The Milwaukee Brewers have announced a 2pm press conference to name their new manager for the 2009 season.
According to Tom Haudricourt, Ken Macha will be announced as the new skipper. This is not surprising, as Macha was Doug Melvin's first choice for manager back in 2002. Macha has the history of success with a mid-market team. He lead the Oakland A's to the postseason several times as manager, but was eventually fired because he could not close the deal in the playoffs.
To quote TH, "The new manager played 180 games in the majors with Pittsburgh,
Montreal and Toronto, and he managed four seasons in Oakland, going
368-280 and winning two AL West championships in 2003 and 2006. He was
5-7 in the post-season."
Sources also say that Macha fosters a kind of disconnect between the manager and the players. It will be interesting to see what some of the players think about that. Ned Yost and Dale Sveum were largely considered "players' managers." I wonder how they will react to a different style in the clubhouse.
It is important to note that Jason Kendall played a couple of seasons under Macha, so I imagine Doug Melvin and company talked to Jason to see how the working relationship was. As are most things in the clubhouse, the perceived disconnect was probably overblown.
Be sure to read what Right Field Bleachers had to say about Macha just a week or so ago. It provides great insight into the situation.