Brewers manager Pat Murphy fields questions
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New York Times
4 hours ago
- New York Times
How the Milwaukee Brewers (yes, the Brewers) built one of baseball's best teams (again)
On the day after the MLB trade deadline, Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy uncapped a pen and scribbled notes for himself. Quiet, he wrote. Less is more. 'We've been doing the deadline all year,' he said, and so opted against blustering into his clubhouse to cajole or commiserate with the team about the lack of major acquisitions. There was no need to call a meeting with a group that has become, improbably, the owners of the best record in baseball. Instead, he used the same pen to write out his lineup. Advertisement At the top of the order, he inked the name of the day's only active addition, Brandon Lockridge, a 28-year-old outfielder with a little more than 100 big-league plate appearances and one career home run. 'He seems like our kind of player,' Murphy said. What Murphy meant offered insight into how the Brewers view themselves as they chase yet another National League Central title: players who demonstrate skill with their glove, ability on the base paths, and a willingness to sublimate their ego to serve the greater good. 'You have to be hyper-vigilant about who you are,' Murphy said. 'The awareness of who you are and how you impact the game.' When the Brewers host the New York Mets this weekend, it will be a rematch of one of last year's most riveting postseason faceoffs and a potential preview for this coming October. A return to the postseason was expected for the Mets, who spent $750 million on outfielder Juan Soto. It was far less of a given for Milwaukee, whose front office lobbied owner Mark Attanasio not to cut payroll. For the Brewers, last October ended with the heartbreak wrought by Pete Alonso's home run off closer Devin Williams. The offseason was almost as dispiriting. The team traded Williams, a two-time All-Star, just as they traded away former National League Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes the year before. Shortstop Willy Adames departed in free agency. They watched from afar as the Chicago Cubs loaded up to chase them. Yet here the Brewers are, back in first place, confounding skeptics and offering a blueprint for success on a shoestring budget. At this point in the season, outsiders tend to get dispatched to explain how the team — residents of baseball's smallest market, financed by a payroll in the sport's bottom third — are doing it again. The questions amuse those who have heard them before, having made the postseason in six of the past seven seasons. Advertisement 'Same way we do it every year,' said outfielder Christian Yelich, the team's longest-tenured position player and the only Brewer inked to a nine-figure contract. 'We just find ways to win games.' He added, 'We have a standard, like, an identity of how we play. And everyone who comes in here slots into that.' The formula this season reflects the composition of the roster, a team with lackluster power but superlative fundamentals. Murphy and the coaching staff emphasize team-wide execution. No hitter feels burdened with carrying the lineup. The offense places the opponent in a nine-inning pressure cooker; no team has been more valuable on the bases, according to FanGraphs. The development staff has created a pipeline of pitchers who trust the organization's ability to guide them. The players operate without the pressure of the big-city microscope. 'It's like a weird storm of all these different things coming about,' said pitcher Brandon Woodruff. At the center of the storm is Murphy, the 66-year-old former college baseball coach who moved into the manager's office when Craig Counsell decamped for the Chicago Cubs before last season. Murphy applies the same principles of selflessness to his staff through a makeshift, ego-deflating exercise he calls 'the check game,' which is designed to prevent people from puffing themselves up. Murphy devised the system during eight seasons as Counsell's bench coach. He kept tallies on a whiteboard. When former bullpen coach Steve Karsay referred to his Yankees teammate Derek Jeter as 'Jetes,' that was a check. When Counsell brought his glove to the ballpark, that was a check. And then there was the time former hitting coach Andy Haines attempted to solicit insight from former president of baseball operations David Stearns, who left to run the Mets in 2023. Advertisement 'We're all in the coaches' room,' Murphy said. 'So Haines goes to Stearns, 'David, I've been wanting to know the answer to this, and I figured I'd bring it right to the top.' And then Stearns goes, 'Well, what do you got, Andy?' And I'm like, 'Hold on a sec. That's a check, Stearnsy. So you're the top? Mark doesn't own this team?' Murphy maintains the same rigor with the Ivory Tower, the name he has given for members of general manager Matt Arnold's front office. 'An Ivory Tower check is when they come swooping in, like, 'Hey, why don't you —' and give us a suggestion,' Murphy said. 'That's a f—ing check.' So if someone in the scouting department bragged about bird-dogging flame-thrower Jacob Misiorowski, that would be a check. If someone in the analytics department claimed credit for seeing a path to success in first baseman Andrew Vaughn's minor-league batted ball data, that would be a check. And if anyone crowed about the wisdom of trading a competitive-balance draft pick for starter Quinn Priester? Yep, that's a check. The Brewers added all those players weeks before the deadline. The deal for Priester demonstrated the team's ability to utilize its market size to its advantage. The club received two compensatory draft picks last winter, one for losing Adames, who signed a seven-year, $182 million contract with the San Francisco Giants, and another as part of an initiative in the collective bargaining agreement to aid teams that draw the least revenue. In April, Arnold bundled that second pick, which was No. 33 overall, along with two prospects to acquire Priester, a first-round pick in 2019 who had not made Boston's Opening Day roster. 'You have a lot of guys in our clubhouse who have been overlooked for a long time,' Arnold said. Upon arrival, Priester recalled, he received a series of specific but simple instructions. The team wanted him to focus on pounding his 94-mph sinker down and away to generate groundballs. He needed to learn to spot his 92-mph cutter for back-door strikes. A lack of control in the running game was not acceptable. The little things, he was told, count around here. 'Those little things keep the game simple, keep the game fun, keep the game loose,' Priester said. 'And you realize you're only one simple play away from doing something great.' Priester stabilized a starting rotation that has improved as the season progressed. Woodruff returned in July after missing last season following shoulder surgery. Freddy Peralta made his second All-Star team last month. He was joined at the Midsummer Classic by Misiorowski, a 6-foot-7 rookie taken in the second round of the 2022 draft who throws so hard his changeup clocks at 92 mph. Advertisement The team also possesses the depth to protect the group. When Misiorowski took a ball off his shin in late July, the team was able to put him on the injured list rather than risk him damaging his arm while compensating for the discomfort. The Brewers also had a ready-made replacement when first baseman Rhys Hoskins injured his thumb last month. Milwaukee called up Vaughn, the No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 draft, whose career had sputtered with the Chicago White Sox. Vaughn was languishing in the minors in June when Brewers pitcher Aaron Civale, after being moved to the bullpen, asked to be traded. Soon after, Arnold exchanged Civale for Vaughn, who remained in Triple A until Hoskins went down. 'Just getting him in a different environment, with a different level of pressure, we thought would be a good change of scenery for him,' Arnold said. When Vaughn received his promotion, the staff provided marching orders, just as they did for Priester. If he did not swing at strikes, he would not stick around. The message left little room for interpretation, which is one of Murphy's hallmarks. 'It's professional baseball, at the end of the day,' Yelich said. 'I think people lose sight of that sometimes. Like, wanting it to be like, 'Oh, you're doing great and it's OK.' Sometimes, it's not OK. It's the big leagues. There's a league for other s—, and it's not this one.' Vaughn responded to the ultimatum. In his first 20 games as a Brewer, he batted .371 with six home runs and a 1.118 OPS. He is far from the only new face thriving in the lineup. Outfielder Isaac Collins might win National League Rookie of the Year. Caleb Durbin, one of the players acquired from the New York Yankees in exchange for Williams, has emerged as a solid regular at third base. The presence of Vaughn adds more power potential for a lineup that will need it in October. A recent hot streak from slugging catcher William Contreras also provides optimism. The franchise has not won a postseason series since 2018. Yelich believes this group could be different. Advertisement 'Our culture here brings the best out of players,' Yelich said. 'Because you feel comfortable when you don't have to put the team on your back, all by yourself. Just compete your ass off and have fun. Just give it hell. That's all you can do.' The next few months will determine if a team stocked with their kind of player can win it all. (Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Photos: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images, Matthew Grimes / Getty Images, Jess Rapfogel / Getty Images) Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Washington Post
8 hours ago
- Washington Post
Perkins and Vaughn each homer, Brewers beat Braves 5-4 for 6th straight win
ATLANTA — Blake Perkins doubled, hit a homer and drove in two RBIs, Andrew Vaughn also homered and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Atlanta Braves 5-4 on Wednesday night for their sixth straight win. Vaughn extended his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games and is batting .435 with five home runs and 16 RBIs in that span.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
Perkins and Vaughn each homer, Brewers beat Braves 5-4 for 6th straight win
ATLANTA (AP) — Blake Perkins doubled, hit a homer and drove in two RBIs, Andrew Vaughn also homered and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Atlanta Braves 5-4 on Wednesday night for their sixth straight win. Vaughn extended his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games and is batting .435 with five home runs and 16 RBIs in that span. Jose Quintana (9-4) allowed three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts in six innings. Jared Koenig and Abner Uribe each threw a scoreless inning of relief. Trevor Megill earned his 26th save despite giving up a solo homer to Michael Harris II in the ninth. The Brewers (70-44) are 26 games above .500 for the first time since finishing the 2021 season 95-67. They set a franchise record for fewest games played (114) to reach 70 wins. The previous mark was 116 set in 2021. Sean Murphy and Eli White each had an RBI and Jurickson Profar hit a solo homer for Atlanta. Braves starter Spencer Strider (5-9) took the loss after giving up five runs on 11 hits over 4 2/3 innings. Key moment Isaac Collins singled, Christian Yelich doubled and Collins scored on a groundout in the fifth by Vaughn before Perkins hit a two-out homer to right field to make it 5-1 and chase Strider. Key stat Milwaukee is a Major League-best 33-24 and is 10-7-2 in series play on the road this season. The Brewers have won a season-high seven straight, 12 of 13 and 24 of 30 away from home. Up next The Braves have yet to announce their starter for Thursday against Miami's Eury Pérez (4-3, 2.70 ERA). Brandon Woodruff (3-0, 2.22) is set to take the mound for the Brewers against Kodai Senga (7-3, 2.31) and the New York Mets on Friday. ___ AP MLB: The Associated Press
