The Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs will meet for the first time at American Family Field on Memorial Day. These two teams met earlier in the month in which the Cubs won two out of three games at Wrigley Field. This match up provides the story line of Craig Counsell making his return to Milwaukee for the first time as an opposing manager.
Craig Counsell has his Chicago Cubs trending in the wrong direction prior to starting a four game series against the Milwaukee Brewers.
As of May 27, 2024 the Brewers and Cubs are the top two teams in the National League Central. Milwaukee has a 3.5 game lead as they have a 30-22 record. They came just shy of sweeping the Boston Red Sox and just finished 4-5 over a long nine game road trip. Chicago is just one game above .500 and their record has dropped to 27-26. They have lost their last four games and have won just three out of their last 10.
Some Chicago Cubs are questioning moves made by Craig Counsell.
After shockingly signing Craig Counsell to a five year, $40 million deal this off-season there was a lot of optimism from Cubs fans that receiving the best manager in the game would help lead them back to the post season. Mismanaged bullpens had been an issue for them in the past and Craig Counsell was supposed to be the solution to a lot of their previous woes under previous manager David Ross. In regard to the bullpen issues a lot of Counsell’s moves have backfired this year as per Jesse Rogers at ESPN they have lost seven games when leading in the eighth inning or later this year.