It's Time Ned, It's Time

The Brewers have been a major disappointment this year. A good deal of that has been in large part due to injuries, some of it has been the result of a team having far too high expectations placed on them by their city, but a lot of that has been because of one man. Ned Yost.

Yost is arguably the worst manager in baseball. The mistakes that he makes, on a routine basis, are those you'd expect to see from a first year manager. This is Yost's fourth year under the helm and he was supposed to be the pupil of one of the best managers in the game (Bobby Cox) so how is it that he is so bad?

Not every aspect of Ned as a manager is bad. He has done a great job of changing the attitude of the team since he arrived and the atmosphere in the clubhouse, and he is very loyal to his guys and will stick up for his players to the umpires. But this is also where part of the bad lies.

His loyalty. He is loyal to a fault. Derrick Turnbow, Brady Clark, Geoff Jenkins, all guys who have seen extenisve playing time this year despite the fact that their play has not warranted it. You could argue that Jenkins total offensive drop off and lack of production has killed this offense. Yet Yost had no problem keeping him his everyday right fielder up until the middle of August, and even when the change was made Jenkins is still seeing a lot of at bats. Why? He's a .250 hitter who isn't even going to hit 15 home runs this year, stikes out a lot, and he was supposed to be your second best option for power on this team.

Meanwhile guys like Gabe Gross and Corey Hart have done nothing but produce when called upon as a pinch hitter or reserve roles, but they're still delegated to the bench.

Derrick Turnbow, the worst relief pitcher in baseball since July, has been given every opportunity to be the closer on this team. Even when these struggles were routinely costing this team game after game, Ned still went to him every game. I can understand letting a player work through struggles, but not when it is costing your team wins. Even when Turnbow was replaced as the closer, it lasted for all of two games before Ned went back to him.

Wouldn't you want a guy you just demoted to prove to you that he has fixed what his problems were before trusting him in such a key role again? Apparently not. Turnbow only made one appearance between his demotion from closer and promotion back into the role. How did he prove that you can rely on him again in just one appearance and two games removed from the role? The results were exactly what you would expect, he continued to cost them games.

This team has enough problems on it's own, they don't need thier own manager to sabbatoge them and do everything in his power to take wins away.

This team has so many problems scoring runs and more importantly, manufacturing runs. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a leadoff double get wasted by that runner not scoring. Why doesn't this team sacrafice bunt more you ask? Good question, well according to Ned it's because they're not very good at it. What?! Isn't that your job to make them good at it and work with them on it? If sacrafice bunting is such a problem, why aren't you spending three hours a day in batting practice working on laying down bunts? What have you been doing since February?! They're not very good at it? Are you kidding me?

Remember when Brady Clark was a regular player? Remember when Ned would green light him to steal bases whenever on base? Remember Brady getting thrown out every time? Me too. Brady Clark is the worst base runner in the history of baseball, so why then is he always given the go to steal, especially in instances when you have guys like Carlos Lee, Bill Hall and Prince Fielder at the plate? Why?

Why was Rick Helling, a reliever on this team mind you, placed in the starting rotation upon his return from the disabled list, bumping a promising young rookie in doing so? Remember that?

Helling was on the DL with arm and shoulder problems and meanwhile Carlos Villanueva was starting games and looked very promising turning in good starts each time he took the mound. Helling, the teams long reliever, returned from the disabled list and was named the fifth starter making Villanueva the long reliever. Why? Villanueva is a young promising arm who figures to be in your rotation next year, why risk stunting his growth at the benefit of a bullpen arm in his mid thirties who may or may not be on this team next year?

The most discouraging thing is that all of these problems were there four years ago, and have occured routinely during the span of his tenure. He has shown no signs of progression. If anything he's regressed.

Now that this team is more than 10 games below .500, it's time. It's time that Anthony Gwynn Jr and Carlos Villanueva are recalled from AAA. It's time Geoff Jenkins and Kevin Mench are given little to no more at bats for the rest of the season. It's time we see Gwynn, Hart and Nix as your regular starting outfielders for the duration of the season. It's time to see Vinny Rottino tried out at third, and catcher to see if he can handle either position. It's time we stop setting left handed hitters because lefties are pitching. It's time to start bunting and attempting to manufacture runs.

It's time we see all of this and more for the next month, but I have no doubt hardly any of these demands will be met. For these reasons, Ned Yost must go.