You can't knock the Macha move, or can you?

Cubs fans can breathe a sigh of relief; Ken Macha was named Brewers manager. Bob Brenly, Cubs color analyst, was up for the job, but Bob Melvin and company went with the former A's skipper instead.

"One of the things I'm going to enjoy here I think is the relationship with Doug," said Macha, who spent the last two years as a television analyst. "He's been very honest with me, straightforward. He's more of a delegator. He's going to let me go out and do my job as a manager and I'm going to be very grateful for that."

That's a far cry from Oakland, where Macha took the A's to a pair of AL West titles but had an odd relationship with general manager Billy Beane and lost his job after the 2005 season for a week only to return in 2006.
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Macha also tried to dispel the notion that he'd lost touch with his players in Oakland, including Jason Kendall, now the Brewers catcher.

"I've got a couple things to say about that. No. 1, the job of the manager is really not to be buddies with all the players. You have to make very difficult decisions over the course of the year," he said. "Sometimes players get a little personal and think it's personal. It really isn't."

Sounds like an imperfect match for a team that nearly imploded on itself for a second straight season, but to his credit Macha built a pretty impressive resume in Oakland with a 368-260 record. Still, Oakland got swept out of the 2006 ALCS by Detroit, and Brenly has a World Series under his belt. That, and a very deep knowledge of the team Milwaukee chased all season long.