Ben Sheets is an Oakland Athletic.

The former Brewers ace signed a one-year deal worth $8 million, according to Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com. Sheets passed a physical and the deal is done.

It would’ve been nice to see Sheets in a Brewers uniform on a low-risk contract, but after it became evident Sheets was looking for bigger bucks, it was a good idea for the Brewers to move on. Sheets is obviously an injury risk and the Brewers can’t gamble too much on an arm as they have a lot of wasted dollars in the rotation already (Thanks, Suppan).

And, luckily, Sheets can’t hurt the Brewers too much now even if he remains healthy and pitches well this year (barring a World Series match up). How bad would it have stung if Big Ben signed with the Cubs, started 30 plus games and posted Cy Young-caliber numbers? I hope he puts together a nice season out West.

Congrats, Ben. Thanks for some great memories as a Brewer. And good luck.

As Tom Haudricourt, our own Jared, and pretty much every other butterface in and around baseball has predicted, the Milwaukee Brewers are set to name Ken Macha the club’s newest manager in a 2 p.m. (CST) press conference Thursday.

Macha’s last gig came as manager of the Oakland Athletics where he led the team to a 368-280 regular season record over four seasons (2003-2006). The A’s also won two AL West titles under Macha during that period.

Congrats, Ken. I’m glad to have you aboard.

Now let the offseason begin!

Update: Tom Haudricourt is reporting Macha is signed for two years, or through 2010. No word on coin at this time.