The Milwaukee Brewers might just have the biggest cojones in all of major league baseball.

If only the Arizona Diamondbacks could relate.

On Monday, the Brewers made the unexpected decision to fire manager Ned Yost, despite being in a tie for the wild card with just two weeks left in the regular season.

It didn’t come completely out of left field, though it remains a shock throughout the National League. Since the beginning of September, the Brewers have seen their wild card lead of 5 1/2 games evaporate, as they have lost 12 out of 15 games.

Sounds like a team I have heard of.

The Diamondbacks have lost nine of 14 since Sept. 1, but unlike the Brewers, they aren’t in a position to make the playoffs.

When Milwaukee canned Yost, they were an astounding 83-57. No team in Major League history has ever fired a manager in August or later while in playoff position. It was a brilliant decision as the Brewers front office makes its move for October.

Too bad for Arizona. Parity in a division is one thing. Too little, too late is another.

The D-backs tried to play catch-up when they traded for Adam Dunn, imitating the Los Angeles Dodgers’ acquisition of Manny Ramirez. It didn’t work though, as Dunn couldn’t solve Arizona’s hitting woes.

Now it’s too late.

The front office made a trade that didn’t do much, and the team hoped the NL West would stay gift-wrapped.

That didn’t happen.

On June 1, Arizona was 32-25, with a 4 1/2 games first-place lead.
While things seemed peachy, the warning signs came early as they went 11-16 in June, following that up with a meager July record of 14-11.

Whereas other teams have dramatic blowups and exciting turning points, watching the Diamondbacks felt like witnessing the Disney version of a car crash. Nobody complained. Nobody got angry. Everyone just buckled their seat belts and hoped for the best.

Had the Diamondbacks put Melvin in the fire, demanding results from the bats of their hitters and not just the arms of their pitchers, the Dodgers’ acquisition of Ramirez would have gone unnoticed.
Arizona would have won the division in August, much like the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim managed to do.

The D-backs’ reliance on other teams to make their lead for them rolled all the way into September. Arizona still somehow had a 2 1/2 game lead despite a laughable 69-67 record.

But like a candle trapped in a glass jar, the D-backs’ flame has finally gone out. Despite that lead at the beginning of the month, Bob Melvin’s D-backs are now down 4 1/2 games to the Dodgers.

It’s easy to call it a collapse, but really, it isn’t.

They were “consistently inconsistent,” as Derek Jeter once said.

To collapse, you have to be in firm control of something. All Arizona had was a precarious grasp and a lead they didn’t seem to want.

Melvin deserves somewhat of a break because injuries to Eric Byrnes and Orlando Hudson removed two key veteran hitters. But, in reality, this is exactly when management needs to step in. Now, more than ever, the job of the manager is to keep the team focused and motivated.

This is the team that went to the National League Championship Series last season. There’s absolutely no excuse for the D-backs’ lackadaisical style of hitting.

Either they are all genuinely bad hitters or they just aren’t motivated.

Given the nature of the job, these complaints will always come back to the manager.

It’s sad that the D-back front office never once made Melvin answer for any of them.

Reach the reporter at joshua.spivack@asu.edu.