Brewers fire Ned Yost, make Dale Sveum interim manager

Yount had a Yost infection.

 

wouldn't this be the time to bring back phil garner? his september record in recent years is pretty damn good. he was playing with crappy, old parts during his first stint in milwaukee.

 

So I just got back from running around the block naked screaming like a banshee ...

I am overjoyed. As Waylon said, this is about nine months too late, he should have been fired last year after he showed he could not handle a pennant race. Just like Willie Randolph should not have been brought back. Once the damage such as the damage that was done last year by the Brewers (and Mets), it is very hard to escape that stigma.

He's been doing stupid shit again this year with lineups, pitching matchups, etc.

Mostly, it's the moves he doesn't make, like not setting his rotation properly for key series in the pennant drive, an easy task given there's a spot starter (McClung) ready to roll out of the bullpen if the Brewers wanted to save Sabathia, Sheets, etc., for a bigger series.

Or leaving Yovanni Gallardo in early in the season when he was clearly hurt. Or stubbornly sticking with Rickie Weeks for long past time when it was clear he's not a big league leadoff man. Or proclaiming in the face of a meltdown that the Brewers are still a "young" team when they are clearly in win-now mode.

The Brewers have been good enough to cover for it at times, but not lately.

Yost is the ultimate player enabler, and after the Brewers have largely stunk, especially the everyday lineup, during September, there needed to be a new voice, because the only voice Yost has is to make excuses.

Does this mean the Brewers are all of the sudden OK? Hardly. Sveum has a helluva task in front of him. The Phillies have a much more favorable schedule and the Brewers could tank as easily as get energized by this move. It's a gamble. It had to be made, but it's a gamble nonetheless.

As for those who say they should have rode Yost to the end, why? Every bit of evidence is there to suggest he couldn't handle it. The Brewers have a small window of opportunity here and they need to take advantage of it. The Brewers have been plenty loyal to him too, most teams would've shitcanned him a year ago.

Well enough of that, back to this ...

 

Totally awesome.

Neither one of them can actually finish the deed, however, as both would pull a quad or some such thing before getting it on.

 

Zambrano would just complain about a sore groin before getting it on and delay his appearance. And then go Wilt Chamberlain on the town 10 days later.

 

Will Yost go back to the Braves in some capacity?

 

Not true. Most Brewers fans expected this team to compete for the division, and likewise most hate Ned Yost. Being tied for the wild-card right now is a disappointment to Crew Nation.

And Armchair, what Gutter said. The Simmons thing was 100 percent fan speculation. All the talk from people who knew was that Simmons would not be the replacement, that Sveum would.

 

For all of my invective about Yost, I'll say this, he is an ideal manager for a Triple-A team, or even, a very young MLB team.

He was the right guy for the Brewers in 2003 when hired. Coming out of 2002, the Brewers were in their worst state in franchise history. They had lost 106 games in '02, the front office was in chaos as the Selig era ended, which begot a brief, and equally tumultuous Ulice Payne era. The franchise was a mess.

The only thing it had going for it was Miller Park and a bubbling of prospects those in the know knew were a few years away. Yost's personality was perfect for those types of players, he encouraged them, he didn't put pressure on them, he helped their transition to become big-league players. He was the right guy for the Brewers as they built themselves into contenders.

What no one knew is that Yost would never let go of the idea he had a young team. Most of the first-wave of the Brewers '02-'03 prospects were in the bigs by 2005 or 2006. By 2008, they're no longer a young team anymore. Yost never understood that, and instead of changing his style to demand more accountability, he became the player enabler that has borne the fruit of the 2007 and 2008 collapses.

His loyalty to those players led him to lose his mind. The famous beanball war last year was to protect his guys. Everyone but Yost could see the folly in it given the timing. What's often forgotten is his multiple meltdowns in the Braves series before the Cardinals series, often, along the same lines of protecting his guys.

The idiotic devotion to Derrick Turnbow early this season was another example. Yost loved Turnbow and always had faith he'd pull out of it long after it was obvious he wouldn't. To a lesser extent, the same is true for Eric Gagne. I have no doubt in my mind Yost was forced to move him out of the closer's role.

The overreaction to Sabathia's no-hit bid, again, how could one of his guys get fucked over (in his mind)?

He had no internal radar when it came to judging his players. He was too close to them. It's what made him right for 2003 and dead-wrong for 2008.

And while Attanassio is to be credited for making a ballsy move now, he should have forced the issue last year.

 

Iorg will leave the coaching lines when righties are up and Rance Mulliniks will take over (rim shot).

The one thing which always made me shake my head with Yost was how when he sat a guy down for a game, he'd put the sub in at the exact same spot in the lineup. Hello, Joe Dillon batting third and playing first!

 

That's right out of Dusty's playbook.

 

He did that as much as possible because he didn't like to shake up the rest of the lineup on a daily basis, i.e. having Prince bat 3rd one day, 4th the next, back to 3rd, then to 5th, etc. For all of Yost's faults, I never had a huge problem with this one.

 

That was fucking outstanding.

And I know Goalmouth will appreciate it too!