At one point, I thought Thom Brennamen was a good addition to broadcast Reds baseball. But, getting the opportunity to listen to him so much, it amazes me that someone who has been as close to the game as he has his entire life could be so ignorant about strategy and the business of baseball.
Such as railing about the Reds needed to try something different against Carpenter, you know that guy who spins up a Cy Young type season with seemingly no effort. What should they do, everyone try bunting each time up? While there are games that it is seemingly a poor approach that leads them to a poor offensive game against some pitchers, Carpenter is just good and dominates most games he pitches. It isn't a strategy issue, Thom. The other pitcher is just one of the top 10 pitchers in the game.
Also, he talked last night about how it should be "not that big a deal" to find relief help for the back end of the bullpen, or to find middle relievers that can help. Really? The bullpen is one of the biggest determiners of contenders and the Reds are just going to go out there and find an arm "close to as good as Masset" (begging the question of which Masset we're talking about, the prior season Masset or the slumping Masset) as Thom put it.
In the end, I guess all that I can say is that the apple did not fall far from the tree.