The last two months or so for Dale Sveum have been very interesting. When September began, he was the third base coach for the Milwaukee Brewers. He was elevated to manager for the final 14 games of the season, lead the Brewers to a wild card berth, lost to the eventual World Champs in the NLDS, saw the Brewers hire someone else as manager, and decided to stay with the team in a seemingly reduced capacity as hitting coach. There is one catch to the whole thing though -- Sveum asked for the job as hitting coach, even though Milwaukee was willing to consider him in the other two roles he's held with the team -- bench coach and third base coach.
He simply said he wanted a new challenge and that hitting has always been his passion, so he talked new manager Ken Macha into giving him the job. But Sveum is going to be a manager somewhere, and soon.
He did a very good job managing the Pirates' AA affiliate for a couple years earlier this decade, and since then he's worked with the Red Sox and Brewers, mostly as third base coach with a short stint as the Brewers' bench coach and his spell as interim manager at the end of this year. He's now expanding his resume by taking on the role of hitting coach.
Honestly, I thought he deserved the main job in Milwaukee over Macha, and when Sveum is managing elsewhere in a couple years, it's a decision that Doug Melvin may come to regret.
