On Sunday, the Milwaukee Brewers relieved Ron Roenicke of his managerial duties after the club started the season 7-18, a league-worst record. 

According to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, the Brewers and president/general manager Doug Melvin have hired Craig Counsell as the new manager. This is not an interim job; it is full-time management. 

This hiring comes less than 12 hours after the reported firing of Roenicke, which raises questions of tampering, but an investigation will probably not be called upon. 

"This came together fairly quick," Melvin told reporters. "You can look at the two or three games and say we played better, but we looked at it how we performed over the entire month [of April] and how we performed over the course of the last 100 games."

Most teams name a new manager with interim status, but Milwaukee has quickly gone with a former player of its own. Counsell, who played in Milwaukee for six seasons, was a second baseman and retired on January 17, 2012. He has been working as a special assistant to Brewers GM Melvin, but he has no managerial expereince. 

Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the deal is a three-year contract. Counsell will start immidetly. 

Roenicke, the now former manager of the Brewers, was 342-331 over four seasons. In his first season (2011), the club went 96-66, a team record, and captured the National League Central division title. Milwaukee defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Division Series but lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series. Since then, it has been all down-hill. 

The Brewers have started the season with the worst record in baseball. This is not a team that was supposed to struggle, which is why the record caused many to have large concerns. 

"The last three games the players have performed better and you say, 'Why couldn't that have happened earlier?' It's [a lack of] consistency. We just did not play good baseball until the last few games," Melvin said. "We couldn't wait to see if we'd lose three more or seven of the next 10 or whatever. Ron and I were both very frustrated at how the team was playing. We talked a lot about how you get the guys going and performing on a consistent basis."

Roenicke was stunned by the timing of the dismissal. 

"I told him I wish he would have fired me a week ago instead of right when the team started playing well," Roenicke told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "That bothered me. When he asked me to come up to his office, I figured it couldn't be good."

Counsell, who went to Notre Dame, has a 16-year Major League baseball career. He played for the Florida Marlins (3 years), Colorado Rockies (2 years), Los Angeles Dodgers (1 year), Diamondbacks (6 years) and the Brewers (6 years). 

"We're not giving up," Melvin told reporters. "There's a point where we have to go out and win ballgames. Let's see if the change does anything to prevent having these losing streaks. Players' performances always tell us which direction we need to head. It's our job to get the most out of these players on a regular basis. I've never been big on in-house changes, but it just didn't feel good to be doing this."

During those 16 seasons, he slashed .255/.342/.344 with 42 home runs and 390 RBI. Counsell took 4,741 at-bats and played in 1,624 games. The left-handed batter was drafted in the 11th round of the 1992 MLB Draft.