Daugherty: An Interview with a robot; Dan O'Brien

[CincyRedsFan30]

Reds should do the job or be fired

Dan O'Brien, who is a heck of guy, always sounds like he's testifying before Congress on ugly wax buildup or the heartbreak of psoriasis. You want passion; Dan gives you "at this particular point in time."

The Reds general manager is patient, reasoned and practical. You'd like him to rip out some throats. He's like a physics professor teaching Shakespeare. O'Brien wants to "change the overall culture of the Cincinnati Reds organization." You wonder when baseball became Anthropology 101.

After 16 losses in 20 tries, fans don't want rational. Fans want O'Brien or manager Dave Miley to go stark, raving Piniella. Throw something. Throw someone.

Fans to Dan:

This team flaming, smoking stinks. Fix it.

It's not just that the Reds have lost for three weeks. It's how they've lost. They're sloppy, baseball-stupid. They take third strikes in the ninth inning with two outs and the game on the line. They don't move runners over, they don't get runners in. They throw belt-high fastballs down the middle.

Not to single out D'Angelo Jimenez. But could ya slide next time?

The losing is numbing them. Call it complacency or apathy, the Reds are showing the early signs of Here We Go Again Syndrome, best displayed by the 1990s Bengals.

Heads need to roll.

Question: "Dan, do you have anything planned in the next several days?"

Answer: "It's about identifying the problems, then putting together a plan to try to fix the problems. The bottom line is, we have certain standards that have to be met as professionals. When certain individuals are not performing to those standards, we have to make changes. And we're prepared to do that."

This was at lunch Thursday. I wanted to know, now that the Reds' roof is on fire, what sort of fireman O'Brien plans to be.

Q: "Changes? When?"

A: "I'm not going to give you a timetable. It will be very clear-cut."

Q: "Who's most at fault?"

A: "Dave and his coaching staff have done the very best they can. The bottom line is, it's about player performance. For the most part we have a clubhouse full of people who care. The operative word is, 'for the most part.' We have to identify those individuals that don't share our vision, and ultimately we have to make changes."

Ultimately? Is that in geologic time? Because ultimately, if changes aren't made very, very soon, the Reds will be an afterthought by the All-Star break. You'll be able to fire a 21-gun salute into the moon deck and not hit a pigeon.

Send some people packing. Eat some money. Bring up this kid Steve Kelly, 3-1, 1.88 ERA in eight starts at Louisville. He's not ready? What's ready? Is Todd Coffey ready? What about Eric Milton and Paul Wilson? They look ready to you? Reds pitchers have allowed 26 homers in the last 17 games. Is there any chance Kelly could be less ready than that? Any at all?

Q: "Is there a risk that if you don't shake things up, certain players will become complacent because they know there are no consequences for screwing up?"

A: "Yes."
OK, then. Show some established players that if they're not hip to the culture you're selling, they'll be on the street. Marvin Lewis did that. You throw Takeo Spikes to the curb, the rest of the locker room steps a little quicker.

Q: "How do you give fans hope if you don't make substantial changes?"

A: "There are two elements to this. You can change certain components. But you've got individuals not performing up to their norm. It's about doing the best you can to get them to a certain level of productivity, which automatically makes the ballclub better."

You want Jimmy Johnson, cutting a guy for sleeping in a meeting. O'Brien gives you C-Span at 3 in the morning.

Here's the, um, bottom line: Fans don't care about cultures. Some days, fans might care about long-term plans. But not today. "Learning to win is an art form," O'Brien said. Swell. Maybe management should take Picasso lessons.

"It's all about holding individuals accountable to a particular standard," said O'Brien.

He's got that right. Everybody connected with this team should be traveling lightly.

[Wally Mo Pena]

i like it, i like it a lot. Take it to DanO and Miley, that's what reporters should have been doing this whole time. i know they have to protect they're reputations so people talk to them, but c'mon, it's time to stop beating around the bush. Why the hell did rich aurilia start for so long? Where's the accountability there? Why can't eric milton get his mechanics in order? Accountability? What the damn is Austin Kearns' problem? Why is he overweight and pissy all the time? Why can't he hit anymore? Chambliss, accountability? This is the kind of stuff that can get things going, and here's hoping.

Cut Aurilia and Weber, get a couple of AAA pitchers up here (Kelly, Booker) and lets win without the established players if we have to. Bench Paul and Graves, screw them, they're not bigger than the team.

[redsrbetter]

I love Daugherty article here. He is expressing the same feelings that we all have been sharing. Great read as we see that DanO gives us nothing once again. Daugherty has "ultimately" become a writer I will look forward to reading his articles. What a great job he did here. Where are you at DanO?

[Sea Ray]

All us fans agree with the gist of Doc's article, that is that O'Brien needs to do something but as usual Daugherty has trouble expressing it accurately. I have a particular problem with this line:

"You throw Takeo Spikes to the curb, the rest of the locker room steps a little quicker."

As usual Doc doesn't know what he's talking about. Spikes was hardly sent to the curb. He was allowed to leave in order to sign the most lucrative contract of his life and that's exactly what he wanted the Bengals to do. They gave Spikes exactly what he wanted. How is that throwing him to the curb?

Even when I agree with his opinion I still think Doc's an idiot writer...

[CincyRedsFan30]

I think he's outstanding, as his many awards prove IMO.

[Jr's Boy]

I agree with Wally,its time to stop beating around the bush.Its obvious Dano has no backbone,and talks in circles.Hell if I was GM my quote would be ''When asked about the current slump of the ball club Reds GM Jr's Boy stated ''Certain players have their walking papers in order''.A statement like that might rile some cages and get em fired up to play knowing that their butt could be canned.

[Sea Ray]

I think he's outstanding, as his many awards prove IMO.

He has won many awards and ironically the guy he often finishes second fiddle to in those awards is Detroit's Mitch Albom.

Now it seems about every week I see something else Mitch is being investigated for. It all started when he said in a column during the Final Four that Mateen Cleaves was at the Michigan State game cheering on his alma mater. It turns out Mateen was not even at the game let alone doing the things at the game that he said in his column.

Two things to consider in the aftermath of the above:

One is that now Daugherty may well surpass Albom and win the sportswriter of the year award.

Two is that if an unethical guy like Albom can win it year after year then the award pretty worthless...

[CincyRedsFan30]

Well, if that's true, Doc should definitely finish ahead of him, although I will say that even though I don't agree with unethical Journalism, that doesn't make Albom a poor writer.

That's a good point about the award, but I think Doc really does deserve it. His writing always provokes thought and it relates well to people, IMO.

[Sea Ray]

Well, if that's true, Doc should definitely finish ahead of him, although I will say that even though I don't agree with unethical Journalism, that doesn't make Albom a poor writer.

Whether it makes him a poor writer is debatable. It does mean you can't trust him. You can no longer read what he writes and take it to the bank. Now you have to say "I read in Albom's column..." to which a disagreeing party can reply "yeah, but what about that Cleaves/final four deal"? This puts him in the category of Newsweek and Dan Rather.

I respect your opinion that giving false information does not make a poor columnist, however I wholeheartedly disagree. I think public trust is much more important than anything else including "making one think."

[CincyRedsFan30]

Well, I'm talking more along the lines of the actual writing itself.

I gues I agree to point that it does make him a poor columnist, but his skill at writing is still very high, IMO.

The Newsweek/Dan Rather situations are similar in that you make you question the validity of these sources, but with Albom, I'm specifically referring to the quality of the writing itself.