Winner of the Least Liked Brewers of the Last Decade Bracket

After more than 125,000 votes in the “Least Liked Brewers of the Last Decade” bracket, Milwaukee baseball fans have chosen their “winner.” Despite 190 players with at least 1 plate appearance and 124 Brewers with 1 inning pitched or more since 2010, none of them came out on the top.

Manager Ken Macha has earned the title of Least Liked Brewer of the Last Decade, defeating Jonathan Schoop by a 55%-45% final in the championship bout. While Macha only ran the ship for 1 season in the decade, his 2009 and 2010 seasons as manager created an enormous negative impact in the hearts and minds of fans.

Macha, the 2-seed in the Gagne Region, took down Corbin Burnes (#15), Tyler Cravy (#10), Jacob Barnes (#3), Oliver Drake (#4), and Yuniesky Betancourt (#1) on his way to the final. He really started to pick up momentum once he reached the Sweet 16 as many analysts saw Macha as the only man who could take out Yuni B. — which he did in the Final Four.

Meanwhile, Schoop was seen as a sneaky-good 4-seed in the Suppan Region, but wasn’t given much of a chance to reach the championship. On his way there, Schoop pulled off perhaps the biggest upset, knocking off 1-seed Matt Garza in the Sweet 16. The infielder then used his hot hand to beat a pair of 2nd-seeded, disappointing pitchers in Manny Parra and Wily Peralta.

Take from the voting what you will, but it appears a few things stand out:

1. Fans put a lot more blame on the manager of a team than baseball analysts typically do.
2. Macha’s tenure was seen as an enormous waste of good, young talent (at least offensively)
3. Recency bias was a real thing in many of the rounds, including Schoop’s runner-up finish.
4. There are countless reasons — rational and irrational — fans dislike a player or manager, and it isn’t entirely clear if there is a true trend.

That will wrap things up for this tournament. I truly appreciate everyone who participated in voting and commenting on the different players and matchups. We hope it was entertaining and a way to fill the void for a while. Let’s hope we have more baseball news and analysis to draw on in the very near future. Take care!