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Thread: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

  1. #46
    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    That's literally the job.
    Unsure what he's supposed to do otherwise.


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  3. #47
    First Time Caller SunDeck's Avatar
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by chicoruiz View Post
    Happy that he mentioned trying to find ways for hitters to beat the shift. I think that would be huge.
    That's going to be a heck of a transition, because they have a softball team right now. Joe Morgan on Rich Eisen's show back in 2018 said in so many words that players are getting paid to hit home runs, to hit over the shift. It's the opposite of hitting the opposite way around the shift, and it would be a remarkable ballplayer who could do both.
    Next Reds manager, second shooter. --Confirmed on Redszone.

  4. #48
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by Alabama Red View Post
    He’s been here 18 years. Maybe it’s time to look for a new direction. He’s just going to continue down the same path and try to add a few marginal players here and there and hope somehow it works with what we already have. I see this as a total rebuild because we have too many bad contracts that we can’t move. I just don’t think BC is going to put enough money into this team to make it good enough to win a WS. All Krall can do with this group is hope to get a wildcard and maybe win a series.
    It's entirely possible to spend a long time in the organization having a different idea of how things should be done that's different than the organizational philosophy.

    18 years might also lend itself to getting the trust of ownership.

    I don't think it's crazy to think that Nick Krall's previous promotion coincided with our busiest offseasons that I can remember. The moves may have not worked out 100%, but they were largely praised at the time.

  5. #49
    Posting in Dynarama M2's Avatar
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by RedsManRick View Post
    I don't know. Maybe it's because I've worked largely in consultancies, but at various times I've worked in departments where there was a director at the top who "didn't do any "real" work" and times when there was no such role. Invariably, that guy served two very clear, very useful functions: 1) Setting/owning the vision for our department and selling that vision up the chain to the partners/CEO and 2) Running interference so that when the CEO got a bright idea or heard something he didn't like (but didn't really understand), none of us had to deal with the chaos that ensued. Though that guy didn't do the work per se', we were much more productive and it was a much better work environment when he was around.

    I really like the idea of having somebody at the top of the food chain who had the trust of ownership and could manage up as necessary while leaving the nuts and bolts work to the ops team. This feels like Bob didn't really have anybody who he trusted enough and/or felt like paying to serve in that senior leadership role, so he just eliminated it. If the org continues to progress, I don't expect there to be any problem. But it feels fragile to me.

    The upside could be that there's a mini cascade of responsibilities/opportunities flowing down the chain that pulls good ideas up faster and entices the best talent to stick around.
    I've worked in places like that - you go to the pointless, endless meetings while we do stuff. However, in this case I get the sense Williams had been carved out long ago (because they've said as much today and it's the cleanest cut Occam's Razor could ever make). I suspect Dick sat in his office the past two years thinking, "This powerpoint is going to change EVERYTHING."
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    I've worked in places like that - you go to the pointless, endless meetings while we do stuff. However, in this case I get the sense Williams had been carved out long ago (because they've said as much today and it's the cleanest cut Occam's Razor could ever make). I suspect Dick sat in his office the past two years thinking, "This powerpoint is going to change EVERYTHING."
    My guess is that the decision happened after this interview:

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  8. #51
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    I've worked in places like that - you go to the pointless, endless meetings while we do stuff. However, in this case I get the sense Williams had been carved out long ago (because they've said as much today and it's the cleanest cut Occam's Razor could ever make). I suspect Dick sat in his office the past two years thinking, "This powerpoint is going to change EVERYTHING."
    Not sure why you think Williams wasn't doing anything? We know very little about who held the power inside the Reds baseball operations. What we do know has been gleaned from cryptic organizational messages.

    From today's press release, Krall said: "I’m going to answer to Bob now instead of Dick. Not a ton [changes] from a day-to-day standpoint. Just will be more of the head of the department and the person who will make the final decision for this department to take to Bob.”

    That could mean anything. It could mean Krall made all personnel decisions and Williams had final approval. It could mean Krall was required to deliver data and ideas to Williams, and Williams then made personnel calls. I get that this is a message board, and I welcome speculation into who has/had authority, but I'm confused by the varied certainties about who was really pulling the strings.

    The reality is we have little idea who has/had authority in roster decisions.

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  10. #52
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by BillDoran View Post
    Not sure why you think Williams wasn't doing anything? We know very little about who held the power inside the Reds baseball operations. What we do know has been gleaned from cryptic organizational messages.

    From today's press release, Krall said: "I’m going to answer to Bob now instead of Dick. Not a ton [changes] from a day-to-day standpoint. Just will be more of the head of the department and the person who will make the final decision for this department to take to Bob.”

    That could mean anything. It could mean Krall made all personnel decisions and Williams had final approval. It could mean Krall was required to deliver data and ideas to Williams, and Williams then made personnel calls. I get that this is a message board, and I welcome speculation into who has/had authority, but I'm confused by the varied certainties about who was really pulling the strings.

    The reality is we have little idea who has/had authority in roster decisions.
    You’re correct we can only speculate, none of us know really know how the Reds front office worked.

    But my guess that Williams wasn’t heavily involved in the baseball side of things is based on two facts:

    1. He came from a business background, and even said that before he joined the Reds, he didn’t follow baseball that closely.
    2. When interviewed, he never talked baseball, or specifics or stats. He spoke in generalities about the team, the organization, plans moving forward, etc.. When Krall was interviewed, he talked in great detail about players, moves, stats, the roster, etc..
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  12. #53
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    So when he was leading Baseball Operation the theory was that Dick was an idiot failson screwing everything up, but now that he's gone we're told Dick was actually just nothing more than a useless figurehead.

    So much wasted bandwidth over this guy.
    “I don’t care,” Votto said of passing his friend and former teammate. “He’s in the past. Bye-bye, Jay.”

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  14. #54
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by SunDeck View Post
    That's going to be a heck of a transition, because they have a softball team right now. Joe Morgan on Rich Eisen's show back in 2018 said in so many words that players are getting paid to hit home runs, to hit over the shift. It's the opposite of hitting the opposite way around the shift, and it would be a remarkable ballplayer who could do both.
    Agreed. The idea of diversifying the approach sounds great. I don't think they can do it with these same players. Doesn't mean they all need changed, but if they are looking to change that, it's more than just filling a hole or two. Some guys need to go and new guys with different skills need brought in.
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  16. #55
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by BillDoran View Post
    Not sure why you think Williams wasn't doing anything? We know very little about who held the power inside the Reds baseball operations. What we do know has been gleaned from cryptic organizational messages.

    From today's press release, Krall said: "I’m going to answer to Bob now instead of Dick. Not a ton [changes] from a day-to-day standpoint. Just will be more of the head of the department and the person who will make the final decision for this department to take to Bob.”

    That could mean anything. It could mean Krall made all personnel decisions and Williams had final approval. It could mean Krall was required to deliver data and ideas to Williams, and Williams then made personnel calls. I get that this is a message board, and I welcome speculation into who has/had authority, but I'm confused by the varied certainties about who was really pulling the strings.

    The reality is we have little idea who has/had authority in roster decisions.
    Multiple reasons:

    1. We saw reports of Castellinis being furious about the sorry state of the franchise in 2018.

    2. The Reds' M.O. changed radically when Krall got elevated.

    3. Dick's comments over the years has always betrayed a guy who likes to focus on procedural organization rather than someone with the vision thing. Krall already laid out a much more definitive plan than Dick ever did.

    4. Dick got pushed out the door just when the organizational moves started paying off with no one else getting the boot.

    5. He didn't get replaced. It screams redundancy.

    6. Bob Castellini said this in the release:

    "His hands-on approach as general manager gives us the opportunity to reinstate that role as the top position in our baseball department and keep the years of hard work that happened under his purview producing stronger, more competitive teams.”
    That is both a fine endorsement of Krall and a devastating erasure of Williams. It's like the "oh, he was dating the best friend for years" Facebook reveal post. If I had any doubt Krall was running the show, I don't after that.

    Anyway, I'm sure Williams did some things, but I suspect he was mostly a rubber stamp. The fallout here indicates he had more of a title than a job.
    I'm not a system player. I am a system.

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  18. #56
    Member kaldaniels's Avatar
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Can we get a final ruling of what dates the Dick Williams era was comprised of?

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  20. #57
    Man Pills Falls City Beer's Avatar
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Wasted opportunity. What else is new?

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  22. #58
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Servo View Post
    So when he was leading Baseball Operation the theory was that Dick was an idiot failson screwing everything up, but now that he's gone we're told Dick was actually just nothing more than a useless figurehead.

    So much wasted bandwidth over this guy.
    In our Dick-Anon Anonymous meetings, we talk about how conspiracy theories about the front office politics of a below average baseball team provide us with a safe place to house our anxieties, fears, and pain about the chaotic and unpredictable world we live in. My sponsor always says to me "you are enough" and "you are safe" and "think through what it would actually take for Walt Jocketty to clone a dummy Dick Williams and then kill the real Dick Williams and then the real Dick Williams comes back to life and stages a reverse coup and then Nick Krall does a coup against Dick Williams and finds out Dick Williams was never really in charge and the real puppet master is still out there somewhere." On my good days, it sounds a bit silly. On my bad days, I can't wait to argue on RedsZone that this very real chain of events really happened.

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  24. #59
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    Quote Originally Posted by Tom Servo View Post
    So when he was leading Baseball Operation the theory was that Dick was an idiot failson screwing everything up, but now that he's gone we're told Dick was actually just nothing more than a useless figurehead.

    So much wasted bandwidth over this guy.
    He was the force behind tanking, which was a colossal failure. He only became a figurehead once Krall was promoted to GM, which was 2 years ago, and likely because of the failure of the tanking.
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  25. #60
    rest in power, king Wonderful Monds's Avatar
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    Re: Nick Krall Named Head Of Reds Baseball Operations

    I do think it kind of seems like Dick was the tank commander and they shuffled things around once Castellini probably got tired of it, just from little context clues here and there. And it would seem that Krall is Castellini’s guy.

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