RockCoCougars

I don't see the point in trading Prince for prospects at this point, especially relief pitchers because the bullpen seems pretty crowded to me at this point. I'd rather at least wait to see how things play out to the deadline and take prospects then if out of contention or just take the two picks.

Harvey Kuenn worked as hitting coach under 5 managers I believe before he got the manager gig. It doesn't seem that he was thought to be manager material either (probably partially due to his health), but once he got the chance, he did pretty well. Other examples would be Larry Haney and Bill Castro. I think that one of the two was on the coaching staff from 1978 to 2009. Haney seemed to have a job for life.

How would you feel if at your workplace if both the following happened? You got a interim promotion, achieved what you were supposed to, allowed to interview for the job and passed over for an external candidate. -and- Two years later after the failure of the candidate hired in your stead, the position opens again, and you are not even given an interview. Again you are bypassed for an external candidate. I'd be looking for a job elsewhere unless I was happy with my current position and not interested in the least in career advancement. Since Sveum interviewed for managerial positions, I assume that is not the case.

It was a totally legit knee/leg injury. The field conditions in Las Vegas were horrible. That lousy field in those 2-3 exhibition games also changed Edgar Martinez's whole career. . . . And I also agree that the nice extension Listach got was more than a large leap of faith given that he'd never hit so well in the minors. I loved that Yankees trade. That was the best one of 3 solid late-summer trades Bando made in '96: - Vaughn wasn't re-signing for an affordable figure; we got Florie (decent reliever & spot starter), Villone (ditto), & Newfield (dud, should've been better, little legal/judgement issue) - Listach & Lloyd sent to the Yankees for Bob Wickman (solid set-up & eventual closer) & Gerald Williams (the lesser Williams in the NY OF, but still a Gold Glove caliber defender) -- Listach turned out to be injured, so they got Bones; who was terrible by then, too; Lloyd was the only guy in those 3 trades they arguable should've & realistically could've kept - Seitzer (who was likely to retire, though he still played another year for Cleveland) to Cleveland for Jeromy Burnitz Yes, I do not doubt that it was an absolutely legitimate injury- my last post was worded badly. Two of those three trades were steals, one was pretty bad. I'd give the Seitzer/Burnitz trade a slight edge over the Yankees deal, but not much. I remember Newfield playing pretty well in late season '96. Actually, I was thinking he didn't start stinking up the joint (pun intended) until busted with the delivery at the team motel. Villone was OK. He lasted forever, but was pretty mediocre for the Crew. Florie was turned into Mike Myers if I recall correctly, and was effective until he took a nasty liner in the face. Bando actually made some decent trades, but too many colossal blunders and horible draft picks.

Has anyone found it kind of ironic that the owner of the Bucks gave like a $50 million donation to the money machine that is the UW for a new arena, but doesn't seem interested in kicking that in for his own team? Don't get me wrong, I'm not dissing on Kohl, because the Bucks would have likely been gone 20 years ago without him, but I do find that kind of odd. By the way, I would dispute that Seattle had more basketball tradition than Milwaukee. They had some good teams in the late 70's and early 80's and again at the turn of the century, but the Bucks were for the most part, a top tier team for the better part of 20 years. True they each only have one championship, but I would guess that the Bucks have played many more playoff games.

Somewhere in there was an injury in an end-of-spring-training exhibition game in Las Vegas (seems to me it was against Seattle, in the same series where Edgar Martinez blew out his knee & subsequently was fated to become a full-time DH for the remainder of his career), after which Listach's career was never the same. I doubt Listach just coasted after his contract extension. He wasn't known as that kind of person. His SB success rate stayed good for the rest of his career, but he never hit again like he did as a rookie, which suggests that his great rookie year hitting may have been a fluke. I'm not sure that I could say he coasted because there were was a legit knee injury. However, it just seemed like he could never get it rehabbed and get back on the field, and when he did play, he was brutal. He even ended up failing the physical (can't remember if it was the knee or what) when he was traded to the Yankees, and the Brewers had to kick Ricky Bones in. At any rate, this is why you don't give a Rookie of the Year a contract extension immediately. Bando attempted to emulate the 'Cleveland model' and failed miserably.

This is a complete longshot, but the whole Sveum development has me thinking... What if the Brewers shocked everyone and hired Yount as manager? We have at least one mystery candidate who interviewed in Arizona, and now Sveum is staying on despite not even getting an interview for the manager job. Yount is from AZ and Sveum is one of his best friends. Things that make you go hmmm...... If anything it would be a huge PR coup for the team.

Maybe you missed it, but they were a playoff team last year. Right, but I said winning and selling out the BC. I thought that I read somewhere that despite the surprise season, last year was the lowest attendance in the Bradley Center era. I'm not sure if the playoff games even sold out. The Bucks have to pack the seats to have any chance at a new arena.

No kidding? Sveum is becoming this generation's Harvey Kuenn, in that he's always the bridesmaid and never the bride. I'm surprised that he's so loyal to this organization when quite frankly he's been treated like crap.

I'm not broken hearted about Listach being out. Like I said, I kind of have a bad taste in my mouth from his playing career. He had the nice rookie season, got a contract extension and disappeared. I know that he was playing way over his head in '92, but still. He never struck me as an overly 'heady' player anyway. Back in that era, the one guy that struck me as a future manager was Surhoff (there's an outside the box candidate for you).

I would think that the Bucks wouldn't even be in the top 3 on the contraction list. Things aren't exactly peachy in Memphis, Sacramento or Minnesota. There are a few other borderline markets out there with poor attendance and arena issues. The Bucks may be a top 5 option in this scenario, which is why the city fathers need to start talking about a new arena. In the short term, hopefully they start winning and selling out the BC again.

I think Yost was actually pretty good at that. He always protected his players in the media, and seemed to handle young guys fairly well. And though he stood up for his guys and had faith in their abilities, I don't think that he was a pushover by any means. The problem with him was that he was a bad in-game strategist. In my view, Macha just had the wrong personality for the team. That said, I found myself cursing at the television much less with him at the helm because he made better in-game decisions that Yost. I think that if you took all the good parts from Yost and Macha and made them into one person, that's your guy.

Hence the dilemma. Do you want a 'good cop' a la Hurdle, or do you want a hard 'butt'..... The 'company man' type in Macha with his detached style (though he didn't seem necessarily to be a 'bad cop') and unwillingness to protect his players went over like a lead balloon, so I don't think a gung ho hard core style would work. As I said in my other post, if you want a player's guy, why not give Sveum or Randolph a chance and if it doesn't work out go another way in a year? Both of those guys have worked pretty well with the current squad (I give Sveum a lot of credit for Hart and Randolph a lot of credit for Weeks). That just doesn't make sense to me. It seemed to me that Yost had a pretty good personality for this club as he seemed to be able to switch between good cop and bad cop....but he made too many boneheaded decisions during games..... and with Yost, there were rumors that he wasn't too popular with the clubhouse. As for the named candidates, I prefer Cora. I admittedly don't know very much about him, but he's managed in the minors, and is not just a bench coach in name only (meaning he has responsibilities) and he was known as a heady, scrappy (yes I know) ballplayer. I would still prefer a guy like Valentine for the long term or Sveum/Randolph in the near term, but that's not going to happen.

The primary reason that I don't favor Hurdle because he never won a weak division once in nearly eight seasons. As a matter of fact, the World Series year in 2007 was the only winning season that he had in Colorado. Ned Yost has a higher career winning percentage than Hurdle. I know that the manager can only work with what he's given, and it follows that the whole 'hiring a winner' thing should be taken with a grain of salt, but I see nothing with his history in Colorado that makes me want to turn the team over to him. In 2009, the Rockies were a playoff team, but when Hurdle was fired they were 10 games under. I don't want to make this political at all, but I also remember hearing some rumblings that Hurdle's religious beliefs had fractured the clubhouse somewhat. He doesn't seem to bring much to the table in my view outside of the one World Series appearance and the fact that his reputation was as a 'players manager'- which the Brewers seem to be looking for. What I don't understand is if the Brewers are looking for a 'players manager' first and foremost, why they just didn't go with Sveum or Randolph- both of whom seem to have had good rapport already in place with the team. Are they seen as pushovers or what? I want a players guy as well, since it's obvious the middle manager approach Macha had didn't work, but looking at Hurdle's track record, I'd rather give a new guy a shot.

Apparently, Wallach was one of the guys interviewed in AZ. I wonder if Wedge or Roenicke was the other one. Since we know that Cora, Listach and Melvin all interviewed for sure, it seems that there are four guys who interviewed for sure and two guys who almost certainly interviewed, that still leaves a couple of mystery men. Going further, Melvin mentioned that there were eight candidates, not eight interviews. That doesn't allay my fears about Hurdle being in the mix one bit.

I think the question is which two guys did Melvin interview in AZ last week? Unless I missed something, those two haven't been named. As I said in another thread, both Sveum and Sandberg live in AZ I believe..... as does Bob Brenly (gag). Since Hardicourt is now reporting that Brenly is out of the mix, hopefully that bullet has been dodged, though I'm still very nervous about Clint Hurdle.

Trebelhorn started out as an interim manager as well, after Bamberger split before the season ended in '86. I don't think that he was expected to get the job at first either. If you really want to split hairs, Buck Rodgers got the full time gig the first time Bamberger stepped down after serving as acting manager during Bambi's heart surgery.

Regarding the absence of Prince, I hope that the Brewers don't put too much thought/stock in who is featured in their promotional materials. This story always comes to mind for me- basically, the Blue Jays could have had Ron Guidry right before he became 'Louisiana Lightning', but had a small conflict with the cover of the media guide and decided against the trade. As quoted from http://www.baseball-alman...arly/yr1977n.shtml : "Prior to the start of the '77 season, the Toronto Blue Jays had agreed to a trade that would send veteran pitcher Bill Singer to the New York Yankees for the then, little used, left-hander Ron Guidry. All bets were off though after the front office realized that Singer was on the cover of their printed media guide. By the end of the season, Singer had gone 2-8 and retired while Guidry compiled a 16-7 record and an impressive 2.82 ERA."

Are the two candidates that were interviewed in Arizona last week 'mystery candidates'? If so, I'm pretty sure Sandberg lives down there. Sveum and Robin do as well.

Time moves fast doesn't it? Tough to believe that Wallach is 53. It seems like just yesterday he was the hot shot prospect at third for the Expos. In fact, he's older than Harvey Kuenn was when he was hired in 1982.

Wallach and Roenicke aren't exactly 'young'. Both have been around since I was young. Wallach is 53 and Roenicke is 54. Even Cora is 45. Listach is the youngest at 43. To put that in perspective, Trebelhorn was 38 when he got the Brewers job and Garner was 42. Man, I feel old now.

Cool. Molitor, Yount, and Gantner still qualify.

My guess is that any trade for Greinke will have to start with Lawrie and one of Jeffress or Rogers. Adding McGehee to the mix would probably get it done (remember that he could DH in the AL). That's a pretty steep price to pay, but if you do this, I think that you have to keep Prince next year and give it one more run with the core intact.

That's exactly my (admittedly from afar) take on Wedge. He won that weak division once in 7 years, with young pitchers like Sabathia and Lee- not to mention Carmona and Westbrook when they were good. He reminds me of Macha in that he had teams that were stacked with pitching, but his teams performed worse than Macha's A's. I'm aware that Cleveland had some severe bullpen issues during a couple of those seasons, but still.

Hmmm......Billingsley for Fielder would be somewhat intriguing to me, hadn't thought of that one. It would make sense in that you'd have Billingsley for two seasons, while trimming quite a bit of payroll to use towards another pitcher like Greinke. I like the fact that he strikes a lot of guys out and gets a lot of groundballs.