Phil Castellini surprised that Opening Day tickets still unsold

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Originally Posted by Bourgeois Zee

Christ.

1. The Reds are spending less than half of what they pledged they would have.
2. When the Reds receive payflex, the owners pocket it, as they have each year when they have (as seen in number one) pay less than half of what they pledged they'd spend.

It's not hard, man.

They're penurious buttheads.

Regardless, that's the last thing I'm saying. I'm done with you, not because I've been convinced, but because I'm convinced you never will be. At this point, I suspect you're either a Reds' employee told to troll this particular message board, a Castellini, or just trolling. Either way, it's not a great look.

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Trolls don’t post on message boards for 9 years and have been fans of the team since they were barely able to walk. And no I’m not a Reds employee. Most pro sports teams don’t allow employees to post on a message board.

“I disagree with your opinion”

“Screw you, troll!”

????

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Originally Posted by Old school 1983

It’s really not.

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It’s pretty textbook creative accounting.

We know from reporting the Reds should be receiving in excess of $200M between general league revenues and their portion of shared local revenues. Then they've got 52% of their local revenues on top of that, which should be more than enough to cover their operating expenses (assuming they're not colossally mismanaged). They've got plenty of cash they could spend. Honestly, the only safe space for them in peddling their poor mouth line is when they're engaged in some stage of rebuilding. Then they have the excuse this isn't the right time to open their wallet.

What we don't know is whether the expanded playoffs will get them to commit to more consistent spending (didn't happen this season) or if it will chase them into a lower tier of spending. Aligning payroll would indicate the latter.

The greatest trick the Devil ever played was getting baseball fans to talk about the business of baseball instead of the game itself

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Originally Posted by Old school 1983

Trolls don’t post on message boards for 9 years and have been fans of the team since they were barely able to walk. And no I’m not a Reds employee. Most pro sports teams don’t allow employees to post on a message board.

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Would you like to be? Can you play a few innings of shortstop?

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Originally Posted by marcshoe

Would you like to be? Can you play a few innings of shortstop?

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The only stop I’m making at this point is at the fridge. And it ain’t a short one.

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Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

It’s pretty textbook creative accounting.

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So you think the Reds new normal is spending $95M or so a year? There’s nothing creative about it. That’s their payroll. I’ve been told they won’t spend more in the future.

The last time the Reds had a large amount come off the books they spent in FA. That won’t happen again? Why not? Please explain.

Did the Reds not spend money in the 2019-2020 off-season?

Did they not spend money this off-season after getting under budget?

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Originally Posted by Old school 1983

See 2019-2020 off-season.

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lol

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Originally Posted by Wonderful Monds

lol

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So you think the Reds new normal is spending $95M or so a year? There’s nothing creative about it. That’s their payroll. I’ve been told they won’t spend more in the future.

The last time the Reds had a large amount come off the books they spent in FA. That won’t happen again? Why not? Please explain.

Did the Reds not spend money in the 2019-2020 off-season?

Did they not spend money this off-season after getting under budget?

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Originally Posted by Old school 1983

So you think the Reds new normal is spending $95M or so a year? There’s nothing creative about it. That’s their payroll. I’ve been told they won’t spend more in the future.

The last time the Reds had a large amount come off the books they spent in FA. That won’t happen again? Why not? Please explain.

Did the Reds not spend money in the 2019-2020 off-season?

Did they not spend money this off-season after getting under budget?

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One last time.

2019-2021 they didn’t increase spending. They just returned to their prior payroll as a percentage of revenue. You’ve been shown this multiple times.

They didn’t add money this season. They are way under both real dollars and percentage of revenue from last year.

If they go back to that same percentage as last year, and don’t go higher than that, they aren’t using that saved money.

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Originally Posted by Old school 1983

That’s not what i said. I have reservations if they can pull this out because of the lack of competency and inability of the front off to stick to a plan in the last decade. But for the first time I’ve seen them get make tough calls to get rid of players a year too early instead of too late. Which is leading to the butthurt. Not disagreement with me.

And no. No lying is ok IMO. But some matter and some doesnt. The Reds will spend what they are going to spend regardless of what they tell the public. It’s typical corporate BSery. Would it make you feel better if they said yeah, we pocketed $50,688,363.53? Would it actually matter towards the on field product if they were going to do that regardless of what they tell the public? Nope. Not one bit. That’s why it’s typical corporate BSery. It’s not that it’s not wrong or not bad. It’s a throw away like that doesn’t mean anything. What matters is the overarching plans, which they have been honest about, and completely executing it and sticking with it…which they’ve mostly been bad at.

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Then why all the rumpus?

You are happy they made some good moves to move toward a plan you are skeptical they can execute. It sounds like we agree these guys suck it's just whether they are dishonest and incompetent or just incompetent. We are less different than you think

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Originally Posted by LeatherPants

One last time.

2019-2021 they didn’t increase spending. They just returned to their prior payroll as a percentage of revenue. You’ve been shown this multiple times.

They didn’t add money this season. They are way under both real dollars and percentage of revenue from last year.

If they go back to that same percentage as last year, and don’t go higher than that, they aren’t using that saved money.

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One more time. The last time the Reds had serious money come off the books was 2019. They spent that money. It doesn’t take a huge deal of analysis to see that. A huge chunk of contracts were moved or came off the books to facilitate the later FA signings. Right now the Reds payroll is lower than it normally is as a percentage of revenue as shown by your own work. Also, even more money will be coming off the books in the following 2 seasons. There’s zero reason to believe the Reds are going to run out there with a $55M payroll. The surplus they moved off the books with their “resource realignment.” Will be spent. Their recent spending history demonstrates that in the years they are going for it.

As for spending money saved, this off-season, they got money off the books, said we can add now, and literally added pieces near each day for a week straight. If you don’t like the pieces fair enough, but if they were just looking to pocket the money like buttheads or whatever, they’d have just pocketed the money.

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Originally Posted by MoneyInTheBank

Then why all the rumpus?

You are happy they made some good moves to move toward a plan you are skeptical they can execute. It sounds like we agree these guys suck it's just whether they are dishonest and incompetent or just incompetent. We are less different than you think

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Bingo man. Hit the nail on the head. I’m skeptical, but I’m giving it a chance because of the wishy washy plans in the past and the general incompetence in executing trades in the last rebuild seems to have given way to tough decisions on guys before it’s too late. If they stick to this and the investments they made to the system in the past 5 years or so click, it might work.

It boggles my mind that anyone would think any real quality free agent would ever sign here again after the way this clown show of an off-season has played out.

Seriously, why would any player even worth signing to begin with ever come here again knowing that if anything goes even slightly wrong in the next year, the Reds will just immediately freak out and blow the whole thing up?

It’s not gonna happen.