The season has started

[eburg5000]

Me I'm just frustrated. And I'm going to blame everybody at this point. Maybe the Reds will run off 8 out of 10 then life will be normal again.

I thought the Reds at least played competitive baseball yesterday, Still can't get that big hit when they need it.

We all must be on the same page here because I was thinking the same thing about Blandino not being able to get a bunt down. and why Price put in Winker in for Barnhart to run.

I don't think a player, and that's everyone, pitchers and position players. should come out of rookie A ball, not being able to bunt. or at the very least spending a lot of time practicing bunting. I wonder how many games are won and lost in the majors by players successfully getting a bunt down. With the Reds. They seldom even put a bunt in play.

 

[JohnU]

I think if they'd played straight up conventional baseball yesterday without the overthinking, they'd have scored that run. Blandino needed a chance to hit, not a chance to fail. Being asked to bunt is one thing if you are a pitcher. Pitchers get a mind-set about the task even if their execution if flawed. Blandino was up there to hit and then told to get a guy to third base where at least two more things had to go right. Swapping out Winker was really just managing because he could. Even if Hamilton's blooper fell in, Winker would not have scored.

All of that is on the dugout and on the players.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Homer looks good. Homers against the Reds don't. May set a record there. Maybe we'll get a humidor.

 

[Redsfan1507]

This team WILL win more games than the current pace...never seen a team lose 135 games...yet. Maybe we'll set another record for that.

Not much good can be ferretted out of being the worst team in MLB, for any stretch of time, especially in the 4th year of a rebuild from a team that hadn't won a home playoff game in this century, and went a long time from an appearance at all.

The Reds will get better draft picks I guess. That's a positive.. I think.

 

[eburg5000]

Not looking forward to tonight's game. The way the Brewers hit homeruns against the Reds, even when the Reds are playing well. They may break a record tonight.

 

[JohnU]

Shitty part of this is that the Marlins and Rays are probably both worse and will get the 1-2 draft picks.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

There's a distinct difference between teams like the Marlins and the Reds. The Marlins are tanking by design. The Reds design is tanking.

The Marlins are in the early stages of their plan and the losing is not surprising. The Reds are further along in duration and are well below my expectations of where they should be.

 

[JohnU]

There's a distinct difference between teams like the Marlins and the Reds. The Marlins are tanking by design. The Reds design is tanking.

The Marlins are in the early stages of their plan and the losing is not surprising. The Reds are further along in duration and are well below my expectations of where they should be.

I don't disagree but I also don't agree, mainly because I haven't seen the Marlins FO work long enough to establish a plan. Tampa has pretty much done as expected. I think the main problem is that the Reds were so far behind that by the time they caught up, the rest of the division got exponentially better. They will never be the lead dog at this rate.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I watch Reds a lot more than other teams over the years, so I'm ignorantly biased, but I believe our Reds ownership just have never acclimated themselves to change in MLB, basically since free agency. The '90 team came out of the blue, and had a few seasons in the 90's where the Reds were competitive without much to show for it, ditto with the Dusty teams 2010-12. Other than that, the Reds have been a second rate team.

If it's not by design, the have accidentally failed. Hard to imagine a rebuild, or constant efforts at rebuilds staying with that failed format and expecting better results. Reds fans don't show up to games for that forever.

I don't know the answer, but I would think they can't lose money and stay in business, so they are either ok with what losing pays, or on some kind of a termination agenda. I'd hate to lose the oldest franchise in baseball because owners just don't give a damn enough to do better.

 

[JohnU]

I recall when the Phillies couldn't lose, the Cubs and Royals couldn't win and the Tigers were consistently the fastest horse in the worst division in baseball. Houston used to suck. The Rangers didn't. So all does change. I don't know if it's about payroll, scouting, coaching, spotting good talent and having a little bit of luck.
Metrics, which I only read when somebody puts it into context, suggest that the Reds are in the lower third in overall talent, and that evidently is the Word. I suppose adding Senzel will upgrade the roster.
I know that the best lefty since Don Gullett left the team throwing 102 mph, pissing everyone off because he's an abuser ... and saved games for a team that never even got to .500 most years.
The team that's on the field should be a .490-.500 team. That's not sustainable and is as likely to go south as north. I wish I could say what they ought to do, but I think the owner is going to act on this. That may be a good thing or a bad thing. Owners really ought to just own teams.

 

[eburg5000]

I don't know the answer, but I would think they can't lose money and stay in business, so they are either ok with what losing pays, or on some kind of a termination agenda. I'd hate to lose the oldest franchise in baseball because owners just don't give a damn enough to do better.

I'm starting to wonder about this. If they can lose and still make money. The owners may just not care. I think we will see if this is true in the next few weeks. Then again getting rid of the manger and coaching staff can be a ruse, by making everyone think they care. but everything goes on as usual.

 

[JohnU]

I'm starting to wonder about this. If they can lose and still make money. The owners may just not care. I think we will see if this is true in the next few weeks. Then again getting rid of the manger and coaching staff can be a ruse, by making everyone think they care. but everything goes on as usual.

To be fair, there is more to owning a MLB team than just what the team does. The team is why we care. There are lots of ways the organization is "winning" financially in reference to contracts with TV, the ballpark itself, corp. image and branding as well as community outreach. So it's not really just a bunch of misers sitting around counting cash while Rome burns. We want the team to win and so do they, but it's not as easy as building a Nuxhall field in some suburb. I think the days when the Wrigleys ran the Cubs, you could say that. That was a different era. It's a global industry now.
So yeah ... the team sucks but the business is thriving. I suspect the marketing department is made up of fans who feel the same way we do about the business on the field. It's just not their job to fix it.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I don't think any of what we're seeing is a reflection of ownership not wanting to win. There's plenty of good intentions. But as in all businesses, Good intentions don't feed the bulldog.

I'd like to see them add another mascot. We only have four of them.

 

[eburg5000]

Well they surprised me by beating the Brewers 10 to 4. Must of surprised the Brewers too. If someone would have told me the score with out telling me who won. I would have thought "Wow at least the Reds scored 4 runs"

 

[JohnU]

I do think it appears the Reds spent a sizable amount of time during this "rebuild" on pitchers who probably din't belong in the conversation, though that's only apparent because of how it turned out. Analysis: this outfit has had more bad luck than good.

I think it's common to blame "the organization" but in the end, it's about the players. The Reds had dozens of pitchers being given a chance to get a hand on the brass ring. Almost all of them came to the interview lacking the gumption or skills to pull it off Maybe they shouldn't have been included but there are a lot of pitchers who aren't really better who did get it done when they had the chance.

The organization can't teach Hamilton to bunt. Not now. He didn't learn.

Fair or not, signing some rag-arm relievers might have been a bad idea. Bartolo Colon might disagree.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Wether you sell burgers or baseball, people don't buy bad product long.

The Reds did well last night, in front of an embarrassingly few thousand butts in the seats, but they won't come in droves tonight because of last night. It's a bad team, and has been for a while. The opener this season had a record paid attendance, but they were missing 10,000 butts in the seats. Afterward, the stands have looked like a Marlins game.

If the Reds are making money like this, then I'm pissed they didn't do more when fans actually showed up.

If you believe luck is in play, eventually you get some good luck, too. If not, I think it's not bad luck, it's bad work. Firing the manager only changes things if the talent is underperforming. I don't think this team is really underperforming, I don't think there is enough talent. That's a responsibility above the manager. Theoretically, Coaching can improve but I haven't seen a lot of improvement to most obvious individual deficiencies- I'd say you can't turn dung into diamonds no matter how you polish it, So maybe they just don't try to anymore. Maybe both applies here.

The team is bad though. Tired of that. Looks like they had fun last night. Hope it continues.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

A picture can be worth a thousand words. It appears the images of last night are speechless.

 

[JohnU]

The winning streak is over.
Now you may return to your homes.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

You win some, you lose some.
Is it just me? Or is the lose some disproportionate?

 

[JohnU]

I think the managerial change happens by Monday.