Lack of guts

[JohnU]

I think Lorenzen will buy into being a setup guy.

 

[Redsfan1507]

The frustrating thing for me has been the ignoring of the obvious most of the last decade...

It took Dusty 4 years to discover Phillips was a better leadoff answer than Patterson, Taveras, Stubbs, McDonald, Larry, Curly and Moe. He even tried Jay Bruce there. Then, after Phillips only .300 season as a #1, he fell right back to hitting him 4th the next season. He couldn't see Chapman as a SP, even though he clearly made Cueto look like a #2 in 2 consecutive spring trainings....and Jocketty didn't recognize Dusty's sense of urgency or player evaluation might be a problem ? Price has made those exact same mistakes...if you don't learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it...

No one noticed all 5 SP all had contracts that expired in the same year ?

Brian Price, and even Kevin Gregg and Jason Marquis weren't really strategic choices, they were all that was possible monetarily after choosing Bailey and Votto, Bruce, Phillips and Dusty as the priority paychecks. There was NO plan B after that, AFTER not winning a single playoff series in 3 tries. The Titanic had a better emergency plan.

Boxberger, Grandal and Alonzo for Latos only made sense for that wasted time frame, and Latos' talent expiration culminated in Desclafani for all those guys. Another opportunity to see Chapman as a LHSP ignored...Boxberger could have been a great closer plan C even after dealing away Broxton and sealing Chapman's fate as the least utilized Missile in US history. Grandal is now what Mesoraco was supposed to be with the bat. I'm not at all sure Alonzo would have been a worse backup than Hannigan in Votto's DL stints...or that we would have missed Pena, or Ludwick if he jogged in LF instead. Marshall cost more in salary than he cost in the 3 players he was traded for, and wound up costng more than Ryan Madson's 1 year $10 M charity contract.

This team hasn't produced a single everyday farm OF that could hit better than .260 in back to back seasons in 25 years...Hell, longer if you consider Paul O'Neill didn't do that until he left the Reds...

The Reds have no (positive) Reds way, but they have lots of ex-players that knew the way, with time on their hands. Davis, Sabo, Casey, Oester, Oliver...and they are on their 3rd 3b coach and 2nd batting coach in 3 years...Pico is a better coach than Browning or Soto ?? The price of Price has a bigger factor in keeping his job than his ability, or liklihood of doing any better with this malnurished lineup. The Reds "way" has become getting tossed out at the plate with no outs...or running into unforced tags at 3b on leadoff doubles...or stranding them without attempting to advance on more than a couple strikeouts on pulled outside breakingballs. They find excuses not to score...They've become the pizza gifters of 11 K's, while the offense has 12.

IMO, Barry Larkin isn't the answer, not as a manager anyway. He said a minor league managers job was beneath him when offered after his retirement. He chose instead to take a meaningless engraved plate on an empty office with the Jim Bowden Nats until TV came calling with a color analysts job. Riggleman isn't either. He's too old to be a threat to accidentally kill a Reds player that refuses to submit to shock therapy like sound fundamentals. Even reporters laugh at Price's tirades.

This organization needs an enema...and a whole new diet afterwards. They can't do that with existing front office and dugout staff.

They need more brains and more testicles. They need a few more bad losers and a few less sensitive sweet chemistry psuedo intellectual mentors. They need a manager and coaches that can teach, until this farm system can.

It's time ALL the players know that failure shouldn't be easy and painless...Maybe Mesoraco and Frazier have roughed up anxiety queen Joey Votto some...he's taking it badly now, like he cares...but this team has mostly just gone through the motions. They need to recognize Hamilton HAS to bunt and not trying just won't get it done, Phillips won't ever be a cleanup hitter in a shoebox with 12 HR, Mesoraco HAS to get 150 more AB's from a 2nd position, and if Bruce can't find the baseball with a bat more than 120 times a year, they need to send his good loser, Amish milk drinking ass packing and find a hitter to pay his $14M /yr to.

For Chrissake, put Chapman in the rotation long enough to get a couple IMMEDIATE answers in trade before HIS contract expires, and 1 of them better be a bat under 35 years old that has actually hit since Billy Hamilton has been old enough to drive.

 

[JohnU]

I see Frazier has a "slight" achilles injury tonight. I would expect a few more "slight" injuries now.
Reds have won 18 games since the trade deadline.

 

[Redsfan1507]

on a 9 game loser...this team died 3 months ago.

 

[JohnU]

It's worth mentioning that Chapman has pitched 15 games (16.1 INNINGS) in the last 50 games.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Once upon a time, a financially distressed King of France sold half the North American continent to an upstart economy-less America for pennies on the acre. He thought he needed the money more than the real estate. The Reds thought they needed a closer more than a LHSP...Some colossal mistakes can't be explained or un-done. Chapman isn't one of them. It is either the sheer stupidity , or compete apathy of the Reds, that caused that situation, and still perpetuates it.

 

[JohnU]

I guess it's easier to find 5 quality starters than 1 quality closer, since you already have the closer.

 

[Redsfan1507]

The Reds have lots of good young arms, but only one truly great one. And he's waiting on a save situation to pitch.

Brilliant.

Like hooking Secretariat up to pull the buggy on Sundays.

Giddeup Aroldis.