JJHardy7

This is a thought that just popped in my head and I was wondering what others thought. If Prince is here next year, obviously Hart won't be moved to 1b. If Prince is moved in a trade, 1b has a huge hole to fill. I've never really been sold on Hart's defense and if everything plays right (maybe Gamel is a better OF than Hart, we can find a talented OF easier than a 1b, etc) there might be an opportunity to move Hart to 1b. I know it's been a few years since he played the position in the minors, but I think Hart would make a very good 1b. I'm just throwing the idea out there again if all things would to fall in place maybe this could happen?

Is the player development he's credited for special vs the other levels the players were at? I think Kremblas really is more of a 'fundamentals' guy at AAA and that's where I've seen players make the most improvement. I think his teams are usually pretty solid defensively and he harps defensive fundamentals quite a bit. I also think Kremblas is a pretty good guy on the basepaths. Like many minor league managers he coached third and IMO didn't make too many mistakes with his guys and his guys for the most part are pretty sound. I know it sounds like I'm saying Kremblas does the things the Brewers lack (fundamentals), but I think part of that in some cases is the fact that Kremblas really hasn't worked all that long with guys that aren't as sound (Braun - 34 games before being called up and Weeks - 55 games with Frank before being called up) or have switched positions (Hart) a few times. From my knowledge players make the biggest development improvements in the lower levels regardless of the coaching, but face better competition in AAA and adjustments are needed more in AAA than they are in lower ball because one's natural ability cannot overcome better talent all the time.

If this was a situation where there was a consensus between the Brewer scouts and the coaching staff that Parra really was wearing out, I would feel a lot better about this. Unless Yost was the only hold out, I don't think that was the case. Parra still had good velocity but that is just one symptom of pitcher fatigue. Just not feeling good about this. I agree. I don't know if I'm too pumped about this move. I just think the drop off from Parra to a McClung that hasn't pitched much at all lately could be pretty big.

That's the only explanation the TV guys listed (at least that I heard). If "shaking things up" was another reason, not exactly proving me wrong. And I'm not calling for the media to directly challenge Svuem. But all they did was state the reason and apparently.... that was good enough for them. No real discussion. nothing. I mean, you don't even bring up production at all? I swear that an explanation like that would not be the beginning and end of a discussion if it were the Packers making a change. It seems like football isn't crippled by a culture of cliches, though. Making a change to shake things up. Veteran presence. Give me a break. Really? Did you see the Favre saga? General lame answers by management (not saying they were wrong) and the whole train is moving thing? Every sports team and media is bound by unwritten rules. If you don't think so, I really think you should try the gig out. Go out and piss management off and you'll lose all the exclusive things. The JS posts 'tidbits' about the interaction with the players. I think TH interviewed Braun in the elevator or lobby yesterday. A media outlet that pisses off management doesn't get Braun or any other players thoughts.

That's the reason Svuem listed, so I'm not exactly going out on a limb in thinking that was the deciding factor. It certainly wasn't because Weeks was struggling, as end pointed out. Well he has more experience than Weeks. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but to me picking on two words of the reason is a little over the top. Everyone around here talked about shaking things up and maybe this is why. Maybe Durham vs. Weeks at the 2 hitter was the debate. I don't anticipate receiving a report from the Brewers about it, but to nitpick on two words seems to be little on the edge...much like the Brewers this year. As for my mocking tone, I'm mocking Svuem for saying it and the media for just accepting it as a an acceptable explanation. Who cares about actual production on the field when you can add presence to the top of your lineup, right? Hey, maybe EY is still available. What is the media supposed to do? Grill Svuem about it? The media has a tight rope and they can't push any manager too much or else he just won't give them real answers. The media has to be able to have the trust of the team/players so they don't report on issues that are in-house. If the media pisses off the manager enough, you just get garbage in, garbage out. I don't see it as the media accepting it I see it more like the media reporting what they were told. I don't think there's any need to press the issue further given the state of the team and how shaky it looks and having a new manager that you may not want to piss off on the day of his first game. He wants to shake things up and that might kill some of the stats, but what the Brewers were doing so far in September wasn't working so well. Will this work? Who knows, but this is essentially Svuem's long interview in the next 12 games for the job next year.

The JS is also reporting that McClung is taking Parra's spot. I wonder how McClung's bullpen sessions have been going. He's barely pitched in games so I hope the Brewers have kept him on schedule to be able to make a decent start in terms of innings/pitch count.

Svuem says he want's a "veteran presence" on the top of the order. There you have it. Can't begin to argue against something like that, since it's more or less a meaningless cliche that we are all just supposed to nod in approval at when someone says it. I think some of your posts should being going in the vent thread. You also like to mock other posters in an indirect way the past few weeks. You may have your spreadsheets and you know quite a bit about stats, but I would like to think you could respect fellow posters at the same time. Do you honestly think Durham is ONLY in the lineup because he's a veteran? Do the Brewers need to give a term paper type report for their decisions?

the young guy will continue to suck even though he hasn't. How many chances does he continue to get? I understand he's possibly the best hitter in September, but I guess some will bank on a couple of weeks to defend Rickie in the off-season once again. The question is who is the best over 12 games? I don't think it's Rickie playing all 12. You reference an old guy keeping it up, but in reality we're talking about 12 games. There have been discussions on this board that riding the hot guy doesn't make sense, etc. I think you just have to pick the player who will succeed. I think a more important question is was it Cameron vs. Weeks for lead off or Weeks vs. Durham at the 2 spot. If it's a debate about the 2 spot, I go with Durham as long as Cam is leading off.

Durham's post ASB numbers are basically a carbon copy of his pre All Star numbers. Again It's be great if they could play both, but Weeks has been on fire for the past 2 weeks (.333/.459/.500) how Durham could actually improve on that just is hard to see. It'd make more sense at this point to platoon Hart with Brad Nelson to try to get some more offense. I may not be remembering this right and I apologize if I'm way off here, but wasn't he hitting .280 or .290 when we got him? Again, if I'm way off on this I apologize. That was just my reference in my post above. Durham hasn't been used enough IMO, but he shouldn't be starting more than half the games a week if that makes sense.

If he's healthy enough to come back and pitch, why not start him and avoid another start from Suppan or Parra? If you are that concerned about him throwing too many innings, why not just shut him down completely and avoid risking him at all? It's all about his arm strength. I think it's next to impossible to miss the time Yo missed and then magically have the arm strength to start. There's no way unless he's been pitching sessions that are longer than what we've been hearing. You really can't go from not throwing and turn back into a starter in a few weeks and face next to zero competition and then start one of the last few games. I wish he could, but it's almost physically impossible. I don't think it has anything to do with not throwing too many innings, but it's the fact that Yo IMO would be lucky to be effective for 50 pitches. Do you really want to start a guy that on a great day goes 4 innings? I hope Yo does well, but I'm not banking on him even being average. He's taking on a pretty big task in this quick comeback. As far as him batting, I think that's a moot point. It doesn't matter if he can hit or swing a bat since he won't start for the Brewers. Even if Yo is healthy enough to swing a bat and never picks one up should he get a chance he's better than every start on the team minus CC. I'm not worried about Yo batting if he somehow does the impossible and makes an important start.

I still don't get the whole-"Durham should start" argument. Have people arguing this actually looked at what Weeks has done instead of focusing on the fact his season numbers are low? Weeks post ASB: .265/.378/.426 Durham post ASB:.266/.352/.468 Thats as close to a wash as you can get. OXS of .161 vs .164. And I know people hate to face it, but Weeks is superior in the field to Durham at this point in his career. Yes it would be great if either could play 3B but as it is there just isn't any big gain there to moving Weeks out. It's a good question endaround. I think part of it is the fact that the Brewers blew it last year and may blow it again this year and a veteran may be able to handle it more than the young guys. The young guys as a whole or more or less struggling and the thought might be a guy like Durham might offset that. I know that's a vague point and doesn't have the stats to back it up, but that's my guess. I also think putting a veteran like Durham in the lineup might boost the Brewers confidence level. I think it's much easier for Durham to be a more vocal and active guy when playing than when he isn't. I know that's another point that can't be backed up on stats. I personally would like to see Durham play more since I think if he played more he'd have better numbers post all-star game than Weeks. It's hard to start once a week or so and pinch hit and do well. I would like to see Weeks still get some starts down the stretch and I hope they don't bench him. It will be interesting to see how Durham does in the number 2 spot. If Cameron does well, I feel Durham's stats will look pretty solid and we might be seeing more of Durham than Weeks as the season comes to a finish.

We're hearing that word on the street in Huntsville is that a renewal is pretty much a "go". So look for a re-up eventually, although never say never, I guess, to a change until official. That's good news for me, but that's a purely selfish comment. Jim, I have a question for you. How much does attendance to into the Brewers' minds for their minor league team? Nashville and Huntsville struggle in that regard. I was at some pretty sad games this year in Nashville in terms of attendance. There were 5k reported on some weekend games and I bet there were less than 2k people there. Nashville has a ton of night entertainment and since the stadium is barely in Nashville I think this hurts their attendance. I don't see a Nashville AAA team (regardless of who is the parent club) staying around unless there is a new stadium. What about moving the AA team somewhere and moving Nashville's AAA team to Huntsville? I'm just throwing that out there, but the stadium is in beyond crappy shape in Nashville. I do feel for players a bit when they get sent down from Milwaukee to Nashville. Their locker room is pretty much a trailer underneath the upper deck.

If he was judged to be a good manager because he won when he had talent it is only fair to judge him to be a poor manager when he can't win without it. I agree with your post though. He's supposed to develop players so winning and losing isn't as important in AAA as it is for a manager in MLB. When you have one of the better farm systems in the league it stands to reason that you also have better players than the competition. No minor league team is going to have wall to wall prospects with Braunesque ceilings. Unless the Brewers have far less quality players to stock their farm system with than the other teams they are facing I don't see how he was left with so much less talent than the teams he was facing. I do think it's difficult to compare the talent in the farm system. Some players barely played at AAA before being called up and some were 'stuck' like Hart a little too long IMO because of a lack of a spot in AAA. Those that follow the minors on the lower level know that stats aren't as important, but at AAA it's important to have enough AAAA players in case injuries happen. I think looking at AA may give a better snapshot as where talent level is since it seems to me at least in the Milwaukee organization that players stay in AA a little longer than AAA. And he really has never had a loaded team, but IMO he's been a good AAA manager. I've said before I don't know about a MLB manager, but I do think he'd be a good coach since he has a relationship with many of the current Brewers and from my view that is a positive relationship. Stetter, Gwynn, Difelice, Nelson, Nix, Rottino, Dillon, Nelson, Branyan are all players off the top of my head that were good enough to play some at the major league level and all had plenty of time at AAA to be at least capable of decent play at that level. Sorry but I don't buy the excuse. I think the fact that he was not retained at the same time they were contemplating firing Ned should tell you something about what they thought of him as a major league manager in the making. I'm a big Sounds fan, but this team stunk. They were way too thin. Some of the guys you mention (Stetter, Gwynn, Difelice, Dillon, and Branyan) played at least some time in Milwaukee during the season. Calling those guys up to Milwaukee is great, but that thinned out the Sounds team for a quite a decent portion of the year when you combine it. I also think it's interesting to point out Nelson's improvement in Nashville. Backupcatchers I respect your opinion, but if you're going to say that wins don't matter as much as development does and than bring up the fact that there were major league players (some first time major leaguers) called up before September 1st that would lead me to believe he did something right. For the record I think it's difficult to tell if Kremblas is ready for the MLB manager gig. I'm not saying he will never be ready, but I'd prefer him as a coach in Milwaukee. One major thing I think Kremblas has been a asset in the minors and I think we'll see this more in the future is his ability to move his guys around defensively and getting them ready to play multiple positions. Backupcatchers I hope I'm making some sense and I'm not disagreeing with everything your saying. If an AAA manager's job is to develop players, one could say Kremblas did a good job. Kremblas IMO wasn't really given too many decent pitchers this year and at the end of the day they didn't have an explosive enough offense to offest the pitching issues.

I was never as big a fan of Kremblas as some. Sure he won when he had the best talent. What did he do when he didn't? The same as Ned he lost a lot of games. Some of the problems with the Brewers today has to go to the minor league guys who were supposed to develop them. Kremblas was supposed to develop players not win games. Gwynn has not developed. Many of the pitchers have not developed. Sure he did ok with the likes of Braun but those are guys who were exceptionally talented. What did he do with the normal type of player. The Nixes, Gwynns and Stetters of the organization? Not much from what I can tell. I think it's hard to tell how much Kremblas had to do with the development or the lack of. Some players don't need a ton of coaching whereas others could be coached 24 7 and it wouldn't make a difference. I don't know if Kremblas would've been a good fit for a manager role in Milwaukee, but I think he would do fine as a coach. You could say he had a part in all the successful young players in Milwaukee, but then point to the ones that haven't panned out yet. I wouldn't judge him on this year though in terms of the record. The Sounds weren't very good and I think that has more to do with talent this year than managing.

Why move from one bad place to another? I don't think Huntsville is a bad place IMO. The fan support doesn't appear to be all that great, but the facility itself is fine. The Brewers have more less made it known in recent years they'd pefer to play in warmer climates so it should be interesting to see what happens.

The Linebrink trade was another. A great trade in Brewers' history? I don't think so IMO. We gave up a little bit more (depending on your view of Inman and who the PTBNL is) in the CC deal than for Linebrink. Linebrink didn't have half the impact in my mind. The CC trade was the right move to make. He just can't pitch everyday. If we somehow get to the playoffs, having CC in the rotation could be a very nice thing in October.

Finally, what would cause Yount to come in for two weeks? Perhaps loyalty to Sveum but more likely that he's been told Brenly will be the guy. So, just speculation on your part then. You're telling me that Melvin & Attanasio have already made a hire or decision? Come on. Just as plausible (if not moreso) is that Yount wanted to coach in Milwaukee but couldn't stand/agree/get along with Yost... and gets along with Dale. The key word here is 'perhaps'. Your suggestion that he didn't want to coach with Yost could be right too. I don't think the topic of why is Yount in Milwaukee has any sure answer. I think the most sure thing is that it's somewhat of an unknown.

I respect and agree with the fact Yost probably wasn't going to be brought back. My question is just why do the move for Sveum? Is there something the Brewers management/players see that we don't know. I'd have to believe that he's gone over his ideas and the Brewers management agreed. I just hope that's the case. Getting Yost out of town may or may not help, but getting Sveum in there really doesn't get me 'pumped' up about the move. Some of the ideas here (don't use Gagne unless the game is out of hand, play Rivera, use the bullpen in a better way, etc) are good ideas. Can these ideas make an impact over 12 games though? I still think something else is going on. What? I'm not so sure on that part, but I still predict (probably wrong) that Yount is your 2009 manager.

Care to offer any evidence of your opinion? Brewerfans, MLB scouts, and MLB executives thought the Brewers were being hurt by Neds lack of leadership. Calling Brewers fans idiots is classless and way off base. The Brewers fans here at Brewerfan.net are an extremely intelligent and educated bunch. I am not trying by any means to rip on bf.net nation. I just think your comments are way off base in terms of the 'emotion'. Ned is not classless and if you're going to throw him under the bus about the fans there's a growing list of Brewers players who have ripped on the fans. Ned took a job nobody wanted and maybe he's not the right guy for the job now, but to call him classless and not have any leadership skills is just off IMO. He's not a great manager or anything, but come on. Why the hell would he even WANT to be in Milwaukee with comments like that. I'm sure we'll win the world series now that Ned is gone. If you need evidence of leadership, I don't know what you want. I already pointed that out, but you chose to rip on that 'evidence'. Ned isn't a great manager, but I do feel the way the team was constructed (ie the hitting is what's hurting the team IMO) is why the Brewers are failing. I like Melvin, but the guy kept stating he wanted a high OBP guys and to be honest IMO he didn't bring in those guys. We have too many home run or bust guys and that is why the team is struggling IMO. So players who have to play for Yost don't bash him publicly, and we should be surprised by that? If they were to share that with someone, would you really be the one they would confide in? I would be. I know some of the good and bad in the organization and I don't post any 'private' pieces like that if I feel it shouldn't be here. There are complaints about the organization don't get me wrong, but it's not 'Ned sucks!' that normally is alive and well on this site. Ned maybe cost them some games, but by and large the players supported him. I do think he lost the team a bit lately, but I have nothing to confirm that. I honestly don't know if you've been to a Sounds game, but there just aren't Sounds/Brewers fans down here. It's pretty easy to grab their ear a bit and it's a lot easier when you're in the age group of some of the players. I don't care if you discredit what I say. I just think I've shown a few times that I may actually know a thing or two from the players, but I don't feel the need to 'prove' it. I could bring up the negative I've heard, but in this situation Ned's name was really never mentioned...and that leads me to believe he lost the team as of late. Calling Ned classless is as smart as it is to boo the Brewers at home. We'll see how the fanbase you mention factors into the next manager.

He has 12 games at least to make a case. I don't know what his chances are knowing what we know now. Likely to make huge staff changes if they miss the playoffs. I agree with the staff changes. What happens if the Brewers turn it around the next few games, make the playoffs, and do well? Does that buy Sveum the manager's job? I'd have to think it'd be crazy to fire Sveum if he gets to the world series. I said it at mid-season, I'll say it again. My pick would be Buck Showalter -- give me a no-nonsense, no excuses guy to whip this team into shape. He gets special consideration since he's a former Yankee manager (Mark A's old favorite team). I would like this to happen. I think the biggest struggle Yost had was dealing with the younger players when they struggled. I think he pressed them a bit and I think a lot of that is from seeing Cox deal with veterans in Atlanta. I think some of our young guys are very thin skinned and need to be handled the right way. Finally, what would cause Yount to come in for two weeks? Perhaps loyalty to Sveum but more likely that he's been told Brenly will be the guy. That is what I'm still wondering. My guess was Yount would be the manager next year if he wanted, but your guess here seems to be a bit more realistic.

I'm elated that Ned is dead. He was a classless individual who had the audacity to call the fans idiots despite his total lack of success as a manager. He was absent of any type of leadership ability. It's comments like this that sadly are one of the main reasons I'm glad Ned's gone. I'm not saying Ned was a great manager, but to call him classless and saying hey lacked ANY type of leadership is way off base. The players in Nashville (ie those that have come up the past few years, rehabs, or being sent down due to stinking) do not share your opinion about leadership, but I guess throwing comments around like that makes more drama. Ned made some bad moves in the pen and various other moves, but Ned is not a bad guy and very much wanted to win in Milwaukee. I would hope that he at least gets a tiny bit of respect for that and so far the feedback here has surprised me. It's been pretty mature and there haven't been all that many bashing Ned comments.

Why is Yount back coaching with the Brewers? Does anyone think it's an indication that he could possibly be the 2009 manager?

I know this is after the fact, but I think the last 8 games of the season last year Warner had the most TD passes or was number 2 to Brady. Warner is a good fantasy QB.

I am glad they're keeping Stan Kyles and I hope he gets a big league shot soon. I guess I disagree with that. I'd much rather see Kyles leave. He never makes the walk to the bullpen while pitchers are warming up. The minors don't have the benefit of having a bullpen coach and I think Kyles should be monitoring his bullpen. He may be a good non-game coach, but everything I've seen from him during the game tells me I would want no business with him on a MLB team. The pitchers in Nashville essentially have full control over warming up and when they're 'ready'. It's not monitored at all and to me that's a bit scary.

I am glad they're keeping Stan Kyles and I hope he gets a big league shot soon. I guess I disagree with that. I'd much rather see Kyles leave. He never makes the walk to the bullpen while pitchers are warming up. The minors don't have the benefit of having a bullpen coach and I think Kyles should be monitoring his bullpen. He may be a good non-game coach, but everything I've seen from him during the game tells me I would want no business with him on a MLB team. The pitchers in Nashville essentially have full control over warming up and when they're 'ready'. It's not monitored at all and to me that's a bit scary.