Comments on: Why Did the Brewers Fire Ned Yost?

By: Voice of Reason

Voice of Reason — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 17:12:20 +0000

Perhaps you should look at why & how the Brewers lost games in the time period you are talking about (or the whole season for that matter).

Yost consistently failed to maximize the bullpen.
-Brian Shouse has excellent splits against lefties, yet he’s faced nearly the same number of righties as lefties. It’s so bad in fact, that his R split is .301/.377/.452 while his L split is .173/.190/.286 & he’s faced MORE righties! Specifically & recently, Yost brought him in to face Chase Utley & Ryan Howard with a runner on first. Shouse got Utley to sacrifice & Yost asked him to INTENTIONALLY WALK HOWARD. So a lefty who has hit just .230/.312/.467 against lefties with a lhp who dominates lefties gets walked for Pat Burrell. Might be a good time to bring in a righty, huh? No. Not in Yost-land.
-Consistently using Eric Gagne in the 8th inning. Understandably a mountain of money was invested in Gagne, but Yost needed to cut bait earlier in the year. The guy averages giving up 2/3 of a run every time he pitches! The following pitchers have a lower VORP than Eric Gagne: Tim Dillard, Julian Tavarez, Derrick Turnbow.
-Consistent failure to use quality pinch hitters in critical situations. Bill Hall has been attrocious against righties this year hitting .173/.239/.317. On top of that, during the course of the season, Yost has frequently had a good–or at least better–left-handed bat on the bench (Branyan, Gross, Counsell & in September, Brad Nelson & Mat Gamel) but Yost fails to use them. Several times it has been a one-run game in the 9th with Hall up to bat against a righty & he’s stayed in the game. How does this make sense? How is this justifiable?

Players play & managers manage. The problem has, to some extent been the players. But there is NO DENYING that Yost has consistently failed to put his players in the best opportunity to succeed. Over the last month Yost has taken his poor decision making to a new level. That is why he was fired.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:26:12 +0000

You don’t think a manager can screw up a team over the course of an entire season? Let me introduce you to the 2004 Chicago Cubs.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:48:23 +0000

The Brewers had nothing to lose by firing Yost. The only thing I can think of besides the scapegoat angle is that he’d lost his players. That, and maybe they were trying to catrch lightning in a bttle like they did after the altercation between Fielder and Parra.
Not hard to understand with some of the moves and non-moves he made in games. He probably did cost them a few wins, or at the very least, lessened their chances of winning in a few games because of his decision to “go with his gut and hope the players come up big in a situation they are ill suited for”. The bad thing about this situation is that the Braves will probably bring him back to be the manager in waiting. On the bright side, it would be a seamless transition in in-game management style. Does he still have that clothing store in Stone Mountain to fall back on?

By: Jason S.

Jason S. — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:50:48 +0000

I think it’s partly to have a scapegoat and partly to prevent a repeat of last year’s late season swoon. The Brewers have lost 5 in a row and are 2-8 in the last 10 and it started to look like once again a Yost managed team was going in the tank and he seemed clueless as to how to stop it. There is no tomorrow for the Brewers. With all of their free agents they will probably not be very good next year, so it’s this year or nothing if they are going to try to win the World Series.

Reports claim that his decision to hold Sabbathia out of the weekend series so he didn’t pitch on short rest sealed his fate. I think it convinced the GM and owner that Yost didn’t take things as seriously as they did.