How Brewers borrowed from Cardinals blueprint, added patience and development, to rule NL Central

Best Podcast in Baseball

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Sports, Baseball

4.8 • 673 Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Despite the smallest market in Major League Baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers have become a marvel of what it means to be a modern contender.

The organization the Cardinals used to be and the Cubs wanted to be , the Brewers now are, complete with the 10-game lead in the division standings ahead of the former kings with a month of the season remaining. MLB.com's longtime Brewers beat writer Adam McCalvy joins the Best Podcast in Baseball to talk about Milwaukee's rise within the division and reign atop. McCalvy talks with Best Podcast in Baseball host and baseball writer Derrick Goold about the "culture" the Brewers have created, one that seems to benefit from the team's business model, strong development infrastructure, and something the Cardinals have not shown, and may not be able to show.

Patience.

The Brewers appear to have hit Yatzhee on almost every move. They waited out the market to land Christian Yelich from Miami via trade, ending up with the best fit of the three Marlins outfielders available at the time and an MVP-caliber player. While the Cardinals were also shopping for a catcher, they joined in a trade to help Atlanta land catcher Sean Murphy from the Oakland Athletics and may have ended up with the best catcher in the deal, William Contreras. They fended off interest in Corbin Burnes to watch him become a Cy Young Award ace, and then traded him ahead of him leaving for free agency to then nourish a roster that again is contending.

McCalvy details the Brewers' business model and also how much they've invested in development, and how it continues successful at the major-league level, even as players move out or move out.

The two baseball writers also share some thoughts on Wisconsin-accurate accents and wax nostalgic about legendary slugger Joey Meyer the 1990s Denver Zephyrs.

The Best Podcast in Baseball, sponsored by Closets by Design of St. Louis, is a production of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, StlToday.com, and Derrick Goold.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The best podcast in baseball is brought to you by Closets by Design.
0:05.6	Update your closet, garage, office, pantry, and more.
0:09.0	Imagine your home totally organized with closets by design.
0:12.6	Call 1-800 by design.
0:14.4	That's 1-800 by design.
0:17.0	And they said you would walk in the door and like Chris Carpenter was there.
0:20.8	And he would scare the bejesus out of you.
0:24.3	I don't know if we can bleep on this podcast.
0:26.4	But he would scare you.
0:27.8	He would scare you into pitching better.
0:31.0	I know that there was an expectation from St. Louis that if you were a cardling you put on that uniform, you were going to like be your best.
0:38.7	And somehow the little Milwaukee Brewers, after 26 losing seasons before they finally broke through,
0:46.2	and they've built this thing now where the expectations have changed.
0:49.9	And it is a, you know, it's a culture like guys know that they need to perform.
1:03.4	Hello, everybody.
1:04.2	And welcome to the best podcast in baseball brought to you by closet by design of St. Louis.
1:07.3	I'm St. Louis post-dispatch baseball writer Derek Gould.
1:09.5	Join this weekend.
1:10.1	I'm thrilled to invite him back on the podcast. Adam McCallvey, MLB.com. Did I mess it up?
1:16.7	I messed it up. I did on purpose. I'm kidding. Because I wanted you to correct me. You said you
1:22.7	were going to correct me. McAlvey. McAulvey. I just set you up to correct me. Yeah, Derek, you have family here in Milwaukee.
1:30.3	Like, you should have this nasally accent where we...
	...

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