Reds 2011: A Problem of Leadership?

[OldXOhio]

Who exactly do you think was available in the offseason that the Reds didn't go get? Where's the money coming from? Did you expect Bruce, Votto, Arroyo, Wood, Bailey, Rolen, Phillips, Gomes, to all regress or not improve? I certainly expected the young guys to improve. Especially Bruce, Stubbs, Wood, Cueto, and Volquez. Only one of them has significantly improved. Hindsight is easy. Most people said we needed a LF. I would have tried to upgrade that position. A slash line from Janish at SS the same as last year, given his defense would have been acceptable. Was it wrong to expect that?

So GMs are now to be judged on something other than actual results? Walt rolled the dice, he came up wrong. If nothing else, he had the chance to make changes earlier in the season through promotion of AAA players. Instead, he chose otherwise saying he was happy with what he saw at SS and LF. A lot of us on RZ said he was wrong at the time and it now appears we may have been right.

Look I'm not a GM, I don't have a plan for what I would have done. I liked locking up Bruce and Cueto, but we also saw up close and personal areas that needed improvement in last years playoff series. Almost a year later they still exist. You don't have to be an expert to express dissatisfaction with the job Walt has done the last few seasons.

[mth123]

Who exactly do you think was available in the offseason that the Reds didn't go get? Where's the money coming from? Did you expect Bruce, Votto, Arroyo, Wood, Bailey, Rolen, Phillips, Gomes, to all regress or not improve? I certainly expected the young guys to improve. Especially Bruce, Stubbs, Wood, Cueto, and Volquez. Only one of them has significantly improved. Hindsight is easy. Most people said we needed a LF. I would have tried to upgrade that position. A slash line from Janish at SS the same as last year, given his defense would have been acceptable. Was it wrong to expect that?

Regression was easy to see. The only guy I expected to improve was Bruce. Stubbs is what he is. Same with Phillips. Votto lead the league in everything, nowhere to go but down. Hanigan, Rolen, Janish, Wood were all way over their heads. Arroyo was due for at least some worsening, maybe not what has happened, but no reason to expect improvement there. Bailey and Volquez were coming off of injuries and were huge questions. The team needed reinforcements.

Other teams were able to add players. Greinke. Marcum, Garza, Correia, Hardy, Willingham, Dejesus ...

[hebroncougar]

Regression was easy to see. The only guy I expected to improve was Bruce. Stubbs is what he is. Same with Phillips. Votto lead the league in everything, nowhere to go but down. Hanigan, Rolen, Janish, Wood were all way over their heads. Arroyo was due for at least some worsening, maybe not what has happened, but no reason to expect improvement there. Bailey and Volquez were coming off of injuries and were huge questions. The team needed reinforcements.

Other teams were able to add players. Greinke. Marcum, Garza, Correia, Hardy, Willingham, Dejesus ...

So is predicting players will regress, after the fact. Greinke, Marcum, and Garza would have all cost us prospects and an upgrade in payroll. Do you think Walt had the ability to add payroll in the offseason? Hell, if we'd have signed Correia, Redszone would have imploded, after that terrific season he had last year (and would have blocked our budding young pitching as most thought), I'm with you on Hardy, I'd have taken him in a heartbeat. Have you seen what Dejesus and Willingham have done this year? You want them? I think Walt's biggest gaffs are not bringing up Cozart sooner, and not bringing up Alonso to see what he can do in LF (and they still aren't). I"m not sure the other were really doable.

[mth123]

So is predicting players will regress, after the fact. Greinke, Marcum, and Garza would have all cost us prospects and an upgrade in payroll. Do you think Walt had the ability to add payroll in the offseason? Hell, if we'd have signed Correia, Redszone would have imploded, after that terrific season he had last year (and would have blocked our budding young pitching as most thought), I'm with you on Hardy, I'd have taken him in a heartbeat. Have you seen what Dejesus and Willingham have done this year? You want them? I think Walt's biggest gaffs are not bringing up Cozart sooner, and not bringing up Alonso to see what he can do in LF (and they still aren't). I"m not sure the other were really doable.

Except its not after the fact. Been saying it since August.

[traderumor]

Walt has a little less than 3 days to redeem himself....to a small degree. His approach left a rotation undermanned and holes at SS and LF heading into the season. His approach was to focus on keeping the young core intact in the offseason and to consider changes during the season and up to the deadline. Now he cant decide which direction to go bc his team is in freefall. Had he been more proactive last offseason or even this past month would the teams position be different at this point? Who knows, but with 2/3rds of the season down and the team is 5 under .500 and about to get worse w an upcoming set v. The Giants, it's safe to say the path he chose didn't work.

It just seems to be a repeated fallacy that what a GM doesn't get done that someone else thinks they should do was the GMs "approach." You've considered a few factors, the least of which is the price of deals you want made, then concluded that is the manager's failed "approach." And then an ultimatum to boot. I know its a cyber ultimatum with no authority and a small audience, but still, why do folks repeatedly consider their limited view of things from this side as representative of an "approach?"

[Caseyfan21]

This sort of relates to the attitude I have seen from Brandon Phillips on Twitter (and other players in the print media lately.

Have you noticed he and the other players always seem to have an attitude of "we aren't playing as good as we should?" I have noticed this with a lot of my friends and other players hearing people talk about the Reds 2011 season. It's all about they aren't playing very well yet but at least they're still in the hunt. My personal thought is at what point in a season does "we aren't playing up to our potential" become "we just aren't as good as we all thought"? It's frustrating cause I think once you're past the all star break you have an extremely good handle on how good a team is. Whatever is causing the Reds to not reach expectations is irrelevant. All that matters is the team needs to switch their attitude from one of waiting for the magic to come back to one of playing a little desperate.