Yost Extended Two Seasons

[ThomasTomasz]

PHOENIX (Ticker) - Ned Yost is a lame-duck manager no longer.

The Milwaukee Brewers awarded Yost a two-year contract extension with a club option for 2009, general manager Doug Melvin announced Saturday.

Yost, 51, completed his third year as Brewers manager in 2005, leading them to a .500 season and snapping their streak of 12 consecutive losing seasons. Milwaukee's 81-81 finish last season marked a 14-game improvement from 2004.

"I strongly believe Ned is the right person to lead the Milwaukee Brewers on the field," Melvin said. 'His work ethic, leadership skills and passion for the Brewers fans coupled with his commitment to make the entire organization successful confirmed to us that this was the right thing to do as we move forward in our pursuit of playing in the postseason."

The club picked up Yost's option for the 2006 season last August.

Before coming to the Brewers in 2003, the 51-year-old Yost spent 15 seasons in the Atlanta Braves organization as a major league coach and minor league manager.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu...v=st&type=lgns

[ThomasTomasz]

Yost has done a great job of molding young talent, and helping to resurrect scrap heap careers like Scott Podsednik and Dan Kolb. He's also helped to mold some of the best young talents into a team that is on the verge of breaking out, and one that had a better than predicted 2005 season. With both Yost and Melvin extended, the Brewers do not have to worry about their management jumping to other teams for quite some time.

[Fishercat]

The improvement of some players under Yost has been great and allowed their GM to make some key moves. Making guys like Kolb and Pods and even some other, better established talent, into better players helps trades a lot. Allowing Podsednik time over Alex Sanchez turned him into Carlos Lee. Getting Lyle Overbay to not collapse and keep up an average-based value got them a nice prospect in Zach Jackson and David Bush from Toronto. Yost has done well and the team seems to be getting better.