Cincinnati Reds links - Links about other teams, actually

Weary Cincinnati Reds fans get a ONE-day respite from #LateNightReds today, but that leads into yet another West Coast series this weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  While Thursday's 10:10 ET start time may be a deterrent to some of you, keep in mind it's one more chance to hear the inimitable Vin Scully call a game.  This is a few weeks old at this point, but if you've not had a chance to read it yet, here's SI.com's David J. Halberstam talking with Scully about his rookie season with the Brooklyn Dodgers way back in 1950.

Remember when we freaked out about the Reds hiring Kevin Towers?  Well, the Detroit Tigers are giving the Cincinnati front office a run for their odd-direction money, as they've buttressed their firing of Dave Dombrowski - one of the more successful and respected GMs in the game - with the hiring of Dave Littlefield as their VP of Player Development.  Littlefield, lest you forget, was the GM of the Pittsburgh Pirates during the latter years of the Bowden-era Reds, and while he did manage to draft Andrew McCutchen in the 2005 MLB Draft, he was at the helm when the Bucs selected:  Daniel Moskos 4th overall in 2007 ahead of Matt Wieters, Madison Bumgarner, and Jason Heyward; Brad Lincoln 4th overall in 2006 ahead of Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum, and Max Scherzer (and Drew Stubbs!); and when they disastrously chose Bryan Bullington 1st overall in 2002 ahead of Melvin Upton, Zack Greinke, Prince Fielder, Scott Kazmir, Nick Swisher, Cole Hamels, & Matt Cain.  And, as HardBallTalk's Craig Calcaterra noted, his forays into free agency weren't much better, either.  At least the Reds aren't making the oddest front office moves in the league these days.

Speaking of front office shakedowns, the Milwaukee Brewers will be thoroughly in one for the near future as well, as long time GM (and close friend of Walt Jocketty) Doug Melvin announced yesterday that he would move into a more advisory role with the club, and that the Reds' NL Central rivals would be on the hunt for a new GM.  Like the Tigers and Dombrowski, it's odd that the teams let their now outgoing GMs make major trades at the deadline less than two weeks ago only to have them step away immediately after, but that's the lay of the land, I suppose.  The MLB Whiparound folks discussed Melvin's move in the video at the top of this AP post on FoxSports.com, and in it Jon Morosi emphasized that the Brewers would be seeking a new GM with a focus on "analytics," something that's not exactly been associated with Melvin's tenure.  Heck, Jonathan Lucroy even admitted "I know he's been doing this a long time and the game's only getting more and more complicated in terms of analytics. I know that Doug's an old-school guy," Lucroy said before Tuesday's game. "He goes on gut feeling and stuff like that a lot. I think he was (kind of) ready to start doing something different."

The GM times, they are a-changing.  Not in Cincinnati, though.

In other non-Reds news (gah, it still hurts to say that), Johnny Cueto's pitch delivery was recently criticized by Brad Butthurt Ausmus after Cueto and his Kansas City Royals sliced them up on Sunday Night Baseball, but it appears Ausmus's cries that Cueto's turn & wiggle are "illegal" are misguided.  Patrick O'Kennedy from our buddies up at Bless You Boys did a thorough search through the rulebook to see if Ausmus had any real legitimate gripe, and he determined it was truly much ado about nothing.

For one final story about a not-Red, The Enquirer's C. Trent Rosecrans caught up with former Reds manager Dusty Baker yesterday, as Dusty was in San Diego for his son's baseball tournament and decided to come say hey to many of his former players.  I miss Dusty Baker.  It was probably time for a change in the manager's spot when he and the Reds had a somewhat ugly departure nearly two years ago, but when it comes to looking back on things, it's a lot easier to look fondly back on what the club accomplished while he was in charge than it is to look back and wish things had gone differently during his six years running the dugout.  I miss Dusty Baker because I miss the good ol' days of the Reds being young, dumb, full of fun, and having a core capable of winning multiple NL Central crowns.  I fear it will be quite some time before we get to be that lucky as Reds fans again.