RFB Offseason Roundtable: Reaction to Ken Macha

This Week’s Topic: What is your initial reaction to the hiring of Ken Macha as Brewers Manager?

Joe

I like the managerial signing of Ken Macha. I think he is an established guy, and he has shown he can win (winning two division titles in four years and never finishing with less than 88 wins).

I like that the Brewers actually have signed a guy who: a) is not a first-year manager, and b) is not a home-grown guy. I think it will do this team some good to have some “outside” perspective.

Many Brewers fans are highly concerned over his reportedly poor relationships with his players while in Oakland. Personally, I am not too worried about it. First and foremost, if anyone has read a thing about Billy Beane and the way he runs his team, I am not one bit surprised that an Oakland manager had rocky relations with anyone.

Second, I don’t really care how good his relationships are with the players if they win division titles and play well.

Ken Macha will not face the type of pressure and stress from Doug Melvin that he endured with Billy Beane in Oakland, and frankly, I completely trust Doug Melvin’s decision. 

Jared

I’m very happy with the Ken Macha hiring. I think I’ve outlined what I like about him on the site pretty well over the last few weeks (especially in this post). He fits basically every requirement I was hoping the manager would have. And I think he’s a great addition for the team.

After hearing his press conference, I’m even more confident in him. Some have criticized him for not having much personality, but he was very personable in his press conference and the interview he did on 1250 WSSP following the announcement. He cracked a handful of jokes that went over well, and he was very upfront when reporters asked repeatedly about the supposed “disconnect” in Oakland.

One of the things I truly did not like about Ned was how he handled the media, especially with the tough questions. He would not have handled the questions today well at all. I can already tell Macha is an upgrade in that department.

It was also reassuring that several players, including Kendall, have come forward and said they’re happy with the hiring and that Macha is not a horrible, disconnected manager that won’t have their backs. In fact, he sounds quite competent and the term “players' manager” was even thrown around. There’s two sides to every story.

I’m not saying Macha is going to come in and suddenly transform this club into a 100-win team, but he was very clearly the best candidate of any who even received mention and he’s heads and shoulders above Randolph, who has to be held at least partly responsible for that complete disaster of a clubhouse in New York, and Brenly, who is regarded as a mental midget by his peers when it comes to baseball strategy.

I think we’ll all be very happy with the decision next season. Good work, Doug.

Tyler

The announcement of Ken Macha as the 17th, and most recent, Brewers skipper isn’t at all surprising, and it isn’t incredibly exciting either. It pretty much just is what it is.

I’d seen what Whitey had done in Oakland, and you can’t hate that. He seems a good enough manager and all, but he’s not one that will blow people away. Not trying to take away the importance of a manager, but essentially, past win/loss totals, the possible existence of a “disconnect” and anything else that happened in Oakland means very little to me.

It’s all a matter of what is done now, with this team, with this general manager breathing down his liver-spotted neck.

And because none of that can be known until the season begins, I’m just happy to have Macha in place. He seemed to be one of the better, if not the best, manager available for hire based on what he’s done—but I’m most concerned on what he’ll do.

I’m glad to have him, but I guess my overlying sentiment through all this is a slightly sarcastic “yay,” because I’m just mostly glad it’s over with, and the Brewers can now start signing or trading for people that will at least occasionally get up off the bench and play—you know, non-managers.

Johnny

Macha Macha Man, I’ve got to be a Macha Man. Hahahahahaha! I am kidding eye-eddy.

No, but I am serious. Macha was my favorite option. I really didn’t see an upgrade going from Yost to Randolph or Brenly. There is no way to predict how it will pan out, but one thing I do like is—every picture that the major sports channels show of Macha show him squinting, which tells me he is both wise and honorable.

And even if he leads us nowhere, our players should at least pick up on some of his many proverbs and parables. To become a better athlete, you must become a better person. The more I read about Macha’s baseball philosophy, the more I liked it.

Hopefully, his stern attitude and performance-based lineups will be a spark to massive disappointments Billy Hall and Rickie Weeks. It would be great to watch them turn into real ball players. But like Tyler said, at least it’s over. Now we can prepare the boom box’s dance mixes, so we can rejoice about the Jeff Francouer deal with Macha-rena’s and Macha-ritas. I am done. 

Bryan

I believe Macha coming to the Brewers shows how much the culture of the team has changed. Six years ago, the Brewers wanted Macha as the “successor” to Jerry Royster to manage the team. The A’s gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse to be their manager. He knew the team, and the A’s just won 103 games the past season.

The Brewers, at the time, were mostly full of unknowns and had just lost 106 games the previous season. Macha went on to have four good years as manager in Oakland, while Ned Yost started taking to change the culture in Milwaukee.

Interesting how things intertwine. Side note, both searches included Wille Randolph, and I’m glad he was not chosen either time.

A couple things he said during his press conference that I truly liked: First of all, when the inevitable question about Jason Kendall’s comments in Oakland, Macha said it’s not his job to be friends. It’s his job to create a lineup that will win. The main problem I had with Yost was that he seemed to play favorites with players, and it doesn’t seem that will be the case with this team anymore.

Something else I enjoyed was that he’s ready to lead the team, even if they can’t retain CC and/or Sheets. His attitude seems to be “been there, done that,” which is an important attitude right now, with many Brewer fans currently scared of a CC-less team.

He said it was similar to losing two of “the big three” in Mulder and Hudson. Now, neither of them were Cy Young winners, but the confidence he exudes will be good for the team and the fans.

Another thing I liked was that Melvin and Macha are both interested in retaining Dale Sveum. Even though I give him a hard time about some of his choices, Sveum is “Brewer People,” which I believe you need in this town. Ned Yost and Dale Sveum understood how important this team is to Milwaukee and helped the players understand what it means to be a Brewer, too. We lost that with Lopes, Royster, and yes, even Garner.

Finally, I’m glad he sounds like he will balance the team’s power with some small ball. Contrary to buzzword-loving casual fans, the Brewers have too much wonderful power to be a small-ball centered team.

Small ball does not contain mystical powers, nor does it solve all the worlds problems. But there’s nothing wrong with using elements of small ball late in the game, like Macha said, to get runners closer to scoring or to keep rallies going instead of dying out due to someone overswinging.

Milwaukee was fifth in the majors with 324 doubles last year. If Macha can get more runners on base and in scoring position, those doubles will turn into runs. And if a batter starts the inning with a double, let’s hope that runner has a better chance to score next year than this past year.

As of 11 PM, Thursday night, 55 percent of fans polled on JSonline said they liked the pick and 44 percent of fans did not like the pick. We have five glowing reviews of Macha here. Let’s hear what you have to say in our comments.