This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox
MILWAUKEE – Pat Murphy is one of the few Major League managers who still invites writers, broadcasters and radio and television stations into his office every day for an afternoon briefing. Many managers have moved those sessions to the dugout, where reporters strain to hear over the stadium music, and the aim is to just get it done.
Murphy’s sessions are more relaxed – if a little crowded. After the size of the assembled media corps forced a move to the Brewers’ media auditorium over the weekend while the Dodgers were in town, reporters crammed back in the manager’s office on Monday morning.
There are no wallflowers allowed. If Murphy doesn’t recognize someone, he asks their name, even if that means delaying postseason press conferences. If a reporter is just hanging back and taking it in, Murphy demands a question. Wade Miley has attended. So has WWE champ Braun Strowman. More and more, visiting teams’ broadcasters have been joining as word gets around.
“I love this,” Murphy said on one recent afternoon. “This is like therapy to me.”
Here’s a small taste of what one of these meetings is like.
A GOOD DAY STARTS WITH BREAKFAST
Don’t ask how he got on this topic, but the day started with Murphy's favorite Phoenix-area diners. His all-timer was Munch A Mania, an understated joint in a Tempe strip mall that closed a couple of years ago after a quarter century of fresh soups and sandwiches.
“My kid would go in there at five years old, throwing the football over the counter, you know?” Murphy said. “You’d come out of there smelling like whatever they were cooking. God, it was great.”
OK, we should talk some baseball.
Here is a very small taste of what Murph had to say.
MENTAL BREAK FOR FRELICK
Right fielder Sal Frelick, with a .585 OPS entering play Memorial Day, was out of the lineup for only the second time this season. The first was back on April 5, the day after Frelick had to leave a game with rib-cage tightness.
It was just a mental reset, Murphy said.
“He hasn’t had a day in a while, so we’ll give him a day,” Murphy said. “He’s one of our guys. I love Sal. I don’t tell him enough. I should tell him way more than I tell him. I need to do that. Let me write that down.”
He wasn’t joking. On one of the date books and notepads filled with blue ink that cover his desk, Murphy found space to jot a note:
Tell Sal, “I love you, Sal.”
Does Frelick need love right now?
“He’s not produced the way he’s wanted to produce,” Murphy said. “But it’s not for lack of effort. And, sneaky, he has been clutch as all get-out. And he’s a tremendous defender. Tremendous. And a tremendous kid. A winner.
“I have to tell him I love him. Not that he cares. Maybe I won’t tell him.”
And just like that, Murphy had changed his mind. He crossed the item off his list.
“That really convinced me, actually," he said. “You know what? He doesn’t need me to tell him that.”
‘MIZ’ MANIA
Jacob Misiorowski was a sensation at the start of his career last year, but now it’s reached another level. His start days are bona fide events.
In Murphy’s view, how has Misiorowski handled the attention?
“He’s still a young pitcher, and there’s maturing to be done,” Murphy said. “He’s been fantastic in so many ways, off the field, on the field, in the clubhouse. He’s really earned the respect of people.
“And it’s a lot on him. Pitching, as we know, it isn’t just push-button. You don’t just go out and do it.”
What are some of the things Misiorowski still must improve, asked the Associated Press’ Steve Megargee.
“Oh, I mean, the game will chew you up, Steve,” Murphy said. “Command is always going to be an issue for him, a guy who throws that hard and the size of his levers and all that.”
MEMORIAL DAY
The Memorial Day holiday is seen as a benchmark in baseball, deep enough into a season to start making some assessments. When David Gasper from 97.3 The Game and Brew Crew Ball asked about that, Murphy made clear he does not subscribe to the theory of benchmarks.
“We’re not looking up. You don’t look at standings on Memorial Day,” he said. “You may, but I tend to not look at the standings on Memorial Day. We’re trying to become a great ballclub. But we’re under construction. We have a lot of guys not performing the way they can.”
JORDAN WALKER
“Totally different, man. Confidence. That guy walks to the plate with a belief system,” Murphy said of the Cardinals’ outfielder, who came into this series in Milwaukee with 15 home runs. “I hear the type of individual he is, and that just does my heart good. Because our game needs stars like that, that are the right people. I think of Bobby Witt Jr. You think of some of these young superstars, Paul Skenes. Those are class acts. This is what you want representing your game, and I think the same of Jordan Walker.
“He’s learned on the field and been through it. Nobody could have expected this jump – of the opponents. The internal people probably saw it, but nobody could have seen this jump.”
CONCERN FOR LOGAN HENDERSON
The rookie right-hander dealt with back tightness in his last start, and now the Brewers have “TBA” in their pitching probables for Wednesday’s series finale against the Cardinals.
Which prompted Jack Stern from the website Brewer Fanatic to ask: How did Henderson bounce back?
“I think we’re monitoring that closely,” Murphy said. “I don’t think it’s any different, but there’s reason for concern. So we are going to keep a very close eye on him in the next few days.”
With that, Brewers senior director of media relations Mike Vassallo opens Murphy’s office door. It’s the signal that the session is over.
We’ll do it all over again after the game.