Best Milwaukee Brewers Manager Of All Time – Elite Eight

We started off with a bracket of 16 Milwaukee Brewers managers in an effort to determine the best manager in franchise history. We now move on to the next round.

In the creation of the Sweet 16 bracket from the Brewers managerial history, it was relatively easy to determine who was a higher seed and who was a lower seed.

As such, the first round of voting went all chalk. Every single higher seed advanced to the Elite Eight.

Voting will once again be done on the Reviewing the Brew Twitter account. Now that we’ve weeded out the poorest managers in franchise history, these matchups will be a lot more interesting. Let’s take a look at the managerial matchups in the Elite Eight on Brewers managers.

Ball-in-Glove Region

(1) Harvey Kuenn vs. (2) Ned Yost

Harvey Kuenn‘s first round matchup against Jerry Royster was too easy, with Kuenn gaining 94% of the vote, which was a little lower than I expected, frankly. Nevertheless, Kuenn moves on to the next round to face off against one the players he managed back in 1982 and 1983, Ned Yost.

Yost easily defeated Dave Bristol in the first round, also with 94% of the vote.

Kuenn managed the Brewers to the World Series in 1982 and although he didn’t serve as manager near as long as Yost did, that kind of success in a short amount of time is important.

However, Yost didn’t have near the talent that Kuenn had, especially in the early years of his managerial career. Just as the Brewers were getting set to make the playoffs in 2008, Yost was fired and didn’t get a chance to finish what he started. But he developed and molded a lot of those young star players in that core group in the late 2000s.

Barrelman Region

(1) George Bamberger vs. (2) Ron Roenicke

George Bamberger cruised to victory in the first round with 90% of the vote over Rene Lachemann. Bamby had a couple different stints as manager of the Brewers over the years with a lot of success although he never got the team to the playoffs.

His opponent in this round is Ron Roenicke, who did manage to take the Brewers to the postseason in his first year as manager in 2011. Roenicke defeated Davey Lopes in the first round with 85% of the vote.

While Roenicke presided over that success in 2011, he had some rough teams in 2012 and 2013, and then there was the collapse in 2014 under his watch.

This is going to be an interesting matchup to watch.

Bernie Brewer Region

(1) Phil Garner vs. (2) Buck Rodgers

Phil Garner, the Brewers all-time winningest manager, moves on to the Elite Eight with 79% of the vote over Ken Macha, the smallest margin of victory among the No. 1 seeds. Garner is still the longest-tenured manager in franchise history, and while it wasn’t due to a large amount of success on the field, it does count for something.

Buck Rodgers had the closest margin of victory in the first round, with a victory over Del Crandall holding 65% of the vote. Rodgers was the manager of the 1981 team that went to the postseason for the first time in franchise history and won the first division title in franchise history.

This is an intriguing matchup as well, pitting a manager with longevity but not much on-field success, against a manager who had less than two full seasons at the helm, but a lot of on-field success.

Racing Sausage Region

(1) Craig Counsell vs. (2) Tom Trebelhorn

Craig Counsell cruised to the largest margin of victory in the first round, winning 98% of the vote over Alex Grammas. I would like to think that the 2% of people who voted for Grammas accidentally hit the wrong button.

Counsell’s next opponent will be a little tougher, going up against Tom Trebelhorn, who won his first round matchup against Jim Lefebvre with 72% of the vote.

Trebelhorn was the manager in the mid-late ’80s and had some good seasons at the helm, while Counsell managed through a rebuild in his early tenure and has made back-to-back postseason appearances since then, the only Brewers manager to do so.

Vote for who you think is the best Brewers manager on our Twitter account as we move find out who makes the Final Four and eventually, who is the Best Brewers manager of all time.