Craig Counsell to Blame for Loss?

Was Craig Counsell to Blame for Brewers Loss to White Sox?

     Craig Counsell, since being hired by the Brewers, has been a good manager and there's really little debating that point. The Crew has exceeded expectations since Counsell took over and for that he deserves praise. In the recent series with the White Sox however this fan noticed some disturbing trends that must be quelled if this team is to finish what it's started in the first few months of the baseball season. The quelling will most assuredly have to begin with the Crew's manager.

     It's ironic that the first disturbing trend that I noticed took place on Saturday. That was the one game the Crew won in the series 5-0. In consecutive innings late in the game, in what was up to that point a 1 run ball game, the Brewers failed to plate a run while having a man on 3rd base with nobody out. I'm not even going to get into the odds of such an event happening because it simply should "NOT" happen to a ball club that sees itself as a contender. 

It was my view that in that situation it was up to Counsell to do everything in his power to extend the lead. He did nothing! No suicide squeeze, no hit and run, nothing! It seemed as though Counsell was expecting his team to continue hitting at a blistering .500 pace with runners in scoring position? That's just not going to continue for an entire season and it's a manager's job to understand that fact and to help his team out in that situation. 

     The second disturbing trend that this fan noticed was Counsell's inappropriate use of the bullpen. On Friday 2 Brewer's middle relievers got lit up by the White Sox in an 8-3 blow out loss. The 2 Pitchers were hit hard by the Sox and you could tell that the Sox had their number. Sometimes in baseball it's like that. For whatever reason certain teams just hit certain pitchers well. That's all fine and dandy as it's a part of the game. What a manager shouldn't do is put those same two middle relievers back into a tight ball game just a few days later against the same team? That was just a dull move by a manager who I had thought was rather sharp. The move in fact not only lost the Brewers the game it lost them the series against the Sox.

Now, I don't want to sound like a doom and gloomer but losing 2 out of 3 to a team that had only won 17 games coming in is not a good sign. This series seemed an awful lot like the beginning of a downward trend for the Crew. If Counsell doesn't change a few things in his managing style, he could end up spoiling what had the beginnings of a magical season.