FanHouse DaleSveum

Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.

Remember when Rickie Weeks was a hot new prospect whose quick bat drew comparisons to Gary Sheffield? Yeah, turns out that was four years ago.

Following season after season of frustration for hopeful fantasy owners, Weeks is finally coming through. The speed isn't there, but he's homered in three straight games to give him nine total in only 140 at-bats. By comparison, he only hit 14 in 475 at-bats last year. So has our man-crush of yesteryear suddenly transformed into the new Dan Uggla, or is this impressive power display just another tease?

It was reported in the middle of the night during a West Coast road trip that former New York Mets head coach Willie Randolph will join former New York Mets coaching instructor/electronics salesman/candle salesman Tom Nieto in the wonderful world of gainful baseball employment. He has been named "bench coach" for the Milwaukee Brewers under new manager Ken Macha. As a lifelong follower of the American League whose only working knowledge of the Mets is Faith and Fear in Flushing, two questions spraing to mind:

1. Why did Willie Randolph settle for bench coach when he probably (probably) could've gotten a better coaching job elsewhere, and
2. Does Getty Images have a hatless picture of Willie Randolph?

The answers are simple. I don't know, and yes! Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.

The last two months or so for Dale Sveum have been very interesting. When September began, he was the third base coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. He was elevated to manager for the final 14 games of the season, lead the Brewers to a wild card berth, lost to the eventual World Champs in the NLDS, saw the Brewers hire someone else as manager, and decided to stay with the team in a seemingly reduced capacity as hitting coach.

There is one catch to the whole thing though -- Sveum asked for the job as hitting coach, even though Milwaukee was willing to consider him in the other two roles he's held with the team -- bench coach and third base coach.

He simply said he wanted a new challenge and that hitting has always been his passion, so he talked new manager Ken Macha into giving him the job. But Sveum is going to be a manager somewhere, and soon.

Now that the World Series has ended, news should start coming fast and furious in regards to trades and managerial hires.

Many of these moves were probably more or less completed during the Series but not announced due to fear of the Wrath of Bud (or to put it more simply, there's a moratorium on announcing news like this during the World Series).

The first really big news of the offseason? The Brewers are expected to announce this afternoon that former A's manager Ken Macha is their new manager, taking over for Ned Yost, who was relieved of his duties late last year.

This afternoon Mr. Lackey noted that the Brewers' open managerial position was attracting a lot of interest. A few hours later, there were two notable news items out of Milwaukee, both of which are hardly surprising in light of that significant interest:

Doug Melvin is staying as the Brewers' general manager but Dale Sveum will not be his manager.

The Brewers just announced that Melvin's contract has been extended for three years, through the 2012 season. Melvin had a year remaining on his deal, which had been extended three years ago by owner Mark Attanasio.

The Brewers are not ready to announce who their manager will be but are ready to say it won't be Sveum, who was the interim manager for the final 12 games of the season after Ned Yost was dismissed.

With the help of scouting director Jack Zduriencik, who may be running his own team in the near future, Melvin has done an excellent job in Milwaukee since taking over in 2002. The Brewers' optimistic future outlook is the main reason that there's so much interest in the managerial position, and also the obvious cause of Melvin's extension.

That also gets at the reason Sveum, who took over as interim manager when Ned Yost was fired on September 15, won't be retained. When you have so much interest in the position, there's really no reason to stick with the guy who happened to be available on short notice in the middle of the season, although that does happen (see the Mets, with Jerry Manuel). That doesn't mean you should to ignore the interim guy, but the Brewers obviously did their homework and realized that they'll be able to hire a better candidate.

With the World Series and the eventual end of the MLB season on the horizon, the rumor mill is going to officially start heating up. One of the interesting things to watch this winter is who Doug Melvin chooses to succeed Ned Yost as manager in Milwaukee. He's considering interim manager Dale Sveum, who held his finger in the dike long enough to get the Brewers to the playoffs, but according to Melvin, the Brewers' open job is attracting lots of interest:

"We're a little more attractive club now than we were in 2003 (Melvin's first year as GM). I'm getting some people reaching out and saying they're interested in the position.

"I've got to make sure I explore some of these situations. I'm looking at more experience there. Dale has the advantage of familiarity."

Melvin won't go on to say who the people contacting him are, but the Journal Sentinel engages in wild speculation anyways and names every boring ex-manager still even remotely tied to the game. The only name Melvin refutes is the only interesting one: Bobby Valentine. It's pretty clear why the Brewers job would be so popular. Despite likely losing CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets to free agency, they've got a lot of good young talent and Melvin is a good GM that should have them in contention for years to come. Compared to the Mariners' open job, getting tabbed to run the Brewers is like hitting the lottery.

It seems that everytime there's a managerial opening in baseball during the winter, the name Bobby Valentine comes up as a possible replacement. Ever since he left the New York Mets in 2002, Bobby has been across the Pacific Ocean managing the Chibe Lotte Marines, but that hasn't stopped his name from popping up in various places. Of course, it hasn't come to fruition because Bobby is still in Japan.

Well, it looks like Bobby has had just about enough karaoke and crazy television game shows, because word is out that he's been calling a few people back here to let them know he's available.

We're hearing more and more that Bobby Valentine, 58, is sending out feelers to return to the States to manage. He earns $1.5 million per year managing the Chibe Lotte Marines but appears to be growing weary of Japan and would love to return home to manage. "I know he's sent e-mails to a few 'future' GMs," said an American League scout. Valentine reportedly was interested in returning to the Mets, but they ended up retaining Jerry Manuel. He now has his sights set on Seattle, while Milwaukee also could be a possibility.

Why anybody would want to take over the Mariners managing job, I have no idea, but Milwaukee may be a good fit for Valentine if the Brewers choose to let Dale Sveum go.

Yesterday, there were a lot of people feeling sorry for Mets fans. I mean, I felt sorry for Mets fans and I never feel sorry for anyone (I'm a Pirate fan, forgive me). After feeling sorry for the Mets for a minute, I realized that the person we should probably all feel a little sorry for is Ned Yost. He managed the Brewers for almost six years, then got fired 12 games before their first playoff berth since 1982. Sure, he was a bad manager, but that doesn't mean he's not human. It must come as at least a little consolation that Dale Sveum and Doug Melvin value his contribution:

"I sent Ned an e-mail," said Melvin, who became emotional while talking about the manager he fired with 12 games remaining in the season. "He went through 93% of the season. I backed Ned and supported him."

[...]

"Ned Yost is a good friend of mine," said Sveum. "I wish he could be here right now."

As consolations go, I don't imagine hearing this is much for Yost. He's said he'll be rooting for his old team in the playoffs and since he's clearly still got a lot of friends in the organization I believe him, but it still has to sting to watch someone else pop the champagne bottle and run the lineup card out to the umpire before the NLDS starts. Of course, the Brewers did make the playoffs after appearing to be dead on the water when Yost was fired, so it's hard to feel that bad for him.

From the Windup is FanHouse's daily, extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.

The Brewers have had a wild few weeks. The standings might say they're tied with the Mets for the wild card, but they don't tell the whole story. It's well documented here and everywhere that the Brewers had a 5 1/2-game lead in the NL wild-card race on Sept. 1st and the whole thing was gone on Sept. 15th, which lead to Ned Yost's firing. Since then, the Brewers have been treading water and even with their near-epic collapse, they're still in the thick of things 10 days after Yost's firing.

So what's the deal in Milwaukee? Why did this team collapse? Can they still make the playoffs? What happens if they do? What happens if they don't? The Brewers don't generally come up in converstations about baseball's most enigmatic teams, but there's hasn't been any team that's more interesting or compelling than Milwaukee in 2008.

There is a thin line between stupid and desperate and the Brewers have been treading that line for some time now. Firing Ned Yost late in the season is a desperate move. Repeatedly using CC Sabathia on short rest is another desperate move. As crazy as those moves are, Yost was a pretty bad manager and CC won't be a Brewer next year. Now, though, they're getting closer to crossing that line than ever. Tomorrow night Yovani Gallardo will make a start for them, less than five months removed from tearing his ACL. Care to defend yourself, Dale Sveum?

"It's a matter of how we're going to use him," said Sveum. "If we put him in the bullpen, we might not get to use him.

"He's a big-time game pitcher. He won't have that deer-in-the-headlights look out there."

There is a danger in taking a man like Sveum who's been longing to manage a major league team for nearly a decade, handing him a job, and telling him he has 12 games to prove himself. Sveum's going to do anything he can to keep that job, and that includes risking Gallardo's long-term health for a wild card spot this year. What happens to the Brewers when Ben Sheets and Sabathia are gone next and Gallardo's rehabbing yet another knee injury?