Craig Counsell last season became the winningest manager in Milwaukee Brewers history. Counsell now has 615 victories as Brewers’ skipper, 52 more wins than Phil Garner who won 563 games as Brewers’ manager.
The obvious question: Is Craig Counsell the best manager in team history?
Here’s what the numbers say about Craig Counsell
There are many ways to go about answering this question. Based strictly on numbers, you can certainly make a case for Counsell as the GOAT. He is the leader in wins; he took the team to four straight post-seasons, something no other manager for the team had ever done (in fact, no Brewers manager ever took the team to the post-season in two consecutive years). Over the last five seasons, the Brewers rank sixth in wins (395) behind only the Dodgers, Astros, Yankees, Rays, and Braves.
His 1,170 games as Brewers’ manager are second to Garner’s 1,180, and his winning percentage prior to the start of this season is .526, third in team history behind Harvey Kuenn and Buck Rodgers. And let us not forget that he has finished as runner-up for the NL Manager of the Year Award three times in the last five years (2018, 2019, 2021).
That is the stats side of the argument… a compelling case for his being tagged the team’s managerial GOAT. The Brewers team over the eight-year tenure of Counsell has over-achieved; they have rarely been picked in a pre-season poll to win a division title. His team is the classic case of a squad that takes on the personality of the manager: scrappy teams who fight and claw their way, anyway, to victory. On more than a few occasions these last few years, I have heard people say, “I don’t know how he (Counsell) does it, but he always finds a way for the Brewers to be competitive.”
This season, however, may be different. How? Expectations. After four straight years in the playoffs and then missing out last season, the Brewers faithful may find it hard to accept another season sitting outside watching the post-season this coming October. That could mean pressure on the Brewers’ brass to contemplate a change at manager.
Is a playoff spot in 2023 a necessity for Brewers & Counsell?
How will the Brewers managerial GOAT-in-waiting Counsell handle it? Yes, four straight trips to the playoffs is impressive, but other than the 2018 trip to the NLCS, the post-season has not ended the way that the team would have liked during Counsell’s time as manager. Part of what made former manager Harvey Kuenn such a beloved figure is that he was the skipper when the Brewers made their only World Series appearance in 1982. That is not to say that Kuenn is recognized as the Brewers managerial GOAT, but it does beg the question: Does Counsell have to get to the World Series as Brewers manager to be considered the best manager in team history?
So, with the #1 spot for managerial victories secured, do you call Counsell the best-ever Brewers’ manager? Or is there more he needs to do?
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