DougJones43

What does this mean? And how can you tell? You're able to guage the team's passion from watching them on your television screen? I've never gotten this argument. What would constitute "quitting" anyway? Sitting in the dugout with "dejected" looks on their faces? Guys on the team not going in hard to break up double plays? Players actually quitting, and not showing up for the games?? While Ben Sheets was out of commision (July 15 - Aug. 28) the Brewers were 15-26. That's not good. Or by "not packing it in" did you mean the same thing as "not quitting"...

Couldn't a GM find a guy who wouldn't do the same stuff? Are you saying that, in all of organized baseball, there isn't anybody who believes in some of the philosophies put forward by SABRmetrics and fundamental logic? I'm sorry, but I really find this to be absurd. You can't chart out all of the possible scenarios that can happen in a game, and there are other (season-long) effects to cosider, like how often to use a guy, etc. The whole point is, if your manager would need one of these charts, he sucks. He doesn't have the instincts or intelligence to be managing a major league baseball team. There are probably a lot of people who can routinely make these types of decisions without a chart. Good managers just know. What's going to happen if the "closers" get used in a tie game in the 8th rather than a bunch of 3-run lead 9th innings? Refuse to pitch? Ask for a trade? Retire?? If so, I wouldn't want them on the team anyway.

Those are all things that would be quite difficult to prove, although it seems that there is mounting evidence that things like bunting when he does, only using the ace reliever in save situations, etc. is not a smart way to try and win close games. So, should managers ever be fired? Why even bother having them? Maybe fans should be given a chance to enter a raffle to manage a game for their team.

Would you care to elaborate on this a little? It's very vague.

Here are some facts: - Ned Yost has a career managerial record of 370-431 (.462 Win%). - Ned Yost currently owns the major league baseball record for biggest second-half collapse by a team with a winning record during the first half. - The Brewers were 32-49 on the road this season, continuing a trend that has plagued Yost teams during his entire tenure. - The Brewers have blown an enormous number of 3+ run leads during the 2007 season. - A Ned Yost team is in the midst of another very large second-half collapse. The Brewers held a 6.5 game lead in July, yet currently trail the Cubs by 3 games. - Ned Yost's moves have been criticized by a number of Brewer fans - as well as Cubs fans and general fans of baseball. A lot of his in-game decision making has been thought of as detrimental to the team by many neutral statisticians and well-respected baseball publications (probably the most objective source there is on the subject). - Ned has been managing for 5 years, and has shown very little willingness to change course, or even acknowledge his decisions or philosophies might be wrong. 5 years is a lot of time to learn a craft. - Many other young teams (with arguably less talent), such as Arizona and Colorado have been able to put together better seasons than the Brewers. It certainly seems to me that the deck is stacked pretty heavily against common sense telling us we should retain him as manager. However, many people still believe he is the best man for the job. I would like those people to answer a question, and this is a completely serious question: What would it take for you to change your mind, and decide you wanted Ned Yost replaced? Please list criteria that is as specific as possible.

http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/laugh.gif I just noticed the little billboards in the background. Nice touch.

Probably not, but there is still a diffence between being 84-78 vs 80-82 or whatever. Even if it only increases the probability of getting a new manager by 5%, I'd take it. That's how strongly I feel that retaining our current manager will be a detriment to this franchise.

I'm sure this will get me called a lot of names, but I don't really care. As soon as the Brewers are mathematically eliminated from postseason contention, I will be rooting for them to lose. The closer the team is to being at or below .500, the more pressure, justification, and likelihood there will be for a replacement of the manager. Higher draft picks don't hurt either. I really think the worse the team finishes this year, the better the outlook for the future will become. I'll gladly take a few losses now for what I perceive to be an opportunity for a brighter tomorrow.

For the sake of your financial well-being, I sure hope you didn't get too many takers on this bet. It's all over but the crying (although the crying really should have began on Labor Day, when it became apparent we had a nearly unstoppable force working against us from within our very own dugout)...

How are you still posting here if you're banned?

So basically, what he's saying is that he's going to base his entire gameplan around a "save situation." A save situtation that may or may not happen, and a save situation whose chances of ever actually happening are completey reliant on not letting the other team score right then, in the current inning. This makes no sense to me, and never will. Ned Yost makes no sense to me, and probably never will. I think this is going to be my last post about Ned for the rest of the year. I feel like I'm banging my head against a wall by trying to illustrate just how wrong I think these things are, and just how bad of a manager I think he is. He's one of the worst I've ever seen. I hope Ned Yost is not the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers beyond this season.

I would never disagree that the players play a huge role in the road woes. That doesn't change my opinion of Ned's job performance one iota, however.

That has always been my biggest fear as far as Ned was concerned. The past few years, injuries and lack of talent have been the main reasons for the Brewers struggles. However, even amongst that, it was still quite clear to me (and some others) that he made far too many poor decisions. Illogical choices and bad baseball philosophy seemed to appear very often. He seemed to be putting the team in positions to lose. For example, he refused to use Cordero for 10 straight days (a 10 game losing streak, I believe), when many of the games were close. Stuff like that was a huge red flag in my eyes, and lo and behold, he hasn't changed his approach at all and that very issue has become a real problem again this year. The team stunk last year anyway, but he never helped. He was given a free pass last year due to all the injuries. I wanted Yost to be replaced in the worst way this last offseason. I felt like the team was getting talented enough that Ned's tactical blunders could become very meaningful. I was probably one of the most outspoken critics of Ned's, but was repeatedly told that I just had an irrational hatred for him, and was reminded incessantly that injuries were the reason for the collapse last year (even though I never blamed Ned for the really poor overall 2006 record). This year, we seem to have by far the most talented team in the division. I feel that my worst Brewer fear is coming true, that Ned will hold them back from being a playoff team. I really, really hope Ned Yost is not our manager in 2008.

Why does it have to be one or the other? Shouldn't a team try to have both things going for them? Obviously the players need to perform, but other teams have players that are paid to perform as well. The talent levels are all very close, and that's why there are a lot of tight baseball games that can hinge on a few key managerial decisions to make the difference between a win and a loss.

Please, find me one single post that claims the Brewers struggles are ALL Ned's fault. You won't, because it's never been said. And just because he didn't do anything ridiculous tonight, how does that make all of the other times more excusable? Should we be happy if he only hinders the chance of victory 2-3 times a week rather than every single game? It's still completely unacceptable. Even the most aggressive Yost bashers simply feel that he doesn't put the team in the best position to win often enough. It sounds minor, but in pennant races that come to to 1 or 2 games, it is extremely important. The manager can be the difference between making a missing the playoffs.

As soon as the Brewers assemble a team that always scores lots of runs and never gives up many runs, then the manager would never have to make meaningful decisions. I guess in that case, Yost can stay for all I care. Unfortunately, the job of a manager is to make good decisions when his team isn't playing perfect baseball. Good decisions can help a team win a close game. I thought it was pretty well-known that this was a big part of a manager's responsibilities, but apparently some people think that is too much of a burden to expect Ned to handle?

At least Dusty destroyed the arms of some of their younger pitchers. His damage continues to hurt their franchise. I think when Ned gets canned, the nightmare will come to swift end. There shouldn't be much residual damage, except for a ticked off and skeptical fanbase.

I don't think I've ever seen somebody complain about Ned using Cordero (or any other ace reliever) "too soon" in order to keep a game alive. Ever. Can you imagine? "Oh man, now that we have a two run lead and Cordero's been used, who are we going to bring in for the save? I wish we would have just lost the game last inning instead of ending up in this predicament..."

Yikes. I just read that, and it made me sick to my stomach. I can just imagine the smile on their faces as they were following the game on their computers: Braun removed in the 7th, bunting with .895 OPS Corey Hart - AGAIN, Spurling and Wise but no Cordero. Now they're sending their own members over here to laugh at us wallowing in our misery. This was supposed to be the year we did that to them! Stupid Cubs...Stupid Ned Yost......

You're right, you have been very respectful in your responses. I mistakenly lumped you in as being a part of the stuff I mentioned earlier, and picked on you to prove a point. Again, it wasn't fair for you to be the target. However, my opinion of the "if you don't like Yost, get off the bandwagon and nobody will miss you" stuff remains unchanged.

Because that's what a lot of them explicitly say. Here's an example from tonight, in the Tony LaRussa thread: "Yost will get his extension and he deserves it. Anyone who jumps ship because of it won't be missed." This kind of crap is constantly being spewed out as some people's idea of an actual defense for Yost. It's not really a defense of Yost at all. It speaks nothing of his abilities of a manager, but rather attacks the character and fandom of a particular group of posters. If you've never made a similar comment, I apologize for singling you out.

Rickie Weeks is pretty much hitting like a mad-man. That rocks.

More things I would rather do than see Ned Yost manage the Brewers for one more game... - Go to the DMV - Try to swallow a lightbulb - Cover myself in honey, and be eaten alive by an army of fire ants - Have somebody drop a bowling ball on my face - Eat an entire bottle of aspirin - Go to a Kevin Federline concert - Put a live scorpion down my pants - Drink nothing but toilet water for an entire month - Step in a pile of dog crap while barefoot - Become a vegetarian - See Johnny Estrada wearing a European Speedo

Stop second guessing! Maybe it was a "gut" feeling. Whatever it was, I think we should just assume he had a good reason for it, and not question it any further. There's so much that goes on in a major league dugout, you couldn't possibly understand enough to formulate a valid opinion on the subject. Everybody makes mistakes. How do you know that a different manager wouldn't do the same stupid things over and over and over and over and over and over and over, just like Ned? It's easy to question the decison now that it didn't work out, but what if Bush had hit a homerun? What if Braun's defensive replacement made an awesome defensive play and then hit the game-winning homerun?? You'd be hailing Ned a genius. Instead, you're questioning his moves because you HATE him. Stop asking questions. Support Ned, or get off the Brewer bandwagon...

To say otherwise would imply that every person is at pretty much at the exact same risk to become injured, get sick, etc. I think we know that isn't the case. Some people's bodies are more easily injured than others. Build, muscle mass, conditioning, genetics all factor in to how easily a human body can be injured, and every individua body is constructed quite differently. Thus, some people are more prone to being injured than others. I don't think we need a doctor to confirm that, and I can't really believe you would disagree or even question that sentiment, would you?