Major Shakeups in the FO to come?

[redhawk61]

Reds Front Office Changes: Today I’m hearing the Reds have made a significant move in the minor leagues department, demoting director of player development Terry Reynolds to international scouting. Former Mariners GM Bill Bavasi will now run the farm system with a larger role for Freddie Benavides, who is minor leagues infield coordinator.

This is a precursor to a series of moves coming when the organization meets in Goodyear this week. Senior director of scouting Chris Buckley is “being pressured to leave” and GM Walt Jocketty is looking to give more scouting duties to former Pirates GM Cam Bonifay, who is a special assistant.

Meanwhile, some of these moves are money motivated and some are the result of greed and backstabbing. The Reds are so cash strapped they are asking people to accept pay cuts. Perhaps that is why assistant GM Shifty Bob Miller is rumored to be interested in the same job with the Nationals, joining good friend Mike Rizzo, the new Nats GM. However, this move doesn’t make sense because a.) it’s a parallel move and b.) Shifty fancies himself as the future Reds GM.

A team source said the Reds are in "total chaos" in the front office and called Bavasi running the farm system "a joke."

The team source also said the Reds in no way, shape or form have the money to hire pitching coach Dave Duncan from the Cardinals. As reported here at RLD Friday, former Diamondbacks pitching coach Brian Pryce is the leader for the same job with the Reds. But Pryce may not want the job given the uncertainty of manager Dusty Baker's status after 2010. However, the team source said, if there’s any solace to Reds fans, Baker will likely be fired at the end of his contract in 2010 if for no other reason than to free up his $3.5 million annual salary. That money would go a long way toward keeping some of the development structure established by former GM Wayne Krivsky that is starting to produce results.

Remember: Manager and coaching staff salaries are part of the operations budget, not player payroll.

Many fans don't give a hoot about these underpinings in the front office, but ultimately they are critical to the health and success of a franchise. But what we're seeing with Uncle Walt is a lot of old boy baseball cronies being put into high-salaried positions, pushing out younger, established and respected baseball people. And the way the cash-strapped Reds are having to trim operations budget reeks badly of the Schott and Lindner ownerships.

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs...5-4eb6fe3ecbca

I don't know how reliable this is but thought it was interesting.

[DannyB]

Scary names there

[JayBruceFan]

MLB needs to get involved if Castellini and the ownership doesn't have enough $ to hire competent front office people let alone field a competitive team

His lack of big money is going to kill this team until he sells it.

[jimbo]

Uggghhhh.......winning baseball is a long away from being a reality in Cincinnati. I'm beginning to think it will never happen in my lifetime. Major League Baseball is seriously broken, and it needs fixed for the sake of fair competition within the sport.

[FlyerFanatic]

i have a feeling this cant be accurate. theres no way walt would be sticking around if that were the case. why leave st louis to come to this sort of situation?

[flash]

Originally Posted by FlyerFanatic

i have a feeling this cant be accurate. theres no way walt would be sticking around if that were the case. why leave st louis to come to this sort of situation?

Real simple. When Jockety took the job the economy was going great guns. he is also a friend of Castellini. As far as the Reds being strapped for cash, the Cubs just went belly-up. Wonder what that does to their contracts. Could be players taking a pay cut there under restructuring. Have to admit I don't know much about bankruptcy law, but bankrupt is what it is. Bankrupt.

[FlyerFanatic]

Originally Posted by flash

Real simple. When Jockety took the job the economy was going great guns. he is also a friend of Castellini. As far as the Reds being strapped for cash, the Cubs just went belly-up. Wonder what that does to their contracts. Could be players taking a pay cut there under restructuring. Have to admit I don't know much about bankruptcy law, but bankrupt is what it is. Bankrupt.

didnt they go bankrupt just to be able to sell the team to a billionaire quicker? i'm sure rickkets or whatever the dudes name will be fine, everyone will get paid what they are due. and i have a hard time believing just because the economy was doing well, castellini purchasing a major league team if he couldnt keep the ship afloat if it took a sharp turn down. that article makes it sound like the reds are gonna fall off the face of the earth. i certainly hope that isnt the case

[GIDP]

Bavasi the gift that keeps on giving.

[GIDP]

Oh I just read the actual link. If you trust something from that tool then you are nuts. He is one of the biggest losers in the world just based off how he acts on a general basis on a couple places.

[Ghosts of 1990]

Jesus we're in bad shape. This is a real bummer. Jocketty is a nightmare. The Castellinis are a nightmare.

[bounty37h]

Originally Posted by JayBruceFan

MLB needs to get involved if Castellini and the ownership doesn't have enough $ to hire competent front office people let alone field a competitive team

His lack of big money is going to kill this team until he sells it.

Is it really "dont have enough", or "arent willing to part with it/cut thier own personal pocket profit"???

[JayBruceFan]

It's probably a little bit of both

[Boston Red]

Yeah, the Cubs are fine financially.

[Ghosts of 1990]

The one difference between MLB and the NFL is that with a bad front office; the talent on the field can help a bad organization rise above it sometimes. In the NFL if the front office is bad, it affects the on field performance much much more (see Browns, Bengals) We just have to hope that the talents of Bruce, Votto, Bailey, Cueto, Alonso, Francisco, and so on allow us to rise above the turmoil in the front office. If they're all THAT good, we'll be fine. If not, the losing and misery will continue.

[Girevik]

Wow, that's really discouraging. I really didn't hold out much hope of landing Duncan, but it looks like that's out the window (never mind LaRussa). I'm sticking with Ted Power as the guy my money is one.

What happenes to all that money the Reds get for being a small market team? I would have thought it would go to cleaning up this kind of mess.