Sporting News names Craig Counsell NL Manager of the Year

[Invader3K]

http://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/2017/10/24/sporting-news-names-brewers-craig-counsell-nls-manager-year-2017/795943001/

 

Nice recognition for Counsell and the Brewers.

[dlk9s]

[FVBrewerFan]

Great for him. But that award is countered by the IGT, which named him worst manager ever.

[dlk9s]

Also, I believe he forged attendance records.

[MrTPlush]

Also, I believe he forged attendance records.

 

Loss of draft picks may be coming.

[reillymcshane]

Contgratulations to Counsell.

[rcc]

Congrats to CC. Well deserved and special because it comes from voting by his peers.

[pacopete4]

Congrats to CC! Hopefully, he will add another World Series to that resume in his tenure as the Brewers manager. All managers make questionable decisions over the course of a 162 game schedule. Counsell is no different. He did very well with the roster that was given to him. 86 wins (only been topped 9 times in our 40+ year history ) are incredible considering what all those "experts" and computers projected us at.

[LaprilOne]

Well deserved! I do not think even Saint Maddon could have gotten 86 wins with this team.

[3and2Fastball]

Congrats to Craig!

 

Is this award a reflection completely on Counsell? Or is this the writers still thinking the Brewers suck and Counsell was a miracle worker?

[FVBrewerFan]

Congrats to Craig!

 

Is this award a reflection completely on Counsell? Or is this the writers still thinking the Brewers suck and Counsell was a miracle worker?

 

Isn't that the same thing? Not sure I see the difference. No, CC would not have won if it was generally believed the Brewers were an 86 win team going into the season.

[brewcrewdue80]

Who else in the NL deserved this?

 

Molitor will likely win in AL and for all of baseball with the Twins season to season change. But Really Counsell deserves the honor, as Minnesota was 83-79 in '15. The talent was there in place already, difference of performance.

[MadThinker88]

Who else in the NL deserved this? ....

 

Hold on. Counsell is well deserving of the honor & I tip my cap to him. That said, there are other well deserving candidates in the NL & I suspect 1 of them will get the Baseball Writer award for NL Manager of the year.

 

Was anyone expecting Bud Black (in Colorado, 75-87 in '16) & Torey Lovullo (in Arizona, 69-93 in '16) to lead their respective clubs to the post-season in their first season? I know many publications were not expecting that. I checked the mags I still have here (Athlon Sports, Lindy' Sports, Sporting News) & all 3 predicted Colorado for 3rd place & Arizona for 4th place in the NL West.

 

Although Francona got the Sporting News award for the AL, I think the Baseball Writers will go with Molitor. My guess is the Baseball Writers will go with Lovullo in the NL & the main reason for him getting it is guiding his team to the post-season. Remeber: all the ballots had to be in BEFORE any wild card games were played. This is not a knock on Counsell. Please look again at what I underlined earlier in this post if you think I am knocking Counsell.

[ClosetBrewerFan]

Congrats to Craig! Fans always complain about the manager. We can all relate to the decisions a manager makes and we of course have our personal opinion on them.

 

I thought Craig did a good job with the rotation. He had a pretty quick hook, surprising me many of times. But in the end, that was the right move and the way of the future. He deserves credit where credit is due.

[MrTPlush]

I think the difference is Colorado and Arizona were both teams looking to compete. Rockies actually got someone love in the preseason time and obviously the D backs made win now moves. The Brewers were in full tear down.

[topper09er]

Interesting considering a blown 5.5 game division lead at the all-star break...

[clancyphile]

Interesting considering a blown 5.5 game division lead at the all-star break...

 

Considering many experts pegged this Brewers team as having a rebuilding year, I'll take the 86 wins and second plane. Yes, the blown lead hurts, but overall, this season exceeded expectations.

[coolhandluke121]

I think he deserved it. He did a very good job for the talent he was given. You can't punish him for failing to hold a playoff spot that they had no business competing for in the first place, and you definitely can't blame him for a bunch of mediocre players not being able to play like all-stars all year.

 

I like the way he uses platoons and the bullpen for the most part. He gives players like Broxton and Villar and Garza about the right amount of chances before replacing them. Fans call for their heads too soon and most managers stick with them too long, but CC walked that line nicely. It's not like they had tons of better options. You also can't discount the fact that guys love playing for him.

 

His decisions did get a little worse later in the season, but he had set a high bar for himself already. It must have been really hard to know whom to trust. They only had a few reliable options. You can't blame him for leaving starters in too long considering how bad their bullpen was before Swarzak and Hader, and it's hard to blame him for using his best relievers too much later in the season. The Nelson and Anderson injuries were absolute killers. Putting guys like Perez and Villar in cf was a little weird, but Broxton was terrible most of the year. He should have played Brinson, Phillips, and Hader more, but rookies often struggle and the teams was in first place. Nearly every decision I didn't like was at least understandable, and there weren't that many of those anyway. There's managers like Yost and Roenicke all over baseball; glad we have a good one.

 

That's not to excuse every mistake and I'm not as optimistic about him being a future great manager as I was early in the season, but he deserves this. Good for him, and good for the Brewers. Can't wait until next year.