Reds Management Woes...
Quietly lurking in the world of NL Central mismanagement have been the Cincinnati Reds, a once-proud franchise owned by a rather crazy old woman, at least for a time. My roommate brought up how Dan O'Brien is actually is a worse GM than Jim Bowden was, and I think it's important to assess the validity of that statement. Normally I wouldn't do two posts on bad management so quickly, but I was actually just talking to another one of my friends about which Reds outfielder should be traded and why for like twenty minutes, and it seemed as if this was the perfect forum to air all the relevant issues.
Well, Jim Bowden was a bad GM, and my friend is quite right to say that he deserves little of the credit for the Nationals' success, although he did manage to sign Jose Guillen. Fortunately for Bowden, the Nationals have a pitching staff already in place, so there's no need to acquire pitching, although Bowden did recently trade away Tomo Ohka for Junior Spivey, which I thought was a bit suspect.
I don't really know where to begin with this, so let's try to look at the facts. From 2001-now the Reds haven't had a winning record. Among the competent outfielders they have had in the last five years that are now gone are: Dmitri Young, Juan Encarnacion, Brady Clark, and Jose Guillen. Shawn Estes, Gabe White, Ryan Dempster, and Jimmy Haynes all received large contracts during that time- in which only Dunn, Kearns, and Pena made it through the minors successfully to the majors. During that time, a fire sale was conducted which led to the departure of Aaron Boone, Scott Williamson, and Jose Guillen for what turned out to be Aaron Harang and Brandon Claussen. Unfathomably, Danny Graves was turned into a starter in 2003, and pitched poorly.
All of these moves were made in the Bowden era, so what makes O'Brien so much worse?
Let's look at the 2005 Reds. Eric Milton was awarded a large contract and has been terrible to the point in which his career could be in trouble. Danny Graves, arguably the most consistent Reds pitcher over the last five years, was unceremoniously dumped after a few bad outings and told to get a new job. Austin Kearns was sent to the minor leagues, a move that led my friend to ask, "Will we see Kearns again in Cincinnati, or will he get traded for a box of corn flakes?" Marignal free agents were signed to fill holes, like every year, and the Reds are once again horrible.
From this sample, it's difficult to tell if O'Brien is any better or worse than Bowden, although Bowden paid a lot less for his bad pitching than O'Brien is paying for his. I think the true test for O'Brien will be deciding which outfielder to trade. The answer should probably be Adam Dunn, although if Dunn is traded, Reds fans might take guns to the ballpark. Kudos should also go to O'Brien for sufficiently de-valuing Austin Kearns by sending him to the minors, that was clutch.
What is sad for the Reds is the fact that they have a brand new ballpark, but absolutely no incentive for anyone to go to it. Too many former prospects have been signed instead of actual big leaguers. Minor league scouting has been terrible, and the Reds have little talent that is major-league ready. It's easy to say that things would have been different if Griffey was healthy for this whole time, but Ken Griffey can't pitch, and that's something the Reds should have learned. I'm not quite ready to say that O'Brien is worse than Bowden, but he definitely doesn't have a definitive view on the franchise, or anything like that. His job should certainly be in question, because he definitely hasn't learned anything while he's been on the clock.
Mike
Well, Jim Bowden was a bad GM, and my friend is quite right to say that he deserves little of the credit for the Nationals' success, although he did manage to sign Jose Guillen. Fortunately for Bowden, the Nationals have a pitching staff already in place, so there's no need to acquire pitching, although Bowden did recently trade away Tomo Ohka for Junior Spivey, which I thought was a bit suspect.
I don't really know where to begin with this, so let's try to look at the facts. From 2001-now the Reds haven't had a winning record. Among the competent outfielders they have had in the last five years that are now gone are: Dmitri Young, Juan Encarnacion, Brady Clark, and Jose Guillen. Shawn Estes, Gabe White, Ryan Dempster, and Jimmy Haynes all received large contracts during that time- in which only Dunn, Kearns, and Pena made it through the minors successfully to the majors. During that time, a fire sale was conducted which led to the departure of Aaron Boone, Scott Williamson, and Jose Guillen for what turned out to be Aaron Harang and Brandon Claussen. Unfathomably, Danny Graves was turned into a starter in 2003, and pitched poorly.
All of these moves were made in the Bowden era, so what makes O'Brien so much worse?
Let's look at the 2005 Reds. Eric Milton was awarded a large contract and has been terrible to the point in which his career could be in trouble. Danny Graves, arguably the most consistent Reds pitcher over the last five years, was unceremoniously dumped after a few bad outings and told to get a new job. Austin Kearns was sent to the minor leagues, a move that led my friend to ask, "Will we see Kearns again in Cincinnati, or will he get traded for a box of corn flakes?" Marignal free agents were signed to fill holes, like every year, and the Reds are once again horrible.
From this sample, it's difficult to tell if O'Brien is any better or worse than Bowden, although Bowden paid a lot less for his bad pitching than O'Brien is paying for his. I think the true test for O'Brien will be deciding which outfielder to trade. The answer should probably be Adam Dunn, although if Dunn is traded, Reds fans might take guns to the ballpark. Kudos should also go to O'Brien for sufficiently de-valuing Austin Kearns by sending him to the minors, that was clutch.
What is sad for the Reds is the fact that they have a brand new ballpark, but absolutely no incentive for anyone to go to it. Too many former prospects have been signed instead of actual big leaguers. Minor league scouting has been terrible, and the Reds have little talent that is major-league ready. It's easy to say that things would have been different if Griffey was healthy for this whole time, but Ken Griffey can't pitch, and that's something the Reds should have learned. I'm not quite ready to say that O'Brien is worse than Bowden, but he definitely doesn't have a definitive view on the franchise, or anything like that. His job should certainly be in question, because he definitely hasn't learned anything while he's been on the clock.
Mike
posted by mike at 5:58 AM
1 Comments:
No, man, you are quite right to go after Dan O'Brien for being an awful GM. The Reds needed to go in a completely different direction after Jim Bowden, but we are just seeing more of the same. In fact, if they were going to make decisions like this, the Reds might as well have just kept Jim Bowden.
Milton had some warning signs with him from Philly, and his career ERA is 4.76. Last year he led the league in HR's allowed. Looking back on it, hindsight being 20-20 and all, we could have definitely avoided committing the bling to him.
Geez, I forgot Mike Cameron and Paul Konerko as talented players the Reds got rid of. But I'm not really sure that the 1999 team was much different from the 2000 team, with the exception of Harnisch, Villone, and Parris all having ERAs that were about a run higher than the year before. If you look at the rosters, they are sort of similar.
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