Kremblas dismissed

[Tbadder]

All I can say is wow. Give a guy a team with no talent at all and fire him. Give a guy a team loaded with talent that fails to make the playoffs, and keep him on. I see cracks in the dike my friends--the beginning of the same ol Brewer franchise.

[bullox]

this team is being assembled for the long haul, not just the 2008 season

Except for the fact that Sheets and Sabathia are as good as gone, and the whole "We're going for it" theme.

 

I agree in general, but this year was shaping up to be the best chance Milwaukee has had in a long time, and might be the best chance they could have for the next couple years.

[colbyjack]

Just because the team decided to go for it doesn't mean it's 2008 or bust. I agree that this year is the best chance the Brewers have had in years, but really that's not saying much. Losing Sheets and Sabathia in the offseason also sucks, but the Brewers will get Gallardo back. I'm not saying the outlook looks brighter for 2009 versus this year, especially when the team is amidst a horrible slump at the worst possible time of the season, but again, this team was not built solely for the 2008 season.

 

And that is somewhat besides the point. If Yost is canned I envision the team finding someone with some kind of existing resume at the big-league level, even if it is someone internally such as Sveum or Simmons. I still think it's crummy to see Kremblas canned, but again, the story as it read above just reaks of something we don't know about.

[tigerbrew]

Big mistake by the Brewers to fire Kremblas, he is a very good manager. To me, Kremblas should've been the Brewers manager in 2008 and Yost should've been long gone.

 

I can't understand why Yost has so much political power in the Brewers organization. Not only is his job security incredible and his biggest rival gets booted out, his son Ned Jr. gets employed as a coach despite having no coaching experience whatsoever. Can this be considered nepotism in the organization?

[JohnBriggs12]

If the reason you dump Kremblas is to move up Money, why not go all the way and dump Yost and move Money to Milwaukee?

[colbyjack]

I think the timing of this is especially interesting now that Yost has been fired two days later, with an opening for a third base coach and for a bench coach. It reinforces the idea that something was said or done for him to get the boot.

[Thurston Fluff]

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.

[JJHardy7]

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.

[Thurston Fluff]

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.

 

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. If it was his ability as a manager, not just good players, that should have showed this season. I also am not sold on the poor talent angle either. They didn't have great young up coming talent like years past but they did have older players and plenty of repeat players who have more than enough experience at that level to have made them competitive. This season's record probably tells us as much if not more than the past couple have with regard to his true ability.

[TheCrew07]

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.

Kremblas never had a loaded team in Nashville, not even close, his teams were always lacking talent wise... I don't have the time today to go team by team for you, but I don't feel that characterization is fair or valid. The team this year was absolutely horrid outside of Nelson and Branyan, and Branyan was with the big club full time since June. He pushed and challenged his players and got the most he could out of them, he taught them other positions to increase their value, and his teams have always done very well record wise despite few prospects. He may have had some character issues (the womanizing article from last year), but he was about as unconventional as they come and knew how to press buttons with his players.

[Thurston Fluff]

Kremblas never had a loaded team in Nashville, not even close, his teams were always lacking talent wise... I don't have the time today to go team by team for you, but I don't feel that characterization is fair or valid.

 

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.

 

The team this year was absolutely horrid outside of Nelson and Branyan, and Branyan was with the big club full time since June

 

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.

[JJHardy7]

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.

[Thurston Fluff]

many good points JJ. Part of my problem with the Kremblas for manager talk isn't him as much as how many people seemed to look at his record vs the player development aspect. That is why I used the argument in reverse. I do not recall if you were one of them and am not saying you were one of them. It just always sort of bugged me that he was always seen as this guru because of something essentially trivial to his job.

 

 

You would probably know better than I so maybe you can enlighten me a little. Is the player development he's credited for special vs the other levels the players were at? If for instance Braun progressed relatively evenly throughout the system does that mean it was just a good player and competent coaching all around or did you see significant improvements with some of the players that they didn't have in earlier levels? How was the player progression throughout the year at that level? How did the repeat players do in their second or third time around. I tend to see guys like Zach Jackson not getting any better even though he had several years there. That may be more my lack of seeing the entire team so I don't want ot be too harsh without getting a little more info from someone who has seen more of the whole picture than I have.

[Diskono]

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.

You can't expect every AAA player to develop into a Major League All-Star. Gwynn was never projected to be a regular, Nix was already 26 when he joined the Brewers, and Stetter has actually done alright so far. If a player simply isn't good enough, no coach is going to magically make him that way. Most of the players Kremblas has coached that were expected to become Major League contributors, though, have done exactly that. There's really no such thing as a can't-miss prospect - we've actually been quite lucky IMO with how well ours have turned out.

[JJHardy7]

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.

[Thurston Fluff]

You can't expect every AAA player to develop into a Major League All-Star.

 

I never said I did. But if he was so good shouldn't some of them exceeded expectations or dramatically improved once he hit Kremblas' tutorship? I'm asking if that happened or was he being credited for essentially doing what every coach all along the way was doing with the same players? Why is he considered so much better when so many others have contributed as much to the players development as he did?

 

Thanks for the reply JJ. I'm not sure I agree since I didn't see Hart improve at his new position as quickly as Braun or Hall did at the major league level but I certainly respect your opinion on the matter.

[JJHardy7]

Thanks for the reply JJ. I'm not sure I agree since I didn't see Hart improve at his new position as quickly as Braun or Hall did at the major league level but I certainly respect your opinion on the matter.

 

I respect your opinion. I think the thing with Hart is that he was moved 2 times to 2 complete different positions IMO (1B, 3B, and OF). Kremblas should be the third base coach for the Brewers right now.