Milwaukee Brewers made a commitment to Craig Counsell on Friday morning by adding three years to his deal lasting him to 2020. Counsell will see this rebuild through and hopefully be a part of some winning for Brewers. It’s good to see Brewers general manager David Stearns commit to the future of this team with Counsell as their manager. He’s done a good job with the hand he was dealt last season, despite some of the noise from outsiders.

Counsell gets a chance with this young roster. There are going to be some moving parts this winter with Ryan Braun possibly moving to a new team. He gets to manage and develop this roster the way he wants for the next four years. I’ve contended for awhile that Milwaukee could be frisky next season with 2018 being the big year for this team. Counsell will survive with or without Braun next year. If Braun is on the roster, he’s the captain of this team and will lead the young Brewers. If not, Milwaukee will have a really young and exciting roster that will definitely have some growing pains throughout the next two years. Either way, Milwaukee showed they had full confidence in Counsell’s vision as a manager.

Three players really developed under Counsell last season with Johnathan Villar, Keon Broxton and Hernan Perez. All three players somewhat came out nowhere to have huge seasons for Milwaukee. To me, that’s Counsell and the Brewers coaching staff that he employs specifically Darnell Coles, the hitting coach. They fixed Broxton’s hand placement, and it looked like Carlos Gomez never left. Milwaukee never lost confidence in Villar and Perez, and that’s part of being a strong manager. There were no trigger-happy decision-making which is important for a young roster.

What’s been really weird about Counsell is local fans and media do not complain about him much. Not sure if it’s due to him being the local guy or Counsell being a pretty solid manager. There are only a few games where you could directly blame Counsell for the defeat. This is a bizarre feeling for Milwaukee fans. Ned Yost had his issues, Ken Macha certainly had problems as did Ron Roenicke. He’s the most well-liked manager in some time. Fans don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but it’s nice to know decision to extend a manager’s contract isn’t met with groans.

I have a feeling is only the beginning for Brewers offseason.

Charlie.