The Milwaukee Brewers are last in Major League Baseball in total home runs, but that doesn't mean there's a complete power outage in southeastern Wisconsin.
Outfielder Josh Mears of the Lake Country DockHounds, the Oconomowoc-based member of the independent American Association (which also includes the Milwaukee Milkmen), has become a significant threat to the league's single-season home run record. He's now two shy of the mark with 31 dingers.
Milwaukee native Adam Brett Walker holds the record, set in 2021 when he hit 33 home runs for the Milkmen. Walker attended Milwaukee Lutheran High School.
Mears belted two home runs Aug. 16 against Chicago, and he has 19 games left on the schedule to try to tie or break the record. The DockHounds have three home games this week Aug. 18-20 against the Cleburne Railroaders (based in Texas).
The DockHounds have three more home games Aug. 24-26 against Kane County after spending the weekend on the road against Kane County.
Mears, 25, hails from Washington and was drafted in the second round of the 2019 Major League Baseball draft by the San Diego Padres. He reached as high as Class AA in the Padres system, most recently earlier in 2026, but he never hit more than 22 home runs in any minor-league season, and he did that in 20 more games than he's played with the DockHounds.
All three games this week against Cleburne will begin at 6:35 p.m. The DockHounds are one game behind the Milkmen in the East Division standings.
The DockHounds began play in 2022, and this iteration of the American Association has been up and running since 2005.
A little farther east on I-94, the Brewers have just 119 homers this season, last in MLB, although that hasn't stood in the way of achieving the best record in baseball. There are other intriguing home run numbers of note.
- Andrew Fischer, Milwaukee's first-round pick in 2025 and currently at Class AA Biloxi, has hit 37 homers this year between two levels, leading all of minor-league baseball.
- Blake Burke, now at Class AAA Nashville in the Brewers system, has 30 homers this year at Class AA Biloxi and is two stolen bases away from a 30/30 season between the two levels.
- Oak Creek High School alumnus Alex Binelas, a former member of the Brewers organization, has 24 homers this year at Class AA Reading in the Phillies organization, tops in the Eastern League. The 26-year-old first baseman has a .938 OPS (on-base plus slugging) this season.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Lake Country DockHounds slugger threatening league's home run record