Doug Melvin explains his decision to fire Ned Yost.

Yost firing was good move, just 150 games too late

Published Sept. 15, 2008 at 6:54 p.m.

I gave up on Ned Yost a year ago. Unfortunately, Mark Attanasio didn't until today.

Firing a manager of a team that is 16 games over .500, on Sept. 15, and technically is still eligible for the playoffs (right now, anyway) is weird. Listening to Doug Melvin, he thinks so, too. The way he speaks of the firing is in the passive tense, and it indicates that the decision wasn't his own.

"I'm not sure (this decision) was the right one," said a sniffely Melvin in the opening minutes of his news conference.

But maybe, this decision might be a stroke of genius.

I spoke with someone close to the team today, and that source offered me two pieces of information -- one surprising, one not.

The unsurprising insight was that Yost had lost respect from everyone within the organization, from players to coaches to the front office. No one will say it publicly, but privately they couldn't stand his hand-wringing, adamant excuses and defensive answers; the stuff fans and media hated to hear.

The surprising insight was how the firing positions the team for next year. If the Brewers failed to make the playoffs, and management waited until the end of the season to fire Yost -- which would've surely happened -- there would be no downside to making this move now. If, however, the Brewers backed into to the post-season, and even if they got swept in the first round, they couldn't get rid of Yost, even if they wanted to.

In other words, the team now has the flexibility to see if Dale Sveum can pull a rabbit out of his hat. And if not, they are no worse for the wear -- as the front office has already lost faith in Yost and didn't want him back.

We'll see how it turns out. You can't fire the players. Managers are scapegoats, to be sure. But Yost also managed like a robot, and if they didn't matter at all, then baseball wouldn't use them, either.

This could've been much easier for everyone if Yost was fired before the season began. But that's said and done. If Sveum can save this season, with Robin Yount back as the bench coach, then Melvin will once again prove his genius.

Talkback

Talkbacks

sandstorm | Sept. 16, 2008 at 9:29 a.m. (report)

let's be clear. the players did NOT get Yost fired. Yost got Yost fired. his puzzling line-ups. his in-game decisions. his refusal to sacrifice runners over. sticking struggling players in the line-up day after day. not holding himself accountable. if Yost were able to do change just two of the above, the Brewers would probably be ahead of the Cubs and the recent slump the players have gone through would be nothing more than a speed bump on the way to the championship. i understand the players on the field have to perform, but the players on the field also have to know that the arrogant douche in the dugout is doing what he can to give them the best chance to win. ned yost didn't do anything to give anybody any indication he could handle late season pennant race pressure. in fact he showed the opposite. this was absolutely the right move and should have happened last year.

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AverageGuy | Sept. 16, 2008 at 7:41 a.m. (report)

We'll I hope that the players respond because they got Yost fired. These guys are the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked right now. You can bench players that aren't performing and leave young guys that suck in AAA, but at some point your just stuck with the players that you have and hope they perform.

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WestSideWillie | Sept. 15, 2008 at 9:57 p.m. (report)

Mark Attanasio's fingerprints all over it. Doug would not have canned Yost until the end of the season. Team is way above 500, battling for a post season birth, maybe first time since 1982, and Ned gets whacked! Part II, DO NOT BLAME Doug for Gagne....remember when he was Cy Young, not Cy Old, when he was pitching for the Dodgers. Mark pressed Doug into the 10 million and YOU can take that to the Trust Company of the West. You cannot fire the whole team, nor can you fire the owner.

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