"It wasn't just that the Reds ended the year on a six-game losing streak. It was that they looked disinterested doing it. The best a manager can do is set a tone. Baker's tone this year didn't work."
Freaking sucks Verlander had to get Tommy John.. Him, Grienke, and McCullers might’ve been enough to carry us to the World Series despite Dusty. F*** injuries man
Other teams have their guys have days off of course, but Dusty's aren't as strategic. His balance of days off come at the worst times and really make little sense. To be fair injuries have played a part sure but his decisions to sit guys at certain times really are head scratchers
"Then, as the Reds drifted, then nose-dived late in the year, Baker insisted there was no need for urgency."
At this point it's like he's trolling. It's impossible to be this stupid. I'd let @Mr.Scarface manage the team before Baker at this point (if we can get him out from under his desk)
To be fair, for a 34 year old with an extensive injury history, it probably is a good time to give him a day off in the middle of 2 weeks with a game every day.
that's fair but it's more geared towards the diaz/correa part, especially with the stros obviously struggling.
Hope Dusty takes some time off. His team sure doesn't seem motivated. Maybe Blake Taylor needs some time off too. Maybe Brooks Raley does too. See where I'm going here? Would any Astro fan care if those 3 took 2 weeks off or 6?
At this point, all you can hope for is the players tapping into their experience over the last 5 years, and putting together a solid back half of August and September. There isn't going to be a Verlander trade like 2017 to ignite the locker room, and we certainly can't count on the manager to figure out how to motivate his players. Guys like Correa, Bregman, McCullers, and Maldy are going to have to take control of the locker room, and light a fire under the squad. Also, I think this is where losing Springer really hurts. He was the team mascot, and it was clear everybody rallied around him. That's one of my biggest fears when it comes to losing Correa and JV. This team will have lost 3 of its most vocal leaders in a very short span.
Dusty has been awful, but lets not pretend the bats haven't been doing their job too. We should also fire the bats!
that's basically finding a scapegoat for what the real issue was like last night. The astros bats got them the lead going into the bottom 7th, only to give it up with a dumb decision to bring in taylor over leaving Greinke to finish or go to Graveman
