Doug Melvin has been one of the best GMs at cutting non-productive players, in my opinion.

On August 12, 2009, the Brewers released Bill Hall.
On June 7, 2010, the Brewers released Jeff Suppan.

We're entering the point in the season at which point, Melvin has made moves before.  It's not Melvin's job to be Ron Roenicke's friend and as a rookie manager, RR could use a push in the right direction by his baseball elders from time to time.

We all already anticipate a move at SS by the trade deadline (July 31).  Currently, Josh Wilson is Not Good, though Yuni is Even Worse.  There's really no option for Melvin to drop Yuni entirely until he's traded for someone else at the position.  I would appreciate it, however, if Roenicke were to give Wilson a chance to prove himself.  When the decision needs to be made on which one of them will be kept on the roster as a back-up IF/PH, it would be nice to have a decent sample size on Wilson's 2011 production.

As J.D. of View From Bernie's Chalet, there's no defense for keeping Nieves and his .146 BA on the roster.  I think he's had his chances to prove himself and he's consistently failed.  Nieves is more likely to be working on the Suppan timeline than the Hall timeline.  I wouldn't put it past Melvin to make the move before the All-Star break (July 12) and bring Kottaras back up to his rightful place as back-up catcher.

Finally, we have Mark Kotsay.  This is the toughest move of the lot.  To release Kotsay is to admit Melvin made a mistake in signing him <em>and</em> pissing off his manager.  Again, it's not the GM's job to be his manager's best friend.  We know Roenicke has a completely irrational love of Kotsay and an irrational hatred of Brandon Boggs.  As much as this move should be made immediately, it doesn't seem like the kind of move that would be made until the Bill Hall timeline above - no earlier than August.  If Melvin were to make a play at trading for a new OF, though, Kotsay could be out before the trade deadline.