Alex Rodriguez: Milwaukee Brewers staring at iPads too much?

Is the Brewers manager spending too much time looking at analytics? A-Rod thinks so.

Following the Milwaukee Brewers 4-0 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the third game of the NLCS Oct. 15, Fox commentator Alex Rodriguez made some interesting remarks. These comments followed a somewhat typical Brewers use of four relievers after a starter left a game relatively early, a game nonetheless ending a five-hit shutout for visiting Milwaukee.

Rodriguez suggested that Brewers manager Craig Counsell may have just spent a little too much time staring at an “iPad” and that “it almost cost him.” At some level it was an understandable evaluation. Milwaukee’s fourth reliever, Jeremy Jeffress, had loaded the bases in the ninth inning, making a 4-0 game seem very much closer at its very end than the final score suggests.

Rodriguez’ remarks, however, were an interesting, old school, implied criticism of the Brewers use of their pitchers and, apparently, a dependence on analytics. Of course, the former Yankees star didn’t actually know what Counsell was looking at on his iPad, and neither does anyone else who wasn’t in Milwaukee’s dugout, but the following should be observed – Milwaukee has leaned on their bullpen all season, and this has annoyed Rodriguez, who has predicted, not very daringly, that Milwaukee won’t win a world championship if their starters “average” only three or 3 1/3 innings.

Last night’s starter, Jhoulys Chacin, went 5 1/3 innings, but don’t think that makes Rodriguez some kind of genius. That’s still a somewhat short start.

However, how about a return to a specific move Counsell made last night that “almost cost him”? Consider his use of hard-throwing left-hander Josh Hader in the eighth inning. Hader had just had two days off following Counsell’s use of him for three innings and 46 pitches Oct. 12, and some managers might have still wanted to rest one of their biggest guns a little bit more. The NLCS is, after all, a seven-game affair.

Nonetheless, Hader came into the game with one out in the eighth to face – well, what would it be – one hitter? Two? Would he be asked to close the game because he’d had two days rest?

Clearly, Counsell didn’t want to use right-hander Joakim Soria against left-handed hitters Joc Pederson and Max Muncy, so he brought in Hader, the lefty. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts then countered with two right-handed pinch-hitters, David Freese, a former post-season MVP, and Matt Kemp, an All-Star this season.

Hader struck out both on 98-mph fastballs up and away, throwing a total of eight pitches, seven for strikes. Then he was gone.

Had Counsell gotten “lucky,” or did his iPad maybe tell him Roberts might well counter with two veteran right-handed, accomplished hitters? It seems entirely possible Counsell saw (on his iPad) Roberts might make the two moves he did.

More, he probably strongly suspected that Hader could throw pitches right by a 35-year-old and a 34-year-old. He knew this from watching baseball games, not staring at iPads.