Culture and attitude keep the Brew Crew on top

The Milwaukee Brewers continue to defy baseball logic.

Despite playing in the smallest market of any Major League Baseball franchise, the Brewers are in the postseason for the sixth time in the last seven years. The one year in that span they missed, the Brewers came only one game short of a playoff berth.

Yet the Brewers became the first team to earn a berth into the 12-team postseason field this season when they wrapped up the National League Central title on Sept. 19. Milwaukee will begin a best-of-three NL Wild Card Series at home on Tuesday night against the New York Mets.

The Brewers’ success has continued despite president of baseball operations David Stearns and manager Craig Counsell leaving at the end of last season for bigger markets and more money. Stearns took the sane job with his hometown New York Mets and Counsell bolted down I-94 to Chicago where the Cubs gave him a five-year, $40-million contract, the richest ever for a big-league manager.

Brewers owner Mark Attanasio promoted from within with general manager Matt Arnold replacing Stearns and bench coach Pat Murphy taking over for Counsell.

The Brewers did not miss a beat, finishing with a 93-69 record and winning the NL Central by 10 games over Counsell’s Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals.

So how do the Brewers continued to defy the odds, especially this season when it seemed they had no chance of making the playoffs following the trade of ace pitcher Corbin Burnes to the Baltimore Orioles just before spring training. The Brewers’ No. 2 starter Brandon Woodruff was ruled out for the season after undergoing shoulder surgery last falls.

“A lot of it is culture, knowing what you need to do to win and obviously having talented players as well,” injured outfielder Christian Yelich, who is finishing his seventh season with the Brewers, told Draft Nation. “Obviously having a lot of talented players helps as well but I think a lot of the culture starts from the first day of spring training. Kind of just knowing what needs to be done and what we need to do to be consistently successful.”

Second baseman Brice Turang is in his second season with the Brewers. However, he quickly became immersed in the culture.

“We get along really great in the clubhouse,” Turang said. “We have a lot of fun together. We try to win revery game, every pitch. We believe in ourselves and that’s all that really matters. You want to win. You want to keep winning. You want to keep winning as much as you possibly can. They do a good job here of letting guys play and winning games. Winning starts from the top and it is expected. This year is a perfect example.”

Few prognosticators expected the Brewers to repeat as NL Central champions and win the division for the third time in the last few years. Baseball Prospectus’ famed PECOTA projection predicted a 79-83 record.

Yet the Brewers outperformed that projection by 14 games despite experience much adversity. Among a seemingly endless string of injury, Yelich, a three-time All-Star did not play after July 23 then underwent back surgery. Elite closer Devin Williams missed the first four months of the season after sustaining stress fractures in his back during spring training.

Yet Arnold and Murphy improvised. The Brewers had 17 different pitchers start games this year and 12 pitchers had at least one save. They also were able to overcome the loss of Yelich to the final 10 weeks of the season.

“We’ve kind of shocked the world, haven’t we?” Murphy said with a smile. “When we started out this year, it was, ‘This team is decimated by injuries. This team just made a huge trade (of Burnes). Devin is out most of the year. They cut the budget.’ It was like, ‘Hey, guys, this is who we are. What are we going to do? Are we going to throw in the towel right now? Or are we going to fight?’

The Brewers decided to fight. That is how they have not only survived but thrived as baseball’ epitome of a small-market franchise.