Here’s an open thread to discuss tonight’s game or, well, anything you want to discuss.
Here’s a question, if anyone’s around: is it a coincidence that the Reds are playing better since Danny Graves was shown the door?
Here’s an open thread to discuss tonight’s game or, well, anything you want to discuss.
Here’s a question, if anyone’s around: is it a coincidence that the Reds are playing better since Danny Graves was shown the door?
My thoughts exactly. It’s coincidence, methinks, but if there is another explanation, I’d love to hear it.
Don’t forget Cleveland is in there too (actually they are 27th as right now and the Pirates are 28th). When do we play Oakland (#29)?
It’s an interesting question, does bad pitching beat bad hitting. Over the last week it sure seems that way.
hard to hit a guy tossing 97…..
Now listen to the Mama; I’m only going to explain this once.
No way in Hades is it a coincidence. You would have to break it down on a player-by-player basis to understand all the subtle aspects, but the biggest chunk is its effect on Sean Casey.
Casey can be an effective leader when he and the team are doing well because his excitement is infectious. But when he and the team are struggling, he’s too nice to make winning a higher priority than pleasing everyone. If the unfortunate choice of Casey as the leader is a given, the management had no choice but to rip out the foundation of his its-OK-you-tried-your-best culture if they wanted to see any improvement.
It was convenient that Graves was sucking, overpaid, and a PR problem, because it fit nicely with the management’s need to show their dedication and guts while totally shocking Casey. Right choices often fall together like that.
Consider your own life: when have you accomplished more than you ever thought you could? Was it when everything was going along easy, or was it in the face of adversity? Dropping Graves provided the adversity Casey needed to rise above to start actually leading this team. Trading Graves might have worked to a lesser extent, though it would have just looked like a salary dump; moving Graves to middle relief would have us still in a losing streak.
The last two games demonstrate it perfectly: yesterday they had to rise above to beat Clemens, and that’s what they did. Today should have been easier, and look what happened.
Ok, its all addicting – I’ve got MLB extra innings and Vin’s on sleep timer….Nothing like west coast games…..even if it is the freakin’ Dodgers