A year to the day that the Brewers staved off post-season elimination with a thrilling 4-1 victory at a juiced Miller Park in Game 4 of the National League Division Series, they finished off a three-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals in a meaningless game that brought an end to the 2009 campaign.

What a difference a year makes.

The Brewers surprised many by moving into first place early in the season and staying atop the National League Central for much of the first half, despite nasty slumps from Bill Hall and J.J. Hardy.

Milwaukee was in good shape, thanks to its starting rotation. The starting five worked deep into games, led the league in quality starts and provided enough gumption for the Brewers' offensive attack -- paced by Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun -- to do some serious damage.

After the all-star break, though, things quickly fell apart. The skid actually started a little before the break, as the Brewers lost 25 of 32 games beginning July 1. Things went downhill thanks to the rotation's meltdown and injuries to Jeff Suppan and Dave Bush.

Making matters worse, the Brewers had little help available in the minor leagues and weren't able to pull off a move at the deadline to shore up the rotation.

Disappointment aside, Ken Macha will be back in 2010.

Macha met with general manager Doug Melvin during the weekend in St. Louis and Melvin, as expected, informed the skipper he would be back next season. Melvin also added a team option for 2011, which showed support from the GM and also prevented Macha from wearing a "lame duck" tag.

Macha wrapped up his first season as Brewers manager with a 80-82 record, the first losing season in his managerial career.

Macha was Melvin's original choice for the job that went to Ned Yost in 2003 and signed a two-year deal last winter without an agent. Coming into the season, Macha had to adjust to a settled-in and tight-knit roster of young position players and a starting rotation that was missing its top two performers from a year ago.

He drew the ire of fans by regularly juggling his lineup. Rumors of a distance between him and the players began to grow as the year progressed. Still, Melvin thought Macha deserved another year and Macha was expecting to return.

"I'm fine with what happened," Macha said. "I told Doug to do whatever he thinks is best."

Said first baseman Prince Fielder: "It's cool. We have a manager we know."

Additionally, Melvin also extended invitations to bench coach Willie Randolph, hitting coach Dale Sveum, first base coach Ed Sedar and third base coach Brad Fischer.

Sveum and Randolph signed two-year contracts before the season and are both expected to be candidates for open managerial positions this winter.

Kyles, Bosio not retained: Melvin did not offer contracts to pitching coach Chris Bosio or bullpen coach Stan Kyles. Bosio took over for Bill Castro, who was fired in August. Kyles was in his first season as the team's bullpen coach and was the pitching coach at Class AAA Nashville from 2005-'08 Melvin said both men would be considered for other positions within the organization.

Principal owner Mark Attanasio said recently that team will pursue a top-level pitching coach and Melvin is making that his top priority heading into the offseason.

There has been speculation that the team will pursue former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson, whom Macha worked with in Oakland and Randolph employed with the Mets.

Decisions to make: It's going to be a very, very busy off-season for the Brewers' brain trust. Melvin will need to do something to improve on the dismal performance from the starting rotation and decide what to do with pending free agents like Jason Kendall, Mike Cameron, Craig Counsell and Felipe Lopez. It's almost a given that J.J. Hardy's time with the Brewers organization will come to an end this winter and Corey Hart could follow.

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Recent Talkbacks ...

Posted by WestSideWillie on Oct. 7, 2009 at 12:28 p.m. (report)

Yep, must have been the sweep of the Cardinals to save it!

Posted by jk1522 on Oct. 5, 2009 at 2:09 p.m. (report)

WestSideWillie-What happened to macha being gone for sure, Attanasio's decision, if they didnt finish .500???

Posted by sandstorm on Oct. 5, 2009 at 8:32 a.m. (report)

randolph is telling the ump to "read between the lines".

Posted by Dusty_Bottoms on Oct. 4, 2009 at 9:46 p.m. (report)

That's a weird picture. It almost appears as though Macha is arguing with the umpire.