Nobody outside of the friendly confines of Wrigley Field was happy with the way the Milwaukee Brewers finished the 2007 season.

Despite leading the National League Central for most of the season, the Brewers finished two games behind the Chicago Cubs in the division. Their 83-79 record was the first winning season since 1992, but is also remembered as the 26th season that ended without a post-season berth.

Manager Ned Yost, who took a majority of the criticism for the team's miscues, thinks that the experience of missing the playoffs by such a small margin just might be one of those intangibles that will put the Brewers over the top in 2008.

Yost learned about the rigors and pressures associated with playoff races as a backup catcher with the Brewers in the early 1980s and as a coach with the Atlanta Braves for 12 years. Last season, he tried to impart that wisdom on his young players, many of whom were in their first few seasons as major leaguers.

"Last year I was just trying to pave the way for them and tell them what to expect," Yost says. "We were always talking about things to look for and the hazards that befall you when you go through a pennant race ... the pressures that are involved. Nobody had gone through it."

The frustrations of faltering down the stretch appeared, at least on the surface, to take its toll on Yost near the end of the season. He was, at times, accused by some of being surly or grouchy. In reality, he was trying to be a lighting rod of sorts, to keep the pressure off his players.

"If I got frustrated last year it's because I wanted everybody to leave those kids alone," Yost says. "Nobody understood what going through that was like for the first time.

"We jumped out to a good start, I knew that the added pressure on them and everybody's expectations but I also knew our personnel and I was trying to deflect as much of that pressure as I could off them to take pressure off of them so that they could get through it."

In Yost's eyes, the experiences of 2007 have helped to breed a greater sense of confidence in 2008. Knowing how close they came has helped the players not only realize what they have to do to make the playoffs but also verified how good of a team they really are.

It's a thought process, Yost says, that will make a world of difference this year as he sees that the players, who came to camp last year thinking they were a good team and were capable of competing arrived in Maryvale this year knowing they were a good team that could win the division.

"These kids have all gone through it now. There's nothing I need to tell them," Yost says. "They're prepared; they understand what it feels like, what it smells like to go through it.

"That's a huge bit of experience for a young team to go through a pennant race for the first time and to go through it together. None of them have really gone through it before."

The experience also had an impact on owner Mark Attanasio, who says he also learned a thing or two from focusing on the outcome of every game.

"I learned that I need to chill out," Attanasio says of going through his first playoff chase. "I also learned it's a very long season. Even tough you can get your stomach churning in July; it's what you do in September that counts.

"I'm going to try to have a more measured summer this summer. It is against my nature; I'm not saying I'm going to be successful, but I'm going to try."

Yost prepared for the pressures of this season by going to the doctor, getting a full checkup and having his heart checked out. He also made sure to catch up on some sleep which he's not expecting to get much of if the Brewers again are in the thick of the pennant race come September.

"I made sure I was in good health because there wasn't much sleeping at the end of the year last year," Yost says. "But that's the fun part of it."