Dale Sveum - Yeah or Nay?

[twobrewers]

I will be the first to admit - I am not entirely sure what the role of the bench coach is. It seems as though the past two years we have just been using this position to rotate old Brewer favorites through town. First Yount and then Sveum. What does a Bench Coach do?

 

However, I do know that Sveum was widely considered a failure as a 3B coach in Boston. And since then he has been promoted to a Bench Coach with the Brewers.

 

With Ned getting thrown out on a nightly basis, Sveum's role with the team has been in focus. How do you feel about the job Sveum does a bench coach? I hated hiring him from day one - I am just sick of recycling the old Brewers teams.

 

I would imagine most are upset at how he handled the bullpen in tonights game, but I am looking at the entire season. Assuming Ned keeps his job - will there be coaching turnover? Who would be the most likely to go?

[Brian the Automator]

The main purpose of a bench coach is for defensive positioning.

[Brewer Fever]

Another coaching turnover would be the second one under Yost, meaning essentialy Nedly's third staff since he got here. That would make no sense. You don't keep recycling the underbelly of the coaching staff without looking in the direction of the leader.

[PeaveyFury]

If Dale is one of Ned's possible replacements or indicative of what we'd be looking at, I'm with Mark A's stance on Yost.

 

I don't really have a problem with Sveum otherwise beyond this evening as a bench coach.

[PlayerHader]

I'd like to hear Dale's reasoning for having Dillon lead off the 9th with Gross and Counsell both sitting on the bench as better options.

 

At least they've seen Isringhausen. Dillon was totally lost up there.

[lcbj68c]

Nay

[pitchleague]

does anybody really think Ned was NOT in the tunnel barking directions to Maddux and Sveum? Every manager does it when they've been tossed.

[1992casey]

I'm with pitchleague on this one. I don't think much is decided by the guy standing in for an ejected manager.

[Paul77]

I would imagine most are upset at how he handled the bullpen in tonights game, but I am looking at the entire season. Assuming Ned keeps his job - will there be coaching turnover? Who would be the most likely to go?

Making the leap that Ned isn't still running the show from the tunnel, each time Ned gets tossed the announcers make a point of saying the Maddux handles the pitchers and Sveum handles the defense and batting in his absence.

 

[twobrewers]

does anybody really think Ned was NOT in the tunnel barking directions to Maddux and Sveum? Every manager does it when they've been tossed.

With the Spygate stuff going on in the NFL, isn't it funny the amount of "cheating" that gets brushed under the carpet in MLB. I would imagine that statement is accurate. Assuming that, it is in complete violation of the rules.

 

How has Sveum been with his defensive positionings? I know our defense his horrible, but most of that seems to be the defensive ability of the players and not their positioning. Of course, watching on TV you aren't always able to see where they started the play to see how the positioning affect their play.

[Blazer25]

The main purpose of a bench coach is for defensive positioning.

Actually sometimes they do less than that. Some common bench coach duties:

 

Hitting fungos

Throwing BP

Spitting chew

Telling Jokes

 

 

They're probably the most inconsequential member of an MLB staff. It's basically a way to get one of your "buddies" the best seats in the house to 162 games.

[naivin]

A bench coach will often also sort of be another set of eyes in terms of line-up and provide input on who is available on the bench for various situation that may be coming up, possible PH's, defensive replacements, etc.

[RightFieldCoder]

What normally happens is that one of the clubhouse or bat boys runs back and forth between Yost in the clubhouse and the coaches. Yost would still be directing personel changes. A bench coach is the XO (executive officer) of the team. He has freedom to get things done the way he sees fit and works as a sounding board for the man in charge. But the manager will still make the final decisions no matter what the bench coach wants.

[Brian the Automator]

does anybody really think Ned was NOT in the tunnel barking directions to Maddux and Sveum? Every manager does it when they've been tossed.

With the Spygate stuff going on in the NFL, isn't it funny the amount of "cheating" that gets brushed under the carpet in MLB. I would imagine that statement is accurate. Assuming that, it is in complete violation of the rules.

 

How has Sveum been with his defensive positionings? I know our defense his horrible, but most of that seems to be the defensive ability of the players and not their positioning. Of course, watching on TV you aren't always able to see where they started the play to see how the positioning affect their play.

From talking to people in baseball, I'm fairly certain that Yost still has the ability to manage after the ejection.

As far as Sveum goes, if Yost stays, I don't have a problem with Sveum staying. If Yost goes, then it really should be up to the new manager to bring in his guys. The manager is going to have a much better understanding of who's doing a good job with defensive positioning than the GM would.

As far as my opinions on the defensive positioning, I don't think it's either been stellar or horrible. I don't recall a time thinking, wow, they had him shaded perfectly, nor was there a time where I thought they had a badly engineered shift on.

 

[sheethead]

As far as my opinions on the defensive positioning, I don't think it's either been stellar or horrible. I don't recall a time thinking, wow, they had him shaded perfectly, nor was there a time where I thought they had a badly engineered shift on.

 

I was at the game when a double error caused the runner on first and the batter to score due to an infield shift. A double play gets them out of the inning, but the shift caused Braun to throw errant at second because Hardy couldn't get to the bag due to the shift. This was the only time I can recall this year the shift was poorly implemented in a double play situation.

 

Edit: Nay

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

If Sveum is indeed behind the Brewers excessive shifting, I would go with "nay" as well. The Brewers are dreadful at turning batted balls in play into outs. One of the problems zone-based metrics still have is in accounting for defensive shifting. Either Braun, Weeks, and Fielder really are among the very worst fielders at their respective positions, not just with respect to reliability but with respect to range as well (which is possible, but at least range-wise my eyes tell me different), or part of the problem is that they're all being handicapped by the positioning tactics the team employs. At the very least I think we could all agree that the teams the Brewers play don't seem to employ extreme shifts as often as the Brewers do. Whatever the team is doing defensively, it isn't working this year. Since they are (and should be) committed to this group of players, it might make sense to take a stab at drastically changing the positioning tactics next year.

 

If Sveum has to go in order for that to happen, so be it.