It’s easy to discount the Milwaukee Brewers entering the National League Championship Series. The Los Angeles Dodgers opened the 2018 season with a payroll of more than $187 million, according to Cot’s Contracts, more than double Milwaukee’s figure. In fact, that number alone would comprise approximately 70 percent of the Brewers’ total revenue. Those contracts feature […]
Category: Articles
Is the Playoff ‘Pen Sustainable?
On Sunday, with the Division Series on the line, Craig Counsell turned once again to Jeremy Jeffress in the ninth inning, this time with a six-run lead. While Jeffress has been a lights-out closer throughout September and dominant all season long, it would have been his fourth inning pitched in as many days, after throwing […]
Chase Anderson’s Fatal Flaw
Ace Chanderson was almost certainly the Brewers’ best starting pitcher in 2017, but he struggled with home runs in 2018, and hasn’t been seen since a very clever Dan Jennings/Freddy Peralta start replaced Anderson against the Cardinals in stretch run to take the division. It’s hard to say that Anderson was bad, as he posted […]
Rebuild Rebuilding
When the Brewers embarked on their rebuilding campaign, first under President Doug Melvin during 2015 and then under GM David Stearns, the common fan and analyst rebuilding model was the scorched-earth, tear-it-to-the-ground, “tank” rebuild. This rebuilding model was ostensibly perfected by the Houston Astros and also practiced by the Chicago Cubs, where the assumption is […]
Did Postseason Experience Impact the LDS?
Baseball analysis is full of truisms, and we generally take their truth for granted. One of the defining aspects of the sabermetric “revolution” of the past twenty or so years has been a challenging of those assumptions. Baseball, both the sport and the fans, is better off for it. We now can tell whether something […]
LDS Clinched!
The Brewers have advanced to the National League Championship Series. Their pitching staff carried the series as Craig Counsell’s out-getters gave up two runs in the three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies. As a team, the Rockies mustered only twenty-two baserunners over twenty-eight innings while striking out thirty times. Outside of a nerve-wracking Jeremy Jeffress […]
Revisiting the Yelich Trade
The Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Colorado Rockies last night, 3-2 in 10 innings, and once again the presumptive National League MVP came up with significant contributions in big moments. Christian Yelich got the Cream City Nine on the board first in the third inning, launching a two-run blast to left center field. Later on after the Rockies had […]
Craig Counsell is Manager of the Year and it Shouldn’t be Close
Earlier this season I wrote an article critical of Counsell’s use of Josh Hader (after praising him in April). Mid-season, when the Brewers were playing more like a .500 team than a division-winner, I assumed that overusing Hader was the only chance they had. As it turns out, I vastly underestimated just how good the Brewers […]
Josh Hader is (Probably) Fine
In game 163, with the division (and perhaps more) on the line, it’s clear that Craig Counsell places ultimate trust in Josh Hader. Hader went two innings in the division-clinching final frames and delivered 3 strikeouts while allowing a single baserunner. The final two batters were not without drama, however, as Javier Baez hit a […]
Playoffs!
On August 31, the Brewers boasted a respectable 76-60 overall record, and stood four games behind the division leading Cubs entering the last month of the season. Yet the Brewers’ fate might have felt sealed: Milwaukee posted their worst pitching performance in August (-42 Runs Prevented), offsetting a strong offense that notably improved following trade […]