From today’s Enquirer
“I don’t have anything good to say about the guy to be personally honest with you. He is a cancer in every single clubhouse that he goes to,” Freel said.
snip….
But given the way his teammates feel about him, it would be a huge upset if Jimenez played for the Reds again. Freel has stronger feelings about Jimenez than others – the two got into a fight last year at the team party – but Jimenez was not popular with the coaching staff or his teammates.
I’m not a big guy on the clubhouse being a big factor on why teams win (or lose). I remember the Oakland teams of the early ’70’s and they fought all the time and arguably were as successful as the BRM was.
But if this guy is this big of a problem, why didn’t management recognize it before re-signing him over the winter? Why didn’t the local lapdogs in the media print anything about this?
Either Jimenez’ behavior in the clubhouse isn’t that bad and this is being used as an excuse or someone in management REALLY dropped the ball…AGAIN.
I wish Ryan Freel was a little more durable…to go along with his attitude…
I wonder if D’Lo is going to rip him in the Chattanooga paper about being a drunk….
(personally – I’d take 10 Ryan Freels over 10 D’lo’s)
I read some place that the Reds had to offer Jimenez a minor league contract if he wasn’t pick up by a big league club. It’s a league rule about designating someone for assignment. Even so, you noticed he’s not in Louisville. I doubt very much you’ll ever see Jimenez in a Reds uniform again. I still have to ask the question. Didn’t they know about all these attitude problems before the Reds signed him to a $2 mil contract?
Every managment team thinks they can “change” a player that they deem productive. Especially one coming to age. DJ’s batting skills (mainly OB driven and pitch generating) didn’t pull the Reds cart far enough.
Teams that take sunk costs shouldn’t use that as an excuses down the road. I’m more worried that the Reds will use the recent dumps to justify a cry of poverty.
However I also think they are already worried about selling seats with a team that looked like supreme crap the past month.
Only a true monster hitter gets carte blanche for poor behaviour in a clubhouse that spends six months staring at each other.
Hopefully DJ plays like he’s awake and somebody buys his body out of Chattanooga.