Brewers keep rolling and Cubs fans are NOT enjoying the Craig Counsell body language when the chips are down.

WARNING: VERY NOT SAFE FOR WORK LANGUAGE:

First things first: At this point, the second I open my eyes in the morning, I can’t wait for Brewer baseball. Brushing my teeth, thinking of Brewer baseball. Taking a dump, thinking of Brewers baseball and if I have enough toilet paper at the ready (I didn’t). Deleting work emails that require my attention, Brewer baseball. Putting together another loser baseball parlay for the day, Brewer baseball.

The only problem with the run they are currently on is that I’m out of platitudes. I am out of words to describe how great this team has been over a PROLONGED stretch. 44-16 over their last 60 games. FORTY FOUR AND SIXTEEN. Best 60 game stretch in franchise history. Fastest the team has ever gotten to 25 games over .500 (113 games, it took them 119 in 2021). 69 (nice)-44 on the season, three games clear of the Blue Jays for the best record in baseball. SHEESH.

Now, on to the attached video and the Cubs. They lost again last night. Which, you absolutely HATE to see. And their recent mini-slump, combined with the Brewers being a 10-alarm fire, has Cubs fans on social media crumbling like over-floured dough. And who is always going to bear the brunt of the criticism when a team is underperforming while their hated rival is surging? The manager. In this case, one Craigory Counsell.

What I find fascinating about this guy’s rant is how much it brought back memories of Counsell’s time in Milwaukee. Let me be clear about something before I say another thing: Craig Counsell is the best manager in Brewer history (for now). The wins, the over on win totals, playoff appearances, etc. He was more often than not a great strategist and baseball mind. What he was NOT was someone who could be steady in a storm. And that’s exactly what our guy Carl in the above video is describing. When the chips are down, Counsell becomes Eeyore. Dump in his pants, frustrated scowl, taking his hat off and rubbing his hair, sounds like he’s about to be sent to gallows in his postgame pressers. Just a flat out BUMMER. Vibes at an all time low.

And on some level, I think his teams take on that identity. His stress, his anxiousness in big games, his demeanor when something doesn’t go his team’s way, they start to mirror that and play tight. We talked about is extensively in 2021, ’22 and ’23.

That, to me, is the biggest difference between Murph and Counsell. Being completely honest, there are more than a few ‘baseball decisions’ that Murphy makes that have me scratching my head. But I trust him implicitly. Do you know why? He’s confident! He’s funny! He keeps things loose, he chops it up, he knows when to be stern and when to cut the tension. He’s tough but he also keeps pancakes in his pocket. He’s quirky in the best kind of way. And his teams mirror that. They’d die for Murph. They’d run through a brick wall for Murph. I think the guys liked Counsell, but I don’t know that you could say that about Craig. It’s just interesting to see some of that bleeding into Cubs fandom right now.

Now look, at some point this Brewer team is going to cool off a bit (?). That’s the nature of the sport. They’ve got a 4 game lead in the division, which is great, but you’ve still got a 5 game series at Wrigley in a few weeks and 59 games on the schedule. They’re bound to lose 5 of 6 at some point. But the difference between this team under Murphy and this team under Counsell is that I’m not worried that a cold spell is going to leave the entire team playing with their assholes clenched. That’s why I’m truly starting to believe that an October run is possible.

PS: This is PREPOSTOROUS: