Leadership In Limbo?

The Brewers just made the playoffs for the first time in 25 years and the news is filled with speculation about their already fired manager, their interim manager being in jeopardy of not retaining the job, their general manager beginning a lame duck season and their director of scouting being a finalist for another team’s GM job.

What’s going on here?

Well, first of all, Doug Melvin is close to signing an extension. I don’t think we have to worry about losing him.

Jack Zduriencik is among four final candidates for the Seattle Mariners GM job. Jack certainly deserves a lot of credit for helping to build this team and it would be a shame to lose him. He’s also earned a shot at a GM job though and I’d be happy for him if he got it. That said, it seems as though Kim Ng has been the frontrunner from the start and if Jack loses out on another GM job (he was a finalist for the Pittsburgh job last year), he’d continue to be a great asset to the Brewers organization.

That brings us to Dale Sveum. Melvin interviewed him and has since said he has a “short list” of managerial candidates to consider for the job. I’d say that doesn’t bode well for Sveum. If Melvin was sold on him, he would have pulled the trigger immediately. In my opinion, one of the guys on the “short list” will all but certainly impress Melvin and become the next Brewers manager.

And who’s on this “short list”? Melvin isn’t saying… But Tom Haudricourt speculates the list probably includes some of the following:

• Bob Brenly, previously with Arizona but now a TV broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs
• Willie Randolph, fired by the Mets during the 2008 season
• Davey Johnson, who managed Team USA in the 2008 Olympics and is the former manager of the Mets, Reds, Orioles and Dodgers
• Mike Hargrove, who stepped down in Seattle last year citing “burnout”
• Buck Showalter, former Yankees, D-Backs and Rangers manager and current ESPN baseball analyst
• Buck Martinez, former Blue Jays manager and current TBS announcer
• Ken Macha, who was Melvin’s original choice to manage the Brewers in 2003, but instead chose to manage in Oakland before being fired by the A’s after the 2006 season and is currently a TV broadcaster for the Red Sox
• Bobby Valentine, former New York Mets and Texas Rangers manager who is now managing in Japan

All of those men have more experience and a higher profile than Sveum and all of them are less familiar with the Brewers and have failed before. Who do you choose?

Randolph, Johnson, Hargrove and Valentine are absolute nos to me. They either don’t seem to offer much or have serious warts.

Brenly, Showalter and Martinez are marginally appealing choices, but while they are certainly higher profile choices than Sveum, I’m not sure they’d be a sure upgrade, at least enough to dump Sveum without giving him a shot.

The one that stands out to me is Macha. He managed for four seasons in Oakland and his worst season was good for 88 wins and second in the division. He was Melvin’s first choice in 2003 before Yost got the job. I don’t know much else about the guy, but it seems like a natural choice and one I think I could get behind.

It’s not known if Macha is interested, but when Haudricourt asked him about the opening, he was (seemingly intentionally) vague in his answers. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.

It should be an interesting winter.