Milwaukee.Brewers.MLB.com

By Michael Bauman / MLB.com

Manager Ned Yost is now under contract through 2005 with an option for 2006. (Roy Dabner/AP)

NEW ORLEANS -- The off-the-field problems of the Milwaukee Brewers organization do not bother Ned Yost in the least.

This is a good thing, because the problems are not inconsequential and the manager already has his hands full. A furor was touched off among Milwaukee baseball fans when it was reported that club president Ulice Payne Jr., a popular local figure, was being fired and that the Brewers were reducing their player payroll from more than $40 million to about $30 million.

"I think we played some of our best baseball last season with a payroll of less than $30 million, so that doesn't look like any type of hurdle we have to get over," Yost says, referring to a 10-game winning streak that occurred after the Brewers had already jettisoned considerable payroll.

Yost, speaking Saturday during the Winter Meetings, is taking the only attitude he can take toward the controversy. That is, he can't possibly let it get in his way. And he can't possibly use it as an excuse.

"None of that has affected anything that we do," Yost says. "We've got a good base of younger players, we've got people like Scott Podsednik and Keith Ginter and Wes Helms and Brady Clark, and now Junior Spivey and Lyle Overbay and Chad Moeller, and kids that are longing for opportunity. And I just think that we've made ourselves better. And we've got pitchers like Matt Kinney and Wayne Franklin who have a year's experience under their belt and are going to be better for it, too. And for that matter, Ben Sheets.