Major League Baseball

All hope isn't completely lost for this year's Milwaukee Brewers

Published Jul. 4, 2015 5:41 p.m. ET

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As disastrous as the first two months of the season were for the Milwaukee Brewers, they still aren’t hopeless as the MLB approaches the All-Star break in mid-July. The trade deadline is within 30 days, and will show fans and division rivals how serious the Crew still is about Mission: October. After countless articles and reports of 2015 being nothing more than a disappointment and categorizing it as a “rebuilding year,” fans and sportswriters might have to retract some of their vicious previous statements with half of the season remaining. So, how are the Brewers turning around the worst start in franchise history? And is it justified that our hopes are being held onto by a thread, or are we just hopeless romantics caught up in the world’s greatest game?

To address the former, the team’s manager Craig Counsell was asked the same question, to which he pointed out how the defense and pitching had improved from the first two months of the season compared to June. The Brewers did post better numbers all-around in June, and as a result, they notched their first .500 month of the year. Carrying over into July, the Brewers have won six in a row, and nine of their last eleven going into Independence Day. The offense has caught up to the improved pitching now, as the Brewers’ Friday night game against the Cincinnati Reds was a fantastic series opener which the Crew took 12-1. By the end of the weekend, the Brewers could at least share win totals with Cincy (36), and could realistically move up into fourth place before the NL All-Stars take on the Kansas City Royals in this year’s All-Star game.

Gerardo Parra struggled in April, but has been one of the top outfielders in baseball in terms of batting average since April 25th (.327). Scooter Gennett is hitting over the .300 clip since being recalled from his short stint in AAA Colorado Springs. Ryan Braun is not back to his 2012 self, but has shown signs of an all-star as one of four MLB players with 15 home runs and ten stolen bases this year. Finally, waiver claim Hernan Perez is batting over .450 in the past 18 games. The offense is back, the pitching is becoming more consistent, and the transactions are being made to make this team look respectable once again.

What really caught my attention and provoked me to write about this occurred Friday morning. The Brewers optioned relief man Corey Knebel and utility player Jason Rogers to AAA Colorado Springs, and recalled a pair of rookie righties in Tyler Cravy and David Goforth. Knebel had a sub-3.00 ERA in 19 appearances, and Rogers hit just .236 with two home runs and drove in seven in 51 games. Knebel was doing just fine, but Cravy and Goforth had allowed just one run in a combined 9.1 innings before being sent down earlier in the year. Clearly, the standards for success are back to where we expected in April. Craig Counsell is showing that he will do anything to put this team back on the map before the playoffs, even if the team falls short in his first season as the skipper.

Speaking of Counsell, if you don’t contribute a huge portion of the team’s success since the start of June to his new position, I ask that you reevaluate your opinion. Time and time again, I remind readers of the day after the 2014 meltdown when Mark Attanasio and Doug Melvin addressed the media promising fans a big change, or a reason not to change. After a 7-18 start to 2015, Counsell was finally given his well-earned managerial job, but was handed the worst mess in baseball and was asked to clean it up. After another few weeks of losses, Counsell had adjusted to his dream job, and is now undoubtedly earning his paychecks. If he continues to lead this recent success, we will have one question on our minds when the Cardinals roll into the NL Division Series once more: what if?

It seems as if Major League Baseball could result in a number of ‘what ifs’ this season. What if Ron Roenicke had been fired after the 2014 season? What if the Chicago Cubs fall a game short of the playoffs after keeping Kris Bryant in AAA for the first ten days of the season? What if the San Diego Padres wasted all that time and money putting together a star-studded roster only to finish fourth in the NL West? All these ‘what ifs’ could affect who raises the Commissioner’s Trophy on a cold night in October, but they are what keep true fans intrigued by baseball.

The game is changing as popular culture in the United States continues to transition. People want results faster and more accurately. Rule changes in baseball reflect those desires, but even someone as young as myself is one of many who feel the game is fading from its roots. It is one of few sports without a clock, and the game only moves as fast as the batter and pitcher in a head-to-head battle want it to. However, we continue to stay tuned for 162 games and legendary playoff series because of the what ifs. If we forgot about the game when things started to go against what we wanted, we would miss that 3000th hit, and we wouldn’t be on the edge of our seats, crossing our fingers for a rookie pitcher we’ve never heard of to pull off a no-hitter.

So, to answer the latter, yes. It is completely justified for us to hang onto hope for the 2015 Milwaukee Brewers. The bats have come alive, the pitchers are throwing strikes, and they are allowing their defense to back them up. Their manager is refusing to give up, and the trade deadline will determine how prepared the organization is to fight for three more months. Even if they fall just shy of the playoffs, we as fans will look back at what Craig Counsell accomplished this year and be proud to support this team. And if the Brewers are officially eliminated from playoff contention, we will watch them play it out, tune in for the World Series, and prepare for the 2016 season wondering, what if?

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