The machinations in the world of sports never cease to provide me with enough curiosity to keep me going for a long time.

The latest disturbance to my peace of mind was the announcement that the Milwaukee Brewers had picked up Ron Roenicke’s team option for 2016.

General manager Doug Melvin courageously takes the weight of the decision on his shoulders. But you can bet that Mark Attanasio had the final word on this call.

I’ve met Roenicke a couple of times and have had the opportunity to talk with him and watch him in action. He seems like a perfectly nice man who knows a lot about baseball. He’s got that kind of civilized calm that you see in some Clint Eastwood movies.

His first year as manager he got the team into the playoffs. The next two years he didn’t.

And then last year he presided over one of the worst collapses in all of baseball. He had a team that led the division for 150 days and then fell apart in the last five weeks and weren’t even in the conversation for a playoff spot faster than you can say "Ryan Who?"

Make no mistake about it. In baseball the manager has a pretty simple task. Keep the mental attitude of your team on an even keel. Keep them ready to play and to maximize their abilities.

Baseball is not like football, or even basketball. There really aren’t plays that coaches draw up. The rundown or hitting the cutoff man or walking someone intentionally are not things that are open to interpretation.

There are no real strategic advantages that one manager has over the other. Playing baseball is pretty simple: Throw it, catch it, hit it.

There are no fake punts or fancy out of bounds plays in baseball.

So you have to wonder what Melvin and Attanasio see in Roenicke that merits the additional job security.

Say what you want about how it’s the players who win and lose games, who are supposed to catch, hit and throw that ball. It’s the manager who is ultimately responsible. It’s part of the gig.

Which makes me wonder what Roenicke why the powers that be picked up the option. He was driving the ship when it crashed upon the shoals of whatever’s below mediocrity. When the ship starts heading in the wrong direction it’s up to the captain to get his sailors to reverse course and head into the horizon.

Even without all the nautical references I can’t figure out exactly why Roenicke's deal was extended. I would like someone who isn’t with the Brewers to explain it to me.

My guess is that the logic goes something like this.

"Let’s take the pressure off Roenicke this year and let him know he’s okay next year so he doesn’t have to be a lame duck and feel like his hands are tied."

That kind of thinking is understandable, but I also think it’s backward.

Lame ducks are in the "nothing to lose" position that often creates freedom and risk taking and creativity. A lame duck isn’t worried about what’s going to happen down the road. A lame duck can do what he wants without being second and third and fourth guessed. He can thumb his nose at the rest of them.

And a couple of things happen when a lame duck is running the show, both of them good things.

One is that his freedom from worry will spill over to his team and they will achieve great things.

The other is that he will fail miserably, make everyone angry and make the decision on whether to fire him or not an easy one.

I think what the Brewers have done is put Roenicke in the nether world of uncertainty that’s not good for him, for the Brewers or for us fans.