There aren't many fans of either the Chicago Cubs or Milwaukee Brewers who weren't praying for an MLB Postseason showdown between the two NL Central rivals. Brewers fans, specifically, certainly wanted a chance to inflict pain on Cubs manager Craig Counsell after his turncoat departure from the same post in Milwaukee. And they'll get it starting on Saturday with Game 1 of the NLDS. However, Brewers star Christian Yelich doesn't seem to fazed by facing his former manager, Counsell.
Yelich, who joined the Brewers in 2018, Counsell's fourth season at the helm of the club, spent more than a half-decade learning under the now-Cubs skipper. However, as he's set to face off against him for the first time in the postseason and with Milwaukee playing host for the NLDS, all seems quiet on the midwestern front. If there's any revenge factor or drama bubbling, Yelich and his teammates are keeping it well beneath the surface.
Speaking with the media on Friday prior to Game 1 of the Cubs-Brewers showdown, Yelich plainly put it that Counsell (and even his own manager, Pat Murphy) won't have too big of an effect on the best-of-five series, making it clear that it's more on the players than the managers.
"It's not like 'Couns' has exotic blitz packages or has a good play-action pass game or anything like that that's going to make it difficult on us," Yelich said. "I have a lot of respect for him. He's great at what he does. But we're not going to worry about the two-high safety look from Couns."
None of that is a dig at Counsell, so one should be taking it that way. At the same time, it makes complete sense as to why Yelich and the Brewers are approaching the series this way. And ultimately, it might be something that works to their advantage if they can keep that mentality consistent from the first pitch of Game 1 to the 27th out of whatever the deciding game ends up being in this NLDS matchup.
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Christian Yelich has the right mentality to propel Brewers in NLDS
With the bad blood that still exists between the Brewers and Counsell, one could argue that Yelich or any of the players in Milwaukee getting caught up in that would be the worst way to approach the NLDS. Yes, the fans will be buzzing in either ballpark throughout the season, but the worst thing that the Brew Crew could do would be to try to fight the ghost of Craig Counsell in the NLDS rather than just trying to beat the opposing nine on the diamond every night.
Really, this gets to the heart of the postseason. Yes, there needs to be some sort of motivation, or at least some trick or mental gymnastics to avoid complacency. If that doesn't happen, you could see a team ultimately just deliver a dud. At the same time, there's even more credence to the idea of never getting too high or too low.
Trying to make this series "revenge against Counsell" on such a big stage would be a fool's errand for the Brewers. Yes, this is a team that did play its way to the No. 1 seed in the National League without their former manager in the clubhouse, but that should be all the one-upsmanship that they're looking for.
Counsell isn't going to be on the bump in Game 1 trying to strike out Yelich and Company — that'll be Matthew Boyd. Counsell isn't going to be stepping into the box to stare down Freddy Peralta either. Trying to beat Counsell, though understandable, seems like a mentality that would set the Brewers up for failure.
It can certainly be in the back of players' minds, perhaps calling it a secondary motivation. And it wouldn't be a shock for someone, should Milwaukee win the series, to bring that storyline up to the media. At the end of the day, though, the Brewers are tasked with beating the Cubs, not teaching Counsell a lesson.
If that happens to be a byproduct of a series victory, though, they'll surely take it.
Cubs' momentum could still play a huge factor in rivalry NLDS matchup
The reality for the Brewers and the Cubs is that the managers are simply the lightning rods for this matchup between division rivals. It obviously adds a bit more heat to the rivalry, without question, but the managers aren't out there going 12 rounds with one another. It's the players taking to the field.
And while Milwaukee is vocally approaching this series with the proper mindset regarding Counsell, the Cubs can come into this series on the flip side with the advantage of having had the Brewers' number this year, despite the latter's dominant rout in the NL Central to claim the division crown in the regular season.
Chicago secured the regular-season series victory over Milwaukee with a five-game set in late August, taking seven of the 13 games against the Brewers this season. While postseason baseball is a different animal entirely than the regular season, that has to mean something. And if Murphy and Counsell are going to have any major say in this NLDS matchup, figuring out what happened in the regular season to give the Cubs the advantage and how to either continue or combat that might be their biggest role to play.