Reds in last place/whos to blame?

[Captain Hook]

Just looked at the standing for whatever reason and noticed that we sit tied for last place with the Pirates.We finished second to last in 2008 more then 20 games out and are on pace to be right there again.There's plenty of things wrong with the Reds and I just wonder what everyone here thinks is the biggest problem.

1.owner

2.general manager

3.coach

4.players

5.good old bad luck

6.all of the above

[GIDP]

I think its all of the above obviously, but each are weighted more than others. I think bad luck is a big part of it when it comes to Harangs deal. He has fell off quicker than we really could have expected. The owner and GM are to blame for us badly allocating our money. I simply hate our manager but if we had a better team he wouldnt be as much of a problem because they could win in spite of his terrible managing.

If I was going to weigh them individually id list them this way

1 and 2 are equal in my mind
5 is next we have been hit with injuries harder than normal and some good deal we thought were good are just not working out. Mainly Harang.
3 is next just because I feel Dusty does more to hurt the team that he should. He is stubborn when it comes to doing some things, and fails to pick up on what players are struggling and which players are hot way too much.
4 is last because players can only perform to the level they perform.

[kfm]

I would actually go GM first. Walt has done almost nothing to help this team but sign a bunch of retreads, and make some really bad contracts in the process. He is now reverting to his track record which is trade away any prospect he can for veteran players and as a Reds fan who thought they were building from within I am very worried about this. Not to mention they have now gone from having half of their payroll for next year going to three players (Harang, Arroyo, and Cordero) and added another older player who is going to take $11 million more which will hurt their chances for adding to their most glaring weakness at SS, CF and LF.

I think the owner is next because he hired Walt and he hired Dusty. He sets the payroll. He seems to want to win badly but doesn't seem to want the Reds to go full boar into rebuilding mode which is why they are stuck in the middle.

Next i am going with the players. The guys on the field really determine where a season goes and Harang's decline, and Arroyo's inconsistency are just examples of what has hurt this team. ONce again they seem to have a bunch of players who are not fundabmentally sound and play bad defense.

Dusty and his coaches and Reds development. Dusty does not have much to work with, but what he does he misuses in so many ways. The pitchers have gotten worse instead of better, especially the young pitchers, and so many of their hitters seem to not have a plan at all when they go to the plate. The coaching staff should be helping with this, but this is an indictment of the entire developmental staff throughout the minors because a coaching staff should not have to teach MLB players fundamentals.