Despite a summer swoon that saw the Milwaukee Brewers cough up a division lead of 8½ games, team owner Mark Attanasio is backing manager Ned Yost.
While Attanasio did not flatly declare Yost will return for 2008, he also gave his manager what amounted to a vote of confidence on Tuesday.
"Ned is fine," he told reporters during the Brewers' 9-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday. The victory lifted the Brewers to two games behind the National League Central-leading Chicago Cubs with five games left to play -- and one win away from the club's first winning season since 1992.
The Brewers got off to a fast start and were an MLB-best 24-10 in mid-May, fueling expectations the team could make its first playoff appearance since representing the American League in the 1982 World Series. But the team faltered in the summer as the Cubs improved and the Cardinals made a late run.
Some Brewers fans are blaming Yost, noting the team has blown an MLB-worst 16 games in which it led by three runs or more.
But Attanasio pointed out that the team evaluates its players and management at the end of each season, and that process has yet to take place. Doing that right now would be putting the cart ahead of the horse,' he said, according to MLB.com. "Now, when I say something like that, people are going to go, 'Oh, does that mean there is an issue?' There is no issue. Ned is fine."
But when pressed on Yost's performance, Attanasio said "I think he's done a very good job with this team," according to MLB.com.
Yost is in his fifth year of managing the Brewers and is signed through 2008, with an option for 2009.
"Ned is under contract for next year," Attanasio said, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "Since I've been here, we've tried to put systematic processes in place for every decision. Some are big decisions, some are little decisions. Some are important decisions, some are less important decisions.
"The fact that we haven't disrupted the process tells you something. Ned is not in trouble."