Milwaukee Brewers general manager Doug Melvin told WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee on his weekly radio show that he supports manager Ken Macha, whose team has lost 9-straight games. Melvin said he saw no reason to dismiss Macha despite the team’s struggles.
The Brewers blew a 4-3 7th inning lead and fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-4 last night. The last time the Brewers were in Pittsburgh, they swept a 3-game series, outscoring the Pirates 36-1. Now they’re 10-games under .500 and 3-games behind the Pirates in the standings.
It’s interesting that Melvin is giving the vote of confidence to Macha when Melvin could be on the hot seat as well. If the Brewers go to Minnesota and lose that series, that could be it for Macha or Melvin or both.
Clearly this team has under-achieved. They also spent a sizeable amount of money (by the Brewers standards) on some free agent pitchers (Randy Wolf & Doug Davis) to improve their staff and so far, that hasn’t happened. Free agency is never an exact science and the Brewers haven’t done a very good job in signing free agent pitchers and getting them to help.
The bottom line now is getting this thing turned around. The Brewers are
15-25. They hit the 1/4th mark of the season with last night’s loss. Even though the Cincinnati Reds have taken off a bit, there’s still plenty of time to make up the distance. At some point soon, if Ken Macha can’t turn the Brewers ship around, then Melvin, or even team owner Mark Attanasio will have to find someone who can.