Plan for these last few weeks

by Berliad on Sep 14, 2005 9:59 PM EDT Comment 5 comments

After reading Joel's postmortem on the Reds:
http://reds.mostvaluablenetwork.com/?p=406
...I can't help but wonder.. Maybe we can salvage something from this season after all. Below is a plan. None of these ideas would be popular, but maybe they'd be a smart way to go about business.

Send all the regulars home. There's no sense in risking injury to Dunn, Griffey, Lopez, Weathers, and Mercker. Kearns, Pena and Freel could be kept on to get them some AB's. Aurilia shouldn't play, since he won't be here next year. Milton should probably cut his losses as well. Same for Ortiz.
Let the kids play. Encarnacion, Olmedo, Denorfia, etc, should all be starting every game. Get them some solid major league experience. Even if they aren't likely to be starters, at least they'd get to face some pitching now and therefore might be better off the bench next year and the year after.
Don't bother trying to win the remaining games. In fact, try to lose. Practice fundamentals, sort of like in the minors. Have every batter take at least one strike, keep pitchers on strict pitchcounts, take an opportunity to teach players new positions, etc. If we lose all games for the rest of the season, we could get really good position in the amateur draft. We may not be able to catch the Royals (they have 19 more losses this season than the Reds, and there are only 18 games left), but we can still beat out the Pirates, Rockies, and Devil Rays for second worst record! It won't just happen though, we'll have to try.

Maybe this is more sarcastic than anything, but there's a way in which I think this might be the way to go.
-JinAZ

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funniest thing from last night's game....when ump blew the call at first base and Narron went out to argue. I'll bet you 5 bucks the first thing ump said (as he talked with mouth covered) was "Jerry, I blew that one, sorry". They continued to talk for a couple minutes but by the end Narron was smiling. Ump flat out blew call and it looked like he knew it...........

I find it sort of like hanging on to watch the end of a movie that I've already decided I didn't like. Just to have the finality and sense of resolution I'll sometimes hang on rather than walk out....... Also, I had a flash today of the memories of what December, January feel like. When you're just starting to get a distant sniff of baseball but it is still months till spring training. I figured I'll watch them play the string out while trying to have that warm, fuzzy all baseball is good feeling that the Reds try to sell to fans - you know instead of selling WINNING...........

Enough with the Homeruns and Strikeouts

by MichaelRed on Sep 15, 2005 7:55 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The "stuff" the Reds are selling . . .

You mean, like eleven games over .500 since July 2? Yeah, we're just being fooled.

Brian B

by Brian B on Sep 15, 2005 2:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

lose Reds lose

And every game we win pushes us further down the amateur draft list. I'm going to root against the Reds for the rest of the season. To hell with pride, we need high draft picks. ... Not that we'll necessarily do anything good with them, but at least we'd have a chance.
-JinAZ, resident crackpot.

by Berliad on Sep 15, 2005 2:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

baseball draft

is not like football draft... Lower picks arent all that much worse, if at all. But higher picks are definitely more expensive, 100 percent of the time. Careful what you wish for.

by TheDude on Sep 20, 2005 7:40 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Fair Enough

It's a good point... but it would be fun to have some prince fielders or delmon young's running around our farm system. :) I remember the draft when JD Drew signed with the Cardinals (this was, of course, his second draft...). Someone made the observation that the main thing our late-season surge the previous season had done was keep us from getting a chance to draft Drew. As it turns out, he's been a quality player...even though he's rather prone to injury.
-JinAZ

by Berliad on Sep 22, 2005 6:23 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs