Anyone miss Mckanin?

[Jim Fazio]

Boy, I wish he were here. Great at handling the club and had them playing ball the right way last year. He could do wonder with all this young talent.

[goreds2]

Boy, I wish he were here. Great at handling the club and had them playing ball the right way last year. He could do wonder with all this young talent.

I was just thinking of this the other day. Yes, I do think he should have gotten the job but I think the Reds were pressured to hire a "big name".

:(

[durl]

He sure seemed to handle a big league team well. I thought a "big name" manager would help give the team more confidence and play at a higher lever. But given how the Reds have done with Dusty I can't help but wonder if Mackanin would have been a good manager to handle the younger guys. But hindsight is 20/20...

[redram]

I liked him also. I first thought Dusty would be OK and was really excited going into this year, esp seeing how Cueto was doing, but man what a huge letdown this year has become. No offense, Cory Patterson, Griffy now hitting cleanup ? and Harang and Arroyo have been a bust. I kinda expected it from Arroyo but not Harrang. I don't know the answers but man I wish they would get a manager that could light a fire under this teams tail and get it playing like it should be

[757690]

McKanin did a nice job taking over the team midseason and I really liked his quotes in the paper, he seemed to have a great sense of humor. But I thought the same thing about Dave Miley and Jarry Narron. My opinion is that Pete could help a mediocre team play .500 but I doubt he was the one to lead the Reds to the Playoffs. Everytime he got the team close to contention, they would fold with him at the helm.

I am not saying Dusty is that guy or that Dusty was a smart hire, just that Pete did his job, but he is not the answer.

[ChatterRed]

I'm not a big fan of Dusty, and I hate giving him a break BUT..........look at this team:

1. An HOF RFer that is a shell of his HOF playing days.
2. An overrated LFer who stinks with the glove and is hitting .225 and pretty much is a joke.
3. A CFer, who continues to play despite hitting .190.
4. The infield is very young and needs experience. Plus, they are not the power part of the offense, the outfield is and the outfield is struggling other than Bruce, for the most part.
5. Injuries. Two of our best hitters have been hurt - Keppinger and Hairston.
6. Starting pitching isn't quite what we thought it would be. Harang hasn't pitched up to what we expect of him. Arroyo has turned into a joke. Cueto is learning on the job. So is Volquez, but he's been terrific. The #5 pitchers have generally sucked.

In a nutshell, the veterans aren't performing and the young guys, as expected, are making dumb mistakes and struggle at times.

[durl]

With the Reds and their current problems is it too simplistic to say we should look at the most pervasive problem and try to fix it? To me it's hitting. No one on this team is hot...in fact pretty much every player is stone cold at the plate. If so many players are having the same problem perhaps there is a common factor contributing to the problem.

[TheBigLebowski]

Meh. If we'd have extended Mackanin people here would have howled like stuck pigs. Mack did a pretty nice job but I still remember last year when we made that brief "run" towards the latter half of the season. I forget who we were playing but the game was about as important as it could have been, all things considered. Mack rolled out one of the worst offensive lineups we've seen in years and we got destroyed.

I know Dusty is far from the guy we all wanted and I have been critical of him this year - loudly at times - but he's not the reason we're 7-8 games under right now, whichever it is. This is a poorly constructed team that happens to have a lot of young talent.

I will, however, agree that Jacoby and Pole need to be gone. ASAP.

[RedsFanInBama]

I was rooting for Bob Brenley when the job opened up. Did we ever pursue him?

The jury is still out on Dusty to me. He's made some moves that I definitely question, but that is always the case with any manager. Baseball is the great second-guesser's sport. The starting pitching on this team is still too weak to put the manager on the hook.

I mean look at the performance we've gotten from our starters this season. We basically have a #1 and a bunch of #4s and #5s based on this year's performance. Starting pitching is the key to winning and this team is severely lacking. That could change in the not-too-distant future if Cueto comes around and Thompson proves serviceable as a big league back end starter. Harang will come around. I'd like to get a lefty in the rotation at some point but I'm not sure what our options are there.

Sorry for the tangent on pitching.

[TheBigLebowski]

I was rooting for Bob Brenley when the job opened up. Did we ever pursue him?

The jury is still out on Dusty to me. He's made some moves that I definitely question, but that is always the case with any manager. Baseball is the great second-guesser's sport. The starting pitching on this team is still too weak to put the manager on the hook.

I mean look at the performance we've gotten from our starters this season. We basically have a #1 and a bunch of #4s and #5s based on this year's performance. Starting pitching is the key to winning and this team is severely lacking. That could change in the not-too-distant future if Cueto comes around and Thompson proves serviceable as a big league back end starter. Harang will come around. I'd like to get a lefty in the rotation at some point but I'm not sure what our options are there.

Sorry for the tangent on pitching.


I don't disagree with most of what you said. I do, however, have much higher hopes for DT than, in a best-case scenario, him projecting as a back-of-the-rotation starter. I think the guy could be something really special.

[RedsFanInBama]

It would be awesome if he could be a front-end guy, but the truth of the matter is there are just so few of those guys out there. I also have high hopes for him, but if he can give the Reds a solid #4 or #5 guy, that is a plus. I mean from a consistency standpoint. I didn't mean to paint that as a best-case scenario, but as a scenario that would still be beneficial to the Reds long-term.

I'm talking about a guy that gives you a chance to win when he goes out there. The Reds have not had that this year at all from their #5 spot (and too often from other spots - *cough*Arroyo*cough*) and that has to change to be a team that contends.

[CWRed]

I knew Dusty wwas an awful hire. Doing the same things he got run out of Chicago for. This team's approach at the plate has gotten terrible. And I believe it is from Dusty's "aggressive" philosophy" that if you don't swing the bat you don't score runs. He's not the only issue obviously with this team but he is stubborn and lazy and just doesn't get it. Bring back Mac!

[nineworldseries]

An overrated LFer who stinks with the glove and is hitting .225 and pretty much is a joke.

You do realize, right, that batting average is a bad indicator of offensive production? Dunn is, quite simply, the best offensive player on the team right now. He leads in both OBP and slugging. So, I guess you think our best batter is a joke. OK.

[TheBigLebowski]

You do realize, right, that batting average is a bad indicator of offensive production? Dunn is, quite simply, the best offensive player on the team right now. He leads in both OBP and slugging. So, I guess you think our best batter is a joke. OK.

BA may not be the sole indicator of offensive production but it is not a "bad" indicator.

[BurgervilleBuck]

If so many players are having the same problem perhaps there is a common factor contributing to the problem.
Brooks Jacoby.

[UK Reds Fan]

Yes, I do wish Pete Mc would have gotten the job...and the 10 Million invested in actual players that win games.

[BurgervilleBuck]

I don't miss McKanin.

[Kingspoint]

Heck, yes. He's so much better than Baker in so many ways.

The REDS are a mess with Jockety in charge and they might win in spite of it because of the talent that he inherited. Let's hope there's at least one WS appearance before it all goes downhill.

[Fullboat]

This team needs a Drill instructor to chew some butts.

[demas863]

McKanin did well especially given so many players were shut down towards the end of the year. If you were to go through the roster player by player and assess if he's performing as well as he did last year, without question you'd have to conclude that most are having sub par and even super sub par years. Yes. there are a couple bright spots but on balance the team for the first half is grossly underperforming. To me that means one of two things - the team will have a terrific resurgence in the second half or the hiring of Dustyf**k (as he was affectionately called in Chi-town) was a huge mistake. I admit there is an unlikely third choice - "Hey, give it more time - perhaps much more." The Sicilians may have it right when they say "the fish stinks from the head." Castellini concluded the head was McKanin. (Krivskey wanted to keep him). Then Castellini concluded that the head was Krivskey and so he was gone. Even if he had agreed with Bob that Baker was a great choice (he didn't), his days were numbered. So who's really the head? Why it's big Bob, of course. Well intentioned, generous, admiringly impatient (as we all seem to be) but apparently without a clue as to the ingredients necessary to make up a good ballclub. Enter Jockety. If that move bombs then Castellini should do the diffcult task of letting himself go. After all, "the fish stinks from the head." :)