Dick Williams Needs To Resign

[OGB]

Salary Cap and salary floor. Will never happen though.

People hate to hear it, but this.

[Wonderful Monds]

All really good points and observations.

I would just add that getting up to speed in terms of analytics is half the job. The other half is knowing what to do with this new information. It seems the Reds front office is still struggling with the latter.

Right, there’s some stuff that seems like it’s analytically driven at face value, but also seem like incredibly bizarre moves. Like, let’s make Matt Davidson a quasi starter and bat him in the heart of the lineup based on platoon splits, even though he couldn’t crack the majors last year. Or Bell batting Jose Iglesias cleanup or whatever it was based on small platoon splits. Pulling guys based on small sample size matchups and stuff like that.

It seems like there’s more like an AI automatically making decisions whether they obviously make sense or not, rather than consulting the data and implementing it in a fairly rational way.

[Wonderful Monds]

Another place the Reds seem to still struggle significantly I forgot to mention also, is in player development. It’s been a long long time since the Reds have converted a player they drafted and developed into a major star. In the last 5 years or so, it’s basically been Suarez and Castillo, and both those guys were upper minor leaguers when they were acquired and most of the work had already been done.

I think they really need to look at what they’re doing and try to figure out why so many of their highly rated prospects have flamed out so hard in that timeframe. Guys like Robert Stephenson, Cody Reed, Amir Garrett, Taylor Trammell all either busting or looking like they won’t meet their potential. Senzel hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire over his first year in the majors. They did a great job of putting together a homegrown contender from 2010-2013, but since that core, they’ve really gone in the dumps in terms of converting prospects into valuable major leaguers.

That’s on Williams too, whatever is going on when it comes to that is his responsibility, he’s gotta figure out the player development stuff if this team is ever going to go anywhere. Again, I think Driveline will be promising for our pitchers, but it’s been quite a while since this team has developed a standout major league hitter.

[DocRed]

So if David Bell isn't making these roster moves who is? Should we blame Dick Williams?

[joshua]

Another place the Reds seem to still struggle significantly I forgot to mention also, is in player development. It’s been a long long time since the Reds have converted a player they drafted and developed into a major star. In the last 5 years or so, it’s basically been Suarez and Castillo, and both those guys were upper minor leaguers when they were acquired and most of the work had already been done.

I think they really need to look at what they’re doing and try to figure out why so many of their highly rated prospects have flamed out so hard in that timeframe. Guys like Robert Stephenson, Cody Reed, Amir Garrett, Taylor Trammell all either busting or looking like they won’t meet their potential. Senzel hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire over his first year in the majors. They did a great job of putting together a homegrown contender from 2010-2013, but since that core, they’ve really gone in the dumps in terms of converting prospects into valuable major leaguers.

That’s on Williams too, whatever is going on when it comes to that is his responsibility, he’s gotta figure out the player development stuff if this team is ever going to go anywhere. Again, I think Driveline will be promising for our pitchers, but it’s been quite a while since this team has developed a standout major league hitter.

I think it might help to hire the actual best available coaches for the minor league system instead of using it as a retirement plan for guys like Sabo, Davis, Browning etc.

[Kc61]

It seems like the organization has been playing whack-a-mole the last few years.

Good offense /Weak starting pitching - add starting pitching

Good starting pitching/Weak offense - add offense

Now weak bullpen

It would be nice if they could put a solid, well rounded team out there each year.

Ah, now you’re talking. Sounds like me this past off-season.

So, Reds have six OFers on roster. They had 7 with Van Meter (who plays LF). They have 8 with Aquino who can’t even find a roster spot on a 28 man team.

Yet they have a dearth of relief pitching. Which they sought to remedy with a series of bounce back candidates.

A bit galling that Reds weren’t able to balance things out. Trade OF excess for relief pitching. (Or arguably for better backup IF in case somebody - like Moustakas? - missed time.).

[Patrick Bateman]

I blame the loss yesterday on Patrick Bateman calling me out in the game thread. Moments later the Dick Williams Bullpen Catastrophe blew the game.

Let’s all boo Patrick Bateman.

Boo.

Boooo.

Booooooooooooooooo.

Dang, just saw this now, and had a good chuckle. I was a HUGE jinx that night and absolutely deserved this, haha.

[Patrick Bateman]

Just an idea, since this conversation wont go anywhere. Dick aint resignig, and if he does, a new guy isnt coming in and making a pile of moves tomorrow.

Lets actually discuss how we can tangibly improve the roster today.

Who are the relief pitching and end of roster targets that are somewhat under the radar, or realistically available that we could make a move on to improve the roster? We talk about bullpen arms being relatively easy to acquire, and shine up. Who are they, how do we get them?

[westofyou]

Ah, now you’re talking. Sounds like me this past off-season.

So, Reds have six OFers on roster. They had 7 with Van Meter (who plays LF). They have 8 with Aquino who can’t even find a roster spot on a 28 man team.

Yet they have a dearth of relief pitching. Which they sought to remedy with a series of bounce back candidates.

A bit galling that Reds weren’t able to balance things out. Trade OF excess for relief pitching. (Or arguably for better backup IF in case somebody - like Moustakas? - missed time.).

They have all those OF's and yet Mo Egger wrote this over the weekend, which just seems ridiculous coming from a guy who does this for a living

https://theathletic.com/1981561/2020...n-desperation/

Might it make sense to see if a few years of experimenting with Michael Lorenzen in roles beyond pitching could pay off at the plate and in the field, especially since he’s not helping much when he’s on the mound?

[Kc61]

They have all those OF's and yet Mo Egger wrote this over the weekend, which just seems ridiculous coming from a guy who does this for a living

https://theathletic.com/1981561/2020...n-desperation/

Thing is, teams just last year had 4 man benches. One bench OFer and maybe a utility man who also could play OF.

Now Reds have 7-8 guys capable of playing there. Even with the DH, that’s more than a luxury.

With the slow start, not sure guys like Ervin have as much trade value as in off-season. In time Reds will likely find ways to rectify this imbalance. But not sure it will be this season, hope so, we’ll see.

[Bruce Berenyi]

there is still no adequate answer as to why ervin gets plate appearances over a.a.

[foster15]

Another place the Reds seem to still struggle significantly I forgot to mention also, is in player development. It’s been a long long time since the Reds have converted a player they drafted and developed into a major star. In the last 5 years or so, it’s basically been Suarez and Castillo, and both those guys were upper minor leaguers when they were acquired and most of the work had already been done.

I think they really need to look at what they’re doing and try to figure out why so many of their highly rated prospects have flamed out so hard in that timeframe. Guys like Robert Stephenson, Cody Reed, Amir Garrett, Taylor Trammell all either busting or looking like they won’t meet their potential. Senzel hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire over his first year in the majors. They did a great job of putting together a homegrown contender from 2010-2013, but since that core, they’ve really gone in the dumps in terms of converting prospects into valuable major leaguers.

That’s on Williams too, whatever is going on when it comes to that is his responsibility, he’s gotta figure out the player development stuff if this team is ever going to go anywhere. Again, I think Driveline will be promising for our pitchers, but it’s been quite a while since this team has developed a standout major league hitter.

Sometimes I wonder if the neglect of the farm system is by design. The Reds seem to use the Minor leagues as a way to establish prospects and then trade them before they have a chance to show what they can't do for the purpose of filling holes with guys with one or two years left on their contracts. This started out about 10 years ago(maybe more) as just part of their way of building a competitive team along with player development that would play for the Reds and other moves to keep pay down. Now it seems to be 90 percent of their building plan.

[RedTeamGo!]

Christian Colon is on the roster and is used to take Votto out of the game.

[Tom Servo]

When the Reds lose Dick needs to resign. When they win, he can treat himself to a new upgrade on his business card.

[RedTeamGo!]

When the Reds lose Dick needs to resign. When they win, he can treat himself to a new upgrade on his business card.

It’s not really a win or lose thing tonight. It’s the fact Colon is on the roster.