams, but are winning regardless.

Jeff Roberson/AP

Melvin then rattled off the names of players who were highly regarded in the minor leagues in part because of good walk rates but never met expectations in the big leagues: Bret Barberie, Donnie Hall, Doug Jennings, Warren Morris, Hee-Seop Choi. Could it be that -- hang on to your Blu-Ray, directors' cut edition of Moneyball -- walks are overrated in today's games? Well, no. Melvin did say his preference is still a lineup stacked with high on-base percentage guys. But maybe, just maybe, given how baseball has evolved since the Athletics and Moneyball brought great acclaim to the base on balls, the free-swinging ways of the Brewers are not as doomed to fail as they appear.