How do you think David Stearns' day is going?

[CheezWizHed]

On 10/16/2026 at 9:57 AM, Brock Beauchamp said:

Oh sure, he built a lot of what the Brewers are succeeding with right now, but leaving to go to the Mets - who sucked HARD this season - has to be frustrating.

Add the trade for Peralta that was a total flop for the Mets (though the same could be said for the Brewers in year 1), gave him away in a fire sale to Tampa, and have him completely bounce back to dominance.  

Puts a major spotlight on what is going on in the NYM clubhouse. 

[Thurston Fluff]

22 minutes ago, MrTPlush said:

I don’t disagree, actually, back in the 2018 days I mentioned a lot how much of a great situation Melvin left Stearns to succeed. We were lucky Melvin was looking to retire and didn’t have the typical GM ego to go all-in while walking out the door.

Still, Stearns had to build the foundation for what we have now, which is far off what we did prior. Arnold though? Yah, he was absolutely given a goldmine of a situation. All he had to do was not screw it up and tweak some things. Props to Arnold though, none of this was assured either without good moves.

Arnold no doubt walked into a good situation but he did help build said situation. I think the lesson to be learned is it's never just one person to turn things around. The Cubs and Mets should have learned that lesson now but I question if they are even now.

[cragi]

7 minutes ago, Thurston Fluff said:

Arnold no doubt walked into a good situation but he did help build said situation. I think the lesson to be learned is it's never just one person to turn things around. The Cubs and Mets should have learned that lesson now but I question if they are even now.

Exactly. The question is how much the brewers success those years were Stearns vs Arnold.

[owbc]

If I had to speculate, I would guess that a number of individuals in the Brewers org must have done a huge amount of organizational building legwork in the 2010s (or even prior to that) to get us where we are now. 

I wish someone would ask Mark A the question and see what he says. If I had to guess, I bet he would say that it's not something you can do in just a couple of years. It took Doug Melvin 6 years to get the Brewers to the playoffs and I'm pretty sure when Mark A bought the team it was Melvin coaching Mark on how to run baseball ops for quite a while. 

When it was time for Doug to retire, at that point Mark knew what he was doing, had the organization running smoothy, and he had figured out that he had to go get an analytically-minded GM to put the last piece of the puzzle together. That's where Stearns came in and I don't think it's a coincidence that our drafting and player development took huge strides around that time. 

In retrospect it looks like Stearns brought some critical pieces to our org but maybe he wasn't a "organizational builder" guy which is what the Mets really need. Or, maybe it's only been 3 years and it's going to take the Mets 10+ years to actually turn things around (even with their budgetary advantages). Or, the fan/media pressure is just too strong in NY for anyone to have the patience to make deep changes. 

 

[TURBO]

2 hours ago, Jopal78 said:

...most likely has zero regrets leaving the Brewers either. 

100% disagree that Counsell has no regrets  I'll leave it at that.

[Fear The Chorizo]

I'm of the opinion that Stearns returned a culture of winning in Milwaukee that didn't rely on 2-3 year windows Melvin kind of operated with, and built the foundation for acquiring talent from all avenues available to a tiny market team....that was actually jumpstarted by tail end talent from the Melvin area used to pilfer impact talent from other minor league systems, namely the Gomez to Astros trade that brought Milwaukee Hader and the Lucroy trade that netted Brinson (likely impact prospect who wound up leading the trade package of other to-be flamed out prospects to bring in MVP-Yelich to the Brewers).  One of his first deals also included getting low minor league prospect Freddy Peralta from the Mariners...

Stearns also rebuilt the draft/development system and created the pitching lab focus for an organization who always struggled to have homegrown pitching and turned that into what became an expectation when arms like Woodruff, Peralta, Burnes, and others started coming up and contributing in Milwaukee.  

That being said, I always viewed a weakness of Stearns with drafting and developing position players, and there were more misses than hits during most of his tenure here.....tough to fully criticize him, because I think he eventually sorted that out after overseeing the scouting departments and instructional levels' overhaul, along with having Arnold along for that ride.  He left the organization in a great spot and in great hands, and Arnold took his opportunity and took things to greater heights in very short order.

Oh, and one more thing - Greg Counsell can kick rocks with his pile of $$$, because he's done nothing to "help out" other managers in terms of salary - in no way does Coun$ell's exit compare to Stearns' in my eyes.  Tremendous respect for Stearns, anything but for Greg.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, TURBO said:

100% disagree that Counsell has no regrets  I'll leave it at that.

Perhaps you know Counsell and he’s spoken about it with you (seriously I’m not being a wise guy). But otherwise, there is very little loyalty in professional sports. When folks play (or manage/coach) games for money, they almost always go where the money is. (Counsell even left Milwaukee as a free agent after 2004 for a 2-year guarantee with Arizona). 
 

To do the same job for more pay in Chicago than Milwaukee while still being able to sleep in your own bed a couple nights a week during the season, is probably as far as it goes for Craig. 

 

 

[owbc]

3 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

Perhaps you know Counsell and he’s spoken about it with you (seriously I’m not being a wise guy). But otherwise, there is very little loyalty in professional sports. When folks play (or manage/coach) games for money, they almost always go where the money is. (Counsell even left Milwaukee as a free agent after 2004 for a 2-year guarantee with Arizona). 
 

To do the same job for more pay in Chicago than Milwaukee while still being able to sleep in your own bed a couple nights a week during the season, is probably as far as it goes for Craig. 

 

 

I'm with Turbo, it's well known that Counsell is a fierce competitor and that the perceived higher odds of winning a WS in Chicago was a major factor in him leaving. 

[cragi]

The Murphy (Ryan) vs Counsell (Izzo) battle reminds me a little of the Badgers vs Spartans from a decade ago. On paper, the Spartans were supposed to dominate. Coach Izzo wore his heart on his sleeve, but that would often seem to backfire with emotional meltdowns late in close games as his team rode the emotional roller coaster. Meanwhile, Ryan was slow and steady and never panicked.  And the team reflected his coolness under fire. 

[Samurai Bucky]

9 hours ago, cragi said:

The Murphy (Ryan) vs Counsell (Izzo) battle reminds me a little of the Badgers vs Spartans from a decade ago. On paper, the Spartans were supposed to dominate. Coach Izzo wore his heart on his sleeve, but that would often seem to backfire with emotional meltdowns late in close games as his team rode the emotional roller coaster. Meanwhile, Ryan was slow and steady and never panicked.  And the team reflected his coolness under fire. 

How could the Brewers match the Devin Harris to Alando Tucker alley-oop at the end of the game?  Maybe a snowman in the top of the 9th after being up 10 runs?  😉