Front office sticks to plan
Despite skid, Brewers didn’t panic in July
LOS ANGELES - When the Milwaukee Brewers lost 9 of 11 games immediately preceding and following the allstar break last month, the external panic was palpable.
Considering how last season unfolded, with a post all-star break collapse paving the way for the Chicago Cubs to wrest control of the National League Central Division away from the Brewers, it was understandable why fans and observers were feeling that way.
But inside the organization, it remained business as usual as general manager David Stearns and his frontoffice staff continued to look for ways to improve the team with the non-waiver trading deadline approaching at the end of July.
There were those who felt the Brewers needed to upgrade their starting pitching. Others believed it was the offense that needed reinforcing. And it’s almost always a necessity to add another arm or two in the bullpen if you’re a team that has designs on contending for the postseason.
Ultimately, the Brewers waited until the week leading up to July 31 to make
their moves.
First, it was the requisite bullpen piece in Joakim Soria, acquired from the Chicago White Sox. Next it was the big bat in third baseman Mike Moustakas, who came over from the Kansas City Royals. Then finally it was second baseman Jonathan Schoop coming in from the Baltimore Orioles.
Soria and Moustakas have already contributed to victories on the Brewers’ current eight-game road trip. Schoop, meanwhile played his first game for Milwaukee on Wednesday.
And all were added after team principal owner Mark Attanasio let Stearns know that he expected his young GM to trust his instincts with regard to bolstering the Brewers to get them over the hump and back into the playoffs for the first time since 2011.
“I called David – unsolicited, by the way – and I told him that in my perspective from business – he’s investing in players and I’m investing in companies – when things are really great, you sometimes take too much risk because you think it’s always going to be great,” Attanasio said. “And when things are really bad then sometimes you don’t take any risk because you’re scared when you should be taking risks.
“If you translate that to what he was looking at, we were still at the end of that bad stretch. But probably the message from me would be, ‘As a result of this, don’t go do a bunch of things you wouldn’t do because you think we need it, and don’t pull back and not do anything because you’re worried about we’re real or not. You should probably just trust your plan and trust your process and do what you would otherwise do without looking at those last 10 games.’
“I think he stuck completely to the plan. All these players we got were all on our radar screen. There were other guys that were on our radar screen that we didn’t get, either because they weren’t traded or they ended up somewhere else. We’re delighted because in addition to their ability as players, they seem to be three terrific guys.”
The Brewers clinched a winning road trip already on Tuesday, getting contributions from up and down the roster over the first six games in doing so. Perhaps most notable has been the overall performance by the starting rotation which, save for a blowup inning from Junior Guerra on Sunday in San Francisco, has been outstanding.
Taking a wider view, Milwaukee’s starters have been getting the job done all season. Entering Thursday, Milwaukee’s rotation ranked seventh in the major leagues with both a 3.79 earned run average and a WHIP of 1.22 while limiting opposing hitters to a collective .229 average, which was second best among the 30 teams.
That didn’t stop Stearns from trying to deal for another starter in an attempt to further bolster the rotation, a move that ultimately never came to fruition as the price the team would have had to pay in minor-league prospects was judged to be too high.
Asked how he views the rotation currently consisting of Jhoulys Chacín, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra, Wade Miley and rookie Freddy Peralta - Attanasio’s answer was succinct.
“Numerically, the starting rotation, if you look at the data, is doing well,” he said. “So we’ll go with the data.”
Attanasio would not label the Brewers’ rotation as surprising, either, despite the fact last season’s victories leader Zach Davies has started only eight games due to injury, Brent Suter was lost for the season to Tommy John surgery and rookies Brandon Woodruff and Aaron Wilkerson have also made starts.
“I will tell you I do not think David and (assistant GM) Matt (Arnold) would think it’s a surprise because they felt the rotation was deep enough to focus on best available players within their parameters this whole off-season,” he said.
“I don’t want to jinx anything here, but the pitching has been the strong suit back to the last all-star break.”
Attanasio deferred to Stearns when asked if the Brewers had made a serious play for Tampa Bay right-hander Chris Archer, who ultimately wound up going to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a move that surprised many around baseball.
The Chicago Cubs also girded for the stretch run by adding decorated veteran left-hander Cole Hamels.
“The Pirates just followed through on what they said, that they’d try to make their team better with controllable players, and they got two terrific, controllable players,” Attanasio said, also referring to closer Keone Kela. “The Central Division is quite competitive. And by the way, St. Louis is bringing up a bunch of young guys who are out to prove themselves. That could be a dangerous team.”
The possibility remains the Brewers could still land another starter via trade sometime before the end of August, with the only caveat being the player would have to clear waivers first. The team has pulled off several post-July 31 trades in recent years, with second baseman Neil Walker serving as the 2017 example.
The start of the playoffs is just over two months away, but Attanasio wasn’t ready to offer any predictions about how the Brewers might fare down the stretch.
Last season what was supposed to be a rebuilding team unexpectedly made it to Game 161 before being eliminated. On the flip side of the coin was the 2014 team that was up 61⁄2 games on July 1 only to completely collapse down the stretch and finish eight games out.
“I remember in 2014 I left for Hawaii. I shouldn’t have left for Hawaii,” Attanasio said. “I’m not doing that this year. We had this huge lead, we lost 22 out of 30. The Rockies way back when won all those games in September.
“I think we’ve all learned that it’s going to come down to the wire. You don’t know how it’s going to come down to the wire. But it’s going to come down to the wire. And by the way, you hope it comes down to the wire.”