Phil Castellini surprised that Opening Day tickets still unsold

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Originally Posted by Wonderful Monds

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.

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yep , I'm guessing Free Agents view Cincy as they do Pittsburg and Miami.
They know it's a losing organization, but if the money is right, some will sign. These are the guys that don't care if they get traded in a year or two.
And there's nothing wrong with that, my point is, no FA is going to come here thinking "I want to be part of the core that wins a world series in Cincy"
It will just be "well Cincy offered me 1 million more a year than the next highest bidder, so I will sign"

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Originally Posted by Old school 1983

Not going to disagree with that. However, outside of the month that is held as the worst predictor of success, September, he couldn’t hit water if he fell out out the titanic.

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I agree that it's a coin flip whether Suarez has a good or bad year in 2022.. it could go either way.
I like the guy, I hope he does well.

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Originally Posted by Falls City Beer

Except you’ve been arguing the very opposite for a couple of weeks. So which is it? Are they Tampa or Cincinnati?

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I’m not who this was directed at, just want to say: The Reds are trying to be Tampa, but they have an idiot running the show.

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Originally Posted by RedTeamGo!

I’m not who this was directed at, just want to say: The Reds are trying to be Tampa, but they have an idiot running the show.

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And penurious ownership who refuse to spend what they've promised to spend for more than a decade now.

The way the Reds are set up currently, I think it'd be pretty easy to make some intelligent moves to turn them either into contenders this season or to set them up to contend for a couple of seasons. Were the Reds to actually spend the money they get from revenue sharing, they might be able to buy prospects by attaching older veterans on expensive contracts to them (similar to how the Reds have sold prospects in the past).

It'd be a fun thought experiment, IMO, to see what we could do with the Reds with a $200M payroll at this point in time.

Of course, none of this matter because, as you say, the GM is an idiot, and ownership is full of penurious buttheads.

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Originally Posted by REDREAD

We did get some nice young players out the tanking, but not enough to justify 4-5 years of tanking.
Then they tried (kind of half assed) for two years, but were too cheap to get a bullpen, and made dumb moves like signing shogo.
Now because they made dumb moves, they have to do another teardown.
That's what I mean about the last rebuild failing. I dont' see this next rebuild working either, esp if Krall is running it.
But yes, I acknowledge the Reds have some good young talent, just not nearly enough.

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I’ll buy that on the trades. Other than Castillo, we got squat to show. But as far as players/prospects we got Greene, Lodolo, Senzel, India, Stephenson, Santillian, Barero, Trammell (brought Bauer), Long (brought Gray and SanMartin)…I’m sure I could find more if I wasn’t going off the top of my head. Point being. We haven’t seen all the fruit of the tank for lack of a better term.

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Originally Posted by REDREAD

I agree that it's a coin flip whether Suarez has a good or bad year in 2022.. it could go either way.
I like the guy, I hope he does well.

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I wish him the best too. He seemed like a great dude. Prime example of why business decisions suck and can be difficult.

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Originally Posted by Bourgeois Zee

And penurious ownership who refuse to spend what they've promised to spend for more than a decade now.

The way the Reds are set up currently, I think it'd be pretty easy to make some intelligent moves to turn them either into contenders this season or to set them up to contend for a couple of seasons. Were the Reds to actually spend the money they get from revenue sharing, they might be able to buy prospects by attaching older veterans on expensive contracts to them (similar to how the Reds have sold prospects in the past).

It'd be a fun thought experiment, IMO, to see what we could do with the Reds with a $200M payroll at this point in time.

Of course, none of this matter because, as you say, the GM is an idiot, and ownership is full of penurious buttheads.

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::googles penurious::

Sure, but the Rays owners are even more penurious, the difference is they have a smart GM.

The Reds have bad ownership, not disagreeing, but you can put quality teams on the field with horrendous and cheap ownership. The Rays, Brewers, and A’s do it all the time.

Maybe reds ownership likes Krall because he doesn’t push back (this is likely), but either way the Reds don’t have a future while Krall is in charge. Been saying this since last year and I’m going to continue banging that drum.

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Originally Posted by RedTeamGo!

::googles penurious::

Sure, but the Rays owners are even more penurious, the difference is they have a smart GM.

The Reds have bad ownership, not disagreeing, but you can put quality teams on the field with horrendous and cheap ownership. The Rays, Brewers, and A’s do it all the time.

Maybe reds ownership likes Krall because he doesn’t push back (this is likely), but either way the Reds don’t have a future while Krall is in charge. Been saying this since last year and I’m going to continue banging that drum.

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Agreed on all counts.

Krall is this generation's Wayne Krivsky-- binders full of AAAA guys who will almost assuredly be exposed by more playing time.

The only hope the Reds have of competing for anything more than the basement is if the pitchers all develop, Krall lucks into a couple of AAAA finds who develop into 120 wRC+ regulars, Votto continues to defy Father Time at a Hall of Fame/ All-Star rate, everyone remain relatively healthy, and the offensive prospects continue to improve.

That's about four too many "if onlys" for me.

I think the plan is for constant churn. Move Winker and Gray near their peaks. Suarez needed a change of scenery if he was ever going to do anything again. It’s just as well that Miley’s gone. Castellanos wasn’t coming back, in spite of his love for the city. Go with Joey Votto, a Moustakas-level veteran on a two-year contract, a good young core, and a bunch of Derek Dietrich - Colin Moran types to come in and see who sticks. At best you get a Schrock or Naquin. Rinse and repeat. Is that enough? It means the front office has little margin for error. They’re going to have to be right more often than some other teams.

I think the plan is to pocket tens of millions of dollars every season by signing Morons instead of Winkers.

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Originally Posted by Bob Sheed

I think the plan is to pocket tens of millions of dollars every season by signing Morons instead of Winkers.

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As ****ty as it is, they can do both, look at the Rays and A’s. Doesn’t make it right or agreeable, but it can be done. Krall sucks, though.

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Originally Posted by Bob Sheed

I think the plan is to pocket tens of millions of dollars every season by signing Morons instead of Winkers.

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I wish we had a better idea of what those pockets are. The Castellinis say the money goes back into the team. But I wonder if the owners have management contracts, so that “back into the team” includes expenses paid to the Castellinis and other owners. It would be like Hollywood accounting. The blockbuster didn’t make any money … after the producers paid themselves.

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Originally Posted by BCubb2003

I wish we had a better idea of what those pockets are. The Castellinis say the money goes back into the team. But I wonder if the owners have management contracts, so that “back into the team” includes expenses paid to the Castellinis and other owners. It would be like Hollywood accounting. The blockbuster didn’t make any money … after the producers paid themselves.

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No need for creative accounting if you never have to show your accounting.

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Originally Posted by Bob Sheed

No need for creative accounting if you never have to show your accounting.

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Bingo. And that’s why it’s my opinion that 99% of what they have to say about spending or finances is just noise and might as well be Charlie Brown’s mom speaking. It means nothing. Whether they are doing creative accounting so they technically aren’t lying or they’re lying and are pocketing all, it is immaterial because regardless of either situation only a certain dollar amount will be going to the MLB club. I’m more interested in honesty and competency in the money they are actually going to spend and traditionally have. Not the extra money we think they should spend. Competent FOs get much more out of lower dollar amounts than the Reds do. I see the Reds as being an ideal location to do a mostly As and Rays type build because, unlike those 2 franchises, the Reds have in recent memory, spent significantly more and could keep real core blocks around and/or bring an over the top piece in while cycling the rest of the roster As/Rays style.

I'm tired of using the Ray's or A's as the model the Reds front office should be emulating.