Counsell - Manager of the Year?

[dlk9s]

Excerpt from the book, The Chicken Runs at Midnight:

 

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24852392/chicken-runs-midnight

[cesser000]

From the outside, the job Counsell has done is nothing short of amazing.

 

Every guy outside of probably Cain, Yelich, and Chacin has had to sacrifice personal success for team success. Obviously winning helps, but to have guys like Broxton, Santana, Arcia, Knebel, etc struggle mightily and even get demoted and then come back to play huge roles in September is crazy.

 

Shaw, Moustakas, Thames, Schoop, Pina, and Braun all saw diminished roles this season for the good of the team.

 

Jeffress, Hader, and Soria would be closers on many teams, but Knebel was the established closer for much of the season.

 

Woodruff and Burnes taking on bullpen roles.

 

The constant shuffling of guys from the minors to the majors. That directly affects player's finances, but time after time they had guys like Broxton, Lopez, Houser, Woodruff, etc come up and play important roles.

 

Credit to Stearns and his staff for putting together a very deep roster and drafting a strategy to maximize the talent and payroll. Huge kudos to Counsell for getting the team to buy in and executing again and again.

 

Part of the reason the Brewers shined so brightly in September is because their roster is so deep and the team stayed engaged. Counsell near flawlessly deployed the right player in the right situation. I can't imagine that's easy to do when you're picking from 35ish capable players.

 

So beyond the win totals, the payroll, the division champs, etc. I'm proud of Counsell for leading this group of players and keeping everyone bought in.

^^^

What he said

[TooLiveBrew]

From the outside, the job Counsell has done is nothing short of amazing.

 

Every guy outside of probably Cain, Yelich, and Chacin has had to sacrifice personal success for team success. Obviously winning helps, but to have guys like Broxton, Santana, Arcia, Knebel, etc struggle mightily and even get demoted and then come back to play huge roles in September is crazy.

 

Shaw, Moustakas, Thames, Schoop, Pina, and Braun all saw diminished roles this season for the good of the team.

 

Jeffress, Hader, and Soria would be closers on many teams, but Knebel was the established closer for much of the season.

 

Woodruff and Burnes taking on bullpen roles.

 

The constant shuffling of guys from the minors to the majors. That directly affects player's finances, but time after time they had guys like Broxton, Lopez, Houser, Woodruff, etc come up and play important roles.

 

Credit to Stearns and his staff for putting together a very deep roster and drafting a strategy to maximize the talent and payroll. Huge kudos to Counsell for getting the team to buy in and executing again and again.

 

Part of the reason the Brewers shined so brightly in September is because their roster is so deep and the team stayed engaged. Counsell near flawlessly deployed the right player in the right situation. I can't imagine that's easy to do when you're picking from 35ish capable players.

 

So beyond the win totals, the payroll, the division champs, etc. I'm proud of Counsell for leading this group of players and keeping everyone bought in.

Counsell repeatedly mentioned this week that the team succeeded this season because they "decided to be a family". I would imagine the sacfricing of self for the team is a big part of what he means by that.

 

Great team this season, and one that clearly reflects its manager & also the good leadership habits of the key veterans.

[DuWayne Steurer]

We ended the regular season 28-10 to take the NL Central crown & finish with the most wins in the entire National League.

 

How Much Credit Does Counsell Deserve?

 

One that weighs about 12 pounds and has an engraving that begins with the letters NL.

 

Nap Lajoie's bowling ball?

 

This is some quality work right here.

[bork]

[Ennder]

That picture is awesome.

[TooLiveBrew]

Oh man, the old photo days at County Stadium. Those were awesome times!!

[coolhandluke121]

The Braves manager has obviously done a great job but keep in mind the Braves played in the worse division in the NL and finished with the worst record of the playoff teams. The Brewers played in the toughest division in baseball and finished with the best record in the NL.

 

You can make the case that the Braves exceeded expectations moreso than the Brewers but IMO neither team was picked to do much of anything going into the year and the Braves benefitted from the DC disaster.

 

I would hope those who vote for this award remember this.

 

I think CC should win it, but actually the best division in baseball was the AL West

 

Wins by Division

AL West 436

NL Central 428

AL East 418

NL West 404

NL East 392

AL Central 353

 

AL- 1207 Wins NL- 1224 Wins

 

If they really want to determine which league gets homefield advantage for the playoffs (other than best overall record), they could give it to the league with most interleague wins (NL this year)

 

AL West was even better than you think. If I'm not mistaken, they played all their interleague games against the NL West, which was pretty solid (and would have been better if they didn't have to face the AL West so much). NL Central teams played all their interleague games against the pathetic AL Central.

 

The real issue is that it shouldn't be all about narrative. Tell me what the Braves manager did that the average manager wouldn't do if you want to give him the credit. Otherwise give the credit to the players and/or the front office. With Counsell, it's so easy to see what he did with shifts and the bullpen lineups and the rotation to help the Brewers win ~10 extra games, and maybe even more.

[OnaBadger58]

AL West was even better than you think. If I'm not mistaken, they played all their interleague games against the NL West, which was pretty solid (and would have been better if they didn't have to face the AL West so much). NL Central teams played all their interleague games against the pathetic AL Central.

 

The real issue is that it shouldn't be all about narrative. Tell me what the Braves manager did that the average manager wouldn't do if you want to give him the credit. Otherwise give the credit to the players and/or the front office. With Counsell, it's so easy to see what he did with shifts and the bullpen lineups and the rotation to help the Brewers win ~10 extra games, and maybe even more.

 

FWIW (and according to the numbers I put together) The NL Central was 92-73 vs. NL West.

 

MIL: 23-10

STL: 20-14

CHC:19-14

PIT: 12-21

CIN: 18-14

[coolhandluke121]

AL West was even better than you think. If I'm not mistaken, they played all their interleague games against the NL West, which was pretty solid (and would have been better if they didn't have to face the AL West so much). NL Central teams played all their interleague games against the pathetic AL Central.

 

The real issue is that it shouldn't be all about narrative. Tell me what the Braves manager did that the average manager wouldn't do if you want to give him the credit. Otherwise give the credit to the players and/or the front office. With Counsell, it's so easy to see what he did with shifts and the bullpen lineups and the rotation to help the Brewers win ~10 extra games, and maybe even more.

 

FWIW (and according to the numbers I put together) The NL Central was 92-73 vs. NL West.

 

MIL: 23-10

STL: 20-14

CHC:19-14

PIT: 12-21

CIN: 18-14

 

Interesting. Obviously overall record has more statistical significance though, and the NL Central had a much easier schedule than the NL West. Besides, I was only saying that the NL West is much better than the AL Central, and therefore the AL West is even more impressive because they played the NL West.

[tmwiese55]

I agree that giving home field to the team that wins interleague would be better than the old way of using the ASG. However, the AL goes into it with a clear advantage every year since they build their teams planning on a DH. Whereas the NL team will be using a bench guy for that day in most cases. I'd guess the AL has won this more times than the NL. And keep in mind this is an advantage in the WS every year too. It's time to just end the pitchers hitting already.

[Boomer5]

Counsel is the best manager in baseball. He wins the manager of the year award pretty easily.

[Ennder]

I don't know if he is Manager of the Year since I don't watch every game of every team in baseball. I will say that this was a very tough team to manage this year. There were a lot of injuries in the first half to deal with and in the second half there was a lot of depth that all needed to find playing time. Add in the fact the starting rotation had to be protected from ever facing a team a 3rd time so the bullpen was relied on more than most teams. The fact that we had a number of key pieces that needed playing time but had to find it playing out of position. This was a really difficult juggling act that he handled very well. If he wins the award it is definitely deserved.

[obobo55new]

Posted this in another thread, AL West went 114-51 against the AL Central. Each team there feasted upon those teams for 32-34 games vs the 20 that the NL Central teams did.

 

There is really no way to know if those magnificent AL records of the Astros, RedSox, Yankees, and A's are a measure of how great those teams are or if the dregs of Baltimore, KC, ChiSox, and Tigers simply inflated those numbers.

 

Yes the Marlins were horrible, and the Padres also we're pretty bad, but the rest of the NL generally had competitive clubs. Even those 2 were no where near as pathetic as the O's or Royals.

 

This is another reason I doubt the Braves and Indians. Braves were 22 over vs their division and -4 vs everyone else. Cleveland was +22 and -2.

 

That being said, none of that means anything in a 7 game series where you only need 4 starters. Who gets the best pitching and timely hits will win.