The Milwaukee Brewers surprisingly lost Craig Counsell to the division rival Chicago Cubs earlier this month as he accepted a massive deal to become their next manager. Craig Counsell, who was born in Wisconsin, played for the Brew Crew, regularly preached about the Milwaukee community being his family and being a Brewer for life, has taken a lot of heat for this decision.
His departure forced GM Matt Arnold to begin searching for a new manager. Turns out he did not have to look too far as he elected to hire Craig Counsell’s former right hand man Pat Murphy as the next manager. He also brought on Rickie Weeks as an associate manager and retained his entire coaching staff.
When asked about keeping the Brewers coaching staff together Matt Arnold took a not so subtle jab at Craig Counsell.
Milwaukee Brewers GM Matt Arnold took a not so subtle jab at Craig Counsell leaving for the Chicago Cubs.
Despite losing former manager Craig Counsell, retaining the rest of the coaching staff was a priority for Matt Arnold. When asked about it here is what he had to say.
“We thought it was important to let guys know we wanted them here. We reached out to try to keep this group together…and to show people that the Brewers family really matters.”
Matt Arnold’s last line regarding ‘the Brewers family matters’ can be interpreted as a jab at Craig Counsell. As mentioned previously Craig Counsell preached how the Brewers were his family, but he then left them for their division rival. To make things even worse he never gave them a chance to modify their original contract offer in which Milwaukee was already prepared to make him the highest paid manager in the league.
Looking at this further the success of Matt Arnold keeping Pat Murphy out of Chicago and retaining the remainder of his coaching staff shows that he does indeed value the family aspect of this organization. For a small market team, who just lost the one guy who was thought to never betray them, this is an important resemblance to maintain. Had Matt Arnold not been able to retain his coaching staff the situation in Milwaukee would appear a lot more gloomy.
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2 Comments
For a die hard fan and baseball lover, never miss a game, proud of the quality of baseball being played by the Brewers, it’s hard to watch an organization implode. It started with the ridiculous Hadar trade, now so many more fruitless purchases, and the most important person of all, the best manager in baseball down the road. I was never happier than when the worst second baseman in baseball left. Now back in managing? Spare me. Not sure how I survived years of mediocre to bad baseball in WIsconsin. It returns. Packing up my Brewers gear and taking it to Goodwill today. Also calling my Assemblyman with regard to the millions to fix Am Fam Field. Good money after bad.
I don’t think there was anything wrong with what Craig Counsell did! That’s how the game is played. It’s just like when players are traded and choosing the best choice for themselves to better themselves in the game. Just like when Prince Fielder chose to leave the Brewers and join another team. If going to get nit picky blame the owner. He’s a cheap ass and doesn’t really care if the Brewers win or lose. If he did he would open up his wallet and let the moths fly out. I wish Craig all the best in his new adventure!