Why do we suck?

[redsfan1966]

We do suck, and I agree with other posters that this aint baseball....I am still a Reds fan, but I have decided that from here on out this season if there are multiple games on during a given evening, the Reds will get low priority--I dont want this team killing my love of the game.

As far as why we suck, I truly believe its because we are a rudderless ship---we dont pick a direction and go with it---we start out saying we are going to grow from within, but turn around and throw cash at Dusty, Corey and Cordero (mind you, that last one is a good move). We just dont stick with any type of plan---Krivsky should still be the GM of this club, and Dusty should not be in the dugout---the "dude" struck me as a moron during his tenure as an ESPN analyst. Mackanin should have stayed or we should have made a bigger play for Girardi. Of course, I could be horribly wrong its just my opinion...

[gedred69]

No heart.

That is truth. And I blame certain players for that. Definately, losing Keppinger, Hairston, and the sometime spark Freel can supply----like right before he went down---really hurt at a time when the team was starting to play like at least a .500 team. Now, the effort is so lackluster and un-inspired, that I would hate to see any of the other "bright future prospects" brought up, for fear of contaminating their mindsets by playing them with a bunch of banal efforted and resigned individuals. Maybe once the cancers are gone, but not until then.

[Fon Duc Tow]

Who are the cancers?

Did Dusty mess up Harang's arm in that 18 inning loss?

Should the hitting coach be fired?

Patterson leading off, Griffey batting 3rd, and Dunn too low in the lineup. How many wins has this cost us?

What needs to happen in order to make the Reds contenders and why can't anyone figure it out? What are the Reds missing?

[Blue]

^^^ To answer your questions:

There are none.

I don't think so.

Probably.

Three.

A lot. A lot.

[Big Hurt]

It's a large combination of things. First off, I don't think we "suck". We're certainly not contenders, thats for sure.

Any team that begins a youth movement is going to be wildly inconsistant. We're seeing that with Jay, Joey, Johnny, and others.

We're also very poor defensively. Not just at a few positions...but all over. We've got one solid defensive player in Brandon Phillips and that's about it. If Dusty would keep some players in steady positions, they could develop into solid defensive players though IMO. Keppinger, Votto, Bruce and even Edwin.

While it looks like our pitching is horrible, you've got to factor in a couple of things. First, our launching-pad of a stadium is always going to make our pitchers look worse than they are. Second, our defense is hurting them tremendously. Third, our lack of offense seems to be forcing our pitchers to try to paint corners more than they should. They're trying to be perfect because they know that thier margin for error is so small. Overall, our pitching is much better than in recent years. Even the bullpen.

Our roster's lack of solid hitters for average is really hurting our production. We're either hitting Homeruns, or we're not scoring. We do not seem to have the ability to play small-ball. The lack of consistant mid-to-high batting average hitters in our lineup makes it very easy for opposing pitchers to work their way through our lineup virtually unscathed.

Lastly, Dusty's inability to construct the lineup in a way to accentuate our player's positives hampers our ability to produce runs. Dunn is far to low in the order. Junior is far to high. Getting Corey out of the leadoff spot is a beginning. These little things may not look like much, but over the long-haul, they have lasting effects on our production. Not to mention the fact that once they get it set up correctly, players will begin to get comfortable in those line-up positions and learn what's expected of them in those situations.

Fundamentals. For a manager who seemed to preach all about fundamentals in S.T. and before, we sure don't seem to see much fudamentals out there on the field. How many times have we seen a lead off man on first with no outs and we're not able to drive him in with small ball? The basic hitting fundamentals seem to be lost on this team. The ability is there though.

As long as we show improvement at the end of the year, I'll be satisfied. I thoroughly believe that we'll play much better in the second half of the season as our rook's get more experience and more comfortable.

This is the post of the year and should be stuck to the top of the page. It in fact is exactley, IMO, the problems we are having this year. Well done, Charles!