This is What Young People--And Young Teams--Go Through

[Matthew Trueblood]

Pat Murphy wants his team to be relentless. He wants them to be undaunted. Those words sound like triumphalism when things are going well, but the real reason why he has said them so many times this year is simple: He knew a time would come when things weren't.

Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

There's a soupçon of panic in the air around Brewers fans right now. The team has gone 4-3 in their first seven games out of the All-Star break, but it would be hard to design a much less encouraging 4-3 stretch, and that was after a 5-8 stumble into the intermission. Besides, it's not really about the record right now. It's a vibes thing.

Christian Yelich is out for an indeterminate length of time, with an injury that appears to have far-reaching implications. Bryan Hudson just landed on the injured list, the latest symbol of a bullpen running on fumes starting to sputter and cough. The offense is scuffling badly, and that state of affairs seems sure to be exacerbated by the loss of their best player for what could be the balance of the regular season. Some guys had been over their skis a bit, and now they're eating some snow.

Here's the thing, though: the Brewers didn't fail to prevent this because they didn't foresee it. On the contrary, they knew this kind of stretch was coming, and just as importantly, they knew it couldn't be prevented. This team is not a Dodgers-like juggernaut, quite yet. They're an injury-ravaged pitching staff, and the second-youngest collection of hitters in baseball. (Only the Guardians, going through their own sag right now but also still leading their division, are younger.) They could have done some things differently in the first half to get to this stage with more steam hissing from their stacks, but they couldn't have avoided a rough patch. Instead of trying to make the inevitable a bit more palatable, then, they tried to ensure that when this moment came, they would have more margin for error.

One month ago, I wrote about the fact that the team had effectively shortened the season by a week with their stellar first half. In the difficult stretch since, they've given back four of the seven games by which they were ahead of schedule, but that means they're still ahead. Obviously, that ceases to matter if a club entirely burns and busts out--for instance, if Yelich, Bryan Hudson, and some other as-yet-unknown injury turn out to be season-ending, and the team is rendered a husk of its former self. Most of the time, though, such crises tend to pan out better than you fear.

Murphy might not be in the mood to say so--it would strike the wrong chord, in fact, because it's important for the manager to convey the stakes of a moment like this one to a team as young as this one--but the reality is that the Brewers have no need to freak out right now. They just need their superannuated skipper and his coaching staff to keep their young group on course. He's right: this is what young people go through. They struggle, and they have to adjust, and they learn through failure. By racking up an early lead in the division, and then padding it, the team assured itself of some cushion for this inevitable development.

It might be viewed as a blessing in disguise, too, that these struggles have come now, rather than after the trade deadline--when it would have been much more difficult to address the resulting danger. The Brewers have already added Aaron Civale and Nick Mears to the pitching staff, and they could make another major addition to that group before Tuesday evening, Meanwhile, they've become more active in the search for a bit of offensive reinforcement, after the Yelich news, and the fact that Brice Turang has hit a long rough patch in the wake of his hot start gives them license to consider many different means of achieving an improvement at that spot.

Then, there are the reinforcements we already knew were coming, and which now seem imminent. Devin Williams could be back with the team as soon as Mears joins them, on Monday. Joe Ross has stretched out to 80 pitches and will be back with the club after no more than one more rehab appearance. DL Hall has thrown between 46 and 62 pitches in six different outings for Nashville over the last five weeks, despite the interruptions in his rehab process. As we've discussed, there will be a crunch to navigate as those guys claim spots on the roster, but it figures to make the team deeper and fresher.

The last three weeks represent a real and meaningful wobble for a team that had been cruising. But because of the big wins they piled up early in the season, this was a luxury they could afford. Between external additions and some returning hurlers, they should have plenty in the tank to stay ahead of the Cardinals and steam their way to the postseason. Their moves over the next two days should focus on ensuring that they're able to keep chugging through October.

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[rolafaive]

Everyone thinks this team is okay, don't worry reinforcements are coming, if you mean Yelich, if he returns he will be a shell of his first half with that back issue, the other 3 are pitchers, Ross was up and down, Hall will probably be in pen with spot starts due to inconsistencies and you don't know what Williams will bring, this team is in a funk right now and the pitching staff is tired.

[Jim French Stepstool]

Good piece. I mentioned awhile back that everyone in the NL Central had their "Gee, that team really sucks!!!" stretch except us. Then it finally happened just before the break. All considered, I thought it was impressive they went that long w/o such a stretch.

They're beaten down some, I'm sure. So is everyone else. An interesting sequence coming up, not only trade possibilities but IL stint conclusions, BP decisions, etc. Maybe at the end of it all Murphy will prove to be our Columbo--Rumpled, slow-talking deliberate kinda guy who doesn't know what he's doing---except he did, all along.