The Brewers' Next Manager; Latest -- Valentine may have inside track to the job; Cora, Melvin, Roenicke also finalists

[JohnBriggs12]

I have a bad feeling that this mystery candidate is who we will hire, and that everyone will hate it.

You are referring to a gentleman with the initials B.B. I presume.?

 

It makes a lot of sense that he'd be a mystery candidate. He could have been a finalist all along. The denials were probably just to make sure they'd have other viable guys to interview.

[Invader3K]

Some interesting thoughts from Haudricourt in the comments section of his blog:

 

Adam McCalvy of mlb.com contacted Ron Roenicke and he wouldn't say if he is in or out, so I'm guessing he's in. Otherwise, why not just say "I'm no longer being considered." And because Cora and Roenicke have no major-league managerial experience, I'm guessing the fourth candidate does. For some reason, I have a feeling the Brewers are still considering Bobby Valentine. We haven't heard anything from Valentine in a while, though you would think it would leak out from ESPN is he was a finalist. So, we've got B. Melvin, Cora and it looks like Roenicke. You would think it would be difficult to keep Valentine's candidacy under wraps but he's my fourth guess for now.

[greeg35]

If it is the assumed 3 plus one mystery:

1. Cora

2. Roenicke

3. Mystery

4. Melvin

[patrickgpe]

greeg, its hard to rank them without knowing the mystery but i agree with your rankings of the 3 "known" candidates.

[greeg35]

yeah, definitely hedging my bets http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

[joepepsi]

I can understand not liking a guy who's been a major league manager before, but how can you like or want a particular guy who's never managed? I don't particularly want Melvin, but how can a person say, I want Roenicke, or I want Cora? I'm not critical, just curious how you can pick one or the other when we are all on the outside and have no idea how these guys interviewed or what they would do as a manager?

[greeg35]

My opinion on Cora is based on info from friends who are fans of the White Sox and what I've read about both candidates and their personalities. Obviously without knowing them, having seen them in action, or being in on the interviews, my opinions are not exact science.

[patrickgpe]

my opinion of cora is based on him as a player and from what i know about his role with the sox. being far away from the AL West and admittingly not knowing as much about that division as the other 2 in the AL, my knowledge of him is very limited.

[OldHoss]

Haven't seen this posted...here's a Blue Jays' Fan's take on Roenicke:http://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20101004113520521

[RockCoCougars]

I'd prefer Cora at this point, Roenecke seems a little vanilla to me for whatever reason. That said, I'm starting to fear that the candidate who fits Melvin's 'criteria the best is Melvin. He's experienced managing a N.L. club, and could be spun as a 'winner' by Melvin. I can just hear him saying "Well he was manager of the year a few years back in Arizona. He's been in the playoffs." I'd guess that the longer this drags on, the mystery candidate comes more into play. Why are they waiting so long with so many clubs interviewing the same pool of guys? Maybe they are waiting for the World Series to finish for Hurdle, or to make some type of splash.

[RightFieldCoder]

I think it's in The Book to not announce anything between the LCS and the end of the WS. For all we know they have already come to an agreement but need to wait to publicize it. That makes Roenicke's non-discussion all the more interesting.

[TooLiveBrew]

Haven't seen this posted...here's a Blue Jays' Fan's take on Roenicke:http://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20101004113520521

While Roenicke is almost certainly to adapt his managerial style to the

strengths and weaknesses of the players on his club, these two teams

seem to show that Roenicke is inclined to [1]attempt to steal bases often

(he also led the California League in stolen bases and stolen base

attempts while manager of San Bernardino), [2]will use the sacrifice bunt

and [3]doesn’t like to put opposing batters on base via the intentional

walk.

 

1) Yuck 2) Yuck 3) Ok ... (I added the numbers within the quote)

 

 

I don't want to see Roenicke hired if he's going to preach about giving up outs & 'manufacturing runs', but given the fact that Cora has been part of Ozzie's team, I'd be surprised if he were much different.

[thumperden]

You are referring to a gentleman with the initials B.B. I presume.?

 

Do I presume the initials B.B. stand for Bob Barker??? He's available. He's also a California guy...a plus for Mark Attanasio.

[JohnBriggs12]

Brenly is available too last time I checked thumperdan though you may prefer Barker.

 

I'm not sure I'm on board with Cora. Yeah he came up with the Padres, and coached under Guillen who is said to favor the "NL style", but Cora's an AL guy who's had almost no exposure to the Brewer roster.

 

Of the "named guys", my choice would be Melvin.

 

The only reason a guy wouldn't want his name to be known is that if he doesn't get it, he doesn't want it known he was turned down. That's why I think it's Brenly. I think he really wants to manage again but doesn't want to be seen as a guy who keeps getting passed over and he was passed over the last time for the Brewer opening. Only other guys I can think of that wouldn't want it known if they don't get the job are Torre and Girardi, and what are the odds the Brewers would be dealing in those price ranges.

[bjkrautk]

While Roenicke is almost certainly to adapt his managerial style to the strengths and weaknesses of the players on his club, these two teams seem to show that Roenicke is inclined to [1]attempt to steal bases often (he also led the California League in stolen bases and stolen base attempts while manager of San Bernardino), [2]will use the sacrifice bunt and [3]doesn’t like to put opposing batters on base via the intentional walk.

 

1) Yuck 2) Yuck 3) Ok ... (I added the numbers within the quote)

 

 

I don't want to see Roenicke hired if he's going to preach about giving up outs & 'manufacturing runs', but given the fact that Cora has been part of Ozzie's team, I'd be surprised if he were much different.

The one other takeaway from the commentary (which was a good read), was that Roenicke didn't have a lot of hitting talent to work with as a minor league manager, and still won a considerable number of games.

 

That being said, Roenicke is committed to the running game, as described in his interview with Baseball Prospectus (referenced in the comments to the above-linked post).

 

DL: How similar are you and Mike in how you view the game?

RR: Pretty similar. There are some differences, and that comes from… like, say the baserunning part. I was a basestealer. and he obviously wasn’t. Some things differ with the outfield, because I was an outfielder and he wasn’t. The catching part, I don’t say much about because he was a catcher and I wasn’t. I don’t really get into that too much, unless he wants to ask me what I saw, or what I think about what we have back behind the plate, and maybe who should play that day, or something like that.

DL: As a catcher, Mike played a big role in stopping the running game. Is there any disconnect in how the two of you view that aspect of the game?

RR: Yeah, we have some differences there, but you know, his end of it was just trying to… most of the time when he was there, [Joey] Amalfitano was the coach, and when Amalfitano told him to throw over, or to pitch out, or whatever, he put down the sign, and that’s what he did. So even though he was involved in trying to stop the base running, he wasn’t really involved in when they were going to go, or not, because that’s handled by a coach.

DL: A criticism in recent years is that your team has gotten somewhat older and slower, yet it remains just as aggressive on the basepaths. Is that something you and Mike have discussed?

RR: I’ve never heard that criticism. What we hear from other teams is, "Boy, we like the way you guys are aggressive running the bases, and that’s what we’d like to do." That’s what we hear more of, so I don’t know what the criticism would be. You know more than I do, obviously.

DL: I wouldn’t say that; I just know what I’ve read.

RR: Well, what you read sometimes isn’t the way it is.

DL: You don’t feel that you’ve ever been too aggressive for the team you’ve had on the field?

RR: No, I don’t. I think that at times it’s easy to say that somebody is too aggressive when they’re thrown out in a situation where you don’t want somebody to get thrown out. That’s easy to see. But what you don’t see is the 20 times when we’re safe, when other people would have stopped and not gone to that extra base. Obviously, I’d rather have more guys in scoring position and on third base, rather than them having stopped on second base or having never even got to second.

That last part would at least be consistent with (my memory of ) DM's comments on the acquisition of Mike Cameron, taking the extra base when the opportunity presents itself, as well as his suggestion that the organizational perspective on the running game would play a role in the hire.

 

(Also, continuing with my linking of data, Roenicke was successful on 24 of his 33 SB attempts across parts of 8 different seasons. I don't have the minor league numbers, but he seemed reasonably selective in swiping bases.)

 

[Sage]

Really, it's looking to me like all signs point to Roenicke. Dale Sveum's comments about getting back to being aggressive on the basepaths, Roenicke's managing style of being aggressive (or so we've read), and Roenicke's staying silent when asked about it. It all (to me, anyway) points to him being our next manager.

 

As I said before, this would be nice. Whether you guys like it or not, the Brewers have a lot of speed, and a manager who knows situations to send the runners and is able to play small ball well when it's necessary would be good for this team. Now obviously, I still want to know how these candidates handle the pitching staff (when they pull a starter, who they go to in the bullpen, etc) but there's really no way to judge that if they have no previous experience.

 

I would not be opposed to Bob Melvin, but he's just not the exciting pick that I'm looking for. I've heard from many D-Backs fans that he was actually a very good manager, and well-liked. Personally, I just would prefer a new guy, someone (for once) outside of DM's comfort zone, someone he hasn't already interviewed for a previous opening.

 

Also, if the mystery candidate is Bob Brenly, DM should be shot for passing over Listach and Wallach for Brenly... simply put.

EDIT: Read the article that OldHoss posted, and got something interesting out of it. This part was particularly interesting, with Dale Sveum and Rick Peterson both already returning to the staff.

"Another point to consider is that, given the stability in Anaheim, Roenicke would likely not be bringing any coaches from the Angels to join him... as Roenicke may not have replacements or preferred candidates in mind for the position."

[RockCoCougars]

I like what you guys have posted about Roenicke, so I'd be cool with him. However, I wouldn't put too much stock in the lack of comment from Roenicke. All that means is that the press was able to get a hold of him. He's is probably a finalist, and not sure whether he will get the job or not. If you are asked for a quote from the press in that case, less is more.

[Mudville9]

"Another point to consider is that, given the stability in Anaheim, Roenicke would likely not be bringing any coaches from the Angels to join him... as Roenicke may not have replacements or preferred candidates in mind for the position."

I noticed that comment too. I'd be ok with Roenicke or Melvin and I really have no idea about Cora except as a player. I was personally hoping for Listach just because he was willing to jump into brawl. I don't think it makes that big of a difference honestly. Roenicke seems a bit short with the reporter for a few lines, which hopefully doesn't have anything to do with how he handles the media.

[BrewCrewForever]

I am all for stealing more bases especially with guys like Weeks, Cain, Escobar, Gomez, Braun and Hart. But I am very much against playing small ball and manufacturing runs. Unless of course late in the game and the situation calls for it.

[igor67]

Individually it's not much, but frankly this team has a big strength of being pretty athletic and fast. If we aren't running at opportune moments and taking extra bases we are only hurting ourselves. I look at those names and I say that's 6 guys in the starting line-up who should have a chance to score from first on a double instead of gliding into third and getting stranded on a strikeout. So in part because Macha was some extreme in not using that I do think there's a good chance for the right guy to squeeze out another 10-20 runs from the offense just on the base running side.

[TooLiveBrew]

What would Macha have to do with whether a guy scores from first on a double? Wouldn't that only be on Fischer & the players?

[ELCABALLO45]

Ken Rosenthal just tweeted that Bobby Valentine is indeed a finalist for the Brewers managers job.

[RockCoCougars]

Ken Rosenthal just tweeted that Bobby Valentine is indeed a finalist for the Brewers managers job.

Hopefully this is true. I had kind of lost hope after Hardicourt's source told him that Valentine was out of the mix. Bobby V. would be a much needed shot in the arm for a talented and under performing team (yes I know that the starting pitching was mostly brutal for the first 100 games or so last season). I feel that hiring Valentine would parallel the Bucks George Karl back in the day. Yes, he pretty much left the franchise in chaos (but only partially because Harris made some incredibly idiotic decisions as well), but there were a couple of fun seasons in between.

[Invader3K]

Well, it would get the fan base excited. That's partly why I think it has a chance to happen. It just seems weird that it's been kept so under wraps if true.

[AJAY]

I have prayed and prayed for Bobby Valentine to become the next manager of the Brewers. I can't tell you in words how badly I want this to happen. It would mean so much to me. I would be the most excited person in America if he were to come to the Brewers.

 

Anyway, I should probably get back to praying some more . . .