On Thursday, the Brewers signed Ken Macha to a two-year manager contract. From the official release:

Macha, 58, has four seasons of Major League managerial experience with the Oakland Athletics (2003-06). He owns a career record of 368-280 (.568). Under his leadership, the Athletics won 96, 91, 88 and 93 games, respectively, and captured the American League West Division championship in 2003 and 2006. The Athletics’ winning percentage ranked fourth in the Major Leagues during Macha’s tenure, trailing only the Yankees (.608), Red Sox (.577) and Cardinals (.577).

My first thought upon hearing the news was to remember in Moneyball how the role of the A’s manager was that of impotent figurehead. That wasn’t Macha, of course, but I’ll still be interested to see how he works out.

In other Brewer’s press releases, the team has declined Craig Counsell’s option:

MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers today declined the 2009 club option for infielder Craig Counsell. The Brewers and Counsell will continue to negotiate. The announcement was made by Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Melvin.

Counsell batted .226 with one HR and 14 RBI in 110 games in 2008.

If it doesn’t work out, there’s another NLC team in need of a shortstop and in current possession of a GM who loves the Scrappy White Guy.

Remember when Bob Castellini sent the letter to fans at the end of the regular season apologizing for all the sucking? Well, apparently, the Brewers CEO wanted to get in on the act, too. Only, for him, it’s a much more positive letter (and one that makes much more sense to write).

Someday, Reds fans, you too will receive a letter from the owner of your team. Well, another one. And that’s something to look forward to.

Boxscore

After all the winning put up by the Cubs, the Brewers, and to a lesser extent, the Cardinals and Astros, the NLC’s showing in the playoffs was disappointingly short. (That’s what she said.)

So much for the best division in baseball.

Anyway, unlike the Cubs, the Brewers managed to show up for one game and stalled elimination until game 4 against the Phillies. The 4 runs Jeff Suppan allowed in the 3rd inning pretty much sums up the game. Suppan allowed 2 home runs in that inning, one to Pat Burrell and another to Jayson Werth. It was too much for Milwaukee to recover from.

Still, the Brewers had a successful season. It was their first post-season appearance since 1982. While the go-for-broke philosophy that got them there provides a heapin’ helpin’ of work for the club for next year, the team and its fans can take solace that they didn’t collapse as badly as the Cubs.

Boxscore

I guess C. C. Sabathia is human, after all. In his 4th start on short rest, he wasn’t nearly as dominating as he had been previously for the Brewers. Sabathia lasted only 3 2/3 innings, allowing 5 earned runs, while striking out 5.

The bullpen came in and shut the Phillies down, but Brett Myers was too good and 5 runs was too much.

Now Milwaukee finds themselves facing elimination via a sweep. They have a day off between games. I think they should start Sabathia again.

Boxscore

The Brewers have been the epitome of a team playing for this year. They traded away their best prospect for a half-season rental of a starting pitcher. They fired their longtime manager with two weeks to go to jump start the team. And they routinely had their rental starter pitch on short rest. So it should come as no surprise that they picked Yovani Gallardo to pitch the opening game of their best of 5 against the Phillies.

Gallardo spent the vast majority of the year on the DL. He started 2 games in April, 1 in May, and then nothing until right before the season ended in September. Surely, he’s not rusty. No, what a nonsensical notion.

The crazy thing is that Gallardo was effective. He threw 4 innings and allowed no earned runs. But it was the defense and the unearned runs that doomed Milwaukee yesterday. The Brewers converted a bunt that should have been a double into no outs. And then Mike Cameron compounded problems when he misjudged a fly ball in the wind. All this allowed 3 unearned runs to score in the 3rd, and the Brewers never came back against the Phillies Cole Hamels.

It’s always tough to come back from a game 1 loss in a short series–most teams don’t–but most teams don’t have the inhuman C. C. Sabathia starting game 2. We’ll see if there’s more peeing in Milwaukee’s future.