Dick Williams

[RedTeamGo!]

Should he be held responsible? Can he be held responsible? When will he resign? This coming offseason? Does he give himself another season?

We all know he can’t be fired, so he will have to make the decision.

[Boston Red]

I thought we had now all decided that Williams did a good job last offseason and that the draft was excellent.

It's hard to keep up.

[RedEye]

I still think it was a smart offseason. The LA trade was a worthy gamble, but a low stakes one. It isn't paying off, but I don't blame him for trying. The Gray trade-and-sign was excellent. The Roark trade was fine.

[RedTeamGo!]

I thought we had now all decided that Williams did a good job last offseason and that the draft was excellent.

It's hard to keep up.

The draft was very good, has little to do with Williams.

As for the offseason, any goodwill was immediately shot when he announced Senzel had to go to AAA to work on defense. Before you say it, this was before the injury.

[Boston Red]

How does our record with Senzel compare to our record without Senzel?

[RedTeamGo!]

I still think it was a smart offseason. The LA trade was a worthy gamble, but a low stakes one. It isn't paying off, but I don't blame him for trying. The Gray trade-and-sign was excellent. The Roark trade was fine.

Im not wringing my hands over losing them, but we did give up value in the LA trade - two solid prospects, one of which is a SP tearing up the minors for LA right now.

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How does our record with Senzel compare to our record without Senzel?

Not sure, but they started the season 1-8 putting an 0 for the season Schebler out there.

[Tom Servo]

I thought we had now all decided that Williams did a good job last offseason and that the draft was excellent.

It's hard to keep up.

I think we decided the things we like get credited to Nick Krall and the things we don't are Dick's doing.

It did just dawn on me that odds seem awfully high that the Reds would pick up John Mozeliak if the Cardinals were to axe him given their relative mediocrity of the last few seasons.

[757690]

The trades were smart, but they still left the team with glaring holes, which was pointed out (and ignored by many) at the time.

The team is quite weak on defense, base running, and the bullpen. They started the season with Jesse Winker as the backup CF. That speaks volumes, imo, about how poorly the team was constructed. This was not a winning team coming out of spring training, so the current record really shouldn’t be all that surprising.

[RedTeamGo!]

The trades were smart, but they still left the team with glaring holes, which was pointed out (and ignored by many) at the time.

The team is quite weak on defense, base running, and the bullpen. They started the season with Jesse Winker as the backup CF. That speaks volumes, imo, about how poorly the team was constructed. This was not a winning team coming out of spring training, so the current record really shouldn’t be all that surprising.

For the record, it’s not surprising to me - i predicted 72 wins this season prior to the season. Just because it isn’t surprising doesn’t mean the reds organization isn’t in shambles right now.

[Griffey012]

I hope he sticks around because we are heading in the right direction.

The results W-L haven't been there but so much else has been. We have the 4th best ERA in the league, 9th best Pythag. If you knew that coming into the season you would all be thinking Dick was getting GM of the year awards. Derrick Johnson has been a brilliant hire, Turner Ward maybe not so much. The Sonny Gray trade and extension look great. The performance we have from Wood and Puig is basically the worst case scenario outcome for that trade, but that doesn't make it a bad decision. No one predicted Puig to fall off the map. Dietrich and Iglesias have been solid pickups.

They need to figure out what happened to the offense.

[Tom Servo]

The team is quite weak on defense, base running, and the bullpen.

So is that why they aren't hitting?

Also they've got the best bullpen ERA in the NL, this "the bullpen stinks" narrative that's cropping up lately is weird.

[Griffey012]

So is that why they aren't hitting?

Also they've got the best bullpen ERA in the NL, this "the bullpen stinks" narrative that's cropping up lately is weird.

The defense has been fine as well, even Winker in centerfield wasn't that bad. It is literally the borderline Miami Marlins offense that is killing us.

[Rolando]

So is that why they aren't hitting?

Also they've got the best bullpen ERA in the NL, this "the bullpen stinks" narrative that's cropping up lately is weird.

Why aren't they hitting? That's what the staff should have been able to figure out. Myself personally I think it's just the lack of Talent on offense

[757690]

So is that why they aren't hitting?

Also they've got the best bullpen ERA in the NL, this "the bullpen stinks" narrative that's cropping up lately is weird.

They lost a middle of the lineup hitter in spring training. Granted, Dietrich has done well, but he only just started playing everyday, and now he’s in a slump. And Votto’s slow start has been a big factor.

As for the pen, I posted this in another thread:

ERA is not a good indicator of a reliever’s success. Even less so for an bullpen overall.

The problem with the Reds pen is that it is full of solid middle relievers, and lacks true late inning hammers. Garrett is the only one who can be counted on in close games. A contending team needs two to three solid late inning relievers, guys who can shut down a rally nearly every time.

Right now, most the the Reds pen are guys who are successful around two out of three times, which, which means they fail a third of them time, which is unacceptable for a contending team.

[Tom Servo]

Why aren't they hitting?