Post by Rodneck on Jan 9, 2017 5:31:57 GMT -5
Calendar has flipped. New year ready to roll...
Just wanted to kick off some conversation and mini rants. Was glad to see Ken Broo and John Erardi talkin some baseball last night. Usually this year I fast forward through the non Bengals or Reds stuff and delete! John has a new book coming out this spring about Cuba and the Reds. Ought to be a good read. Don't know why I haven't pursued his material more as I love the guy, so will be picking up his latest tome. Take a few points of their conversation as a launchpad..
1)Votto
John was running numbers for his book and was validating that Tony Perez was a great clutch 1B. Better than Mays and Aaron but could not surpass Clemente. To which Erardi said to Ken "and you know who blows Perez away in clutch stats, high leverage, late and close? Joey Votto. He is not only the best 1B in Reds history but one of the best Reds of all time". High praise from a guy who has seen a lot of good Reds baseball and has a solid statistical foundation as well. Which brings me to..
2)Marty Brennamen
At what point in time exactly did Marty go from the raucous old guy who told it like it is and was right to the cranky old fuck that has his head up his ass? I heard an audio clip about a week ago of him going totally off on Votto and his unworthiness and quote "WE CAN LOSE 95 GAMES WITHOUT HIM". He is outdated plain and simple. Votto is a great player who cannot amass the glossy statistics because the Reds ownership while breaking in their cherry in this game have made plenty of mistakes and instead of surrounding him with adequate talent so he can be the star they sank the ship and had to rebuild. Votto could have taken his money and run. He didn't and he is suffering with all of us. I think that is some man stuff and I respect him for it. Marty for me at this point is an ass and is only living off nostalgia.
3)Brandon Phillips
Erardi pretty much agreed with all of us that he is baffled by what Phillips is doing and is will be convinced to leave. I hope he is right.
3A)Zack Cozart
This is as an add on. I do not want to tempt our manager to do something stupid like playing either of these guys 100+ plus games. Get em outta here for whatever and move on. For what it is worth I think Cozart will work in a backup role and late inning D replacement and it would be good for all. To be continued.
4)Drew Storen
We all agree this is a decent if modest pickup. I think he has enough in the tank to be productive. If he is better than decent I'd let him close and flip him for 2 younger and better relievers at the half.
Closing statement. Always glad for the new year. Everything is fresh and good til it isn't! Probably the worst thing for me last season was sitting around watching should have been jettisoned players soak up at bats while the team spun it's wheels. Cozart going down. Bruce getting traded. And the cult of the batting cage with Joey Votto altered this team's chemistry and they played good baseball down the stretch of 70 games. It was muted by bad pitching or it could have been even better. The improvements we saw from many players after the half was impressive. And I believe it was real. I was never counting wins and losses last year. Knowing what the year was about heading into it I saw that approach as a completely suicidal endeavor for some really upset Reds fans. Even my patience was breaking til things started happening. We saw real progress not the least being in attitude. The pitching remains to be seen but I think you have at least stability with Disco, Bailey, Finnegan, and Straily. And one of the kids will break out. They are genuinely talented. We now have IMO 3 decent to good bullpen arms and I think we get at least 1 more. Not to mention in the hotstove thread we talked about some of the ability of a few of our minor league bullpen arms could be a wildcard. Longstory short. This year I am counting wins and losses. Because I see a different year ahead of us.
Just wanted to kick off some conversation and mini rants. Was glad to see Ken Broo and John Erardi talkin some baseball last night. Usually this year I fast forward through the non Bengals or Reds stuff and delete! John has a new book coming out this spring about Cuba and the Reds. Ought to be a good read. Don't know why I haven't pursued his material more as I love the guy, so will be picking up his latest tome. Take a few points of their conversation as a launchpad..
1)Votto
John was running numbers for his book and was validating that Tony Perez was a great clutch 1B. Better than Mays and Aaron but could not surpass Clemente. To which Erardi said to Ken "and you know who blows Perez away in clutch stats, high leverage, late and close? Joey Votto. He is not only the best 1B in Reds history but one of the best Reds of all time". High praise from a guy who has seen a lot of good Reds baseball and has a solid statistical foundation as well. Which brings me to..
2)Marty Brennamen
At what point in time exactly did Marty go from the raucous old guy who told it like it is and was right to the cranky old fuck that has his head up his ass? I heard an audio clip about a week ago of him going totally off on Votto and his unworthiness and quote "WE CAN LOSE 95 GAMES WITHOUT HIM". He is outdated plain and simple. Votto is a great player who cannot amass the glossy statistics because the Reds ownership while breaking in their cherry in this game have made plenty of mistakes and instead of surrounding him with adequate talent so he can be the star they sank the ship and had to rebuild. Votto could have taken his money and run. He didn't and he is suffering with all of us. I think that is some man stuff and I respect him for it. Marty for me at this point is an ass and is only living off nostalgia.
3)Brandon Phillips
Erardi pretty much agreed with all of us that he is baffled by what Phillips is doing and is will be convinced to leave. I hope he is right.
3A)Zack Cozart
This is as an add on. I do not want to tempt our manager to do something stupid like playing either of these guys 100+ plus games. Get em outta here for whatever and move on. For what it is worth I think Cozart will work in a backup role and late inning D replacement and it would be good for all. To be continued.
4)Drew Storen
We all agree this is a decent if modest pickup. I think he has enough in the tank to be productive. If he is better than decent I'd let him close and flip him for 2 younger and better relievers at the half.
Closing statement. Always glad for the new year. Everything is fresh and good til it isn't! Probably the worst thing for me last season was sitting around watching should have been jettisoned players soak up at bats while the team spun it's wheels. Cozart going down. Bruce getting traded. And the cult of the batting cage with Joey Votto altered this team's chemistry and they played good baseball down the stretch of 70 games. It was muted by bad pitching or it could have been even better. The improvements we saw from many players after the half was impressive. And I believe it was real. I was never counting wins and losses last year. Knowing what the year was about heading into it I saw that approach as a completely suicidal endeavor for some really upset Reds fans. Even my patience was breaking til things started happening. We saw real progress not the least being in attitude. The pitching remains to be seen but I think you have at least stability with Disco, Bailey, Finnegan, and Straily. And one of the kids will break out. They are genuinely talented. We now have IMO 3 decent to good bullpen arms and I think we get at least 1 more. Not to mention in the hotstove thread we talked about some of the ability of a few of our minor league bullpen arms could be a wildcard. Longstory short. This year I am counting wins and losses. Because I see a different year ahead of us.
