Loading ...From Fox Sports Ken Rosenthal:
Reds manager Dusty Baker continues to invite second-guessing with his handling of pitchers, recently using both closer Francisco Cordero and setup man Nick Masset for five consecutive days.
The Reds are out of contention. Cordero and Masset figure to play the same vital roles next season. Yet Baker, who is under contract for about $3.5 million in 2010, appears safe. Some of his coaches might not be, major-league sources say.
Pitching coach Dick Pole could be held responsible for the regressions of right-handed starter Johnny Cueto and reliever Jared Burton, but the Reds rank third in the NL in bullpen ERA, eighth overall.
Hitting coach Brook Jacoby, meanwhile, presides over an offense that ranks 14th in runs per game even though Great American Ballpark is one of the best hitters’ parks in the majors. Yet Jacoby, too, would be little more than a scapegoat — injuries and poor roster construction helped compromise the offense.
Never mind the Reds’ improved play of late. One scout offers a sobering conclusion: The Reds, headed for their ninth straight losing season, are nearly as depressing as the Pirates.
And ESPN’s Buster Olney said:
Just before I started this chat, I got off the phone with an evaluator who thinks that right now, among NL teams, the Reds might be the farthest away from contending. I’m not sure that I disagree. It’s amazing that next year, these four players are lined up to account for about 60 percent of their payroll (if they keep it in place)….Scott Rolen, Francisco Cordero, Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang. There is not a lot of future there, and Volquez is probably not going to pitch again until late next season or 2011.
Personally, I think unless you fire Baker, you’re just rearranging chairs….but what do you think?
I agree with that top paragraph, I put much more blame on Baker than Pole or Jacoby. If Pole gets blamed for the regression of Cueto does he then get credit for the improvement of Cueto and Bailey lately, how about Masset’s improvement? You’re not going to find a pitching or hitting coach who is going to improve everyone he works with.
I don’t agree with the 2nd paragraph though, did this evaluator think the Rays were going to be good last year? I highly doubt he did.
Do I think we are going to win the world series next year? No but I don’t see why we shouldn’t at least be in the playoff picture next year.
Plus you don’t know how young players are going to play or trades being made (Personally I think you’ll see a package of players sent out for a pitcher, SS or LF, probably involving Francisco or Alonso).
As much as I dislike Baker and his bonehead moves, I don’t know what firing him will do, unless (about to type really fast) La Russa and Duncan come here. OK, i was able to say it. wheeew! Imagine though, with the cronyism that goes on in the head-offices at GABP. . . I blame Jacoby for being bad and I blame Pole for being bad. I think the Reds have some real talent and that is why they have succeeded, if even just a little bit. Not because of expert instruction from one Dick and Brook.
On the second paragraph, sadly, I wouldn’t be able to disagree, other than the Reds have a lot of young talent. But, they are not the Rays and the talent has yet to be proven. I don’t think bringing all the ‘talent’ up; Alonso, Frazier, etc. will solve problems. It could eventually but I don’t think putting stock in the FACT they will, is worth it. At least not yet.
I think Olney has it correct. Having that much of your payroll tied up in 4 players is going to really hurt. A team like the Reds cannot have that much tied up in average players.
There is not much doubt in my mind that Baker should go, but, that will not happen. His line up construction, favoritism to bad players, and handling of a pitching staff certainly does not help the Reds chances of winning.
Well, maybe it will be process of elimination. If the Reds fire Jacoby and Pole, and then, shock of shocks, they still don’t win with Dusty’s (ahem) lineups, then he will go.
I’m not satisfied with this mind you. I was willing to wait this year out with the expectation things would be better next year and beyond. That still holds true, so I don’t want to be reading apologies next spring that talk about “getting to .500″ and “we have some youth to build on for the future.” Shut up and get to work Walt Jocketty.
It starts and ends with lineup construction and injuries. One is luck, the other is competance. Firing Baker solves one of those problems. Managing bad contracts that were handed out by the last regime takes time to work through. The last ingredient that is sorely lacking (and is imperative for small market teams) is progressive thinking. Management is slower than molasses when it comes to recognizing opportunities to improve. Whether it be the wrong call on Gomes, playing Tavares and Gonzo over better players, moving Phillips to SS or Votto to LF, the overuse of Cueto, the lack of common sense offseason oversight of Volquez……….we could go on all day.
There’s this mindset in the organization like they’re scared to death of looking stupid, so they go with the safe, ‘professional’ action every time. Almost everything bad that has happened in the last 5 years can be attributed to that. What they don’t get is that the average fans no longer care. If they did, they’d realize this is a wonderful opportunity, a liberating opportunity, to experiment and try different pieces until we find a combination that works.
I see next season as one of “transition & evaluation”. First, next year is the last for Baker, Taveras, Arroyo and Harang contracts. Also, it’s a possibility that Cordero will be traded between this winter and next non-waiver deadline. It’ll have a very high impact in the financial position, which will allow to make some significant roster movements looking into 2011. On the other hand, there is the expected performance from the younger players like Stubbs, Janish, Bruce, Heisey and Francisco. Jocketty will be very busy in 2010, for sure.
I don’t think the Reds are the least likely team to contend. Especially given their division. I don’t think the Reds will be good next year, but they COULD be good next year. Bailey seems actually able to pitch now, which means, barring injury, the rotation shouldn’t be a problem, even without Volquez. Defense and Bullpen should also be fine. The question is the lineup. Bruce has to hit. Stubbs has to get on base and Dusty has to not hit Janish (if he starts) second everyday. It would be hard to get less out of center, short, and third than we got this year, but first, second, and left could all decline. Second and left, especially, I’m pretty confident about Votto. Anyway, I think, on paper, the Reds will probably be a .500 team next year, and, in the Central, any .500 team that gets a few breaks can be a contender.
Ugh… 60% of the payroll to four good-but-not-great 30-somethings… that really is depressing.
As Sultan said, in order to be competitive at the Reds payroll level, they HAVE to be clever and they HAVE to get young guys (either through draft or trade) who are good and who are not yet to arbitration/free agency.
Look at what Votto is doing for basically the league minimum — just over $400K. That’s ridiculous! Tampa has basically a whole roster full of that. That is what the Reds need to be trying for. Every move should be aimed at that sort of roster construction.
That’s why I was so pissed off and depressed at the Rolen trade. It wasn’t about Rolen — he’s good — but the fact that the Reds need to be hording as many guys as they can like Zach Stewart and Josh Roenicke. They don’t need to be superstars either — if you get some good pitchers out there making the league minimum, you are WAY ahead of the game.
The Rolen trade (apparently) was all Castellini too. That ticks me off. The guy wants to win very badly. I don’t doubt that. But he has no idea how. He needs to back the hell off and quit setting the team back.
We wouldn’t be this far from contention if we had kept Krivsky and if Castellini had just left him alone. Krivsky was far from perfect, but he had a great knack for the “buy low” move on young, talented guys (Hamilton, Phillips, and to a lesser extent Arroyo).
We have pitching. We can contend. Eliminate the black holes which have been at the top of our lineups, do something about SS and CF, and we have as good a shot as anyone in the division.
I just wanted to use this a chance to point out (again) the dangers of the $10M+ contract.
When your payroll is $70M, you have to be SO careful with these. The $10M+ deals have to go to All-Stars, guys you can picture being the core of a World Series team.
If you hand out $10M+ contracts to 4 guys who are basically a #3 starter, a #4 starter, a reliever who throws 65 innings, and a good-but-not-great third baseman, you have relegated yourself to being a mediocre team. I think we’re looking at probably another 75-87-ish season next year.
Brandon’s upcoming $11M year (2011) scares me. He’s good — don’t get me wrong — but is he good enough to warrant making one-sixth of the whole team’s payroll? I don’t know… I’m skeptical.
To me money is not the issue, our owner agreed to pay these contract, which tells me he has the money. The problem is in the manager. Our owner felt the need to get a big name because he was a big name. This is the same reason he wanted Rolen. We need to go after Duncan and build around him with a good manager.
Rosenthal’s “scout” and Olney’s “evaluator” both make ridiculous statements.
“Nearly as depressing as the Pirates?” The organization which has traded away virtually everyone who’s ever had a bubblegum card this year? The team that’s lost 20 of their last 23? The team that purposely put itself back to square zero? Closer to contention that the Reds? That’s a complete and utter load.
Look, it’s OK to not like the salary structure of next year’s team. I don’t like it either. But this year’s Reds were, perhaps by way of smoke and mirrors and despite highly questionable game management, in contention at midseason. Next year’s pitching staff is good enough to contend as is. Where the added hitting we need would come from, I have no idea – I suspect it’s entirely dependent upon Jay Bruce’s improvement.
Which is beside the point – point being, we are NOT the farthest from contention in the NL. We’re SECOND farthest.
And don’t you forget it, Mr. Olney!
That’s the way to put it in perspective, RC. You tell ‘em.
I personally believe that if the organization is going the developmental way, then stick to the plan! I know that everybody is tired of the losing seasons, but if you keep throwing money to sign older free agents you hamper yourself in the long term. I believe that you only spend the bigger money on a free agent when you are maybe one player away. That has not been the case for the Reds recently and also believe that in the foreseeable future (2 years). So what I am saying is stick to the plan of developing young players at the MLB and at the farm levels. So with all that said, I would try to move one of big money suckers of the payroll (Codero, Arroyo, or Harang). I think that Codero has the most value to a perspective team, but I am guessing that we would have to eat some salary to move him.
Right on, RC. The fact is, these “evaluators” like to dump on the Reds.
We are not farther from contention than the Pirates, we are also not farther from contention than the Astros. I’m not sure if we’re farther from contention than the Brewers. Even without Volquez, our pitching staff is better than theirs.
As for Dusty, fire him only if you can find a significantly better replacement, but that shouldn’t be so hard. Sure the blame is not at all entirely on him, WJ made some bad off-season moves and constructed a horrible opening day roster. But Dusty has added to the problems in many ways that have been thoroughly discussed on this blog. Definitely fire Pole and Jacoby.
Hiring Duncan is a no brainer if Duncan will do it. LaRussa’s a psycho, but hire him anyway, especially if he’ll help us get Duncan.
I do believe there are managers out there who would be a lot better than Dusty. Is Bobby Valentine available, his contract in Japan runs out this year.
It doesn’t have to be a big name. A smart and tough guy who works well with young players would be a big improvement. Rick Sweet ? Ron Oester ?
I don’t know these guys well enough to say, but there’s got to be somebody out there.
As depressing as the Pirates? Give me a break. It’s obvious Rosenthal has paid little attention to the Reds. They were hit with a load of injuries this year and so were the Mets. Not much you can do about that, especially with Dusty as manager. The Reds have talent and especially pitching which is rather unusual for them. This offseason should see some moves to rearrange the payroll and competing in 2010 is not beyond reach.
The Pirates did what I wish we would ever do. Instead we always pretend we’re just a year away… which is a good recipe for winning 75 to 80 games every year… which is exactly what we’re doing.
I think the Pirates are headed a much better direction than this team is. Having Huntington at the helm will pay off for them, but it might still be 3 years away or so.
The Astros might have more names at the MLB level than we do, but from what I read their minor league system is bone-dry. I think long-term, they look worse than we do.
Dick Pole has coached for Baker a long time. I wonder how Baker would react to the organization wanting to replace Pole. Could he possibly take the “you’ll have to fire me, too” stance? (please, please, please…)
Seems like we ought to give Rick Sweet a chance. Although Dave Miley didn’t work out very well.
I know the Pirates are a joke b/c of 19 straight losing seasons (and that is amazingly pathetic), but I think we need to look at them as “pre-Huntington Pirates” and “Huntington Pirates.”
“Pre-Huntington” was embarrassingly awful.
The Huntington Pirates have torn it all down and are now a bad MLB team. But I think they had the guts to do what’s been needed there for 19 years (and what’s been needed here for at least 7 or 8 years) — TEAR IT ALL DOWN.
The Castellini approach will just create a never-ending string of years of mediocrity — mark my words. If we make a Rolen trade every year, we’ll be staring at a bone-dry farm system again soon too. (Castellini’s arrogance and stupidity are really pissing me off these days.)
I think Rick Sweet would bring to mind the hiring of Dave Miley too much for the Reds to be willing to do it. Miley was mega-successful in the minors also. Oester hasn’t managed anywhere (I don’t believe), so the Reds would again be opening themselves up to criticism by hiring a first time manager.
I don’t know that much about Bobby Valentine, but thought that Chris Welsh didn’t think much of him when he played for him, if memory serves..(yes, went back and looked at the interview.)
I want to see something – ANYTHING – revolutionary out of this team.
As things stand, I think we are one of the most backward and conservative organizations in baseball. Combine that with a below-average payroll and guess what, you have a below-average team.
If you are going to be a great team on a below-average payroll, you either need to be unbelievably good at the drafting/signing/developing part of the game (we are not), or you’ve got to be ahead of the curve somewhere else.
Sorry for the pessimism, but my level of hope is near an all-time low, and it’s because of 2 recent decisions:
–Taveras signing (bad player, unnecessary, overpaid)
–Rolen trade (good player, overpaid in $$$ terms, WAY WAY overpaid in terms of young players)
With those as indicators of the Reds braintrust, I do not see anything good on the horizon, until Dusty, Walt, and Castellini are ALL out. All 3.
When the braintrust is making moves that even we stupid uninformed bloggers know are dumb, there is no hope.
They undoubtedly have more information than we do, and yet they seem to reach worse conclusions than we do, over and over and over.
It really is frustrating, and I find it a hard time to be a Reds fan.
Dan, I’m right with you on the Pirates. Hunington did the right thing and the franchise will be better for it. I am also right with you on the big 4 contracts that are holding the team back.
I don’t think they are the furthest away from competing but they aren’t too close either. I would love to think that some of these guys in the minors are going to come up and be very good (Frazier, Valaika, Heisey, Fransisco, Wood, etc…) but you just never know. If they strike gold with some of these guys then this team might not be too far, however I don’t think it can happen with Baker and Jacoby especially. Jacoby has to be one of the worst hitting coaches in the majors, the team has regressed since he took over for the most part, and it doesn’t seem like he can help pull a guy out of a slump.
Can someone here shed some light on “whom” we gave up for Rolen? I mean come on, we gave up some young pitchers. What has been the Reds track record on drafting major league talented pitchers? Look at how long it has taken Homer to “maybe” be a major league pitcher. Had we given up some bats I might be upset, but a couple of young pitchers don’t bother me.
[...] season due to his $3.5 million salary and Buster Olney is quoting scouts as saying the Reds are the furthest team away from contention in the National League. Most of the team’s payroll is locked up in four guys (Rolen, Cordero, [...]
@Drew Nelson: We gave up Zachary Stewart and Josh Roenicke.
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/S/Zachary-Stewart.shtml
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/R/Josh-Roenicke.shtml
Young pitchers are the riskiest assets in the game (frequently don’t pan out) but also the most valuable assets in the game when they do pan out.
B/c the success rate is so low, you need as many as you can get! Most will flame out. Some will, occasionally, work out though. And when they do, you have them for SIX YEARS, cost-controlled, before they hit free agency.
To trade TWO of the more promising ones we had for ONE YEAR of a good-but-not-great 34-year-old third baseman who makes $11 million is unbelievably short-sighted and irresponsible, in my mind.
The Reds need to have as many Zach Stewarts and Josh Roenickes as they can get. (Actually it’s Stewart I’m most concerned about b/c he could pan out as a starting pitcher. Good relievers are not as hard to come by. Good young starting pitchers are brutally hard to find.)
That is exactly what I was referring to in my post !
@Dan:
Josh Roenicke is not a young pitcher. He turned 27 this year. He has not recorded a single major league save or win. His ERA with Toronto since the trade is 7.04 and he has given up 11 BB in 15.1 IP. He may still turn into something, but his window is closing.
I don’t really want to reopen the Rolen Trade debate, but let’s not go too overboard in valorizing the players we gave up. I agree that Zach Stewart might be the most valuable, although he is also not at all proven at the major league level.
Steve, if you go by your rationale here, then trading ANY minor leaguer for a major leaguer is a good deal…right?
Bill – It wasn’t my intention to develop a full rationale for the trade, in hopes of avoiding a rehash of the Rolen Trade debate. My only limited point was about Roenicke. Of course the opposite side’s rationale could be characterized as “always trade established players for ‘young’ ones”. It’s obviously more complicated than that, on both sides.
I would trade Willy Taveras for a minor leaguer.
I find it hard to plumb the depths of despair that the Rolen trade has caused some folks. Did we overpay, massively? Almost certainly yes, although history will be the judge.
But it’s done. And in the spirit of the topic, does having Rolen at 3B instead of EE put us further from contention in 2010, or closer? Or does it not move the meter either way?
I’d say it nudges the needle just a tiny bit in the right direction. Which is why I just can’t gin up the mopitude about it. YMMV, of course.
I would trade Willy Taveras for the tattooed black figernail-polished goth dude who gave me my #2 lunch at the Taco Bell drive-thru this afternoon.
Might even throw in a couple of minor league pitchers to sweeten the deal.
I’d trade Taveras for a bag of balls. How in the world could we have signed a TWO YEAR contract with him given his “career.”
@Steve: No kidding. He was coming off a .251/.308/.296 line in COLORADO… and we signed him to a 2-year deal… and GUARANTEED him a 75% raise in year 2.
Really unbelievable.
It’s these windows into the decision-makers minds that make me so down about the future prospects of the Reds. At least the near-future. I doubt Taveras will do much next year (if he’s even on the team), but the same decision-makers are still in place. There will be more of this to come.
35 years ago we were the best franchise in pro baseball. Today we’re a joke. (At best, we’re an also-ran.) It’s kind of sad. And it’s hard to keep caring, year after year.
The “plan”, as I see it:
Buy-out Hernandez, DFA Taveras (sunken cost – I’d rather eat it, than lose more prospects) & Nix (Dorn or Francisco fill LHB Bench Pwr for less).
Move as many as possible of: Phillips, Harang, Arroyo, Cordero…Maybe even Rhodes & Lincoln…btwn the Winter Meetings & the 2010 non-waiver deadline. Youth from the system fill the void.(Maloney, Woods, Viola, Ordrusek, Del Rosario fill pitching void – Frazier, Richar, Sutton & Valaika battle for 2B)
LF: Offer a contract to Gomes…even go to arbirtation & pay that $$$ (isf that is what it takes)…Then look to move him…As he’s worth more as a trade tool, than as a LF or what he’ll get paid…and he could bring a good prospect in return. Dickerson, Heisey, Balentien, Dorn are all solid platoon pieces.
3B: Try to extend Rolen past 2010 only if he takes much less than the $11M he’s getting. Otherwise, Francisco gets to fight for the 3B gig w/ Rosales.
SS: Janish, Rosales & Sutton fill role til Cozart is ready(2011)…or til WJ moves someone for Hardy, Escobar or HanRam (wishful thinking, I know).
Yup, lets trade em all and work with nothing but newbies and inexperienced guys…. BUT… we’re tired of losing so lets win NOW!
@shane: catcard’s “plan” strikes me as over-extreme… but actually, if and when the Reds ever were to do something like that, I think the fans would be OK with it. I think some would even be excited, b/c it would be the boldest and most decisive action (not to mention the most realistic assessment of where the team is) that we have seen here in a long, long time.
It’s felt for too long (not counting some of Krivsky’s best moves) that we’ve just been floating along going “uh…. how about this guy? Maybe we’ll be really good then…” Stupid, aimless, delusional stuff.
I actually think most fans would be understanding and embrace a well-conceived “we’re tearing it all down and aiming for 3 years out” plan. Most thinking fans, anyway.
Enough thinking fans to fill a reasonable number of seats next year?
Are Pittsburgh fans flocking to see the new look Pirates? (I’m seriously asking – I have no idea. Maybe they are…)
@RC: Well, you’re right, this is probably the main problem to a plan like this. Who would pay to see such a team in the interim?
But it’s not like attendance has been all that great this year.
I just see Baker’s fingerprints all over the Taveras signing. He went to Walt and said, that Taveras is fast, he could lead off and play CF for us. That’s what I need. Baker has never cared about OBP. The best evidence of this for me is that Baker immediately declared Taveras would be the CF. He didn’t even say that Taveras would have to compete for the job in Spring Training. Terrible signing. Terrible management of personnel. I hope it was Baker’s fault, because if Jocketty liked that signing I’d be very pessimistic about the Reds future with him as a GM.
How about some scouting changes too? From :
Jamie Quirk should not be with the Reds anymore either.
I don’t see the point of trying to move these guys during the off-season. The Reds will either have to eat a big chunk of the salary to get good prospects in return or they don’t and get no name prospects in return.
Why not play out the season till the deadline and then go from there.
Earlier this season, I had suggested (in other fora) a couple of remedies for Taveras – 1) that someone in the clubhouse should tase him every time he makes a fly ball out, and 2) that he be tied to a chair and forced to watch tapes of Ichiro hitting for several weeks.
Jamie Quirk might possibly have been right in what he said, but I never saw the slightest bit of evidence that either Taveras or his coaches tried to change his “approach” (if you’d call it that) at the plate. (Aside from telling him to bunt more, which didn’t help much because he’s not very good at it.)
I think they have to fix the roster and payroll. I love Arroyo, but I think he’s too expensive. Same with Cordero. (I don’t think Rolen or Harang will be traded.) The Reds have no business splurging for an expensive closer when they can’t get above .500. If you can trade those two, that does free up salary. It puts Bailey, Maloney in the rotation with Cueto and Harang, with one spot open. That’s an inexpensive rotation. It puts Burton or someone else in the closer’s role. It gives them payroll flexibility. That seems like a start.
Rumor has it, the Reds are 20-10 since the Rolen trade. Can’t think of a better stat, unless maybe 25-5.
The Reds are 25-24 since acquiring Rolen.
45-57 through July 31.
70-81 through September 23.
Take out August 8-22 when hurt (4-10 during that time) leaves it at 21-14.
Of course, Bailey wasn’t pitching well before the Rolen trade, Drew Stubbs wasn’t on the Reds during that time (Taveras was playing CF), Votto missed a ton of games (that’s when the Reds started losing); Gonzalez was playing shortstop, not Janish….
I mean there are just so many qualifers.
Superstars add 4-6 wins to a team per year…
Steve, does this mean you think Rolen is still a “superstar”?
@Dan: Dan, not to quibble, but Stewart was a reliever for Toronto’s minor league team. He was a reliever in college and, for the most part, he was a reliever for the Reds too. I don’t get Reds fans’ mad love for CJ Nitkowski II, but I remain disappointed that all they got for two relievers was a china doll.
To all, the idea that Dusty Baker is somehow responsible for this team’s suckiness is the craziest idea in Reds country. Walt is responsible. There was no CF or LF on this Opening Day roster. There was no SS. Who was Dusty supposed to bat first? Ryan Hanigan? Votto? Nix?
At the end of 2008 this team needed an SS, a CF, and a LF. Walt did nothing to acquire them.
@timb: My understanding is that Stewart is finishing the season as a reliever to keep his total inning count down, but that he is still thought of as a starter long-term.
And in my opinion, it’s not fair at all to call him “Nitkowski II” yet. That’s nuts. Stewart turns 23 next week, and so far he still looks very promising — 138 IP, 1.70 ERA, only 3 HR allowed, a crazy good groundball rate, and almost a 3-to-1 K-to-BB ratio.
I mean, I don’t know whether or not he’ll pan out in the major leagues. And neither do you. No one knows. So don’t compare him to someone who is already known to be a flame-out.
It doesn’t really matter to us anymore, as he’s not in the Reds system, so I’d be better off to drop it and not think about it… but the guy is still young and promising.
@timb: Also, Tim, in my opinion the best CF and best leadoff hitter on the Opening Day roster was Chris Dickerson.
I do agree that there wasn’t a great SS option — I don’t blame Dusty for playing Gonzalez there primarily while we had him — but batting Gonzalez #2 whenever he could rather than #8 was just flat stubbornness or stupidity.
In my book, every day that Dusty filled out a lineup card that started with:
1 – Taveras
2 – Gonzalez
…he was making a mental error far worse than missing a cutoff man or making a baserunning blunder. And he just kept doing it, over and over and over, even while WT and AG just kept proving over and over that they are two of the worst non-pitcher batters in all of major league baseball.
So while I do agree with you that Walt shares the blame, in my opinion Dusty has cost the Reds MANY runs this year (and therefore probably several wins) by picking bad players and making bad lineups.
His stubbornness is off-the-charts, and it blows me away how strong it is. I’ve gotten tired of complaining about it but I can’t STAND the idea that Dusty would get a free pass for it.
He’s making $3.5 million… why exactly? I really don’t get it.
I don’t think Rolen was EVER a superstar. A very good player, yes; superstar, no.
I think the Reds’ improvement is a combination of what I said above….Bailey’s pitching, Stubbs in the lineup, no Tavares-Gonzalez-Hernandez, and Rolen for Encarnacion.
@Dan:
Bingo. I can’t blame Dusty for the players, but I can for the lineups and how often and it what situations those players were used.
Is it just me, or does it seem like the Reds continually sign players who seem to be a little short on durability? Until they break this trend and begin to sign some players who spend more time on the field than they do the DL, then this franchise is never gonna succeed. Remember ‘ The Big Red Machine ‘ of the 70’s ? Those guys were out there every single day, regardless of how they felt. That, at least in part, is what makes a winner…
Also, how can anyone blame Dusty for the lack of success seen by this year’s team? After all, there have been no less than twenty players on the DL at one time or another and for various durations. Geez, even ‘ Superman ‘ as manager couldn’t have won the with the 2009 edition of the Cincinnati Reds…!