Background Story (courtesy Grantland.com)
Originally published on the 'Kyle Cooper: Sportscaster' Facebook page, 9 September 2014
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(Full disclosure: I'm a Milwaukee Brewers fan, born and raised. The 2014 season hasn't been an easy one.)
Baseball is indeed a grind. An all-day, everyday grind.
There's not a team at any level of baseball that doesn't go through a stretch like Milwaukee endured in late August and early September. Timing dictates whether a slump is a nuisance or a season-killer -- a 10-game slide in April isn't as damaging as an seven-game skid in September -- but there's no ironclad method to stop a slump. If there was, slumps would be nipped in the bud.
It's the timing of Milwaukee's slide that made it feel so final and fatal. When St. Louis left Miller Park September 7, it had dropped Milwaukee five games out of the NL Central lead with 19 to go, effectively smothering the Brewers' division hopes. The two teams were careening in very different directions.
Two days later, Milwaukee found itself 1.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot with 18 left. On the surface, it was a much more manageable deficit -- except that the Wild Card holders (San Francisco and Pittsburgh) have those intangibles of "focus," "chemistry" and "momentum" in the dugout with them. The Brewers no longer feel like a playoff contender. Bearing that in mind, Milwaukee might have had to start looking at young players who might be able to help the club next year.
What could turn around Milwaukee's September? Again, if the answer was easy someone would have offered it by now, but a short-term remedy would have been one sharp game. An ace-like performance from the starting pitcher, tight defense, timely hitting, the usual stuff; cliched as it sounds, one good day can snap a team back in the right direction.
But that sharp had to happen soon. Otherwise, the next time Charlie Pierce writes about the Brewers, it'll be part of his 2015 season preview.
Originally published on the 'Kyle Cooper: Sportscaster' Facebook page, 9 September 2014
----------------------------------------------------------------
(Full disclosure: I'm a Milwaukee Brewers fan, born and raised. The 2014 season hasn't been an easy one.)
Baseball is indeed a grind. An all-day, everyday grind.
There's not a team at any level of baseball that doesn't go through a stretch like Milwaukee endured in late August and early September. Timing dictates whether a slump is a nuisance or a season-killer -- a 10-game slide in April isn't as damaging as an seven-game skid in September -- but there's no ironclad method to stop a slump. If there was, slumps would be nipped in the bud.
It's the timing of Milwaukee's slide that made it feel so final and fatal. When St. Louis left Miller Park September 7, it had dropped Milwaukee five games out of the NL Central lead with 19 to go, effectively smothering the Brewers' division hopes. The two teams were careening in very different directions.
Two days later, Milwaukee found itself 1.5 games out of the final Wild Card spot with 18 left. On the surface, it was a much more manageable deficit -- except that the Wild Card holders (San Francisco and Pittsburgh) have those intangibles of "focus," "chemistry" and "momentum" in the dugout with them. The Brewers no longer feel like a playoff contender. Bearing that in mind, Milwaukee might have had to start looking at young players who might be able to help the club next year.
What could turn around Milwaukee's September? Again, if the answer was easy someone would have offered it by now, but a short-term remedy would have been one sharp game. An ace-like performance from the starting pitcher, tight defense, timely hitting, the usual stuff; cliched as it sounds, one good day can snap a team back in the right direction.
But that sharp had to happen soon. Otherwise, the next time Charlie Pierce writes about the Brewers, it'll be part of his 2015 season preview.
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