Brewers: 3 Good Things That Happened To The Crew In 2020

2020 was a rough year for pretty much everybody, including the Brewers. But there were some good things that happened.

It may be tough to think of the good things that happened this year, involving the Brewers or otherwise, because all the bad of this year overshadows it. However, it’s important to remember the good and point out that not everything is all bad.

We had about two months or so prior to the pandemic shutting things down where everything was normal and it almost feels like that what happened in January and February wasn’t even this year. It’s hard to believe, but yes, there was a point in 2020 where we could have big social gatherings with no worries in the world.

Remember Brewers On Deck? That was in 2020, with thousands of Brewers fans packed into the Wisconsin Center to see Ryan Braun, Christian Yelich, and all of our favorite Brewers players.

Let’s focus on the good for right now as 2020 finally comes to an end. Here are three good things that happened involving the Brewers this year.

1. Counsell Extended, Arnold Promoted

Something that fans may have forgotten about that happened earlier this year was that manager Craig Counsell signed a contract extension through 2023. He’s already the longest-tenured manager in the National League and he’s going to be the guy going forward.

Since being installed as manager in 2015, Counsell has helped lead a quick turnaround of the franchise, leading the Crew to better-than-expected performances each of his first couple of seasons.

Counsell’s management of the pitching staff and use of matchups in the lineup has pushed him into recognition as one of the best managers in baseball. He consistently gets the most out of the talent he has on the roster and his ability to use analytics and still be a “player’s manager” and relate to his players and blend his game experience and gut feelings with the analytics is top-notch.

Managing the Brewers is essentially Counsell’s dream job and he gets to continue doing it for years to come.

Also sticking around is Matt Arnold, moving from Assistant GM up to General Manager. He’s been David Stearns’ right-hand man for the past five years and other teams were interviewing him for their GM openings and the Brewers were at risk of losing a key member of their front office.

Instead, the Brewers promoted Arnold, giving him a new title, and likely an extended contract and pay raise, although the Brewers don’t publicly announce the contract details of front office executives.

Keeping the continuity of the front office, which has been so successful over the past few years, and keeping continuity in the manager’s chair are two very good things for the organization that happened in 2020.

3. The Development Of The Brewers Pitching Staff

For years, the strength of the Brewers was in their offense. In 2020, the pitching staff took over as the driving force of the team, led by huge advancement and development from some key young players.

First off, the Brewers added to the trophy case with Devin Williams winning the Crew’s third straight NL Reliever of the Year award and then topping it off with his own NL Rookie of the Year award.

Williams went from a second round pick struggling to get out of Double-A and dealing with injuries to a fringe bullpen option to the most dominant reliever in baseball all in about a year’s time. His “Airbender” changeup boggled minds of fans and hitters alike. He also has a fastball that comes in at a cool 98 MPH that he pairs it with, and according to Garrett Greene of the Biloxi Shuckers, he has a nasty slider too that he hasn’t used yet.

Speaking of bullpen arms that came out of nowhere to dominate, Eric Yardley had a great season after being claimed on waivers last winter, and Justin Topa was a late add to the Alternate Training Site and then came up for his big league debut and showed some nasty stuff. Topa is in line to be a key piece of the bullpen in 2021.

In the rotation, Corbin Burnes bounced back after the season from hell in 2019 to finish 6th in NL Cy Young voting in 2020. He re-worked his mind and his pitch arsenal and turned himself into one of the best pitchers in the National League. He had an opportunity to win the ERA title this year, which would’ve been the first time in franchise history that happened, but fell short of innings in his final start as he left with an injury.

The development of Burnes into the pitcher the Brewers always knew he could become is one of the great things that came out of this 2020 Brewers season. He’s now a co-ace with Brandon Woodruff atop this rotation and he’s only going to get better moving forward.

The Brewers have struggled to develop a homegrown ace for years, and now they have two at the same time in Woodruff and Burnes.

The development of this pitching staff is a great thing for the Brewers and their chances of winning a World Series in the near future. In the past, the Brewers have always been undone in the postseason by their pitching staff lacking dominant arms. Now they have them.

All they need are the bats, and finding good bats is easier than finding good arms.

There were a lot of great things that happened for the Brewers this year. Hopefully there will be more great things and less bad things in 2021 as the year 2020 finally comes to an end. Happy New Year.