Impressions of Roenicke so far (part 1)

[Gobias Industries]

Fire Roenicke, promote Sveum. We got to the playoffs once already with that strategy. Or maybe Counsell could be a player/manager. Or maybe the kid who played Billy Heywood from Little Big League is available. Seriously, anybody but Roenicke would be fine with me at this point.

Has that ever happened before? Manager is hired, the team is successful (because they're talented ldo), but it's also painfully obvious the manager is in wayyyyy over his head. I guess you could say that the Phoenix Suns kinda did that with Terry Porter a few years back, but I don't recall it happening in baseball.

 

I ask because I came to post the same thing. I understand that the next guy is gonna have his flaws, but this guy is an idiot. There's really no other way to say it.

[logan82]

I don't think Svuem would be any better. I remember some dumb lineups and small ball from him as well.

[markedman5]

Guys he's not getting fired so why even broach the subject?

[NYChez]

Roenicke is learning on the job. By the time Fielder, Greinke, and Marcum leave town, the then-well-learned Roenicke will be the perfect guy to turn a 68-win team into a 73-win team.

Seriously, it was a risky move to hand over a team whose future is 2011 and only 2011 over to a rookie manager. If Roenicke screws up this season for the Brewers with stupid decision-making, I don't think Brewer fans will ever forgive Roenicke or Melvin.

[fondybrewfan]

Yeah I really don't know what to say anymore. I liked RR up until the last 2 days; but his decision making in these two losses really has me questioning if he really knows what he is doing.

 

You can argue about a particular lineup but if the hitters hit no one will really complain; but when you aren't using your best players at the end of games it is really just mind boggling.

 

I wonder if Svuem or Narron would have the balls to seriously talk to RR and ask him what he was thinking. Those guys have been around baseball a long time and almost have to had disagreed with a couple of his decisions.

[Gobias Industries]

Guys he's not getting fired so why even broach the subject?

Oh, I know it's not gonna happen. Way too ballsy.

 

Melvin is on his 3rd hire and the club has a pretty good record. That right there ends the discussion.

[logan82]

Roenicke is learning on the job.

The real problem is that it doesn't seem like he is learning anything. He still uses Kotsay in CF. He continues to play poor matchups with his pen. He still uses small ball way to much.

[trwi7]

Doug Melvin is the GM not RR.

Going back to this argument from last night.

 

 

 

 

In another bit of news, assistant general manager Gord Ash told me that first baseman Mat Gamel probably won't be brought up from Nashville to use as an extra bat for interleague play. One problem is that the Brewers play six games at home after going to Boston this weekend and don't need an extra bat then.

"Ron's preference is to use what we have, and alternate some guys there," said Ash. "We feel we have coverage from within."

Sounds like Roenicke has quite a bit of say in the roster.

 

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/123865639.html

[Oldcity]

I'm pretty sure the sentence, "He's our eighth-inning guy" was invented to get me to break things.

[Baldkin]

Two things I want a reporter to ask, and DPR to explain:

 

Why is it okay for Kameron Loe to face LHB (.851 OPS against) but Zach Braddock can't face RHB (.778 OPS against)

 

Mark Kotsay is somehow worth starting in CF over Nyjer Morgan. This means he either thinks Kotsay is a better hitter vs RHP (.336 wOBA compared to .327 wOBA career -- even bigger disparity if you use last 3 seasons) or he thinks Kotsay is better defensively than Morgan.... which, anyone who's ever seen a baseball game could tell from 1 fly ball that isn't true.

[Raw Biz]

Roenicke basically said in his post-game comments that while the bullpen gave up the lead, the lead should have been bigger. Another stupid statement. Sure they could have had a bigger lead but the score was 4-1 in the 8th inning. Not sure what the win probability is there but probably high enough to expect a win. Basically all he did was deflect the blame from himself onto the offense. On a related note, I thought this was amazing from Jim Breen. It's nice to see there are some writers who agree with those of us who think Roenicke doesn't know how to manage a bullpen.

[PrinceEatMeat]

Haha, that's awesome. Sad thing is that it's basically true too.

[1992casey]

Here's the source for the Jim Breen bullpen chart:

 

Roenicke's Bullpen Strategy

[DuWayne Steurer]

This would be almost comical at this point, if we weren't in a position to contend this year.

 

I mean, even people who were fans of the Roenicke hiring are saying stuff like "Even I can't defend this guy" at this point. I mean, 68 games, and even some (if not many) of his supporters are jumping ship.

 

I'd like to know what he told Melvin in the interview process that made Doug think he was the right guy for the job.

 

38-30, and tied for first, but I'd still be willing to bet that there's no less than 4 games where Roenicke has Yost'ed the team this year.

[RightFieldCoder]

Melvin is always "fighting the last war" as it were. Yost didn't understand how to use stats to make his decisions. Melvin hires Macha (probably the best candidate of stats based managing). Macha couldn't connect or inspire his players. Melvin hires RRR, the guy most likely to be a player manager.

[thebruce44]

This worked out to be a pretty poor time for Hunt's opinion piece this morning:

 

No matter the 5-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs in 10 innings - the rare clunker in which the Brewers wasted a three-run lead and 10 strikeouts from Yovani Gallardo - Roenicke has come to understand the players' personalities. He now knows what he can and cannot tell each guy. He knows what they can and cannot do.

 

http://www.jsonline.com/s...s/brewers/123877689.html

[adambr2]

I'm so mad that no one questioned RR about not walking Castro in the 10th.

 

That was such an obvious call. 1 out, runner on 3rd, and that's the only run that matters. You walk Castro, you accomplish two things with no downside -- you take the bat out of their best hitters hand and you set up an inning ending double play. You can't even say that you have no room for error on a walk, because you're not loading the bases.

 

And some of Hunt's opinions are really tough to stomach, I'm not sure where his brain is sometimes. I blasted him in 2009 for his piece of how we absolutely needed to sell the farm for Halladay with our .500 team.

[COBrewerfan]

Except you then face Ramirez. Dillard was probably not going to win that one either. You can argue the decision but either way we were in a bad spot.

[Ayt]

Except you then face Ramirez. Dillard was probably not going to win that one either. You can argue the decision but either way we were in a bad spot.

Then bring in Axford.

[Pack Attack]

Except you then face Ramirez. Dillard was probably not going to win that one either. You can argue the decision but either way we were in a bad spot.

He could of walked BOTH Castro & Ramirez to load the bases. There were better options than just bring in a 5th infielder and pitch to Castro.

[cwolf2012]

"Then bring in Axford. "

 

Yep. That was one thing I loved about Macha, willing to use the best reliever in a high leverage situation. He did it with Braddock and he did it with Axford.

 

If nothing else, Macha was decent with managing a bullpen.

[Raw Biz]

"Then bring in Axford. "

 

Yep. That was one thing I loved about Macha, willing to use the best reliever in a high leverage situation. He did it with Braddock and he did it with Axford.

 

If nothing else, Macha was decent with managing a bullpen.

I never really had a problem with Macha's actual in-game management. He wasn't given anything close to a competent pitching staff, yet he managed to get some results out of them. The thing that bugged me about him was he never seemed to be having fun and it seemed like he didn't really connect with the players. Roenicke seems to connect with the players but that's about all he does. If we could get a combo of the two, I'd be happy. Unfortunately, I don't think there's many of those types, at least none who we could get.

[DuWayne Steurer]

"Then bring in Axford. "

 

Yep. That was one thing I loved about Macha, willing to use the best reliever in a high leverage situation. He did it with Braddock and he did it with Axford.

 

If nothing else, Macha was decent with managing a bullpen.

Macha was not at all a bad tactician. He optimized his lineup, he was creative with his bullpen, and seemed to understand the numbers. Too bad he had all the personality of a bucket of sand.

 

Me, I'd take Macha ten times out of ten over Roenicke, who doesn't seem to understand some of the simplest nuances of managing a baseball team, which is mind boggling considering how long he's been in baseball.

[cwolf2012]

"which is mind boggling considering how long he's been in baseball."

 

My opinion is that this does not help someone become a better manager. If anything, it works against them, as old-school lines of thought typically aren't shaken.

[Funketown]

"which is mind boggling considering how long he's been in baseball."

 

My opinion is that this does not help someone become a better manager. If anything, it works against them, as old-school lines of thought typically aren't shaken.

I think there's a lot to that sentiment. Baseball is such an old school machismo culture, new ideas and methods are extremely difficult to sell, even if they are clearly better than the old ones. There's a reason that MLB front offices have been trending away from ex-players in the past decade.