The Sunday Cycle, , , , ,

8 more wins.

Fresh off their first NL Central title in seven years, the Brewers cruised past the Colorado Rockies in dominating fashion en route to just their third NLCS appearance in franchise history. They’ll spend the next four days resting before game one of the NLCS at Miller Park on Friday night.

4 wins separate the Milwaukee Brewers (and more importantly, me) from their (our) first World Series appearance since 1982. It will give them the opportunity to win their first World Series Championship in franchise history.

Where do you even start?

When the Brewers started turning up the heat in early September, I wrote about the excitement that comes with the increased national media attention during postseason run. We’re getting a taste of that right now.  We’ve got locker room celebration videos, champagne-soaked interviews with everyone from Mark Attanasio to Bob Uecker, and slow motion game recaps overlaid with Titanic music. Every local and national media outlet has their writers and reporters fighting for sound clips during every celebration. They then spin those clips into articles and videos for the fans to digest during the agonizing wait between games.

There’s good and bad to that increased attention. The good is that baseball junkies like me have 10x more content to take in on a daily basis. The bad is that you get a lot of national coverage from journalists and broadcasters who haven’t given an ounce of attention to the Brewers all year. Bob Costas, a personal favorite of mine, had a terrible broadcast Sunday afternoon. Twitter is full of garbage and uninformed takes being spread by the masses in an effort to chime into the Brewers talk over six months after Opening Day. It’s kind of annoying, sure, but I guess that’s what comes with the territory when your suddenly scary looking team is from the smallest market in baseball.

The point of highlighting the increased media attention isn’t to complain about the nuanaces of a penant chase. Rather, it’s to highlight the fact that Sr. Writers like me, who have been covering this team for half a decade, have to do more to stand out. We’ve got to be unique!

So how’s this for your NLCS Sunday (Tuesday) Cycle?

7 Brewers NLDS facts that would have been #fakenews had you predicted them earlier in the season – one for every possible game in the NLCS. For fun, I’ll even pick the date that these takes would have been least likely to play out.

1. The Brewers will sweep the NLDS, and Erik Kratz will be the series MVP – May 25th, 2018, the day the Brewers signed Erik Kratz

Facing a season ending prognosis for Stephen Voght, and some poor play from Jett Bandy and Jacob Nottingham (injured), the Brewers acquired 38-year old veteran back up catcher Erik Kratz from the Yankees. Kratz was a career .203 hitter the day he arrived in Milwaukee. Raise your hands if you saw this NLDS coming? 5 for 8 with the two most important RBIs of the series to blow game two open in the bottom of the 8th inning. Kratz’s story has been well documented, and for good reason. It’s awesome to see someone grind something out for so long, and to be successful on such a big stage so late in his career.

2. Corey Knebel will pitch high leverage NLDS innings, and fans will be very confident in his ability to get outs – August 23, 2018, the date the Brewers sent Knebel to AAA Colorado Springs

Prior to September, 2018 had been brutal for Knebel. Fans kept waiting to see the return of their flame throwing All-Star closer from 2017, but an early hamstring injury cost him almost the entire month of April, and Corey was never really the same after that.

Flash forward to today- is there anyone other than Josh Hader that you feel more confident in right now than Corey Knebel? It took just 10 days in AAA, but Corey returned to the major leagues and looked like his old self. He’s been lights out- he was the NL reliever of the month in September: 15.1 IP, 0 earned runs, and 32 strikeouts compared to just 3 walks. Knebel pitched in every game of the NLDS, striking out four and not allowing a single hit. Talk about good timing!

3. Lorenzo Cain will go 1 for 12 in the NLDS, and it won’t matter – October 1st, 2018

While Christian Yelich has certainly earned all of the attention he’s been given this postseason, so has Lorenzo Cain. And because of the unique nature in which Cain and Yelich were signed on the same day, they’re often a pair. All of the pre-NLDS interviews were led by Cain and Yelich, all of the pregame hype surrounded Cain and Yelich, etc. They’re the face of this Brewers offense, and the new wave of Brewers success for now and hopefully years to come.

It was tough to watch Cain struggle this series- he had just one hit in 12 at bats, striking out three times and failing to plate runners in scoring position. Had you told me the Brewers would sweep the NLDS and get just one hit from Lorenzo, I would’ve told you you were crazy! It’s crazy the Brewers were able to get so much production from the bottom of their lineup this series, and it’s exciting to think about how much better this team could be if everyone at the top starts clicking as well. I’m not worried at all about Lorenzo, who owns a lifetime .276 batting average in the playoffs and knows his way around a World Series.

4. Josh Hader and Jeremy Jeffress will pitch in all three NLDS games – September 2nd, 2018 

This tweet:


A lot of fans, myself included, were frustrated with Counsell’s refusal to pitch Hader and Jefress in games where the Brewers were losing, or in Hader’s case, on consecutive days. Take a look at the video below, when the Brewer skipper not only doubled down on his defense of Hader’s use, but left fans with very little belief that their use would change as the Brewers raced towards the postseason. Well, it did. Significantly. Both Hader and Jeffress pitched in all three games, including game three when they took a 6-0 lead into the 9th inning. Talk about not messing around! You’ve got to wonder if Counsell will take a similar no nonsense approach with the dynamic duo as this next series plays out.

5. Corbin Burnes will toss 5 high leverage scoreless innings in relief in the NLDS – Opening Day, 2018

Corbin Burnes went undrafted out of high school, was signed to the Brewers in 2016, and rose quickly through their minor league system. Before the 2017 season, he was ranked between 15-20 on the Brewers minor league top prospects lists. He made his MLB debut with the Brewers this year on July 10th and pitched two key innings of scoreless relief. The Brewers won that day.

From that point forward, Burnes has been largely successful in high leverage situations, cruising through the NLDS with five scoreless innings. He’s been a prime example of how organizational depth in the minor leagues has helped the Brewers make and extend this run.

6. Keon Broxton will homer in the NLDS while Eric Thames watches from the bench – Opening Day, 2018

I love the Keon Broxton story, because it sends a great message to your entire organization. On Opening Day, there was nowhere for Keon Broxton on a team that just signed Lorenzo Cain, traded for Christian Yelich, and were about to be paying Ryan Braun $20 million dollars. With Domingo Santana fresh off the best year of his career at the plate, Broxton began the year in AAA for a team that was also ripe with outfield prospects throughout the minor leagues.

Keon didn’t get the call until June 27th, but he immediately made an impact flashing some vintage Broxton leather and getting hot at the plate. He would return to AAA only once, and would be the 25th pick on Craig Counsell’s postseason roster. Thames would struggle mightily, posting a second half batting average of .161 with 44 strikeouts and just 8 walks. Keon making the roster over Thames was unexpected on Opening Day, his homerun to completely put away an NLDS sweep was the cherry on top.

7. Hernan Perez will get more NLDS starts than Jonathan Schoop –  July 31, 2018

When the Brewers traded for both Mike Moustakis and Jonathan Schoop before the August 1st non-waiver deadline, almost all of the roster conversation involved where Travis Shaw would play. Nobody was talking about Hernan Perez.

I’ve got a special spot in my heart for Perez- he fills an important role with his versatility. He’s got plus defense and plus speed. He struggled mightily to start the season, but found a way to work through it and played a role in the Brewers September success. Schoop had his September moments as well after a disastrous start in a Brewer uniform, but it’s tough to sit Shaw and Arcia for an extended period of time. Perez got the nod in game two over Schoop, and went 2 for 4 with a key RBI. He’s one of the most likable guys in the clubhouse, and it was awesome to watch him have success on a big stage.

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