Sometimes the truth hurts.

There’s no doubt that Milwaukee Brewers slugger Ryan Braun could’ve gone about getting his message across in a more tactful manner. Even as a member of the media, I generally prefer players do their organizational complaining internally and not through the papers.

But as leery as I am to embrace Braun’s hot-dogging, arm-flapping, tongue-wagging, do-everything-humanly-possible-to-draw-attention-to-myself routine, the responses he gave during an interview after Sunday’s loss to the Chicago Cubs were spot on from start to finish.

There were two key components of Braun’s rant: 1) The Brewers pitching isn’t that good and 2) General manager Doug Melvin should do something about it — the sooner the better.

I don’t know any self-respecting Brewers fan who doesn’t agree with those two sentiments.

The Brewers’ five-man starting rotation consists of one ace (Yovani Gallardo), two No. 3/4s in Braden Looper and Jeff Suppan, and two No. 5/6s in Seth McClung and Mike Burns (really a long-man in the bullpen at best). Dave Bush was performing like a solid No. 3 before his injury. Manny Parra was supposed to be a No. 2 and has pitched like a long man.

Two weeks ago, Melvin came out in the press and said the top two prospects in the Brewers farm system — third baseman Mat Gamel and shortstop Alcides Escobar — were essentially off-limits for any trade. Without tapping your best prospects, even the most creative GM would have a hard time landing a No. 1 pitcher like the Brewers did with C.C. Sabathia last season. Melvin may have said they were off-limits just to further inflate their value.

But if I were Braun, I’d be thinking there goes any shot at acquiring former Cy Young Award winners Roy Halladay (Blue Jays), Dan Haren (Diamondbacks) or Cliff Lee (Indians) — all three of whom are on teams that will be sellers.

The second tier of pitchers that are likely to be available and wouldn’t cost the Brewers as much in prospects include Jason Marquis (Rockies), Jon Garland (Diamondbacks), Doug Davis (Diamondbacks), Gil Meche (Royals) and Chris Young (Padres). Not a true difference maker in the bunch.

If the Brewers want to “go for it” like last season, they need to get creative and do so in a hurry. Because while Braun’s method of delivery definitely wasn’t ideal, that doesn’t make the message any less true. n Book it (19-12): The Brewers managed just one victory in the four-game holiday weekend series against the Cubs at Wrigley field to push my prediction record to a season-high seven above .500.

The National League will break its 12-game winless streak in the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday.

Mike Larsen is a sports writer for the News. E-mail him at mlarsen@kenoshanews.com