Brewers Scapegoat Bullpen Coach for Bullpen Failures

From the Brewers' website beat writer, Adam McCalvy:

The Brewers’ struggling bullpen has produced another casualty. Longtime coach Stan Kyles was “relieved of his duties” today, according to the team.

Lee Tunnell will replace Kyles on an interim basis and report to the team on Tuesday. Kyles had been in his current role since 2009 and coached in the Minor Leagues before that.

“It is important that we make every effort to try to improve our bullpen performance,” Brewers general manager Doug Melvin said in a statement. “While Stan is not solely responsible, I felt that this change was the first step and was necessary. Stan has been a loyal member of the Milwaukee Brewers organization for 11 years. His hard work and dedication has been an integral part of the Brewers’ success and is greatly appreciated. His professionalism, personality and knowledge will be missed.”

Tunnell is  his fourth season with the organization and had been Minor League pitching coordinator. Prior to that role, he spent three seasons with the Reds as interim bullpen coach (2006) and pro scout (2007-08). He also coached in the Rangers organization for nine seasons (1997-2005).

Brewers relievers are 15-26 with a 4.80 ERA this season. The bullpen has recorded the most losses and blown saves (20) in the Major Leagues and ranks 28th in ERA and 29th in opponent batting average (.274).


Yeah, that'll fix it.

Melvin just fired the guy who answers the bullpen phone, then turns around and tells the relief pitcher of choice to start warming up. Maybe the next step is to can the bullpen catcher. After all, he should have that relief pitcher dialed in when the warmup session is over.

Maybe they can fire the guy who opens the bullpen gate so the relief pitcher can run/trot/walk to the mound. Open the door sooner, so the poor guy doesn't have to wait an extra second and get out of rhythm.

Maybe Melvin can fire the head groundskeeper to atone for all the errors being made by infielders. Must be something he's doing wrong.

Stan Kyles didn't sign Francisco Rodriguez for too much money. He didn't trade for the always-erratic Jose Veras. He isn't the one who put Manny Parra on the major-league roster, and he surely isn't the one telling John Axford how to throw the baseball.

But, apparently, Melvin thinks his embarrassment of a bullpen will turn things around, now that he's fired the guy who sits out there and keeps track of absolutely nothing until the manager calls down and asks that a pitcher be warmed up. It's the ultimate scapegoat maneuver, a classic move by a team like the Yankees where the overpaid players can't be fired, but the coaches are seen as interchangeable parts.

Of course, the Brewers aren't the Yankees. If they were, they'd still have Zack Greinke and/or CC Sabathia.

And then, just maybe, the bullpen wouldn't look like such a joke.

Bobby Petrino Gone, Showing Integrity Matters SOMEWHERE in College Football

Ever since the news broke Tuesday night that Bobby Petrino was out as the football coach at Arkansas, I've been battling a couple different reactions.

Frankly, I don't like the idea that Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long should be commended for doing the right thing here, even though the school obviously did just that.

It's not that I disagree. Long clearly didn't want to fire Petrino, but he felt he was given no choice, thanks to the former coach's pattern of deceit. Long did what Long felt was right and necessary, even though it wasn't the desired outcome.

And obviously, given Petrino lied to his bosses about the circumstances surrounding the accident, as well as the reason he hired his mistress for a position within the football program, he had to go. I don't argue for one single solitary second Petrino should have kept his job.

What I don't like is the overwhelming praise being heaped upon Long for doing something that anyone in any sort of management position in any other kind of job in this country would have done. If Michael Scott hired his mistress to work at Dunder Mifflin over 158 other applicants for the job, and didn't bother to tell corporate that he was hiring someone he had a relationship with, Michael Scott would have been fired. Instantly.

(Sorry. It was more exciting to make an Office reference than to talk about myself or use some other dumb pronoun to make an example.)

George Schroeder, a rock-solid scribe, probably said it better than I can.

Look, Long and the Arkansas powerbrokers might have had no other option. It turns out Petrino had given the woman a $20,000 gift, and she got the job in the football office over 158 other applicants. But I agree, it was good to see the school get it right.

It was surprising, too. As the saga played out, I figured they would find a way to retain the coach.

At Arkansas like so many other places, football is too big to fail, which is why I’m more interested in the reaction of those fans at that goofy rally.

As an Arkansan, sure, I cringed, but I understood their passion. In the last few days I heard from several friends back home who were wrestling with the dilemma. The guy who organized the rally put it this way:

“We want to forgive, forget and win.”

Pay close attention to that last part, because it might hit close to home.

Ask yourself: If something similar happened at Oregon, or Oregon State — or insert your favorite school here — what would you want to happen? (Or if, say, the NCAA started digging and found significant issues?)

Integrity sounds nice in theory. But winning usually seems to matter more.

It's easy to talk about integrity, but like Schroeder says, it usually comes down to winning. In this case, however, a program 21-5 the last two years after a lot of mediocrity in recent decades just fired the coach largely responsible for that record and the product that will be on the field this fall.

I am not about to condone what Petrino did, but he probably felt that -- just like at other places in the country -- the coach was big enough to survive a couple off-field missteps. In other words, he thought he was untouchable.

The reaction of the fans -- protesting on his behalf -- certainly would lead one to a similar conclusion. Luckily, Long didn't feel like a few hundred people protesting represented his fanbase, and he didn't think Petrino's actions were those of a man who deserved to keep his job.

When the time comes for Petrino to be judged, I won't be doing the judging. But I sure am glad my son wasn't playing for that smarmy, self-absorbed, poor excuse for a human being. Someone as capable of Petrino's behavior might look like a good coach, but he's not a leader of young men.

In that way, Arkansas wins here, even if the team loses in the short-term without Petrino.

Todd Richards: Fall Guy for ... Doug Risebrough?

In case you were under a rock or something, you may not have heard that second-year Wild head coach Todd Richards got fired Monday.

It wasn't a move totally unexpected. The team's March free-fall virtually locked management into this move, as you can't fire all the players.

Hell, with all these untradeable contracts, you can't trade most of the players, much less fire them.

This wasn't about Richards being incompetent. This wasn't about Richards not doing the best he could with the talent he was given. It also isn't about anything general manager Chuck Fletcher really did wrong. In all honesty, Fletcher has done a fairly good job over his two years at the helm, ditching as many bad contracts as humanly possible while also using college free agents to help re-stock the farm system a bit as the effort to compile more draft picks continues.

The bottom line is that Richards is taking the fall for the misdeeds of previous management.

It was Doug Risebrough who made the mistakes Richards paid for Monday. It was Risebrough whose mismanagement of the roster and farm system led the Wild to take the franchise in a different direction when Craig Leipold bought the team.

In short, Risebrough cost Richards his job, simply by putting the organization in a near-impossible position for Fletcher.

Risebrough routinely let free agents go without compensation, even though he knew he wasn't going to sign them. He traded draft picks like they were jellybeans, making it virtually impossible to bring in the kind of players who could eventually replace the free agents he was losing. He used first-round picks on guys like Colton Gillies and James Sheppard, players who might be capable at the NHL level but who were so rushed out of the gates that it hurt their development.

(Only now does Gillies really look NHL-ready, which would be fine if he hadn't been in the NHL two years ago. Sheppard might get thrown into the AHL next year when he's healthy again, a move that follows two full -- and trbl -- seasons in the NHL.)

The Wild now have a decently-stocked farm system, thanks to moves by Fletcher that gained them some prime college free agents like Nate Prosser and extra draft picks for players like Matt Hackett. He still has work to do at the NHL level, though, to fix a team that spent to the salary cap without anything remotely resembling that kind of production.

Does that sound like a team ready to compete at a high level in the NHL?

No. And it's unfortunate that Richards was placed in a position to do something that would have been difficult -- if not impossible -- to pull off.

Was Richards perfect? No. Does this mean Fletcher was wrong to fire him? No.

Instead, the point here is that Risebrough's awful work over his last few years as general manager is what put the Wild in such a difficult spot. While Fletcher is stuck trying to rebuild the NHL and minor-league rosters at the same time, Richards was coaching square pegs for his round-hole system.

From a coaching standpoint, there was more bending that the head coach could have done to help bring things along more smoothly. He was not good at matching lines to put pressure on opponents. However, it probably didn't matter much what he did. When players started dropping like flies, the Wild had nowhere to turn for replacements.

Now, Fletcher has to find a replacement. Unless he wants to hire a veteran coach like Ken Hitchcock or Andy Murray, or even if he does, he's probably taking a similar chance. If that happens, there's a good chance Craig Leipold will be the one talking in two years about how the person he just fired wasn't the right fit.

Bernard Berrian Whines About Brad Childress

It may have been mentioned, but the Minnesota Vikings canned head coach Brad Childress on Monday. As defensive coordinator-turned head coach Leslie Frazier prepares his team for Sunday's game at Washington, some players have taken some time to look back on the Childress era.

One of those is veteran wide receiver Bernard Berrian, who was on Sirius NFL Radio with Adam Schein and Rich Gannon Tuesday.

Berrian didn't mince words about his former coach, a man he clearly did not get along with.

“He was just confrontational,” Berrian said.  “I think that was the biggest thing.  Instead of, you know, going to players like men and just talking and conversating about it, it was kind of brought to their attention in a confrontational way and just people just didn’t really conform to that way of, I guess, him talking and speaking to his team, or players individually.”

Sadly, Berrian probably isn't alone in his feelings.

While this is a sad commentary on today's professional athlete -- you make seven-figure salaries to play a game, and yet you can't stand it when a figure of authority gets in your face because you're playing like crap? -- this is also something Childress has to learn from if he wants to get a second chance as a head coach in the NFL.

You can't just get in guy's faces anymore. The days of successful taskmaster coaches have ended. Even perennial hard-asses like Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick have shown the ability to be appreciated by their players because they're not always flying off the handle or talking down to the players.

If Childress is to be a successful NFL head coach, he has to be willing to adapt. Yes, it sucks that millionaire athletes have to be pampered. Yes, it's as if they have the mentality of Pop Warner players when it comes to how they take coaching.

But this is reality. It's not going to change. The best coaches walk the line between being tough and being fair and compassionate toward their players. Childress has struggled with this line.

Well, that and counting the number of players on the field.

Tim Brewster's Firing Should Lead to Significant Changes at Minnesota

Tim Brewster couldn't change the culture.

Promises of Rose Bowls, conference championships, and elite players were all left unfulfilled, as Brewster was fired Sunday with a coaching record of 15-30, only 6-21 in Big Ten play.

I know he was just a hair from going 45-0 and 27-0, but that just didn't happen. Instead, the Gophers have to start over, not even four years after they fired Glen Mason in favor of starting over with Brewster.

Having reached out to alum Tony Dungy and been rebuffed by him (though he says he'll help with the search), athletic director Joel Maturi is in full search mode, as offensive coordinator Jeff Horton finishes what is a lost season that will end up with Minnesota no better than 3-9 and probably much worse than that.

The reaction of fans varies. Some want the Gophers to shoot for a big name -- ala basketball coach Tubby Smith -- and others want Minnesota to hire a guy who will want to be with the program for the long run.

Either way, it's a crapshoot.

There is no safe bet when hiring a coach. Hot young coaches like Dirk Koetter and Dan Hawkins both struggled after leaving Boise State for BCS conference teams. Former assistant Randy Shannon is doing well at Miami, but longtime coach Ralph Friedgen has largely struggled at Maryland.

What Minnesota can do, however, is make sure they get a coach with a successful resume and much less "promise" and "bluster" than Brewster provided.

Here are some keys:

1. Get someone with experience as a head coach at something other than a high school. That might work at Houston, but high school coaching experience won't help as much at Minnesota. The Gophers need a more seasoned coach, either from college or the NFL (more on that in a second).

This isn't unlike the NHL, where guys like John MacLean and Scott Arniel couldn't get head-coaching jobs until they cut their teeth in the AHL, and now Kirk Muller is on that list. They were accomplished coaches, but that head-coaching experience is vital before NHL teams will let you run a bench.

Hiring Brewster proved to be a mistake, and you have to look at his lack of experience as a part of the problem. He may have known how to recruit, but he had no idea how to implement a plan, develop an identity on either side of the ball, or handle a coaching staff.

Now, Maturi has to get a coach who has experience as a head coach. It is a must.

2. Hire a coach who has ties to the Big Ten. Look around the league right now. The most successful coaches -- Jim Tressel, Kirk Ferentz, Bret Bielema, Pat Fitzgerald, and Mark Dantonio -- spent time in the Big Ten as assistant coaches before becoming head coaches in the league. Of them, only Fitzgerald is an actual alum of the school (Northwestern) he is at now, but the point is that all these coaches have worked within the culture of the league.

The Big Ten isn't like witchcraft or anything, but you don't see a lot of successful Big Ten coaches getting jobs at Florida or anything like that (notable exception is Nick Saban, but he left Michigan State for LSU after the 1999 season). It's a different way of doing things, and you have to understand the types of student-athletes who can succeed at these schools.

Just hiring the offensive coordinator from Auburn (Gus Malzahn), for example, isn't going to guarantee you anything.

Same thing if you try to pluck a coach like Gary Patterson from his current job (TCU). Patterson is great at recruiting Texas high-school stars. That state is so rich in talent that it's ridiculous, and Patterson does well getting top players to go to a Mountain West school.

Of course, if he takes the Minnesota job, he can't be guaranteed any kind of similar success in recruiting. Why would the star running back from Southlake Carroll say "No" to Texas so he could go to Minnesota?

3. Don't be afraid to take a chance. This doesn't mean hire another Brewster. Instead, it means don't be afraid to spend more money to get the right guy. Sounds like the Gophers are willing to do this, and that's a good thing.

Good coaches aren't just looking to get paid. They're looking for a school that has exhibited a commitment to the sport, and the willingness to make the sport successful in the long-term at some short-term cost.

They will want a lot of money for themselves and their assistants. They will want to make sure facilities are kept up at top-notch condition, and they will stop at nothing to make sure the program is promoted properly.

This is a great city in a great state, with a super new stadium, playing in one of the biggest conferences in college sports.

There are no excuses for what Minnesota has become, and now it's up to Joel Maturi to make sure things turn around.

TOP FIVE CANDIDATES (alphabetical order)
Paul Chryst, Wisconsin offensive coordinator --> Experienced Big Ten assistant who got a sniff from the NFL a few years ago. Knows how to help a successful program recruit, and could give the Gophers a few much-needed steals from Wisconsin, after the Badgers took so many Minnesota kids over the years.

Jim Harbaugh, Stanford head coach --> Could be tough to lure him out of the California sun, but he'll never do better than this at Stanford. Minnesota offers him a higher ceiling, and it brings him closer to his alma mater (Michigan).

Mike Leach, former Texas Tech head coach --> Probably got a raw deal, and it's reasonable to suggest he will get another head coaching job soon. Could be a Glen Mason-type, where his ability won't take a team to a BCS bowl, but he'll always be capable of leading his players to 7-10 wins and a bowl game.

Bob Nielson, Minnesota Duluth head coach and athletic director --> Brilliant coach at the Division II level, with a national championship at UMD and a stellar overall record. No Big Ten experience, but his roots are in the upper Midwest -- with stops in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as a coach and athletic director -- so he isn't far from being a perfect fit.

Marc Trestman, Montreal (CFL) head coach --> Much to worry about here, including a nomadic career as an NFL assistant. He's done very well in Montreal, though, and his offense is among the better in Canada. Hasn't been involved with the Big Ten since he went to Minnesota, so it remains to be seen if he could win in college as a head coach. Will get play here because he's a Twin Cities native.

Ken Macha Told to Sleep in Someone Else's Dugout From Now On

The Milwaukee Brewers wasted no time doing the obvious after Sunday's season finale, which was -- naturally -- a loss.

They told manager Ken Macha they would not exercise the club's option on his contract for 2011. Macha was only ten games under .500 in two years, but it seemed evident there was friction between him and the players, especially stars Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder.

Macha didn't do many of the little things former manager Ned Yost did right.

When an opposing player threw at Braun or Fielder, Yost made sure there was retaliation. Of course, it was sometimes ill-timed, but it was executed, for crying out loud.

Macha? He didn't believe in that, apparently. Instead, he let guys get hit time after time, and continued to let opposing pitchers off the hook until well after the Brewers were out of it. Incensed, the players didn't bother using it as a rallying point.

Yost used Braun's speed. He used Mike Cameron's speed. He would have used Carlos Gomez' speed.

Macha? Doesn't like making outs on the bases. Apparently, he'd prefer we just made them at the plate and eliminated the middle man.

Yost didn't let his guys get jobbed by an umpire. If it happened, he was in the umpire's grill in a matter of seconds. If he got thrown out of the game, dammit, he got thrown out of the game. It was fine, because he was sticking up for his guys. His players felt good when that happened, because they knew he had their backs. It made them want to play for him.

(The best image of this came in June, when the Brewers played a series at Target Field against the Twins. In the first game, Dave Bush was getting barked at by a crappy home-plate umpire who wouldn't give him anything, including the strikes he was throwing. Macha sat on his hands and only left the dugout when it was time to pull Bush from the game.)

Brewers fans liked to joke that Macha was always sleeping in the dugout. At least I think they were joking. I never saw it actually happen, after all ... even though his mannerisms suggested he was slipping away from consciousness once in a while during games.

Anyway, on his way out the door, Macha woke up long enough to talk about his dismissal, or whatever you want to call what the Brewers have done here.

Macha also acknowledged his trying relationships with stars Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder while noting that several other players he had good relationships with thanked him after yesterday’s season finale, including Corey Hart, Casey McGehee and Wolf among plenty of others.

Still, it was those other two players that he never could develop great rapports with despite his efforts.

“If the effort wasn’t reciprocated, then there’s not a whole lot I can do about it. You can’t force guys to do that,” Macha said. “Some guys were open to discussion and some guys weren’t, I guess, but that’s the same with every club.

“I talked a lot to Ryan, almost every day, but he does his own thing. He’s going to do what he wants to do.

“With Prince, I think he had some issues this year to deal with, the contract probably being the main thing, and at times he was hard to talk to. I don’t know if there were any guys on the staff that talked a whole lot to him this year.

“Those are the two guys, but the rest of the guys it was all positive. I opened up to (Braun and Fielder) but you have to have a back and forth. The faces of the franchise, that’s what they are.”

The bottom line is that he didn't get the job done. Making a connection with Braun and Fielder would have been fine, but it would have involved Macha being different than the way he was. His personality just wasn't going to mesh with these two guys.

Yes, Braun and Fielder should have made more of an effort to get along with their on-field boss. But we live in a society now where the coach has to give some, too. It's not 1966 anymore, when "my way or the highway" coaches won games by scaring the hell out of their players.

Macha managed like it was 1966, and while there are some veteran teams that he could be effective with, this is simply not one of them. It's a younger team that needs a high-energy manager who understands matchups and tactics, and he understands how to relate to his star players.

Without that, no coach or manager can last ... not in 2010. Or 2011.

Enough is Enough: Brewers Clean House

To say the Milwaukee Brewers are slumping would be an understatement. On its surface, a 4-5 road trip that took them to San Diego, Los Angeles, and Houston isn't terrible. However, the club's pitching has failed them drastically throughout the last two months.

In the case of shortstop J.J. Hardy and third baseman/outfielder Bill Hall, the failures have been season-long.

Wednesday, general manager Doug Melvin either 1) decided he's had enough of watching his team mercilessly suck in front of him, or 2) finally pushed the panic button because the other ones weren't working.

The club fired pitching coach Bill Castro, demoted Hardy to Triple-A Nashville, and designated Hall for assignment.

The Brewers have ten days to get Hall to accept a minor-league assignment, release him outright, or trade him (good luck with that contract). Hardy doesn't get this luxury, as he doesn't have enough major-league service time to reject a trip to the minors.

In Hardy's place will come prospect shortstop Alcides Escobar, who likely takes over as the Brewers' starter immediately.

And why not? Nothing else was working.

Melvin tried to shore up the bullpen with guys like Jesus Colome and David Weathers, but neither were going to help a rotation that can't get out of its own way.

Yovani Gallardo has slumped lately, but has generally been ace-quality, and had a legitimate argument for All-Star selection. It's been "pray for rain!" after that for some time. Dave Bush is on the shelf, as is Jeff Suppan, but it's not like Suppan is any good when he's available. Braden Looper was signed cheap as a fifth starter, and he's pitched like one for much of the season. Manny Parra looked like a potential young stud, but he's been awful, to the point that he got sent to the minors and has only improved a bit since returning. Guys like Mike Burns and Carlos Villanueva were asked to shore up the bottom of the rotation because of injuries, and they have largely failed.

Someone had to pay for all of this, and since Melvin is the one pulling this trigger, he sure as hell wasn't going to be the guy. Frankly, he probably shouldn't be, as his positives still outweigh his negatives.

As for Hall and Hardy, good riddance.

Hardy has been given too many chances to be an absolute failure like this. He's had some rotten luck, and now seems to have no confidence, along with still having rotten luck. To make matters worse, his defense hasn't been as good, leading some to think he has started taking crappy at-bats into the field.

He needs to find himself again in the minors, or he'll end up never playing another game with the Brewers. When it was predicted in this space that Hardy would hit .300 in the second half of the season, it didn't even seem possible that he would fall off the map like this.

As for Hall, this is the right move. He's been given more than his fair share of opportunities, even getting called back up to the majors a few days after voluntarily accepting a minor-league assignment. When Corey Hart had an appendectomy, the Brewers brought Hall back instead of going with a younger player.

Hall is owed some $8 million next season, plus a club option for 2011, and the team is eating money to make this move.

The sad thing is that Hall could never play baseball again, and still get that serious coin. He showed up for one season, got his big contract, and basically disappeared. It's a message to general managers everywhere to be very, very careful about the players you decide to lock up long-term.

Castro's firing is nothing but a rearrangement of the proverbial deck chairs. Triple-A pitching coach and former Brewer Chris Bosio isn't going to solve anything, and guys like Looper and Suppan (if he ever comes back) won't just start pitching consistently well because they have a different voice talking to them now.

It's a sad day for a once-promising first-place Brewer team, one that is now going to need some real good luck to just finish .500.

Blackhawks Give in to Bowman Power Play

Sometimes, even organizations that appear to be exceptionally well-run commit exceptional blunders.

It appears to have happened to the Chicago Blackhawks.

Just weeks after a potentially embarrassing flub involving restricted free agent qualifying offers was brought to light, the Blackhawks have fired a guy who might not have been responsible for the blunders at all.

As relayed by FanHouse colleague Adam Gretz, the team has reportedly fired general manager Dale Tallon. The replacement? Assistant general manager Stan Bowman, son of Hall of Fame coach and current senior advisor Scotty Bowman.

(The Blackhawks say Tallon has been "reassigned to Senior Advisor, Hockey Operations", the same position Scotty Bowman currently holds. Something tells me Scotty will have more say.)

My immediate reaction? The Blackhawks brass gave in to the Bowman family power play, aided by the qualifying offer "controversy", which Tallon took full blame for, even though he insisted that the offers were mailed on time.

No, I have nothing to back it up, and I'm sure that many hockey people will step up and insist that Scotty Bowman would never push a guy out of a job. That doesn't matter. Reality is that Scotty Bowman has a voice with Blackhawks brass (John McDonough and Rocky Wirtz). He should have that voice. He's Scotty Bowman, after all. In this case, whether it's right or wrong, Scotty appears to have used that voice to help get his son a valuable promotion.

Is that so Scotty can run the team through his kid? Only time will tell.

This is the second awkwardly-timed firing by the Blackhawks in less than a year. They canned coach Denis Savard four games into what would become a highly-successful 2008-2009 season. His biggest crime? Daring to lose road games against the Rangers and Capitals.

Tallon was hardly perfect in the GM role. He signed huge deals for defenseman Brian Campbell and goalie Cristobal "Ole!" Huet, and he signed 30-year-old Marian Hossa to a 12-year contract.

He also drafted Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Dustin Byfuglien, and a host of other young stars on this Chicago team. Not only that, but he engineered brilliant one-sided trades for Patrick Sharp and Kris Versteeg.

Not exactly the picture of incompetence, and not the resume of a guy you'd think just lost his GM job.

The Bowmans -- namely Stan -- will be under the microscope now. Tallon has been a longtime figure in this organization, as a player, broadcaster, and now executive. If Stan Bowman can't step in and continue the building of a championship contender in the Second City, the two-handed shove of Tallon will look all the worse in the end.