Doc sez Krivsky FIRED!

[OnBaseMachine]

Baker misses call about Krivsky firing
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By Hal McCoy

Staff Writer

Thursday, April 24, 2008

CINCINNATI — Dusty Baker turned off his cell phone, "To get some rest, catch up on some sleep," so he didn't get the call from CEO Bob Castellini. When Baker awoke, he called Wayne Krivsky, "To discuss two or three things," and that's when he discovered Krivsky was fired.

He needed to discuss those two or three things with new GM Walt Jocketty.

"This is a part of baseball and nobody likes to have it happen to them," said Baker. "Anybody in this game is going to have it happen to them. I only had it happen once, in Chicago. It's not very pleasant."

Baker said the switch from Krivsky to Jocketty will be seamless for him.

"I've been knowing Walt a long time," said Baker. "He was an assistant GM in 1985-86 when I played for the A's. When he was at Colorado and St. Louis, I was managing against his teams.

"Walt is going to do fine," he said. "He's won executive of the year a couple of times (three). I hope this all works out — works out for us, works out for Walt, works out for Wayne and we win, because it is Wayne's team."

Baker checked his roster and said, "They have some big decisions to make here. We have 13 free agents and that's a lot.

Griffey's reaction

Was Ken Griffey Jr. surprised by the dismissal of general manager Wayne Krivsky?

"Oh, yeah. You wake up in the morning, turn on the TV and you see that?" he said. "I wasn't consulted. I'm only employee No. 3, y'know?"

When told Walt Jocketty is his sixth general manager since he came to the Reds in 2000, Griffey uttered one word: "Damn."

Then he added, "It ain't my fault, coach. You never want to see anybody lose their job. Bob (Castellini) felt there had to be a change. He's the guy who controls this."

Griffey then hit his 597th career home run in the first inning to give the Reds a short-lived 1-0 lead — before the Astros scored eight unanswered runs against Reds starter Bronson Arroyo.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/con...redsnotes.html

[Falls City Beer]

Originally Posted by TRF

No, that's completely flawed. his defense is top 5, maybe the best in the NL. His offense is way overrated.

His defense is certainly top 5 in the NL, but not in MLB. No way.

[reds44]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

His defense is certainly top 5 in the NL, but not in MLB. No way.

Name who you think is better.

[*BaseClogger*]

Originally Posted by reds44

So Daryl Thompson's 4 good starts all of a sudden makes the trade a good one?

Ummm... Read what he asked me...

What other moves has he made in trade that netted the team a high-ceiling starter?

[OnBaseMachine]

Jocketty takes over as Reds GM
He says the culture and mindset of the club needs to change

By Hal McCoy

Staff Writer

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

CINCINNATI — Walt Jocketty, with his soft smile and white bread hair, doesn't appear to be a vindictive person, but he revealed a small piece of his competitive personality at the media conference announcing his elevation to Director of Baseball Operations/General Manager of the Cincinnati Reds.

"Trust me, me and Dusty Baker are very motivated, both guys with a vendetta, a little chip on our shoulders," he said.

That's because Jocketty was fired as GM of the St. Louis Cardinals after last season and Baker was fired as Chicago Cubs manager after the 2006 season. Both teams are with the Reds in the National League Central, making them targets for Jocketty and Baker.

General manager Wayne Krivsky was fired Wednesday, April 23, by CEO Bob Castellini and replaced by Jocketty, with whom Castellini worked in St. Louis when Jocketty was there, with Jocketty saying, "I still think we can win this division."

Under Jocketty, the Cardinals were in the playoffs seven times in 13 years after a long period of losers. Jocketty believes he can do in Cincinnati what he did in St. Louis when he took over in 1994, in less time.

"With the history of this franchise, it is very close to the situation I had in St. Louis," he said. "It has a winning tradition, great fans, a great community — but they hadn't won in St. Louis in a long time, either. There are a lot similarities to the St. Louis and Cincinnati situations, storied franchises with great traditions.

"And I think this organization is in better shape right now than St. Louis was and it won't take as long to turns things around here," he added.

Jocketty plans no immediate shakeups, either on the playing roster or the front office, until he thoroughly looks and tinkers under the hood.

"We need to change the culture and the mindset, in the clubhouse and the front office, that we can win," he said. "You need a positive approach and not look at the negatives. There is talent here, plus we have a proven manager (Dusty Baker). It is a matter of changing the focus to a winning culture."

Castellini, in a glum mood on this day, said Krivsky was fired basically because of the team's 9-12 start. He added that some of Krivsky's player personnel moves that left the team holding bags of money owed to players no longer playing entered into the dismissal, too.

Then he put some pressure on Jocketty's shoulders when he said, "We've come to a point where, well, we're just not going to lose any more."

Jocketty laughed that one off and said, "I'm not worried about that because I'm doing this because I want to do it, not that I need to do it."

He has been in baseball 33 years and while with the Cardinals was named Major League Baseball Executive of the Year three times.

After the Cardinals fired him, Jocketty was hired by the Reds as a special consultant to Castellini and the handwriting was on the executive bathroom walls — Jocketty was the next Reds GM.

Castellini didn't plan to make the move until Krivsky's contract expired after this season, but when the Reds limped out of the gate the impatient Castellini acted.

Asked his baseball philosophy, Jocketty said, "Basic philosophy, win."

And he added, "I try to build a team with pitching and defense. Scoring runs is about however your team is built — power, the ball park, running game, smallball. Generally, though, pitching and defense. That sounds easy, pretty simple, but there is a lot to it."

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/con...redsb1web.html

[*BaseClogger*]

Phillips is #2 in the NL defensively at 2B in my book...

[Spring~Fields]

Originally Posted by OnBaseMachine

Baker checked his roster and said, "They have some big decisions to make here. We have 13 free agents and that's a lot.

I did not know that they had 13. That is a whole lot of fixing that the new GM will have to do, going to be interesting.

[Falls City Beer]

Originally Posted by reds44

Name who you think is better.

Kinsler, Pedroia, Cano, Hill, Utley, just off the top of my head.

[*BaseClogger*]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Kinsler, Pedroia, Cano, Hill, Utley, just off the top of my head.

Definetly forgot Orlando Hudson...

[reds44]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Kinsler, Pedroia, Cano, Hill, Utley, just off the top of my head.

No Orlando Hudson?

I'd disagree with the first three you listed.

[OnBaseMachine]

Reds players surprised by GM change
Baker, team ready to move forward with proven winner
By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com

CINCINNATI -- It never occurred to Dusty Baker to turn his phone on Wednesday morning.

The Reds manager was asleep when the call came from owner/CEO Bob Castellini that he had decided to replace general manager Wayne Krivsky with Walt Jocketty.

"He left me a message. He was trying to reach me," Baker said. "My phone is off in the morning so I can get some rest."

Baker hadn't checked his messages yet when he called Krivsky after waking up.

"I went to call Wayne on some things, and he informed me," Baker said. "My take is I don't know what to take on it right now.

"It's part of baseball. Nobody likes it. Nobody likes to have it happen to them. Anybody that's in this game, it's going to happen to them for whatever the reasons are. I didn't have it happen to me until I was in Chicago when my contract expired [in 2006]. I was basically fired. It's not a very pleasant feeling about yourself. Wayne's a good baseball man. I know he will land on his feet some place. He's been in the game a long time with a lot of people."

Reds players were also stunned to get the news that their boss was let go only 21 games into the season. Ken Griffey Jr. learned about the change, literally through channels.

"I turned on the TV and that?," Griffey said. "You never want to see anybody lose their job. Bob felt that there had to be a change. He's got control of this, and he pulled the trigger."

"I just heard about it on my way in," rotation ace Aaron Harang said. "It's kind of a shock. I guess we weren't going the way the owners felt we could be going, and they decided to make some changes."

Harang was aware of Jocketty's history from his 13 seasons as the Cardinals' GM. St. Louis went to the playoffs seven times and won a World Series in 2006.

"He has a reputation," Harang said. "He ended up turning St. Louis around and making them a very solid organization and a very good team. Hopefully, that's what Bob and the rest of the owners were looking for. Seeing his past track record, they obviously think he can do something good."

Jocketty, who was a special advisor to Castellini before the latest move, was on the Reds' most recent road trip through Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Chicago. He and Baker often talked, and they've already met about their plans going forward.

Baker and Jocketty, however, weren't strangers by any stretch before this season.

"I've known Walt forever," Baker said. "I remember Walt when he was my last assistant GM in 1985-86 with the A's when I was a player. [When he was] in Colorado and St. Louis, I battled against Walt's teams many times. Walt's going to do fine."

http://cincinnati.reds.mlb.com/news/...=.jsp&c_id=cin

[guttle11]

Arguing about defense is circular. They're all really good, and they don't field the same batted balls. Impossible to truly judge.

And guess what? Phillips makes right about the same/less money then those other guys do/will when it's their time to get a raise. Pop in the bat, ability to steal many more bases than times caught stealing, and very good defense up the middle. All at a competitive salary?

Sign me up. Twice.

[IslandRed]

Originally Posted by princeton

Reds are going to out-Steinbrenner everyone.

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Goodness, I hope so.

The Steinbrenner method requires bigger checks than Bob's going to write. :

That was the crux of the post I made in another thread. Checkbook baseball was about the only way a team could get from where the Reds were in February 2006 to where Castellini is demanding they ought to be now, particularly with the Cubs finally acting like a big-market team. Not that I believe Castellini should have gone way into his own pocket to do that; far from it. But if he wasn't going to use his wallet to supercharge the process, he needed to understand that the natural cycle of these things is longer than two years.

But then, that's just overanalyzing on my part. The truth is pretty simple in retrospect -- Castellini had a chance to put the guy he knew and trusted in the GM's chair and he did it at the first plausible moment. I should have seen it coming but I figured it was Krivsky's final season and he'd at least finish it before he was sent packing.

And, while I give Krivsky a lot of credit for rebuilding the organization's talent base, I grant that Jocketty's probably the better choice to take it from here.

[*BaseClogger*]

Kinsler, Pedroia, Cano, Hill, Utley, just off the top of my head.

Most of those guys are comparable and debating them is a waste of time. Ian Kinsler is not in that group...

[Reds Nd2]

Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Kinsler, Pedroia, Cano, Hill, Utley, just off the top of my head.

Only one National League player in the bunch. Try again.