The Brewers have announced a new contract with manager Craig Counsell, as first reported by Robert Murray (Twitter link). It’s said to take the skipper through the 2023 season.
Counsell, 49, was already under contract through the 2020 campaign under the extension he reached in the fall of 2016. He was originally hired in the midst of the 2015 season, replacing the fired Ron Roenicke.
While he predates GM David Stearns, the two have seemingly worked together seamlessly in Milwaukee. Since a losing 2016 season, the organization has turned in three consecutive winners and two-straight postseason appearances.
The Brewers narrowly won the NL Central in 2018 and grabbed a Wild Card in the just-completed campaign. While the club has had some disappointment in the postseason — falling short in seven games against the Dodgers in the 2018 NLCS and then faltering late in the 2019 Wild Card game to the eventual World Series champion Nationals — that’s the fate of all but one team every season.
It’s inarguable that the Stearns-Counsell combination has been a successful one thus far. The latter has now been voted the runner-up in the National League Manager of the Year race in consecutive seasons.
Despite the good results, there’ll be loads of new faces in uniform when camp opens next month. The Brewers model under Stearns has been to swap out parts as needed to ensure cost-efficiency. But this winter has seen more turnover than before and left the club with a mix-and-match roster that’ll require rather active day-to-day management during the season. It’ll be Counsell’s job not only to meld the new pieces together in the clubhouse, but deploy them in the most advantageous manner in 2020.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Can he pitch, though?
ah the notifications work. wonderful.
LOL.
My thoughts exactly..
Hmmmmm
Common on Give the man some starting pitching!
– Captain Picard meme
Counsell is a good example of how utility guys (all around the infield in his case) can make a good manager. With that said however, no matter how smart Counsell is, the Brewers will need to upgrade their SP in order to do any post season damage.
I’m not going to try and predict how good the new guys will be that Stearns has brought in (Lauer, Lindblom, B. Anderson), but I do think people have made too much of the so-called loss of C. Anderson, Nelson and Davies. Lyles was really good for us in 2 separate stints, but he (like nearly every pitcher) was overpaid.
Besides the 2 I mentioned, there’s also Woodruff and Houser. And I did read that Peralta has looked really good in winter ball. Hes not just fast ball Freddie anymore.
Burnes (if he figures it out) is a possibility, as is Suter, although I think he’s too valuable and fits better as a reliever.
At least as manager of the year he has made something out of nothing in 2019.
Well deserved managerial extension, as last few years have been exciting in Milwaukee but hope the Brewers don’t take a step back this year. the roster is rather interesting.
If by interesting, you mean weaker then yes. Maybe they’ll surprise again. With an MVP candidate like Yelich anything can happen but with their current pitching rotation they may be fighting for 4th place in the division
How is their pitching worse? Last year a rotation of Woodruff, Chacin, Anderson, Davies and Burnes opened the season. This year it’s Woodruff, brett Anderson, Hauser, Lindblom and Lauer. Woodruff is of course a wash, give me Brett Anderson over Chase Anderson, Hauser and Davies are a wash and Lindblom/Lauer is head and shoulders better than Chacin/Burnes
He never said their pitching was “worse”, just that it’s bad. He said that the overall roster is worse.
Both points are true, they lost huge pieces in Grandal and Moose and probably won’t replace that production with the personnel they brought in. If you buy into your analysis of the rotation (which I personally don’t, but hey), their rotation still just went from very bad to bad.
Houser had a 1.6WAR, Lauer had a 0.8WAR, Brett Anderson had a 2.7WAR.
Davies had a 2.5WAR, Anderson 1.7WAR, Burnes had a -2.2WAR.
With Woodruff being a wash if Lindblom can beat out Chacin’s miserable -0.8WAR this coming years rotation has a better WAR by at least 2-3 wins.
Still have to fill 3B hole but offensively Narvaez will match grandal’s production. Smoak will be just as good if not better at 1B and Garcia, sorgard are no slouches at the plate. Not to mention anyone would take Urias over Arcia at SS
Agree that Urias and Garcia are stealth moves that will turn out well. Feeling just ok about Narvaez and Smoak. Still not set at 3B but there’s still time — too bad Donaldson is probably too rich for the Brewers’ blood even with their lower payroll.
The biggest question mark: Will they trade Hader (if they feel Knebel, Wahl and Suter can carry the load) and what will they get for him? SP should be the top of the wish list, but what team wants to give this up?
I agree I would love to trade Hader for a SP. if that can’t be done maybe trade him to the Yankees for Andujar, Deivi Garcia and another prospect. Then maybe sign 1-2 bullpen arms who can eat innings late
Even if Navarez duplicates Grandals production at the plate, which is FAR from a certainty with an unproven player, he won’t even come close to the defense that Grandal brought. That is an obvious downgrade. Moose’s production was phenomenal at Miller Park and none of the names you mentioned will replace that. I liked the Urias pickup a lot, but he’s no Moose in a hitters park.
Too many unproven arms and chances for regression in a hitters park to call this rotation anything but bad in my opinion. Yes everything could go perfectly right and they could be a decent rotation, but when does it ever?
1. Narvaez isn’t an unproven player. He has produced above average offensive numbers for his position in two consecutive seasons while playing half his games at a pitchers park. I agree his defense is a significant downgrade but you can not argue his bat is quite comparable when taking into account both players’ age.
As for replacing Moose’s production, Garcia has put up almost identical career numbers (minus the HRs).
This also doesn’t account for the horrid offensive output the Brewers got from Shaw, Aguilar and Arcia (1078 PA in all) and replace them with ABs from Smoak, Braun, Sogard and Urias and I’ll expect the Crew to out produce last seasons roster.
Yankees hang up the phone
Navarez has had one year with an OPS over .800 and one year at 400+ plate appearances (both last year). Grandal was at .848 with 200 extra plate appearances last year and has been hitting like that for quite awhile.
So even though Navarez has never done it before, he’s going to just take over almost all of the catching duties while still continuing to improve on his hitting abilities? Because Manny sure ain’t making up for it in those extra 200 PAs with his anemic OPS. I can easily argue that his bat is not comparable because he has never done what Grandal was able to do last year. It’s one thing to hit when you play, but it’s another thing entirely to carry the load that Grandal did and still do it. He’s a special player and Navarez has not shown that he is yet.
Garcia is a 4th OF. Moose was an everyday player. There’s no way in hell Garcia is starting every game and Braun or Cain is being benched without injuries. Which is why that deal is a headscratcher. The team constantly overexaggerates how broke they are and they give $20 million to a 4th OF.
Braun will play 35-40 games at 1B, need his usual 30-40 games off and Cain will probably get 25-30 games off. All the sudden that’s a quick 100-110 games Garcia will play in. That doesn’t count the rare days off Yelich will get and pinch hitting. He will have no issues getting 400 at bats this year
Great comment. I have read other well thought out comments of yours.
It was clear to me at the end of 2018 that B-Woody would be the replacement for Jimmy (can’t slide) Nelson. He had figured it out in the same way Nelson did in 2017. I had no confidence in Peralta, and less in Burnes to start games. Peralta surprised me with his consistency. Burnes surprised me with how terrible he was with the “low-profile”-seamed ball.
Anyway this year Avi Garcia will replace YAZ and challenge Cain for second best player on the team, and that is considering the Lorenzo will be healthy and have a career year(at least his career norm 3.5WAR).
Terrific manager!
With the new young players they got this off season, plus the few FA pickups, it will be interesting to see what Counsell can do with it. Glad they extended him.
Perfect guy for the job — as a player who got the most out of his own talent, he’s getting the most out of a middling roster (except for Yeli and a couple of others). But please give him some stronger starters! His “bullpenning” strategy won’t work as well in 2020 if he can’t expand the September roster beyond 28.
2020 – Brewers third place
2021 – Brewers fourth place
2022 – Brewers hire new Manager by June.
You forgot this for 2022. Trade Christian Yelich at the deadline
Like the last two years the brewers were destined for 3rd in the division right?
another angry cubs fan.
I couldn’t agree more. It’ll always be the brewers don’t have the pitching to compete. Until they do then it’s they go lucky
Listen, as I admitted in another comment, we Cubs fans can be civil if we are truly being honest with ourselves. We’re angry at the situation we have with Ricketts cutting off the payroll at some arbitrary relatively meaningless luxury tax number, along with some bad signings by Theo, and if we take it out on the opponents, of well, that’s baseball. Plus, the Brewers ere the ones who did some questionable things like not sell tickets to Chicagoans and stupid crap like that. I believe Brewers fans feel like our little brothers. But we really hate the Cardinals and with good reason – their fans are the worst!
sounds like someone has a chip on their shoulder…..
no one likes it when its called wrigley field north
Pot meet kettle.
Nice try at humor…
We really need a thumbs down button for this comment though…
But did they grant him the rank of Master?
He’s made some good moves and overall I think he’s a pretty good manager, but he’s going to run into some problems if he keeps running his bullpen so hard. I know his clubhouse is much better, but even Matheny looked like a decent manager his first couple of years of riding his horses into the ground, but that sure didn’t last. Most of his regulars broke after a couple of years, would hate to see it happen to someone like Hader.
No, Matheny NEVER looked like a good manager to anyone who understands the game. He was terrible, though perhaps he will learn and improve the second time around.
He had both a 97 and 100 win season in his first four seasons. He absolutely looked like he knew what he was doing. Hindsight is 20/20 and it’s super easy to say how bad he was now, but you cannot tell me with his winning record that he looked like a bad manager, they needed to win and he won a lot of games. Then his bullpen usage and clubhouse caught up to him.
whatever…Matheny wasn’t that bad and actually should have won MOY in 2015 but instead the love fest for Maddon was strong…if people remember Matheny won the central division that year and had to overcome a ton of injuries to do it…and still Maddon’s cubs couldn’t catch him and Matheny won 100 games…not to shabby
Every manager abuses their bullpen…even the last and current dolt in STL.
The Cardinals were ranked number 22 out of 30 for most innings by a bullpen and only three relievers exceeded the 60 inning mark, so I wouldn’t exactly call that abusing his bullpen. If you have ever heard him talk about baseball, it’s pretty obvious that Schildt is an intelligent guy, definitely not a “dolt”
Good move by the brew crew, but can he be a player manager. Brewers have non tendered a number of players but few signings.
They made 5 singings in a week. Garcia, Lindblom, Anderson, Sogard and Smoak. Plus traded for Urias and Narvaez this offseason already
Garcia, B. Anderson, Smoak, Sogard, Lindblom, Claudio, Healy along with Grimm and Broxton on minor league deals is more than just a “few signings”. Add in trading for Narvaez, Urias and Lauer and I’d say he’s closer to being done making moves than most GMs
There are major, major question marks with all those deals. Garcia is a 4th OF on a team with a full OF. Anderson’s injury history says it’s doubtful they get a half season out of him. Smoak is very meh and I’m not entirely sure he’s even much of an upgrade from Thames who from all accounts was a good clubhouse guy as well. Sogard will be lucky to crack the team if Urias makes it.. Claudio is going to lose a lot of his matchup value with the new rules (he was one of the most used players in single batter matchups in MLB last year). Narvaez is a nice pickup but a downgrade from Grandal (and that’s fair, they weren’t going to match Grandal’s production with anyone else on the market or even via other trades.. Lindblom is a huge question mark. Success in Korea doesn’t always translate here.
Everyone trusted Stearns on the pitching staff last year but there were a lot of question marks and red flags like nobody in their right mind thought Chacin could replicate the year prior. Jeffress imploded in the playoffs. Burnes was great at the end of the year out of the pen but transitioning him to a starter in the bigs was something that needed a way shorter leash and a backup plan if it didn’t work out. Peralta had been lit up on occasion even with the successes he had in 2018 and looked shaky at times. Woodruff was the only guy that seemed like a massive stud who was going to be able to be lights out regardless of situation or pressure.
They can’t hope to burn out the farmhands and waiver pickup arms every year. They need a couple of guys that can provide some innings and actually have a track record. Expecting the team to be in on Cole or Strasburg or even Wheeler was nuts but pushing for a guy from the next tier wouldn’t have hurt. The team relied a TON on their offense last year. They don’t have the same offense to save them if they get a bunch of dudes putting up 9-10 ERAs again.
Post too long, please put a dollar in the can, thanks.
Plus, each and every deal has “major, major question marks?” That’ll be another dollar in the poor post can, thanks!
Sogard lucky to make the team? Do you even watch baseball. A guy with a 2.6WAR, .290 average and .353 OBP with a 116 OPS+ last year will certainly make the team.
As a Cubs fan, it hurts to admit this, but Counsell is a very impressive manager. One of the best in the game IMO. Good on them.
RTC~Nice comment. And yes I do remember Coop and wish he was more involved with the club.
With the Cubs~ Changing managers was only done so Epstein doesn’t have to deal with a manager openly questioning his moves or lack thereof.
Cubbies are still paying the price for overpaying to win it all.
Well worth it for them (and my ChicagoLand cousins)
Curse broken….
Great move by the Brewers. Counsell’s use of Wade Miley as a 5-pitch opener in Game 5 of the 2018 NLCS is one of the most cutting edge managerial strategies ever employed. He’s a keeper!
Being from WA even tho they are hard to watch if u wanna watch a baseball game everyday iam forced to watch the horrible mariners, but anyone that doubts what narvaez can do with the bat should watch what he did for the mariners last year. Narvaez’s hitting was about the only thing worth watching last year. The guy gets on base a lot, hits some dingers, and gets a hit when it counts. Brewers got a good hitter and Seattle will just been that much harder to watch once again. Wish dipoto and ownership would finally do something to at least keep us watching there games let alone spend the money to go watch!
There is no better over-manager in the game.
Oh no you don’t! Counsell had +8 wins over expected pythWL in 2019 and +5 wins in 2018. Sit down…
minus-1 in the 2019 playoffs when it mattered. The kids area is down the hall and to the left.
A master at getting the most out of unspectacular rosters. Almost always finds the best role for each player. Great move, Brewers!
Well deserved for the Pride Of Whitefish Bay (did they name a street for him there yet?)
The moves by the Crew getting more controllable players with options is essential to the way the club / CC manages a 6 month long season. There have have been a few pleasant surprises from the farm system each of the last few years, and I am anxious to learn the story of this year’s group who jump into the spot light.
I hope this post is short enough…. I am out of $ingle$