Okay Doug Melvin. We aren’t wearing rose colored glasses. It’s time. It might even be past time.

This baseball team you are running is not very good. And we are all suffering because of it. We need something, badly. Something to hang our hopes on. Something that will let us hold our heads high instead of slinking around the corners of Major League Baseball, ashamed, and hoping nobody notices us because we are so bad.

I know you think about this before you go to sleep at night. Well, here’s one that can help make you dreams come true:

Trade Ryan Braun.

That’s right. He’s your best player, by far. Nobody else is even close. He’s one of the very best players in the major leagues. The guy has it all. Plus he’s only 29 years old. He’s got a whole bunch of time ahead of him.

Now I know this might be counterintuitive. If you want to be a great baseball team (which I assume you and Mark Attanasio do) why trade the only player you have who could wear the title "great" and not be a laughing stock?

I know that this idea probably sounds nuts, but let’s take a look at it.

This team has hardly any good players.

Braun is the best. Jean Segura looks like the real deal. Carlos Gomez has developed into a threat, both at bat and in the field. Jonathan Lucroy isn’t going to win any titles but he gives you a dependable catcher. Norichika Aoki has proven he can play.

Let’s look at the pitching staff. Yovani Gallardo is your top pitcher and he’s a solid pro with a great ethic and enough stuff to be a good starting pitcher.

Other than those guys, there are a bunch of also-rans on this team. Kyle Lohse, your big free agent acquisition is 1-6 with a 4.37 ERA and bringing back memories of Jeff Suppan. Rickie Weeks continues to be a huge amount of potential wrapped up in a dismaying ability to struggle to hit .200.

Now, let’s take a look at what you might get for Braun. This could well rival the trade that sent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the Los Angeles Lakers for four players who played significant roles as starters for years to come for the Bucks.

For Braun, you could set a minimum bid, like they do at the best auction houses. You can send out a platoon of scouts and find the most promising minor-league pitchers in organized baseball. Then set your bid.

You want one quality starting major league pitcher. You want one quality infielder (so long Rickie). And, here’s where it gets complicated, you want three players from the minor leagues. Pitchers. If the team that wants Braun doesn’t have all three, they have to go out and trade for them so they can become part of the package.

That’s it. No messing around. If nobody bites we still have Ryan Braun, his enormous talent and his enormous salary.

He can still open restaurants with Aaron Rodgers and he can still have the office of the commissioner try to find evidence that he’s used performance enhancing drugs.

No matter how this turns out, the Brewers are still a winner, at least in this case.

You see Doug, as much as we love Ryan Braun, we love the Brewers more. Players come and go, but the team stays right here, embraced by all of us.

As much as we root for Braun, we root for the team that much harder.

And if you can show us that your greatest concern is for the team next year and the year after that and the year after that, we will also love you.

Even if it means a team without one of the very best players in all of baseball.