Inside the Madness of Craig Counsell's Brilliant Bullpen Management
By Tom Verducci/ MLB/ Sports Illustrated/ si.com
"The numbers speak for themselves: one loss in 23 days, no consecutive losses in 29 days and no three-plus run losses since Aug. 25. It's time to stop questioning the madness that's fueling Craig Counsell's bullpen management.
LOS ANGELES — If you don’t like the Milwaukee Brewers, you don’t like suspense novels, surprise movie endings and scratch-off lottery tickets. Watching them play baseball—or more accurately, watching their manager, Craig Counsell, run a game—is like reading a first draft of James Joyce. It may be confusing, and you never know where it’s going, but it will be thrilling.
“Scripted! Scripted!” shouted his bench coach, Pat Murphy, as he strolled through the clubhouse after the Brewers used five pitchers to shut out the Dodgers on Monday, 4–0, and take a two games to one lead in the National League Championship Series.
He said it with the wryest smile imaginable, because Counsell and the Brewers have no use for convention. Game 4 looked like just another night at The Improv.
In the history of postseason baseball, no manager had ever gerrymandered three shutouts with at least five pitchers each time. Now Counsell has done it three times in his first six running a postseason game.
“I’ve given up trying to follow him,” second baseman Travis Shaw said.
“What he’s done with the bullpen these last three weeks,” said catcher Stephen Vogt, “is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s been masterful. The guy never misses a move.”....."
Richard