The Milwaukee Brewers are running away with the NL Central and have the third-best record in the majors despite operating with a limited payroll as a team in the smallest market in MLB.

The Cardinals are outspending Milwaukee by $60 million this season, so why are the Brewers so much better? Lots of reasons.

But today, I want to focus on this: the Brewers are a very smart baseball team from top to bottom. The Cardinals are not. The Cardinals are the opposite of smart. We saw more examples of that in Milwaukee's 9-3 beatdown of the Redbirds on Monday.

And let's state the obvious: coaching and managing really does matter. The Brewers prove that too.