Is Dusty back next season? (Reds Offseason Thread)

• justincredible

  

  If not, who replaces him?
  
  I absolutely HATED Tony LaRussa when he was the Cards manager. After I met him a few months ago, though, my opinion change drastically. If he can be lured out of retirement I would love to see him in the Reds dugout next season.
• thavoice

  I am usually not into the whole firing of the manager, but I think Dusty has served his purpose with the team. Ya know what they say...you are what the back of your baseball card says you are.
  
  And the back of his card says he wins and gets into the postseason, but fails after that.
  
  He did his job, and now it is ownership's time to take this team to a new level and get a new manager
• justincredible

  

  Glad to see no one thinks he should be back so far.
• Heretic

  

  Of course he will! After all, he kept batting Ludwick at the 2 and he came through with 3 hits last night!
  
  To be honest, probably not. Talent-wise, the Reds are just too good to have the sort of collapse they had this year (at least as far as their front-line players go, they don't seem to have good depth and beyond Cingrani and the concept of Billy Hamilton, there wasn't much help from AAA this year that I can think of). I mean, they took 2/3 in Pittsburgh to be tied for second in the division with six games to go. Six at home for them and six on the road for the Pirates. They dropped 5/6 to fall into third when in a situation where they SHOULD have been attempting to put pressure on the Cards for the division. They were swept at home by the Pirates to lead into having to play on the road against them in a one-game elimination and never really were competitive in that game.
  
  I think the big problem with Dusty is that you just never really see any fire or emotion. What you see in May is the same thing you see in October. And I think that showed a bit with the end-year results. Of the 5 wild card type (counting the Rangers, too, since they played 163 just like the Reds did) teams, four of them finished the season on pretty good rolls...but the Reds were at their worst when the games mattered most. Which you could say for all three of their postseason years under Baker.
  
  To me it comes down to if the Reds are happy just being a postseason team or if they want more. If they want more, they'll look for another leader.
• Mohican00

  

  justincredible;1511281 wrote:Glad to see no one thinks he should be back so far.

  welp
• Gblock

  i think they will change just to take the players out of their comfort zone...when you play for the same guy for a while you can start to feel "safe" and that feeling of he knows what i can/used to do. a new guy may not have that loyalty and if you dont produce, more easily move on. this could give them the boost they need to get over the hump. but honestly they really didnt have the talent to beat pirates or cards from top to bottom not sure it will make much difference
• justincredible

  

  Gblock;1511304 wrote:but honestly they really didnt have the talent to beat pirates or cards from top to bottom not sure it will make much difference

  They absolutely had the talent to beat the Pirates.
• TedSheckler

  

  justincredible;1511311 wrote:They absolutely had the talent to beat the Pirates.

  This. No question about it.
• Heretic

  

  I'd say that both teams were pretty evenly matched to the point where picking a winner would usually be a coin flip. To the point where if one thought their team was notably better than the other, there'd be a lot of fan bias involved.
  
  Pirates better at LF, CF, 3B and C; Reds better at RF, SS, 2B and 1B -- with a lot of those battles being close. Both very solid at SP, Reds might be a bit better at closer (at least Chapman is more dominant when on, although overall results were similiar), while Pirates better at bridging the gap between the starters and closer. Both managers known for making the occasional bizarre move, but Hurdle's more fiery than Baker.
• Rotinaj

  

  The Pirates were the better team this season IMO but it's very close like Heretic said. Our problem is our young players haven't got any better at the plate over the last couple years. The whole team swings at shit and it apparently wasn't addressed at all during the season.
• Commander of Awesome

  

  Well I never thought he deserved the job in the first place, so nope don't think he should be back.
• wildcats20

  

  Is he? Probably. Should he be? Hell no.
• that_guy

  Dusty and Jacoby need to go. If they want to keep Price they'll likely need to make him a manager, which I would be more than happy with.
  
  For a manager who is considered a player's manager, this Reds team really seemed to have poor chemistry all year. Players complaining to the media about pay (Phillips), the fans (Ludwick), a few arguments in the dugout (Bruce and Latos sticks out in my head, but there were a few others) at no point during the season did it seem like this team was having fun playing together like the '10 team. I'm not sure how much any of that translates into Wins and Losses, but the defense to Dusty's poor game management is always that his teams play together well, I didn't get a sense of that at all this year. Last nights game did not surprise me at all, this team has been disappointing most of the season, and I put most of that on Dusty and Jocketty (why the hell didn't he block the Byrd deal, all he had to do is submit a waiver claim).
  
  Some great Reds drafts from the mid '00s, and solid development in the minors have given the Reds this window of opportunity. Now the window is closing, and the minors are bleak except for the lower levels. I think they have 1-2 more years to seriously contend, so hopefully they don't waste that with Dusty at the helm...
• Heretic

  

  Rotinaj;1511323 wrote:The Pirates were the better team this season IMO but it's very close like Heretic said. Our problem is our young players haven't got any better at the plate over the last couple years. The whole team swings at shit and it apparently wasn't addressed at all during the season.

  I think if there's one move the team HAS to make, it's at hitting coach. My Reds fan friends and I talk about that all the time. The thing that kills you guys more than anything is that it seems you go into team-wide slumps. You'll have periods where you're putting up 6-10 runs nightly for awhile and then go into periods where you struggle to get 2 in a game. Seems to happen every year and with the job the Reds have done both bringing up talent and adding guys like Choo, there's no excuse for that continually happening.
• thavoice

  I remember back to 1999 when a number of guys had carreer years.....will this be a career year for guys like Frazier and cozart and bruce? They will have to improve, votto will need to get better and the leadership needs to be better.
  
  Taht team had Greg Vaughn of whom they said was a great clubhouse guy who kept the team moving forward and motivated. There is no such leader on this team
• like_that

  

  After seeing what happened to the Tribe in the 90's when they fired Hargrove, I voted "yes, and he should be." I know he has shit the bed in the playoffs, but don't be spoiled by having 90+ win seasons 3 out of 4 seasons. Unless you can get a legit manager, then I would not do it.
• Gblock

  head to head i think it was like 13-8 (guess) edge record wise with the advantage pirates. i think our pitching/defense was a little better and i would say offense was close maybe even advantage reds...reds def had more guys with 100+ rbi's
• justincredible

  

  that_guy;1511332 wrote:Dusty and Jacoby need to go. If they want to keep Price they'll likely need to make him a manager, which I would be more than happy with.

  I would definitely be cool with Price at manager. But I really hope they kick the tires on TLR.
• like_that

  

  justincredible;1511342 wrote:I would definitely be cool with Price at manager. But I really hope they kick the tires on TLR.

  Are there even any rumors that he would come out of retirement?
• justincredible

  

  like_that;1511366 wrote:Are there even any rumors that he would come out of retirement?

  No. I don't think there needs to be, though.
• se-alum

  

  Can Lou Piniella still throw bases?
• Midstate01

  

  Couple weeks ago the beat writers were pretty sure dusty would be back. After the last week and last night,those writers asked the question to jockety and he said he thinks. So it seems as if there is at least some doubt.
  
  The team has had a pattern the last few years. Playoffs,bad season, playoffs, this season. We made the playoffs but at no point this season did they ever really look like a scary team.
  Then late in the season they let their rivals pick up players off waivers that they could have blocked. That told me that management saw the writing on the wall.
  
  Baker is a players manager and the players love him. But at some point coaches like that stop getting the most out of their players. They have no fear that they'll ever not be in the lineup regardless of how they do. And that was certainly the case this year.
  
  I think they need to fire him just to go in a new direction. A new manager and hitting coach would be HUGE for this team.
• GoChiefs

  

  Do I want him back? No. Will he be back? Yes.
• thavoice

  Having LaRussa as the manager may be worth it just to see what happens between him and marty!
• justincredible

  

  thavoice;1511397 wrote:Having LaRussa as the manager may be worth it just to see what happens between him and marty!

  Tony HATES Marty. HATES. When I was working the event Tony was speaking at a small group of us were talking to Tony beforehand and got on the subject of Marty. He said if Marty walked in the door he would immediately leave. Called him "chicken shit." I would love to watch video footage of the two of them locked in a small room together.