Brewers fire manager

[Da Coach]

Hard to believe, but the Milwaukee Brewers, who most fans think have overachieved this year, and who are in strong contention for the NL Wild card playoff spot, Fired manager Ned Yost today--

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20080915&content_id=3480423&vkey=pr_mil&fext=.jsp&c_id=mil

The Cubs are playing the Houston Astros this afternoon in Milwaukee, and in the top of the 6th innings, the Cubs lead 6-0.
Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly has not given up a hit yet.--

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=280915118

[OrangeandBlack74]

Lilly lost his no-hitter in the bottom of the 7th inning.

[pfunk880]

Hard to believe, but the Milwaukee Brewers, who most fans think have overachieved this year, and who are in strong contention for the NL Wild card playoff spot, Fired manager Ned Yost today--

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20080915&content_id=3480423&vkey=pr_mil&fext=.jsp&c_id=mil

The Cubs are playing the Houston Astros this afternoon in Milwaukee, and in the top of the 6th innings, the Cubs lead 6-0.
Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly has not given up a hit yet.--
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/boxscore?gid=280915118

Not sure where you get "overachieved" from. No fans I've heard have said that... maybe you're getting that from the media.

Yost should have been fired after last year. No other MLB manager has done less with more.

[Da Coach]

I just did a search for preseason projections, and only 1 out of a dozen sites I can find picked the Brewers to win the Central Division. Most picked them to miss the playoffs.

Right now, the Cubs are the only team in the NL with a better record than the Brewers. Show me anywhere that someone expected them to be that good. Are you saying that if they were managed by someone else, they would be better? I disagree.

Sorry, but their pitching going into this season was not that good. How many pitchers on their staff had ever won more than 12 games?

[BUBalum05]

Although admirable, Yost was too much of a "players manager". He continued to stand by underperforming guys. In their recent slide he didn't try to change the lineup until the doubleheader the day before he was fired.

Some examples of him sticking with players too long...they traded for Ray Durham, who was hitting at .298 before the trade but continued to stick with Rickie Weeks who has continued to hit in the .230's. He has also continued to give pitchers way too many chances (Gagme and Turnbow).

[Scouter]

I just did a search for preseason projections, and only 1 out of a dozen sites I can find picked the Brewers to win the Central Division. Most picked them to miss the playoffs.

Right now, the Cubs are the only team in the NL with a better record than the Brewers. Show me anywhere that someone expected them to be that good. Are you saying that if they were managed by someone else, they would be better? I disagree.

Sorry, but their pitching going into this season was not that good. How many pitchers on their staff had ever won more than 12 games?

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview08/news/story?page=08expertpicks

Five people predicted there that the Brewers would go to the playoffs.

Ben Sheets won 13 games last year, and 12 games in 2004 and 2007. (I know, I know. You said "more than 12 games." Eh.) He's also had a sub-4.00 ERA every year since 2004.
Jeff Suppan won 13 games in 2003, 16 games in 2004-2005 and 12 games in 2006-07.
Dave Bush also won 12 games in 2006-07.

If Ned Yost hadn't wasted his time throwing at Albert Pujols in the last two weeks of the season, the Brewers may have won the division last year.

[Da Coach]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/previe...=08expertpicks

Five people predicted there that the Brewers would go to the playoffs.

Ben Sheets won 13 games last year, and 12 games in 2004 and 2007. (I know, I know. You said "more than 12 games." Eh.) He's also had a sub-4.00 ERA every year since 2004.
Jeff Suppan won 13 games in 2003, 16 games in 2004-2005 and 12 games in 2006-07.
Dave Bush also won 12 games in 2006-07.

Ben Sheets was 12-5 last year (2007). He had never won more than 12 games in his career before this year.-

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/6618

And that list of baseball picks-- I am not sure why you are thinking that refutes my statement, but it actually proves my point.
You claimed that 5 people picked the Brewers, but that's 5 out of 19 people. That means 14 of 19 (over 70%) picked them to miss the playoffs. I said "most picked them to miss the playoffs", and I was right. If you searched more than just the obscure writers for ESPN you would find that most people from all the reliable sources picked them out of the playoffs.


The Brewers did not have a single pitcher on their roster who had ever won more than 12 games for them. Suppan has won more than 12, but never for the Brewers, and he's on the downside of his career and nobody expected much out of him this year. You can believe what you want, but the Brewers, even with Ben Sheets, had a mediocre staff going into this season. And now their starters are all fading-

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/rumors/post/Milwaukee-s-starting-rotation-is-reason-for-coll;_ylt=AkSlOmqSHeSHJKKRRotlq2KFCLcF?urn=mlb,107732

This is a team with too many one-dimensional players, missing key ingredients (no good leadoff man or closer) and no leadership. I think they have overachieved to get to 83 wins already. Their team batting average is a woeful .253. They are contending only because they traded away their future for C.C. Sabathia. If they hadn't done that, they would have been out of the playoff picture a long time ago. It's a huge mistake to change managers now. The timing of this firing says the owners didn't like Yost and the job he's done, and that's their right. But I would be surprised to see them make the playoffs now. And Yost will have no trouble finding another job.

[Bradleyguy10]

I just did a search for preseason projections, and only 1 out of a dozen sites I can find picked the Brewers to win the Central Division. Most picked them to miss the playoffs.

Right now, the Cubs are the only team in the NL with a better record than the Brewers. Show me anywhere that someone expected them to be that good. Are you saying that if they were managed by someone else, they would be better? I disagree.

Sorry, but their pitching going into this season was not that good. How many pitchers on their staff had ever won more than 12 games?

This is shocking and probably disheartening for the fans....I bet they are worried about their playoff spot now. They were already worried enough with weak play lately and now you are right in a way with only the cubs having a better record than them BUT the phillies are now tied with them, and HOUSTON of all teams is only 2.5 back...it's just not good. And I hate to get into disagreements too much, but I was under the impression that the Brewers were supposed to be good this year, and then when the got C.C.S, how can you NOT make the playoffs. Man, all year I though the central was the best with having the top 3 records (Mil, Chi, STL) now all the sudden the East may get 2 in and then Houston is in contention..it's just ridiculous.

How many people think this will ruin Milwaukee's playoff hopes? I'm just curious. And if you think it does who takes the wildcard spot.

[Scouter]

I think the Brewers are better off without Yost this season, and so do most Milwaukee fans.

In this poll, 57 percent are happy Yost is gone and many of them wanted him gone after the way they collapsed last season. The dude was a bad manager.

http://www2.jsonline.com/cgi-bin/asp/polls.asp?id=7892

[Bradleyguy10]

Do you think they'll get into the playoffs though?

[Scouter]

Do you think they'll get into the playoffs though?

I think they have a better chance with Sveum than they did with Yost. And I like their chances of getting to the playoffs because of Sabathia and Sheets.

[Da Coach]

Caution; satire:

With C.C. Sabathia losing tonight, there is concern that Brewers General Manager Doug Melvin may continue his surprise moves and send him down to the minor leagues. And now that Dale Sveum has lost his first game, I expect Melvin to fire him and replace him with infielder Craig Counsell.

It's also rumored that management encouraged Prince Fielder to pick a fight with Sabathia, since it seemed to inspire the team when he beat up on Manny Parra a few weeks ago. Fielder outweighs Parra by about 100 pounds, but Sabathia is 6'7", and over 300 pounds, and Fielder was not interested in getting into a fight with one of the few MLB players bigger than he is.

[pfunk880]

Oh, where do I begin?

First of all, pitching wins might be the most overrated stat in all of professional sports. Yeah, Sheets had never previously won more than 12 games in a season, but look at the crappy teams he was on. When he won 12 games in 2004, he would have gone 19-7 on a team with average run support according to baseball-reference.com.

I don't refute your claim that our leadoff spot is terrible, and the offense really isn't built well. Part of that is on Yost, though. He always wanted to play for the home run and the big inning. Small ball was nonexistent. Unfortunately, it's probably too late in the season to reverse course on that approach. But still, we clearly upgraded in the offseason (and with the Sabathia deal) from a team that won 83 games last year. And the NL really isn't that great, we certainly were positioned to contend for the wildcard. The national media just doesn't pay enough attention to the small markets (you should know that as well as anyone with regards to media treatment of large schools vs. Bradley and other mid-majors). After last season's collapse, Milwaukee fell off the radar a little bit. As for the Cubs, I really didn't understand why they were the unanimous pick. After barely winning a bad division and looking awful in the playoffs, all they did was add Fukudome (blech) and reshuffle the rotation (Dempster/Wood has worked out better than anyone could have imagined). I won't deny, though, that the Cubs are a much more disciplined team, and their situational hitting is worlds ahead of Milwaukee... again, you can chalk some of that up to the manager. Pinella >>>>>>>>>>> Yost.

And it's not a mistake to change managers at this point. Things can't get any worse, that's for sure. At least Sveum hopefully won't be dumb enough to start the same lineup in both games of a doubleheader when we have 36 freakin' guys on the roster. Yost won't have any trouble landing on his feet, but I don't see him being a manager anytime soon.

Also, that satirical comment really didn't make any sense. You make it sound like Yost being fired was a knee-jerk thing, but in reality, his stay in Milwaukee was far too long. That being said, though, I wouldn't mind Counsell as the manager. It would keep him off the field, because he's not really useful for much more than as a defensive replacement anymore. And just last week, he had to remind Yost to put in a pinch-runner, because Yost was as usual focused on the homerun though the tying run was at second.

[Da Coach]

And it's not a mistake to change managers at this point. Things can't get any worse

That's an interesting perspective. The Brewers had the 2nd best record in the NL (not any more after last night's loss), and they were on target to win 90+ games and make the playoffs. As much as some criticize Yost, that's quite an accomplishment for a team with a modest cumulative salary (15th out of 30), no leadoff hitter, only 1 consistent quality starting pitcher, and other flaws.

I assure you, things could get a lot worse. Look at Cleveland, Detroit, Seattle, Baltimore, St. Louis, and the Yankees, all of whom have similar or higher team salaries and are hopelessly out of contention.

If changing managers with less than 2 weeks left in a season when a team is contending for a pennant was a good idea, why hasn't any team ever done it before? I still think it's a bad idea, and will have negative effects.

[Scouter]

If changing managers with less than 2 weeks left in a season when a team is contending for a pennant was a good idea, why hasn't any team ever done it before? I still think it's a bad idea, and will have negative effects.

Because Ned Yost wasn't their manager.