MILWAUKEE – Out here in the middle of the America, in the flyover states where the Rockies and Brewers live, they’re fighting over the soul of baseball.
Who’s trying to make American pitching great again? The Rockies, just about the last team anybody would guess. Meanwhile, the Brewers want to send the game’s traditions straight to …
OK, rather than curse, I’ll allow Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell to explain his cockamanie vision of baseball’s future, which certainly will cause Cy Young to roll over in his grave.
“We’re trying to get away from what the word ‘starter’ and ‘reliever’ means,” Counsel said Wednesday, on the eve of the National League division series.
Blasphemy!
Or is this the inevitable evolution of baseball?
has been given the honor of starting Game 1 on the mound for Colorado. And what pitcher will start on the bump for the Brewers? No. 1: Counsell isn’t saying. No. 2: Does it even matter?
At the dawn of the major-league era, Young pitched 749 complete games from 1890-1911. On Sept. 24, Dan Jennings threw three pitches as Milwaukee’s starter against St. Louis. He retired Cardinals slugger Matt Carpenter, then Jennings sat down, his work for the day done.
You tell me: Is how the Brewers are changing conventional pitching norms the greatest innovation since the Ronco Pocket Fisherman? Or is Milwaukee destroying the game’s poetry, by worshiping the false baseball gods of analytics?
At , of all places, the Rockies are honoring the grand tradition of Walter Johnson and Pud Glavin. Colorado manager Bud Black is proudly old school. When sending a pitcher out to start a game, he doesn’t want to take the ball away for at least six or seven innings. With all due respect to hitters and , it is starting pitchers and that make Colorado a dangerous foe in the playoffs.
“At one point, we all believed it was true: No one can pitch in Coors Field. No one can pitch for the Rockies. But now itap different,” Colorado outfielder said.
As Black, who hurled more than 2,000 innings in majors from 1981-95, ambled down the hallway toward the visitors’ clubhouse at Miller Park, I asked him if he was philosophically opposed to allowing his starting pitcher to face only a single batter.
“Yes!” Black responded enthusiastically.
Then Black paused to reconsider. “But am I so inflexible that I would never consider using my starting pitcher for a single batter? No,” he said. “Hey, years ago, I was against instant replay. Now, I love it. I guess you could say I’ve evolved on several new things in the game. I’m not stubborn. But I do have my convictions. And thatap important.”
With his belief a championship team begins with starting pitching, Black practices what he preaches. The Rockies ranked second in the majors, behind only Cleveland, in allowing their starting pitcher to work three times through the opposing team’s batting order. The Brewers ranked 28th. From the time a Milwaukee starter’s last warm-up toss thumps the catcher’s mitt prior the first inning, Counsell is itching to give him the hook and go to the bullpen.
While Milwaukee outfielder Christian Yelich is the odds-on favorite to be named MVP of the National League, the outcome of this best-of-five series probably depends more on how well the Rockies hit Josh Hader, the long-haired reliever that has struck out 143 batters in 81 innings and seems to be on the mound in every high-leverage situation late in games for the Brewers.
I get what Milwaukee is doing. It doesn’t mean I have to like it. Isn’t baseball already slow enough without Counsell constantly taking a stroll from the dugout to change pitchers?
Just as the Golden State Warriors have been pioneers in position-less basketball, Milwaukee has shown a baseball franchise with a relatively modest 25-man roster payroll of $89 million can be a legit championship contender, because the Brewers aren’t paying Clayton Kershaw alone a $35 million annual salary to serve as the big, bad ace of their staff.
“Itap a different game, man,” Gonzalez said. “There are different rules in baseball nowadays.”
While Colorado celebrates the game’s old-school art and soul, the Brewers are all about that science and innovation, boss.
Milwaukee is your team, if you’re left-brained. I’d rather be right.
Now get off my lawn.
