Yesterday, Noah Jarosh at Brew Crew Ball alerted us to a survey the Brewers sent to select fans on the team’s direction. It’s not clear how fans were chosen to take the survey, but if you didn’t get it the entire thing can be read at the BCB post. Although I assume my opinion doesn’t count for much in any area of life, it would have been nice to be one of the chosen. Thanks to BCB, at least I get to pretend my opinion means something on a few of the questions.
Not by actually answering the questions, mind you. If you follow news stories that include opinion polls, it’s clear that the types of questions asked, the way they are worded, and the multiple choice options can skew the results one way or the other. With that in mind, let’s have a look at a few interesting bits from the survey…
Do you consider yourself to be a real fan of the Milwaukee Brewers?
- Yes definitely
- Yes, in the past, but not now
- No, not really
Jeez, why would they be sending the survey to anyone who doesn’t consider themselves a real fan? If someone says “No, not really” how much value do the rest of their answers have? If someone isn’t a fan of Beyoncé, why would you ask them what they think of her latest album or tour? I’d toss any non-fan responses into the garbage immediately, but then maybe that’s why I’m not in the opinion polling business.
Which of the following statements do you agree with MORE?
- The Brewers had an amazing start to the season. They should be proud of how well they played through most of the season.
- The Brewers should be embarrassed about their late-season collapse.
Since both statements are accurate and maybe even true-ish, forcing an all-or-nothing choice here might be a good way to gauge how forgiving the fan base is. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say I wanted to blow my brains out by the end of that SD-SF-CHI road trip. But now that some time has passed I can admit I have fond memories of 2014’s good times, before everything went to hell in the last week of August.
Which of the following statements do you agree with MORE?
- Baseball is about the players on the field. It’s easy to assign blame on the late-season collapse on the General Manager and Manger [sic], but don’t forget the amazing start to the season and near post-season berth. Ultimately, the players should bear the most responsibility for not performing down the stretch.
- I’m very disappointed that the Brewers kept their General Manager and Manager. People at the top should be held accountable for the team’s late season collapse, and keeping these seem people for 2015 suggests the Brewers aren’t committed to winning in 2015.
Another all-or-nothing choice, but it would be interesting if the order of the options were switched. If the first answer was “fire the General Manager and Manager” I would think folks would be more inclined to pick that one, especially since they’ve just been reminded about how mad they are about the collapse. Putting the “blame the players” option first seems to slightly steer respondents towards that answer. Only a real prick would want to fire people after reading a sensible explanation about why the players are at fault.
Who do you think is MOST responsible for the poor play of the team at the end of the season that resulted in missing the postseason?
- Front office
- Players
- Manager and coaching staff
- Ownership
Again, the order of the possible answers is interesting. Putting managers/coaches and ownership later might tend to discourage respondents from picking them. On the other hand, putting “front office” first seems odd. “Front office” is a non-specific term that can include a lot of functions. I assume for the purposes of the question they’re asking about scouting and player development. It would be silly to blame the folks who are answering phones, making travel arrangements, and negotiating with vendors for the team’s poor performance down the stretch. I think a different word choice might have been a good idea.
Which of the following statements about the Brewers’ future is most compelling?
- Our guys word hard. They may have put too much pressure on themselves through the winning streak, but I want to make sure that our clubhouse is not too comfortable. We’ve got a nice ballpark and a great fan base, but losing and not going to the postseason can’t be comfortable.
- Brewers fans are the heart of our organization, and the fact that we came up short of our goals this season means we let them down. They deserve better. We’ve identified the reasons why they faltered and will work tirelessly this offseason to rectify them. We’re going to build a team that’s ready to compete next season – the entire season – and build a winning organization our fans deserve.
- We put Brewers fans through a lot these last couple of years. We need to give the fans a reason to come back. We have to identify what went wrong. We have to have a good explanation for how we’re fixing it. And if we’re not making any changes, we’d better have a damn good reason for why.
I know I’m old now – I can remember when using “damn” in a document for public consumption would not have been acceptable. I’m also old enough to remember when overly wordy answers would have been considered acceptable, which they no longer are in our modern “tl;dr” world. I must admit, I had not considered the possibility that the team put too much pressure on itself during the winning streak – I figured they were just happy that their hard work was paying off. I read this question as a way to help the Brewers shape their advertising message for next season.
Maybe if a lot of people pick the last two answers, next year’s marketing theme will be something like, “The 2015 Milwaukee Brewers: You deserve better. So we’re knocking $1.00 off beer prices. Please don’t be mad about the goddamn metal detectors.
Which of the following statements about the Brewers’ late season struggles is most compelling?
- I’m disappointed in the team. They’re better than this, and they didn’t show it. We’ve heard a lot of euphemisms. We’ve heard heart. We’ve heard leadership. And we’ve heard urgency. We just didn’t get the job done. There was a job that needed to get done, and it didn’t get done.
- It is our fault as players. We are the ones that are out there on the field. We’re the ones that didn’t get the job done. I don’t see a lack of effort. I don’t see a lack of interest. When something like this happens, everybody searches for answers. We look at the big picture to see what the issues are, and if each of us does our own job a little bit better, hopefully something like this doesn’t happen again.
- Now is not the time for excuses. Now is the time for solutions. For most of the season we played competitive, exciting baseball, and we were in it until the end. But the result wasn’t what we wanted or what Brewers fans deserve. It’s our job to regroup, recharge, and recommit to building a winning team from April through October.
Again with the overly wordy answers – they must have just hired some kids out of college who haven’t learned the brevity/wit relationship yet. Also, the first answer is from the perspective of the fan, and the others are from the perspective of the team. This question appears to give respondents a chance to vent a little within the parameters of these oddly verbose multiple choice options. Like the previous question, I get the sense the point here is to provide some marketing direction.
Interestingly, towards the end of the survey are a few questions about the two most visible Brewers officials: What part of Ron Roenicke’s/Doug Melvin’s performance do you respect the MOST? All the multiple choice options for these questions are positive – integrity, positive attitude, etc. – and there don’t seem to be questions about the parts of their performance that make you want to throw up the MOST. After earlier questions that basically asked if Roenicke and Melvin should be fired, it’s telling the survey doesn’t give fans the option to beat them up about specific negative qualities.
Before reviewing the survey, I was inclined to blame the players for the Brewers’ collapse rather than the coaches, the manager, the general manager, or the owner. After reviewing the survey, my opinion hasn’t changed. If anything, my belief the players were primarily at fault feels as well founded as ever. I wonder if that was the point of the survey’s wording…
But I do get the impression the Brewers need someone to help with the editing. It would be very obvious to say they should feel free to hit me up on Twitter, but based on some of these survey questions, “very obvious” is something they could use some work on. (Bloody hell, I hope I didn’t miss any typos above.)
(Image: Associated Press)
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