Yost Fired with 12 Games to Play

Jason Budden: Un-Common Sense?

When taking a closer look at the playoff race, there were a lot of factors that I considered. Opponents down the stretch, momentum, home vs. away games, and even the Republican National Convention. But this late in the season, I never thought to consider a coaching change for a contender. On Monday, the Milwaukee Brewers announced the firing of manager Ned Yost. The Brewers currently have an 83-67 record, putting them in second place in the National League Central and tied for the NL wild-card lead.

So what’s the problem? Well, the Brewers have lost 11 of their past 14 games including a four-game sweep at the hand of the Philadelphia Phillies. The Brewers came into the month of September with a 5 ½ game lead in the wild card and entered the series in Philly with a four game lead. But the bats have gone quiet and the young Brewers team is stuck in a tailspin.

So what’s the answer? Firing your manager with 12 games left in the season? Really?

Don’t the players play the game? Is this move really going to make Ryan Braun immediately bounce out of a 2-30 slump? I can’t imagine that he shows up to the ballpark tomorrow and takes a different approach at the plate because Yost is no longer in the dugout.

Was it Yost’s poor management that caused Ben Sheets to put 12 Phillies’ runners on base in six innings pitched, allowing five of them to score? Does Sheets look in the mirror tomorrow and think, “Wow, they fired Ned, I really better start trying harder. They mean business.”

Come on! This is such a desperate move by a franchise that hasn’t been to the playoffs since 1982. What a classic knee-jerk reaction. I understand that Yost might be getting a bit tight as the playoff race heats up, but wouldn’t you? I’d be a bit more nervous and stressed out too if my team started choking.

The owners are so quick to blame the manager when a team goes in a slump.But hey, maybe I’m not getting all the facts. Maybe Yost wasn’t giving good motivational speeches. Maybe he didn’t hold enough closed door meetings to stress the importance of the playoff race. Maybe he forgot to remind the team that when they lost, it actually hurt their chances of making the playoffs.Give me a break!

If they wanted to change the players’ current losing ways, they would have been better suited changing the playlist on the stereo, not the manager in the dugout. They need to adjust the mindset of the players, and just because firing the manager is the “extreme” decision, doesn’t make it the right one, regardless of the outcome.

Jason Budden is the Vice President of Operations and Marketing at Baseball Factory. Jason joined the Baseball Factory in 1997 while still a junior in high school. After going through the Baseball Factory's college recruiting program he was placed at Johns Hopkins University where he played two years of college baseball before graduating with a degree in Economics. After working part-time at the Factory throughout college, Jason joined the team as a full-time employee in January 2002 when he was promoted to Director of Marketing. He currently oversees all marketing projects and sponsorship opportunities at Baseball Factory. He is also in charge of development and marketing for Baseball University, the leader in online baseball education and a division of Baseball Factory.