MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers won the month of January, but manager Craig Counsell made the point that it is much more important to win April, May, June, July, August and September. If they are good enough, the Brewers will try to win some of October, too.
Counsell was among the club officials to bring perspective to the Brewers' otherwise giddy "On Deck" in downtown Milwaukee late last month, where fans and players buzzed about the back-to-back acquisitions of outfielders Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich just days earlier. Those additions -- Cain via the richest free-agent contract in franchise history and Yelich via blockbuster trade -- signaled that owner Mark Attanasio and general manager David Stearns had been convinced to shift away from rebuilding toward a more urgent approach.