In 1972 the Pittsburgh Pirates selected University of Pittsburgh 1B Ken Macha in the 6th round, Shortstop Willie Randolph of Tilden HS (Brooklyn, NY) in the 7th round, and signed Pitcher Douglas Melvin from Chatham-Kent Secondary School (Chatham, Ontario). The Gulf Coast Pirates rookie ball team had Willie Randolph and Douglas Melvin in 1972. Advancing to Double-A in 1974 were Willie Randolph and Ken Macha playing for the Thetford Mines of the Eastern League. Both made the jump up to Triple-A in 1975 with the Charleston Charlies of the International League. Among their teammates on the Charlies were former Major Leaguers Kent Tekulve, John Candelaria, Bobby Valentine, Art Howe, and RBI Baseball Legend Tony Armas.
The Brewers take 2 of 3 from the Cubs in Wrigley Field. The slumping Brewers hitters found the perfect remedy to cure their woes in this series. Unfortunately the bullpen woes opened the flood gates in the finale. The Brewers continued to get hit by pitches in this series. That’s a subject I’ll touch on in an upcoming post.
The Brewers bats come alive to epic proportions in an 18-1 rout of the Cubs. Brewers fantasy owners rejoice with the performance of 26 hits. Let’s begin with the delightful stat lines. A 3-run shot by Casey McGehee (15) served as the Brewers only home run. McGhee had 4 RBI in the contest. Prince Fielder had 5 hits, 5 RBI, and 2 Runs. Ryan Braun 5 Hits, 2 RBI, and 3 Runs. Corey Hart with 4 hits and 3 runs. Alcides Escobar 3 hits, 2 RBI, 2 Runs scored. Rickie Weeks had only 1 hit by scored twice and drove in 3. Yovani Gallardo improves to 10-5 after allowing 3 base runners in 6 frames with 12 strikeouts. Randy Wells allowed 7 runs, 6 earned on 10 hits in 4 innings. Wells drops to 5-9 with the loss. Cubs’ pitching was awful and Carlos Gomez was hit twice in the contest. Brian Schlitter drilled Gomez in the head with an errant pitch during the top of the 8th inning. His reaction was one that shows a guy that just threw a bad pitch. In 7 games his ERA is 12.38. Gomez missed the rest of the series with a mild concussion.
The Crew was able to hold on for a 4-3 victory over the Cubs in game 2. Chris Narveson allowed 1 run with 6 strikeouts in 5.2 innings to improve to 9-7. John Axford allowed a run, but was able to hold on for the save (16). Thomas Diamond struck out 10 and allowed 3 earned runs to take the loss in his major league debut. Prince Fielder was hit by a James Russell pitch. Ryan Braun 3-4 with a run scored. Casey McGehee drove in a pair of runs. Starlin Castro, Derrek Lee, and Marlon Byrd each had 2 hits for the Cubs. Kosuke Fukudome hit a moon shot ding-dong off Todd Coffey for his 9th of the year. Fukudome hasn’t been worth the contract, but continues to feast on Brewers pitching.
The finale was looking good for the Crew as they led the Cubs 3-1 after 5 and a half innings. The top of the 6th saw Manny Parra get into trouble and have the wheels completely come off. Chicago was able to put up a 6 spot in the 6th inning, followed by 3 in the 7th, and 5 runs in the 8th for a 15-3 Cubs win. I listened to this game at my work station as a Fecal Textile CSI. Parra allowed 6 earned runs in 5.2 frames to drop to 3-9. The Brewers lefty had 8 strikeouts before running out of gas. Every pitcher that entered the game for the Brewers gave up a run (Coffey 1, Hawkins 4, Riske 3, and Capuano 1). Hawkins was ejected for hitting Alfonso Soriano and Ken Macha was as well. Chicago hit 4 ding-dongs including a trio of 3-run shots in the contest. Tyler Colvin (17) hit a solo blast, but Aramis Ramirez (16) Geovany Soto (15), and Blake DeWitt (2) each hit 3-run ding-dongs. Ryan Dempster allowed 3 earned runs in 6 frames to improve to 9-8.
The Brewers are at 50-59 with an upcoming 3-game home set with the Astros. Dave Bush 5-9 4.55 looks to rebound against Wandy Rodriguez 9-11 4.49. Rodriguez has gone 6-1 in his last 7 starts. Saturday Randy Wolf 7-9 4.91 is expected to make the start against Brett Myers 8-6 3.10. The finale on Sunday is Yovani Gallardo 10-5 2.71 taking the hill vs. Wesley Wright 1-1 4.44. Wright pitched a season high 7 innings last time against Milwaukee.
Coaches aren’t good candidates for managerial jobs just because they used to play for the club. Organizations use the former player come home bit as a marketing ploy. I don’t believe it matters who they played for. The candidates coaching credentials are the most important factors in picking a manager. For every success story like Ozzie Guillen, there’s a complete failure like Alan Trammell.
Dale Sveum is a popular candidate among the fans to replace Ken Macha. Because Sveum hit a 2-out, 2-run, game winning homer off Greg Harris to give the Brewers a 6-4 win over the Rangers on Easter Sunday 1987, doesn’t make him qualified to be a manager. His friendship with Robin Yount could lure “The Kid” back to Milwaukee, is also not a reason for Sveum to be the manager. Players aren’t going to start playing better because they’re in the presence of the best player in the history of the franchise. I appreciate what Yount means to the organization just as much as everyone else. Being able to interview Yount one-on-one for a couple of minutes in the coaches locker room is one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. I was able to compose myself and not look like Chris Farley with Paul McCartney on Saturday Night Live.
Sveum managed in the Pirates farm system with their Double-A affiliate, the Altoona Curve. His tenure with the Curve was from 2001-2003 as he compiled a 213-211 record. The 2003 club went 78-63 good enough to qualify for the Eastern League playoffs. 2004-2005 was spent with the Red Sox as the 3rd base coach. He’s been with the Brewers in a variety of roles since the 2006 season ranging from 3rd base coach, bench coach, interim manager, and hitting coach. In 2008, Sveum took over for Ned Yost leading the team to a 7-5 record down the stretch to qualify for postseason play. After the season, the Brewers decided to go with Ken Macha instead and Sveum was given the chance to be a hitting coach. If the Brewers were to fire Macha you couldn’t have Sveum come on as an interim yet again. He has paid enough dues at the major league level to eventually be a manager. Do the Brewers see it that way?
Ken Macha’s job security is a hot button topic with a segment of Brewers fans that want him shown the door. Bench Coach Willie Randolph has support in some segments of the fan base. Looking at Randolph’s resume you would think he’s qualified to manage another major league club. Randolph played in the majors from 1975-1992 and was a 6-time All-Star 2B.
He transitioned to 11 years as the third-base coach and bench coach for Joe Torre’s Yankees. Randolph was a hot commodity and took over the Mets from 2005-2008. His .544 winning percentage is 2nd all-time in Mets history to Davey Johnson .588. The 2006 Mets won the NL East eventually losing to the Cardinals in the NLCS. 2007 was the beginning of the end for Randolph’s time with the Mets. The team went 14-14 in September to blow a 7 game lead with 17 days to play in the season. The Mets lost 6 of their final 7 games to fall to 88-74. The Phillies won the division by a game 89-73. Randolph was on the hot seat all winter and went 34-35 during the 2008 season before being shown the door.
While the players should receive more of the blame than the manager, the stink of that failure is tough to overcome. Randolph isn’t a rah-rah scream in your face type manager. Mets fans were making the same complaints about Randolph that are currently made of Macha. We’ll see how long that collapse is held against Randolph before he gets another managerial post. I wouldn’t want him to manage the 2010 Brewers.
I’m a big believer in not panicking as a baseball season is 162 games. The current stretch of bad baseball has increased pressure from the fans for a change. Fans pleading for Ken Macha to get fired because he doesn’t show enough emotion need to check the facts. Willie Randolph wasn’t a fired up rah-rah type guy in New York. Mets fans were making the same complaints about Randolph then that Brewers fans are making about Macha now. I am not a Macha supporter as I believe he’s an American League style manager that’s in the National League. However, the Brewers are built as an American League style team in the senior circuit. Macha’s philosophy matches that of General Manager Doug Melvin. The Brewers don’t give away outs on the base paths and play station to station baseball. They don’t want to turn potential 3-run homers into solo shots with mistakes on the base paths. Milwaukee is built on home runs carrying the team to victory. They aren’t capable of manufacturing runs with base stealing, bunting, and contact hitting. Manufacturing runs in the late innings is one of the keys to winning close games. A bad pitching staff gives you no chance regardless of your offensive philosophy.
From 2003-2006 Macha led the A’s to a pair of AL West Division Championships and 2nd place finishes. Macha took over an A’s team that had won 3 consecutive divisions. Why hasn’t it worked in Milwaukee? Those A’s teams had significantly more talent than these Brewers teams. Oakland was able to win with cheap young talent and then move guys when the price became too high. GM Billy Beane hit on enough of those deals acquiring comparable young talent that earned significantly less. Free agents were allowed to walk as younger cheaper replacements were down in the farm system. Bargain free agents turned into lottery tickets.
Those starting rotations featured Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito, Rich Harden, and Ted Lilly. Aaron Harang was dealt away in a deadline deal in 2003 before having success with the Reds. Dan Haren was acquired in a trade with the Cardinals for Mark Mulder. Miguel Tejada had won the AL MVP in 2002 and was still an upper echelon player. Tejada’s contract was up, so Bobby Crosby became the starting shortstop. Crosby won the AL ROY Award in 2004. Huston Street won the AL ROY Award in 2005. Eric Chavez won 5 consecutive Gold Gloves at the hot corner. Frank Thomas was picked off the scrap heap for a 39 homer campaign in 2006. Trading Andre Ethier for Milton Bradley in 2005 is one they might regret. Bradley was a key in the A’s stretch run in 2006 and hit .500 in the ALCS. I think you get the picture that Oakland was a talent laden team.
While Macha may not have endeared himself to the players or fans, they still aren’t producing. The fact of the matter is that the Brewers players haven’t produced enough to play winning baseball. His lineups are a source of frustration. Why play Jim Edmonds over Corey Hart so much? Why bat Alcides Escobar 8th behind Gregg Zaun and in front of the pitcher? Why not use Chris Narveson sooner? I can’t completely blame Macha for the short comings of this pitching staff. This rotation doesn’t pitch deep enough into games and it’s killing the bullpen. Trevor Hoffman looks his age with 5 blown saves. The Rick Peterson hiring has ruined the pitching staff. How can a pitching coach with a month and a half into the season already be deemed a failure? Prince Fielder isn’t hitting home runs up to his standard.
Every manager in baseball gets criticized by a segment of the fans. You can’t fire all the players so changing the manager can be viewed as a message to the players. General Manager Doug Melvin must decide if Macha has lost the locker room. If Macha is shown the door, then the next guy should be Melvin’s last managerial hire. I give a GM the opportunity to hire 3 managers, before it’s time for him to hit the road.
Manager Ken Macha is doing Alcides Escobar no favors by batting him in the 8th spot. Gregg Zaun in the 7th spot and the pitcher in the 9th spot means you can pitch around Escobar. I want to use his skill set to my advantage. The rookie shortstop puts the ball in play and doesn’t strike out. He also has the wheels to swipe some bags, yet hasn’t attempted a steal yet this season. I understand putting a young player in a low pressure situation. I’d like to see the training wheels taken off soon. Zaun is a better player than he’s shown so far, but should be in the 8th spot. I’d like to see Escobar bat 2nd in front of Braun and Fielder. Ducks need to be on the pond as the big boys are at the dish. Escobar would see more pitches in the 2 hole. The 6th or 7th spots could work as well. His ability to put the ball in play with runners on base could be advantageous. I’m not afraid of him hitting into double plays. It’s only the second week of the season, so we’ll see what Macha has in store for his rookie shortstop.
As the 2010 baseball season is upon us I don’t know what to expect from the Brewers. Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder are elite players at their positions. Yovani Gallardo will take that next step forward this year to join the elite starting pitchers in the game. I believe the Brewers have a chance to contend with the Cardinals and Cubs. Each team in the Majors has questions entering the season. These are the questions I have in studying the 2010 Brewers. Changes were made to the starting rotation with the additions of Rick Peterson, Randy Wolf, and Doug Davis. I see Gallardo, Wolf, and a collection of 5th starters. Did Doug Melvin do enough to upgrade the rotation? The bullpen was solid last year until it was worn down. Will the older arms be able to hold up all season? Corey Hart, Carlos Gomez, Jim Edmonds, and Jody Gerut possibly sharing time in the outfield is something that concerns me immensely. Hart had back-to-back 20-20 campaigns before getting hurt in 2009. If Carlos Gomez doesn’t get off to a hot start could he lose playing time to Edmonds or Gerut as well? I know you want to keep guys fresh and ready to pinch hit so lineups need to be tweaked. I just don’t understand the urgency of getting a 39-year old player that didn’t play last year into the lineup. Ken Macha struck me as more of an American League style manager than a National League skipper. The Brewers have more team speed this year. Will he adjust more to his roster in year 2? We’ll find out soon enough.
I’m a huge fan of the A-Team and pretty fired up to see the new movie in June. I still own my A-Team action figures, but Faceman is missing a leg due to my pyro faze as a child. After watching the trailor for the new movie, I thought who would I cast on the Brewers as the A-Team? So here are my selections just click on their name and my choice will pop up.
Some segment of the Brewers followers were disappointed to hear that manager Ken Macha had an option added in 2011, meaning he’ll be back next season. Macha is an American League style manager in the National League. I wasn’t impressed with his 80-82 in Milwaukee. I understand all the winning records in Oakland, but I think he needs to adjust his strategy for the National League. I am not a fan of playing crusty veterans when a younger replacement is ready to go. I do have a beef with how he handled the injuries to Suppan and Bush along with the demotion of Parra. I would have liked to see Narveson get an opportunity earlier in the season instead of going back to McClung and Villanueva. I can’t blame him for burning out the bullpen with the lack of quality starters this season, his hands were tied in that aspect. The one thing about Macha that impresses me is that he’s a first degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
With Macha coming back I hope he gets to pick out his own coaching staff and isn’t force fed coaches from general manager Doug Melvin. I am a firm believer in the coach hiring his own staff, they sink or swim together. Interim pitching coach Chris Bosio and bullpen coach Stan Kyles won’t be coming back, but they will be candidates for the openings. That seems like an odd move to me, but whatever. The team is also going to hire an advance scout. The Brewers have relied solely on a video system for compiling their advance scouting reports. Since Bosio came up from Triple AAA, the team will also hire a pitching coach for the Nashville Sounds.
Rick Peterson would be my pitching coach hands down. He worked with Macha in Oakland and Willie Randolph in New York. Peterson has a scientifical approach to pitching. If these three men can co-exist I would hire Peterson in a heartbeat. Peterson is a strong personality, but he is a tremendous pitching mind. Scott Kazmir went to Peterson for help this season when he was struggling with the Rays. I would hope they consider Bill Castro for the bullpen coach job because I think did a good job in that role. Macha and the new pitching coach should be able to have a large say in the further hiring’s. It all flows from the top and they should be able to get their own guys.
The Brewers had a 4.83 team ERA ranking 27th in all of baseball and second worst in the National League. These pitchers made regular starts in the rotation this season: Dave Bush 6.38 ERA, Manny Parra 6.36 ERA, Mike Burns 5.75 ERA, Carlos Villanueva 5.34 ERA, Jeff Suppan, 5.29 ERA, Braden Looper 5.22 ERA, and Seth McClung 4.94 ERA. These numbers answer the question as to why the Brewers didn’t make it back to back postseason appearances. I think the Brewers should feel good that they came within sniffing distance of a .500 record. General manager Doug Melvin, Assistant GM Gord Ash, and Manager Ken Macha have a lot of work to do this offseason. I will come up with my moves all throughout this offseason. Starting soon on baseballbrew.com is the Juan Pierre movement, stay tuned.
I understand the reason Jason Kendall is the starting catcher for the Brewers is because he does a good job handling the pitching staff. Kendall’s offense has always been viewed as a bonus. However Kendall is a 35 year old catcher with a .232 batting average. Before play on Tuesday, July 7th, Kendall has played in 72 out of 81 games, while backup catcher Mike Rivera has appeared in just 17. I’m tired of hearing about Kendall’s credentials from the Brewers television broadcasters. It’s annoying to listen to them talk up a .232 hitter like he’s Johnny Bench. I respect what Kendall brings to the table, but I would like to see Rivera get some more playing time. More time from Rivera would help keep the 35 year old Kendall fresh for the end of the season and would give the Brewers another bat with some pop in the lineup.
Cubs broadcaster Bob Brenly interviewed for the Brewers job this offseason and said on the Saturday July 4th broadcast, that there are people around baseball that believe Rivera is good enough to be an everyday catcher. For Brenly to make a statement like that, really caught my attention and it sparked me to write this piece. It’s something I looked into and makes me wonder why Jason Kendall gets to play almost all game every game.
The game Sunday July 5th is a perfect example of what my biggest complaint is with the whole catching situation. Down 8-2 in the 7th inning and Kendall is batting against Ted Lilly. Kendall picks up a double and gets stranded. I can understand not wanting to pull Kendall in the 7th inning, but then in the 9th inning, Kendall grounds out third to first. Why not put Rivera in as a pinch hitter in the 9th to get him an at-bat in a 6 run game?
Entering play Tuesday July 7th, Jason Kendall has caught 619.2 innings this season good for second in the game behind Yadier Molina of the Cardinals with 622. Last season, Kendall threw out 43 % of would be base stealers. This year his caught stealing percentage is down to 22%. Some of the reason for the drop off could be due to pitchers not holding on runners as well. At any rate the defensive value of Kendall doesn’t merit his presence in the lineup every game, if the pitching staff isn’t holding teams down. The Brewers need to squeeze out as much production as they possibly can with an offense that struggles to score runs.
Only 7 catchers have more at bats this season than Kendall, but all of them are batting well above .250. Taking Kendall out of the lineup for the Brewers doesn’t hurt as much as if Joe Mauer, Victor Martinez, or Bengie Molina takes a day off. Looking at the batting averages, on base percentage, and power numbers of all the catchers in baseball, I would put Kendall in bottom third offensively among starting catchers. Dioner Navarro of the Rays, Carlos Ruiz of the Phillies, the Mets Brian Schneider, and Gerald Laird of the Tigers are in that tier with Kendall.
Mike Rivera could serve as a personal catcher for Dave Bush or Manny Parra when he returns. Other teams around baseball use their backup catcher to keep the starter fresh. Catcher is the most physically demanding position in baseball and guys can get worn out by September. Resting a catcher in the American league is easier with the designated hitter. Late in blow out games there’s no reason for Jason Kendall to stay in the game. I also take into account that there’s a shortage of right handed bats available on the bench. Rivera spent some time on the DL earlier in the season, but 46 at bats aren’t enough.
There are ways for Ken Macha to get both players involved with 6 games a week. Day game after a night game would be an automatic option. Or using Rivera in the middle of a series and then after an off day is another option. Another idea is splitting Bush and Parra out in the rotation so you could set it up where Rivera serves as their personal catcher.
I hope that with the season heading into the dog days of summer, the Brewers skipper starts to rest Jason Kendall a little bit more. Kendall has a tremendous amount of respect from the players in the locker room and is a good guy to have as part of the team. But for a team that struggles to score runs, I believe its time to get Mike Rivera more involved in the regular lineup. I think Jason Kendall is still a valuable player to the Brewers but, not in an all game every game capacity. I believe Mike Rivera should get two starts a week to lessen some of the burden on Kendall. Or if there are teams out there that are interested in Rivera, trade him for a piece that can help you now.
Adam Burnett listed County Stadium as a second address during his teenage years. He enjoys nothing more than keeping track of random Brewers and was a former Brewers reporter. Appeared in April 16th 1996 edition of local newspaper getting David Hulse's autograph on opening day. Still owns a baseball from Opening Day 1997 ball give away debacle - all fans threw balls on the field at the Rangers. Blog correspondent for the Packers as well.
