Managerial search over. It's Dusty.

[Matt700wlw]

Originally Posted by jojo

3. manage the media;

Give us quotes and we're happy. Good or bad.


If you don't, we'll just make fun of you....like the Narron firing press conference which was a humiliation on the part of the Reds....people crying, the owner looking like he'd been hitting the Jack Daniels for the past 6 months.



We don't create the reality....we just reflect it, and (hopefully) report it....and yeah, there's probably just a touch of opinion in there too...

[KronoRed]

Originally Posted by RedsManRick

I think you're right Jojo. I think we're going to continue to see Dunn buried at 5. I wouldn't at all be surprised to see Phillips moved up to the two hole or leadoff if Hamilton is in CF.

Actually I bet we see Phillips in the 3 spot, 30/30 guy bats 3rd, old baseball rules you know

Dunn won't bat 2nd, and JR will be 4th, so who knows where Dunn will land.

[Matt700wlw]

Originally Posted by KronoRed

Actually I bet we see Phillips in the 3 spot, 30/30 guy bats 3rd, old baseball rules you know

Dunn won't bat 2nd, and JR will be 4th, so who knows where Dunn will land.

Maybe the novel idea of Griffey and Dunn in 3 and 4 hole back to back will actually occur.

That would be stellar!

Bat Phillips in the five hole....Edwin in the 6 hole? I'm not sure, at this point who bats second.

People weren't happy with Edwin batting low in the order last season, and I can understand it...but honestly, this lineup, the way it's constructed now is STACKED....

I would put it against any other lineup in baseball.

[KronoRed]

I'd like to see EE in the 2 spot, even when he was stinking this year he got on base, bat him 2nd to see if the hot streak from the end of the year is still working, then move him down for some much needed right handed power.

Assuming of course, any of these players are actually still on the team in April

[Matt700wlw]

I thought about that, but Edwin can drive in runs...a lot of them.

Aside from the first part of last season, when he couldn't hit anything.....he LOVES guys on base...which is why I put him a little lower...


The biggest problem with this lineup is there are way too many lefties....I was thinking Hamilton leadig off, maybe Votto in the 2 hole, but then with Dunn and Griffey that's 4 lefties to start your lineup....


I'm going to send a letter to Bud and see if it's possible for the Reds only face right handed pitching next season.



Talking harcore, deep down baseball, that doesn't involve the postseason teams, in the middle of October.

This is kind of cool!


Makes me think this team does have a direction....and really can win sooner than later! And as a fan before anything else...job aside...

I just want to see this team win again....I was 10 the last time they won the world series....

I'd like to understand and appreciate another appearance....and, now the job part comes in, sort of be a part of it.

[WVRedsFan]

Originally Posted by Matt700wlw

Makes me think this team does have a direction....and really can win sooner than later! And as a fan before anything else...job aside...

I just want to see this team win again....I was 10 the last time they won the world series....

I'd like to understand and appreciate another appearance....and, now the job part comes in, sort of be a part of it.

That's the beauty of the off season. The team can't prove you wrong until April!

This team has about 100% more direction than it did at this time last year. Even though he's not my choice, we have a real manager, not a guy they just threw in there because he was likeable. First base may be manned by a kid who can hit and field and is young. We have a shortstop and a backup. We have an outfield who could conceivably hit over 100 HR's. Only the pitching needs improvement. Same as last year.

...like the Narron firing press conference which was a humiliation on the part of the Reds....people crying, the owner looking like he'd been hitting the Jack Daniels for the past 6 months.

I agree. Those two created the monster Narron and waited too long to make a move (even extended him), so they should have been mad at themselves, not crying. It became more obvious when a nobody named Macklanin took the same team to a winning record. Oh well.

[Matt700wlw]

Originally Posted by WVRedsFan

That's the beauty of the off season. The team can't prove you wrong until April!

This team has about 100% more direction than it did at this time last year. Even though he's not my choice, we have a real manager, not a guy they just threw in there because he was likeable. First base may be manned by a kid who can hit and field and is young. We have a shortstop and a backup. We have an outfield who could conceivably hit over 100 HR's. Only the pitching needs improvement. Same as last year.

But spending big bucks on a proven manager, our first choice or not, with a track record of winning shows me they are going to try to do this right now. If you're going to spend money like that on a manager, you have to follow that up by getting him the players, or you look like a joke

I agree. Those two created the monster Narron and waited too long to make a move (even extended him), so they should have been mad at themselves, not crying. It became more obvious when a nobody named Macklanin took the same team to a winning record. Oh well.

Mack did a good job, and I hope he gets a chance somewhere.

Right now, another no name, no track record, "interim" manager was the last thing this team needed.....maybe that's not fair, maybe that's not justified, but it's business.


Mama wasn't happy....hopefully Dusty makes her happy.

[Unassisted]

A Cubs beat writer weighs in on the Dusty "myths."
http://chicagosports.chicagotribune....cubs-headlines

Baker bashers forget the facts
Rick Morrissey
In the wake of the news

October 21, 2007

I can't tell you how many people came up to me last week and made light of the Reds' hiring of Dusty Baker. Five? Ten? I lost track after the second joke about the distinct possibility the Cubs would go 15-0 against Cincinnati next season.

The glee that followed the announcement was the kind normally reserved for when the movie villain gets it but good in the end.

A Cubs fan on the FireDustyBaker.com Web site said the name now should be changed to Don'tFireDustyBaker.com. Nicely played.

I don't recall one person saying the Reds made a good move.

So I'll say it: The Reds made a good move. You know, if winning's your thing.

It's interesting how, aside from his odd decision to pull Carlos Zambrano after 85 pitches in Game 1 of the Arizona playoff series, Lou Piniella is regarded as something of a baseball genius for getting 85 victories out of a franchise that won 66 games the season before under Baker.

Never mind that many believed the Cubs had the most talent, by far, in the National League Central this year.

Never mind that the Cubs spent gobs of money on players for Piniella.

Or, for that matter, that the Cubs won 88 and 89 games in Baker's first two seasons at Wrigley Field.

Piniella is a savant!

And Baker, who got his 2003 club closer to the World Series than any Cubs team in almost 60 years, is perceived as a loser, a punch line, chump change.

You still can hear the moaning long after his departure.

Why, why, why didn't he take Mark Prior out of Game 6 when the Cubs were five outs from going to the World Series? I don't know. Perhaps it was because Prior was throwing a three-hit shutout going into the eighth inning, and he was the Cubs' best pitcher. Perhaps it was because setup man Kyle Farnsworth didn't inspire a whole lot of confidence and Baker liked his chances with a pitcher who had gone 18-6 with a 2.43 earned-run average in the regular season.

Why, oh, why didn't he have starter Carlos Zambrano warming up in the bullpen when the sky fell in that game? Perhaps it was because the sky fell at warp speed. If you were in the ballpark that night, you know how quickly things fell apart. And if you're a follower of this sad franchise, you know the sense of inevitability that settled in at Wrigley Field with Moises Alou's glove-throwing incident. It was over before it was over.

It has become gospel that Baker ruined Prior and Kerry Wood. Wood was injuries, plural, waiting to happen, and nothing before or since Baker's arrival can change that simple truth. Prior's situation is a bit more complex. The piling on of Baker began when Prior sat out the first two months of the 2004 season … with Achilles' tendinitis.

That's not to say Baker was innocent of overpitching Prior and causing chronic arm problems. It's to say I don't know. Nobody knows.

One study that analyzed pitchers from 2000 to 2006 showed that Baker's starters averaged 3.68 pitches per start more than they would have been expected to throw under certain conditions. This was based on innings, hits, strikeouts, walks, the particular season, the particular league and a lot of stuff I never understood in math class.

In other words, Baker was not a pitcher killer.

The beginnings of Prior's shoulder injury could have come at Southern California, in the minors or in the big leagues under Baker. Again, nobody knows. But that hasn't stopped fans and media members, many of them newly minted experts in biomechanics and kinesiology, from blaming Baker for Prior's undoing.

That the Cubs fell apart in 2006 was more an indictment of general manager Jim Hendry than it was Baker. Even though Wood and Prior had proved to be medically unreliable, the Cubs didn't respond by signing or trading for other starters. They sat still.

History is a tricky business. You might have noticed that the past tends to fade. Things you thought happened didn't, and things that did happen are forgotten. Some themes emerge, and all the elbow grease in the world can't make them go away. In Chicago, Baker's theme is one of abject failure.

It might come as a surprise to you that in 13 seasons as a manager, he went to the playoffs four times and finished second in his division six other times.

He was not guiltless here. He put too much faith in veterans who didn't deserve faith. Loyalty is one thing; loyalty to a LaTroy Hawkins is insanity.

He let Sammy Sosa be Sammy Sosa, Moises Alou be Moises Alou and Kent Mercker be Kent Mercker. Enabling never looked quite so ugly.

When the Cubs finally did everyone a favor by letting those players walk, they forgot to bring in honest-to-goodness major-league talent as replacements. And when Derrek Lee went down with a broken wrist in 2006 and Todd Walker had to play first base, well, you wonder what Piniella could have done with that.

We need heroes and we need baddies. That's life. Baker has taken on epic evil proportions in this town. The descent from good to evil has been dizzying.

Now he will run a team that hits well. It's a team with a decent mix of veterans and young players. Oh, that's right. The rap is that Baker doesn't like young players. Wait, didn't second-year pro Matt Murton hit .297 as a regular in 2006? You remember Murton, don't you? Whatever became of him?

Baker gets a chance to start over in Cincinnati, a town with people who are nervous after reading some of the fiction about their new manager.

How about giving him a chance, Reds fans? You might even win a few games from those mighty, mighty Cubs.