Does anyone think the firing of Ned Yost as manager of the Milwaukee Brewers is a wise move?
I actually had predicted before the season that Yost would be the first NL manager fired in 2008. I wasn’t correct of course. And now that he has been fired, I think it’s a bad move.
The Brewers are eight games back in the NL Central with little chance to catch the Cubs. They ARE tied for the lead in the Wild Card race with the Philadelphia Phillies. They are right in the midst of the playoff race and by firing their manager, the Brewers have introduced an element of extreme chaos.
If they had a manager-in-waiting with extreme skill and smarts like a Jim Leyland type or perhaps a uber-charismatic-type, maybe I’d understand. But they’re bringing in Dale Sveum as an interim manager who will in fact finish the season. Sveum has no managerial experince and boy, he has his work cut out for him.
General Manager Doug Melvin didn’t seem to sure of his decision either:
"I’m not sure I have all the answers, and I’m not sure this is the right one, either," general manager Doug Melvin said. "But I’m going to turn the managerial position over to Dale Sveum at this time and hope that we can kick-start a ballclub that we feel has a lot of talent."
But who knows? Sveum may surprise us. He has already saying things like, "it’s not for two weeks, it’s for six weeks", referring to his interim tenure.
Melvin’s decision seems to have befuddled the baseball pundits but a cursory look at a couple Brewers blogs seem to indicate that many fans of the team welcome the move though they admit it is a bit late in the season.
A couple other notes worth mentioning: Bench coach Ted Simmons will be re-assigned. In his place, Sveum named Robin Yount.
