Bad News Bears dvd Yost relieved of managerial post
09/15/2008 2:59 PM ET
MLB.comMILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers today announced that Ned Yost has been dismissed from his position as manager of the Club. The announcement was made by Brewers Executive Vice President and General Manager, Doug Melvin.
“This was a very difficult move to make, and we appreciate all of the work that Ned has done to develop this team into a contender,” Melvin said. “In the end, this was a collaborative decision made to put our Club in the best position for the final two weeks of the season.”
Dale Sveum, the Brewers third base coach, will take over in an interim role as manager for the remainder of the season. Bench Coach Ted Simmons has been reassigned to an advisory role. Any other coaching changes will be announced later.
From ESPN:
MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers fired manager Ned Yost on Monday in the midst of a late-season slump that has jeopardized the team’s chances of making the playoffs for the first time since 1982.
Third-base coach Dale Sveum will become interim manager for the remainder of the season. Bench coach Ted Simmons was reassigned to an advisory role.
“This was a very difficult move to make, and we appreciate all of the work that Ned has done to develop this team into a contender,” general manager Doug Melvin said. “In the end, this was a collaborative decision made to put our club in the best position for the final two weeks of the season.”
The Brewers share the NL wild-card lead with Philadelphia despite losing 11 of 14 in September, including seven of their last eight. Milwaukee was idle Monday.
“I think we have sucked in September so far,” a Brewers player who wished to remain anonymous told ESPN.com’s Amy K. Nelson. “And I don’t think it’s his fault that we can’t hit or pitch right now, but something had to change.”
Milwaukee is hoping to avoid a repeat of last year’s collapse. The Brewers held an 8½-game lead in late June before sliding to 83-79 and missing the playoffs.
The Brewers kept up their playoff push even longer this season, boosted when they made a big splash on July 7 by getting ace CC Sabathia from Cleveland.
Sabathia, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, is 9-0 in 13 starts with six complete games and a 1.59 ERA.
Yost was in his sixth season as the Brewers’ manager. When Milwaukee hired him from Atlanta after the 2002 season, the team was in the midst of four straight seasons with 94 losses or more.
But the next three seasons resulted in records of 81-81, 75-87 and 83-79, a marked improvement for a franchise that hadn’t had a winning record since 1992.
Yost spent 12 years on the Braves’ coaching staff with Bobby Cox, and Atlanta won division titles every year Yost was there except the strike-shortened 1994 season.
This should start a discussion about the worst managers in baseball. On my list Yost was at the top.
If this isn’t a sign that the Brewers, no matter how talented they are, have management issues. I don’t know what is. I don’t care how much they’ve faltered the past three weeks, they’re still tied for the Wild Card. This honestly couldn’t wait another two weeks?
It’s quite obvious upper management put all their eggs into this year’s basket, and now is freaking out.
shhhhhhh…
We can be loud now.
I don’t understand this move. Why shake up your bench management with only 12 games left in your schedule and 14 games left in the division leader’s schedule? Why do this with a good shot at winning the Wild Card?
The manager always gets too much credit and too much blame. Unless you are Dusty Baker where comments like clogging up the base paths helps to get you fired. This was a bad move. I would like to know what exactly Yost did to get him fired. Because his team played well the last two seasons. What I find funny is how quickly the game had changed for the Brewers. Last week they were four game back and making us worry. Now they fired their manager, putting at risk their wild card chances. Will probably lose their two top pitchers to FA. Can you smell rebuilding year in 2009? Matt is right, this team has management issues. Top management issues.
The way Yost managed his talent is to blame. Everyone here could probably name four or five bench coaches or minor league coaches that could do better with the talent the Brewers have and they’d more than likely be many different names by the time the list was done. Yost, as the Tribune pointed out, should have been gassed last year for coughing up the division. Yost couldn’t manage his way through a supermarket checkout lane, much less the Brewers’ season.
It is, as everyone else has pointed out, a sign of desperation. I’m not sure Attanasio or Melvin felt that Yost was a total loser, and I’m CERTAINLY sure neither of them thinks that Sveum is the answer, but they DID feel like they had to do SOMETHING. Yost was a strange fellow, and his style just didn’t jive with the players in Milwaukee. I don’t mean to suggest that they all hated him, but I think his insistence on silly things (like leaving the same fielding position at a certain spot in the lineup) cost him a great deal of respect.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see him stay around baseball, but in this case, I don’t see him returning to management with a great deal of success.
I’ve seen people compare this to Alan Trammel. That’s dumb. AT is a baseball guy who knows the game and just had pathetic personnel in DET. Ned Yost had what he needed, and he just couldn’t capitalize.
I think the real deal-breaker for him was the Cubs’ losing streak. The Brewers hardly made up any ground, and Yost didn’t seem worried. He was happy with the WC, but, as we’re seeing, that’s never a gimme.
It’ll be interesting to see who the Brewers get to take over next year. Thoughts?
kl, I agree with you about the deal-breaker. That must have been the final straw among upper management. The Cubs have a terrible couple of weeks, and the Brewers failed to capitalize. A four- to five-game discrepancy at the end of August is easy to overcome, and it should not prompt the manager to think about the Wild Card. Just win games, and either you’ll outperform the division leader and win the division or you’ll very likely win the Wild Card.
Yost seemed to have a very Bakerian approach to managing team performance. Perhaps Baker can manage them next.
I would assume LaRussa is safe in St. Louis despite the fact his team also failed to capitalize on both the Cubs’ and Brewers’ poor performances.