May 18, 2008...10:49 pm
WELCOME TO THE BOTTOM
Your last-place Milwaukee Brewers.
That’s right. Last-place. Haven’t had to say that since the bad old days of Davey Lopes and Jerry Royster.
Five straight losses and nine in a row away from Miller Park after a three-game sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Just brutal.
Other than Ryan Braun, who clubbed two more home runs today, no one in the Milwaukee lineup is hitting the ball with any consistency, although the Brewers did hit four HRs overall today. Clutch hitting is AWOL, along with pitching and now all of a sudden defense.
If you had asked me eight weeks ago what the chances were of the Brewers being a sub-.500 team and in last place as Memorial Day approached, I’d have wondered just what the quality of the crack was that you had been smoking. Honestly, I never saw this coming.
Fans are lashing out against Manager Ned Yost, much of it carryover from the inadequate job Yost did managing the club during last year’s stretch run. Calling for Yost to be fired is one thing, but just who does GM Doug Melvin replace Yost with as manager?
Many people think that ex-Brewer Ted Simmons was brought in as bench coach essentially as the manager-in-waiting, but Simmons has exactly zero managerial experience at any level. After retiring, Simmons has been a front office guy, including a stint as GM in Pittsburgh.
Another possibility would be the Brewers’ Class AAA manager at Nashville, Frank Kremblas, who has managed the club’s key players at various levels in the minors. Problem is, Melvin had better be ready to make Kremblas a long-term answer, rather than an interim manager and conducting a search after the season and returning Kremblas to Class AAA. Kremblas could be the answer in much the same manner as Harvey Kuenn was in 1982 in replacing Bob Rodgers. I’d like to see Melvin go in that direction, but there isn’t much time to waste. Almost daily, Milwaukee is losing ground to white-hot Chicago, clearly the best team in the NL Central and possibly the National League.
One of my problems with Yost is his stubborn adherence to players who are clearly not performing. Two words: Derrick Turnbow. Two more words: Bill Hall. Not that Yost needs to call players out in the media on a regular basis, but he continues to defend poorly performing players on a public basis long after it becomes absurd to do so.
Contrast Yost with his counterpart in Chicago, Lou Piniella. In yesterday’s game, Cubs’ fans saw a flashback to the bad old Carlos Zambrano. Leading 4-2 in the fourth, Zambrano struck out then broke the bat over his knee then proceeded to go out on the mound and lose focus, walking the opposing pitcher on four pitches and giving up three runs. Piniella wasn’t terribly forgiving in the media after the game, saying: “I don’t see a need to break a bat over the knee when you have a 4-2 lead.”
I can’t see Ned Yost criticizing any player in the media in that manner, let alone one of his stars. If anything, there’s too much excusing, protecting, offering of alibis, etc., for substandard, inexcusable performance. While it’s true Yost isn’t the one swinging the bats to the level of ineptitude that the Brewers’ lineup is, he is the one who makes up that lineup card.
Whatever changes Melvin deems necessary should be made relatively soon. If this team is scruffing along 10 games under .500 by the 4th of July, in the words of a good New Yorker: fuhgettaboutit.
Speaking of leadership, Braun, who just signed a lucrative contract extention this week, is showing signs of leadership both on he field and now off it today. Read his remarks on the state of the Brewers here. A snippet:
I almost felt like this series, we didn’t expect to win. We were competing; I know everybody tried hard. But it’s not about trying hard. You’ve got to expect to win. I almost feel like we never really expected to win any of these games. I just kind of had that feeling.
It’s just a feeling. Every time we were winning, I just didn’t feel we expected to win. It was like we were just content to be there and compete. I don’t think we necessarily expected to win.
2 Comments
May 19, 2008 at 8:12 am
I went to a number of spring training games this year, easy to do when you live about 20 minutes away. A couple of things jump out at me as I watch the team. The main problem as I can see is the pitching, beyond Ben Sheets and Jeff Suppan there is none. Numerous injuries have depleted the team, and there isn’t much available in the farm system. During spring training this was not an issue and the team as a whole looked much better. I do know through people that know people in the Brewers front office that they felt this was the year the Brewers would break into the playoffs. I say the odds of that get worse every day.
The other glaring issue is Bill Hall. I do not know what’s happened with him but as you and many others have pointed out he’s not the same guy he was 3 years ago. My guess is that if the Brewers are way back in the pack come trading deadline look for Sheets and Hall to be traded. -Ken
May 19, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I think the most likely candidate to take over as manager - should Yost be fired - would be Dale Sveum. Sveum’s been in the organization a lot longer than Ted Simmons, and he has managerial experience from his time in the Pirates organization.
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