This makes me sad. I wanted to see Stratton stick with the Reds as the 25th man.
Redleg Nation offers our best wishes to the big guy. Here’s hoping he sticks somewhere.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, it appears that everyone’s favorite reliever has been released by the Indians:
(Danny) Graves, who was making $575,000 this year, had become the poster boy for the ‘pen’s struggles. He owned a 2-1 record and 5.79 ERA in 13 appearances this year and never really settled in, whether used in long relief, mopup duty or tight situations….
The 32-year-old Graves showed up to Jacobs Field on Friday with three inches of his hair cut off. He was hoping the new ‘do could inspire some improvement in his performance, but he was told of the decision shortly thereafter.
Graves was not available for comment after the game.
This is the second time the veteran has been designated in the past year. On May 23, 2005, the Reds cut him loose after he spent nine years as their closer, amassing 182 saves.
I expect Graves to sign with Washington any day.
I think the career is just about over for Graves. He’ll kick around for a couple of years, being released and resigned and released again. His best years are well behind him. The arm’s the problem not the hair.
Graves was an effective closer for the Reds from 1999-2002. Toward the end of 2002, the Reds moved him to the rotation where he excelled for 4 starts. Unfortunately for Reds fans, Graves was signed to a 3-yr, starter-salary deal based on success in a VERY small sample size, and Graves arm was never the same again. He did terrible as a starter in 2003, was adequate back in the closer’s role in 2004, and saw the wheels completely fall off last year. It was pretty much a no brainer to cut Graves last year in the final year of his contract. His salary was a sunk cost, his performance was atrocious, and he flipped off a fan.
I’m not sure how anyone can guarantee that current ownership would have handled it any differently.
Comment by GregD  5/13/2006 @ 2:23 pm
And while I don’t usually agree with you about anything — I would concur with that.
I was never a big Graves fan — even when he was racking up big save totals, I didn’t see anything particularly impressive with the guy. If anything, it substantiated that the closer role can be filled by guys who are not all fantastic pitchers — I think Weathers has demonstrated that too.
I do believe that Graves and many fans got “immaculate perception” about how his career unfolded and ended in Cincy.
You did portray this accurately, GregD. I recall Graves leading the league in blown saves (for at least part of the time) when he was ringing up big saves numbers — so his save percentage was never that impressive.
Then he did really poorly for a stretch and did go into the rotation — but at the time he did that — he was back to leading the league in blown saves (at that point in the season).
Graves and his “backers” would like one to believe that his foray into becoming a starter was him martyring himself for the good of the team — but the absolute fact was that he was doing quite poorly by that time as a reliever/closer.
He did OK as a starter so Bowden decided to give Graves starter-like money — which was just one of many bad bad moves on his part (again, this is a fact — not a personal vendetta against Bowden). Graves did nothing to prepare himself in the off-season to become a starter and came into that spring overweight and more tattooed than the year before. He really did poorly as a starter until it was just not possible to have him continue in that role.
He was placed in long relief for a while and did mop-up duties out of the pen — a $6.5 million dollar mop-up man on a cash-strapped budget like the Reds.
He did have some save situations at the end of that year and did OK — causing him to announce that he was “back” — and that he had been screwed around with by (what had become now) the previous manager.
It is reeally an amazing story if you follow it — something akin to what happens in large beauracratic corporations with very poor middle management type employees who seem to keep skating by and kept around while senior management goes through ongoing changes.
Well, when Graves was supposedly “back” — and placed in the closers role again — he was as bad as he ever was — and all hell broke loose. There was the blown-9 run 9th inning game against St. Louis. There were others that were similarly painful.
As painful as Danny Graves demise was to watch — he serves as living proof that we finally are now moving in a good direction as a club.
Castellini and/or Krivsky wouldn’t give Danny Graves the time of day — and I am happy to see us get to that kind of place as an organization.
In 4 starts in 2002, Graves had a 1.90 ERA with a 1.000 WHIP and .229 BAA.
Comment by GregD  5/13/2006 @ 3:13 pm
Thanks Greg — so that whole foray into becoming a starter — that according to Graves screwed him up so badly — was really a salvation for him at the end of 2002.
If he finishes the year out as closer — he more than likely l;eads the league in blown saves and has totally horrible numbers.
Instead Bowden parlays that little stretch into $6.5 million a year for 3 years for Graves.
Brian Buchanan is probably the guy who ultimately forced Stratton off the roster. Krivsky has shown a propensity to purge the old regime’s players in favor of his own. Buchanon game over as a non-roster invitee from (guess where?) Minnesota!!!
To his credit, Buchanon had a great spring (I know, I know, I know — it means nothing) and nearly won a spot on the ML roster. He played alot and hit well. I personally saw him have the game-winning hit in a couple of games and play good defense. I kept thinking — why is this guy still on the roster? Then he’d do something good — nearly every day in ST.
I think Buchanon (and Krivsky’s other late acquisition of Alex Sanchez) made Rob Stratton’s spot become more precarious.
The Bog Board Depth Chart needs to be updated to refdlect this move.
Speaking of relievers, what has happened to Mercker? He hasn’t gotten an out for a week, and Narron chose to pitch Hammond and Belisle over him in a crucial situation. Is he hurt? For the amount he is getting paid he should be being used more than the 7.2 IP he has been.
If I worked a job and needed to be fired, I would hope that management would deal with me in private and talk to the people around me and ease me out. Notice I said deserved to be fired. Graves deserved his fate – it’s a tough game, and he had lost it. But it should have been handled differently, quietly, behind the scenes to the degree possible, with the public brought in at the last moment. Reds management created ill will between team and management in the way they handled the Graves affair. He was treated shabbily.
I keep hearing reference to Graves ruining his arm for the Reds. I think that talk probably started with Graves or his agent.
I’m not commenting on whether its true or not, but I’m thinking that pushing an arm, on an undersized pitcher to 8 or 9 big league seasons is about maxing it out.
I know I’m kind of wondering out loud here, but just because Graves never was the same after his stint as a starter doesn’t necessarily mean that the two things are related. It could have been the wear and tear you’d expect on a pitcher after several big league seasons. Good luck Danny on all you future endevours.
If I worked a job and needed to be fired, I would hope that management would deal with me in private and talk to the people around me and ease me out. Notice I said deserved to be fired. Graves deserved his fate – it’s a tough game, and he had lost it. But it should have been handled differently, quietly, behind the scenes to the degree possible, with the public brought in at the last moment. Reds management created ill will between team and management in the way they handled the Graves affair. He was treated shabbily.
Comment by Mark T  5/13/2006 @ 4:38 pm
If I worked a job and needed to be fired, I would hope that management would deal with me in private and talk to the people around me and ease me out. Notice I said deserved to be fired. Graves deserved his fate – it’s a tough game, and he had lost it. But it should have been handled differently, quietly, behind the scenes to the degree possible, with the public brought in at the last moment. Reds management created ill will between team and management in the way they handled the Graves affair. He was treated shabbily.
Comment by Mark T  5/13/2006 @ 4:38 pm
But you are painiting the Graves situation with a very broad brish — in favor of Graves at every turn.
your portrayal leaves out facts — such as, Graves did his “job” right out in the public for all to see; the job he did is routinely covered each day in any number of media outlets; his performance review is published in every newspaper in America — and he flipped the bird at the Reds fans.
Graves made it public with his actions. Not Reds management.
Good luck Danny on all you future endevours.
Comment by Glenn  5/13/2006 @ 4:40 pm
I can see Danny Graves either opening a number of tattoo parlors across America — or being interviewed by Dr. Phil sometime.
Either way, he’s acting like some former child TV star who thinks he is still owed something.
He was paid very well for what he did.
Just for the record, I don’t know that I ever saw anything in any print media about Graves release that reflected poorly on how the Reds management handled his DFA.
Yeah making a phone call to release a player is a good way to treat a veteran.
Yeah making a phone call to release a player is a good way to treat a veteran.
Comment by Pinski  5/13/2006 @ 10:34 pm
Nevermind that this veteran had just pulled a bush-league stunt, flipping off his own hometeam’s fans. That’s not a pro — that’s a rank amatuer.
Right, and being racistly derided by the fans, isn’t enough to cause even the sanest/best person to “pull a bush-league stunt”?
Right, and being racistly derided by the fans, isn’t enough to cause even the sanest/best person to “pull a bush-league stunt�
Comment by Pinski  5/14/2006 @ 1:10 pm
If Danny Graves can’t stand being ridiculed by fans — in a manner that while most offensive, doesn’t at all compare to what other professionals had to endure — then no, he isn’t handling it like a pro.
Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson and countless others faced nearly very night what Graves had to endure for one night.
Graves couldn’t keep fron flipping the fans off — non of the others did that kind of thing.
The way Graves has NOT handled adversity weel has proven that he isn’t a real pro.
Just as in the I “lost my arm in the service to my team” arguement, the only person I’ve ever heard bring race into the night Graves flipped off the fans, was Graves. There were fans and players there at the time, unless my memory is failing me (and that can be a problem), I’ve not heard one player step forward and say someone called Graves a racist term.
Whenever race gets thrown into the equation my antennae goes up. It usually boils down to someone knowing they were wrong and having no excuse for their behavior. As they are all out of ammo, the last desparate bullet point is race, whether it happened or not.
I wasn’t there that night so I don’t know for sure, but I’m very suspicious that Graves threw the race card to help midigate his behavior.
I seem the recall it written somewhere that someone made an inappropriate reference to Graves’ Vietnamese heritage.
If it happened, it still is no reason for Graves to flip the famns the bird. He has to suck it up and be a pro in that situation — as countless other players over all of sports history have had to become.
But besides that, his behavior is a red herring. Even when someone is an a*hole, but who has done good things for your company for 9 years, he doesn’t deserve to be fired over the phone. Thats both crass and unprofessional.
But besides that, his behavior is a red herring. Even when someone is an a*hole, but who has done good things for your company for 9 years, he doesn’t deserve to be fired over the phone. Thats both crass and unprofessional.
Comment by Pinski  5/14/2006 @ 7:05 pm
Flipping off fans — is crass and unprofessional.
Listen carefully, Graves did not have his career unravel suddenly after doing nothing but good for the nine years previously. He sucked for a long long time. He was given more than ample opportunity to work his problems out — to the point (three times) that he led the league in blown saves when things changed for him. Not once, not twice but three times + he was tried in the rotation to abysmal results.
Whether the Reds brass sent him a telegram, told him face-to-face or called him or wrote it in smoke-signals — he had gotten so incredibly bad that he should have been able to read the “writing on the wall.”
You are throwing the baby out with the bat-water here. Graves needed to go — in the worst way. You are elevating the way the Reds told him he was released above the fact that it was so clearly going to happen — because of his poor performance.
Were they wrong — clearly not at all. Now he’s been released twice.
He’ll be talking to Bowden soon if he hasn’t already. They deserve each other.
Good for him. Maybe he’s crack into the Yankees depleted outfield.
But besides that, his behavior is a red herring. Even when someone is an a*hole, but who has done good things for your company for 9 years, he doesn’t deserve to be fired over the phone. Thats both crass and unprofessional.
Comment by Pinski  5/14/2006 @ 7:05 pm
Candidly, Pinski — I own and run a company — I’ve fired many top producers who were also as$#@!!es — and it never has taken me 9 years to do it.
Great, but how did you do it? If you did by phone call, I would call that unprofessional.
Great, but how did you do it? If you did by phone call, I would call that unprofessional.
Comment by Pinski  5/15/2006 @ 10:53 pm
How one does it isn’t as important as doing it — once it becomes obvious that it is the right thing to do.
I’ve done it both ways — albeit most times in person.
It is never easy. I’ve always said, if you cannot fire someone who needs to be fired, you shouldn’t be running a company. But if you ever get to where you like firing someone, you also shouldn’t be running a company.