Fire Dusty (AGAIN!) 2013 Reds Rumblings

[zodious]

So...Homer..w2g

Homer had a 20+ inning scoreless streak broken in that game...

SAD REDS STAT OF THE DAY:

The Reds have been to St. Louis 28 times since 2003.... they are 3-23-2 in those series. *SIGH*

[Kingdom]

My fantasy team is aware of the shenanigans

[Prez WilCo]

MLB Reds rescue Dusty Baker from blunder - ESPN

[Prez WilCo]

thought you'd like that Zod.

[zodious]

Hey look! The national news media is begining to SCREAM what we've been SCREAMING FOR YEARS!

Mismanagement at its finest... he doesn't care about Ws and Ls, he cares more about making friends with the ballplayers. He wants to show he has faith in all of them... and they continue to dissapoint.

[Stoney]

FIRE DUSTY!!! Sorry, it's been a few months since Zod screamed for his pink slip!

[Slyder]

I'm starting to move back into the "want some change" in management and the day to day operations. There is too many repeatative stupid mistakes in this team and it shows itself vs teams with legitimate playoff talent. I have very little faith in this team as it stands to get any further than maybe winning the 1 and done game. I have no faith in this team in a 5 or 7 game series with Dusty in charge and Jacoby still as hitting coach.

[redsfan28]

Well, you know it takes a lot for me to come out of "retirement", and this is one of those things.

The Reds' issues are organizational more than anything. First, let me address The Toothpick. The Toothpick must have compromising photos of either Walt or The Lettuce Man or both. That's the only reason I can think of as to why the Reds haven't shown him the exit. He's proven time and time again he can't manage in the clutch. He couldn't close the deal in San Fran in '02, he permanently debilitated every young arm in the Cubs organization, and his squads here haven't been able to close the deal, even so much as having a 2-0 lead last year in the NLDS. The Toothpick is anti-clutch in the postseason, plain and simple. Plus, I think he broke Cueto, so there's that.

The problem is this: who in the blue he** are you going to replace him with? There's only one 'big name' FA manager out there and that's Girardi. The Reds can't even get a sniff of Girardi. So, who's left? Eric Wedge? Look at the slop he ran out there in Cleveland and Seattle. There's Jim Riggleman toiling away at Double-A Pensacola. If you recall, his last MLB gig ended with him quitting on a blossoming Nationals team because they were noncommittal about giving him an extension. It's a crap FA manager market.

Second, let me address the roster. The starting rotation may look good as currently comprised, but is flawed. Arroyo will more than likely be splitsville (good riddance). The afforementioned Cueto can't stay healthy long enough to be an ace. Latos is a stud, but has mental lapses. Mr. Two-Time Homer Bailey shows why he has the most potential on the staff, but for every good inning he throws, he comes out with two bad ones. Mike Leake isn't a big league starting pitcher. He's long relief at best. Cingrani has shown glimpses but needs time.

The lineup sucks. Votto needs MAJOR protection because he IS the best 3 hole hitter on the team. They need someone like a Giancarlo Stanton in order to make that lineup relevant, but that would require a significant departure from the current thinking of the front office in order to make it happen.

What this boils down to is this: do they stay with the status quo (more likely) or do they actually show some sort of forward thinking and change their fortune.

In either case, I'm sick of the status quo.

[Slyder]

The problem is this: who in the blue he** are you going to replace him with? There's only one 'big name' FA manager out there and that's Girardi. The Reds can't even get a sniff of Girardi. So, who's left? Eric Wedge? Look at the slop he ran out there in Cleveland and Seattle. There's Jim Riggleman toiling away at Double-A Pensacola. If you recall, his last MLB gig ended with him quitting on a blossoming Nationals team because they were noncommittal about giving him an extension. It's a crap FA manager market.

What about just promoting Bryan Price (so long as Brooks Jacoby is gone too) or doing like Tampa and finding the next manager when they hired Joe Maddon?

Second, let me address the roster. The starting rotation may look good as currently comprised, but is flawed. Arroyo will more than likely be splitsville (good riddance). The afforementioned Cueto can't stay healthy long enough to be an ace. Latos is a stud, but has mental lapses. Mr. Two-Time Homer Bailey shows why he has the most potential on the staff, but for every good inning he throws, he comes out with two bad ones. Mike Leake isn't a big league starting pitcher. He's long relief at best. Cingrani has shown glimpses but needs time.

I agree with you that there needs to be some change within the franchise but you are blasting the reason(s) we've even been in a position to compete.

Cueto should have never been in that position to begin with. On the road, handful of starts against teams who had already mailed it in should show him as being "ready" for that kind of stage. The ONLY way I would have started Cueto AT ALL this post season was that it was AT Cincy with the friendly fans of his home park. This is also the first year he had a major injury so to call him injury prone is a stretch. He is our best pitcher when healthy, period end of discussion. He is a large part of why we have reached the playoffs in 3 of the last 4 years. I hope last night doesn't get into his head going into next year and negatively affect him going forward.

Good Riddance to a guy who all he's done is taken the ball every 5th day for the last 6 years? Another reason why we have seen a return of meaningful baseball in Cincinnati. He's going to get big money from someone because he's just been a consistent high 3s starting pitcher in an era where most teams would kill to get that out of theirs. I hope if he does go else where that we don't see a regression in the pitching staff like we saw from hitting when Scott Rolen left.

Mike Leake isn't a major league pitcher? Yea I guess no team in baseball could use a guy to go 14-7 and sport a 3.37 ERA and pitched 192 innings this year.

Homer Bailey struggles at the end of the year still almost gets to 200 k's, gets no support from the offense, 2012 playoffs goes 7 innings gives up 1 run and losses cause of the offense but yet for every good inning he gives up 2 bad ones...

These guys are the reason we were anywhere close to the postseason to begin with! Last year or this year. We shall see what the future holds but any time you can run a rotation like we can have you are always within earshot of winning.

[redsfan28]

Cueto has become injury prone. He got hurt during the 2012 NLDS, had an entire offseason to get healthy, and was still shut down 3 times this year for the same freaking problem. If he stays healthy next season, then I'll eat my crow, but I stand by what I said.

I would argue that Latos is 1 and Cueto is 1a.

Arroyo eats innings, that's it. He's not a fit for this ballpark. He gives up way too many home runs to pitch here. Plus, we simply cannot afford to give him another $12.5 million when we need to fix the offense.

Bailey IS too inconsistent. He's proven it and every other analyst has said the same exact thing. He has no-hit stuff (proven twice), but he also has proven he can't bring that stuff every start. If you look at the starts after he has thrown no-hitters and he's been awful.

Leake had a good ERA because he started off the season fantastically. After his hot start, he was average to below average. He's too inconsistent and until he puts together multiple quality starts from start to finish, he's a bottom of the rotation to long relief guy.

The plain and simple fact is this team can't hit, and in today's MLB, you need both. The only way the Reds can do that is to trade one of their higher profile guys and their prospects, which they simply aren't willing to do. So we have to settle for first round outs every year until REAL change is made.