Red Reposter - Passing the Blame, Pointing the Finger

Doc wants Bud Selig to come to Cincy this weekend to catch the Reds-Pirates series
"I still think the basic tenets we have in place will lead to the best competitive balance we’ve ever had,’’ decided Selig. "I’m very comfortable where we are." Doc takes exception. He says the 27 combined years of losing that will be on the field this weekend should be a wake-up call. Banana Bob is not happy either, "It is not a good business model,’’ Reds CEO Bob Castellini said Tuesday. "There has to be movement toward more economic parity.’’ Castellini suggested Selig "etch those two sentences in stone.’’

Doc suggests baseball adopt the socialism (gasp!) of the NFL, where he says economic parity isone of the bulwarks of it's popularity. He suggests the Reds could be smarter, hiring better scouts and doing better in the draft and international free agent market. But that takes cash too, with big-money draft picks and Dominican prodigies.

I have a BIG problem with this crap. Since I'm a "saber-dork", I'll throw a few numbers at you: $46 mil, $6.25 mil, $3 mil, $4 mil, $14 mil, $10.5 mil, Mike Stanton. These are the contracts, in total dollar amounts (from Cot's), that the Reds have handed out over the past few years to Francisco Cordero, Willy Taveras, Corey Patterson, Mike Lincoln, Alex Gonzalez, Dusty Baker, and Mike Stanton. That is $83.75 million (plus Mike Stanton), enough to pay for this year's team and then some (this year's payroll is around $73 mil).

These people have either done very little to help the team win or have directly caused the team to lose. This is money being wasted by a front office that hasnt done a very good job evaluating talent. And this is just a few free agents I cherry-picked to make a point. I could go on and on. 

It infuriates me that this team (and it's defenders) have continually picked bad players to run onto the field, watched these players fail, and then blamed that failure on a broken system that doesnt provide them enough money. I'm just a bookstore manager who watches baseball for fun and I can figure this crap out. It's not difficult. Stop furrowing your brow at the Yankees. It's not their fault that you cant tell a bad ballplayer from a good one. They just have the extra cash to cover it up when they make that mistake.

But what REALLY makes me angry is I'm not the first one to make this argument, and I wont be the last.  It's like shouting at the wind.

Chris Dickerson could return from the DL sometime this week
He really doesnt want to end the season on the DL, and he's worked hard to get himself back into shape after spraining his ankle. He's been working out at Xavier and UC in hopes of making it back before the season ends. Dusty says if he does come back, he likely wont play the field.

Here's what Homer Bailey had to say about facing down Albert Pujols with the bases loaded
"It’s not something you want to do every day," Bailey said "You just look at the glove and throw it as hard as you can. When I saw Willy get under it, it was a sigh of relief."

Here's your daily helping of "Tiresome Things Dusty Says/Does", sponsored by Pops Daniels
"The last week is going to be interesting, a straight tryout, like spring training." — Outfielder Jonny Gomes on manager Dusty Baker’s plan to use all seven outfielders during the last week.

Dugout Central asks if Dusty is really the Pitcher Abuser his reputation says he is
They look at every starter Dusty had for an extended period of time with both the Giants and the Cubs and determine that though he probably overused a few guys (Zambrano, Prior, and Wood among them), his use of Edinson Volquez last season was very reasonable. It's a strange read, as they seem to lay all the blame on Dusty for causing the injuries to 6 of the 37 pitchers they looked at (like number of pitches thrown directly causes major injury), but then give him credit for not abusing Volquez.  So apparently he's abused a few pitchers in the past and ruined their careers, but Volquez is not one of those guys.