Earlier today, the Blue Jays officially tabbed John Farrell as their next skipper. The Brewers are still looking for their next manager and the Mets are looking to name their new GM. Here's the latest, with more to come throughout the evening:
Mets
The Mets, as expected, interviewed former Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes for a second time today, tweets David Lennon of Newsday. Sandy Alderson, reported by many to be the frontrunner for the position, is scheduled to come in for his second interview tomorrow. Both Lennon and Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com believe that a decision could come as soon as Friday.
Brewers
Dodgers Triple-A manager Tim Wallach is no longer in the running for the Brewers job, a "very good source" tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. It would seem that there are four finalists for the job, two of which are White Sox bench coach Joey Cora and former Arizona skipper Bob Melvin. Haudricourt suspects that Halos bench coach Ron Roenicke is one of the finalists as well. Melvin still appears to be the favorite as he is well-liked by the Brewers' decision makers.
Roenicke, when contacted by MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, refused to say whether he is among the four mystery finalists for the Brewers job. Updated at 10:00pm.
Bob Melvin….what a total joke. After Ken Macha, the Brewers turn to a guy with a .493 winning record? I guess the Brewers are content with 4th or 5th place in 2011.
In all fairness, a .493 isn’t horrible and Melvin’s teams didn’t help him out much.
I actually think he will do a great job with the young Brewers players, as he did with some of the young D-Backs that made them who they are now.
Melvin has had two chances and failed in both places. You could argue about Airzona being a failure, though his getting fired tells you something about him. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you.
You bring up an interesting point on the Brewers being young. I think they are beyond being a young team of inexperienced rookies – most of their players now have 3, 4 or even 5 years under their belts, so while they may be young, they are really experienced.
With Joe Torre not under consideration, I would look to give a coach like Cora, Roenicke or Butterfield a shot. They will be equally, if not more successful than a re-tread like Bob Melvin.
I don’t really like the idea of Melvin, but to argue that he has been fired is meaningless. All managers are fired. I don’t know what team you follow, but the Brewers young players include Cain, Escobar, Lucroy, Axford, McClendon, Kintzler and others. A rookie could make the starting rotation. They are a very young team.
Sam – the core of the Brewers – Braun, Weeks, Fielder (if still around), McGahee, Gallardo and Hart – is young, but not inexperienced as the names you mentioned above. While some of the above have already cracked the line-up, it was Macha’s inability to inspire and motivate this aforementioned core group which lead to his dismissal.
Spot on about managers getting fired.
Melvin got fired 29 games into the ’09 season, however, after finishing 2nd the year before. He was also managing a similar young ballclub. If he is suppsoedly so good with “young” teams, why get fired so early in the season in what many felt was a wide open division in 2009?
The Brewers need to either bring in a seasoned manager with a record of success (like Torre) or a young new first-time manager that will light some sort of spark with this team (like a Cora or a Butterfield). Bobby Valentine would a great name as well as he has not only been successful, but also a motivator. I think Melvin already fired him in Texas (not sure), so he’s not a candidate.
Melvin is too much like the manager he is replacing – boring, aloof and unimpressive.
Girardi will fit in fine as the Mets manager
Of course the Wilpons have their heart set on Wally Backman for manager, but just yesterday we heard that Backman was not on Byrnes’ or Alderson’s list of prospective managers. Now suddenly today Backman is on both their lists (says MetsBlog). The media is obviously not always reliable but I wonder: if Wally Backman is chosen as the next skipper, whose choice was that really…and what does that really say about the “full autonomy” of the next GM?Yeah, I know. Another rhetorical question in Metsland.
Walter Backman.
Ryne Sandberg! That will show the Cubs. :)
Completely throwing this out there. What if the anonymous 4th finalist for the Brewers job is Joe Torre? He has Milwaukee ties and he didn’t officially say he is retiring just leaving the Dodgers.
Even considering Torre would show Doug Melvin is serious about winning. The team has publicly said that Torre would not be under consideration, however. It is a shame as he’d be a tremendous upgrade over Ken Macha as well as a positive influence for this younger team.
Doug and Bob could be related.