Bryan Price has been out of baseball for nearly two seasons. The Cincinnati Reds hired him as pitching coach just over a decade ago to be their pitching coach. He accepted that job on October 17th of 2009. He took over a pitching staff that had a young Johnny Cueto, Edinson Volquez, and Homer Bailey on it, while also seeing veterans Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang still hanging around. Mike Leake would also join the rotation in his first season as pitching coach.
After four years of being the Reds pitching coach the brass in the front office chose to not bring back manager Dusty Baker – who had been at the helm for all of Bryan Price’s time in Cincinnati. The search didn’t really take long for the Reds, who promoted Price from pitching coach to manager on October 21st of 2013.
The first season of his managerial career was his best – at least when it comes to a won-loss record. Joey Votto’s knee injury sapped his productivity in the half-year he was on the field, and then wiped out the other half. A good pitching staff was held back by a terrible offense that did feature the All-Star season by catcher Devin Mesoraco. Overall the season was a disappointment as the team expected to compete for the playoffs after reaching them in three of the previous four seasons – finishing with a 76-86 record and finishing in fourth place.
From there things kept going down hill as the Reds went into rebuild mode. Win totals over the next three seasons were 64, 68, and 68. Cincinnati brought Price back for the 2018 season, but after a 3-15 start he and some of the coaches on his staff were let go in late April.
Once the 2019 regular season ended Price heard his phone ring more than once. The Arizona Diamondbacks brought him in for multiple interviews for their open pitching coach job. They even offered him the job and he turned them down. Price was also interviewed with, and turned down the pitching coach job with the San Diego Padres. Shortly after his name surfaced as the front runner for the pitching coach job with the Philadelphia Phillies. Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported this morning that the Phillies have indeed hired Price to be their new pitching coach.
It’s been an interesting ride for Price since leaving Cincinnati. He was named the pitching coach for Team USA as they attempt to qualify for the upcoming Olympics. He’s interviewed for multiple Major League teams after the 2018 season for their pitching coach jobs, too – the Twins, Braves, and Cubs were all among the teams that reportedly interviewed him.
The Reds are making a “Major Concert Announcement”
The Cincinnati Reds haven’t exactly been great when it comes to putting a winner on the field lately. But what they have done exceedingly well is put together things off of the field when it comes to events, ballpark amenities, community work, etc. Yesterday they announced that on November 6th they would have an announcement of a Major Concert.
There have been some big names come through and perform at Great American Ballpark in the past. Jay Z and Beyonce performed there. Luke Bryant came through in 2018.
Over on twitter I joked about The Beatles being the announcement. Paul McCartney actually had a concert at Great American Ballpark about a decade ago, but I don’t think the other surviving member, Ringo, is going to be doing the same.
Live Nation is going to be present at the event. That doesn’t do much to give you any insight into who could be performing as they have their hands in just about every concert cookie jar you could imagine these days. I’ll guess that there’s a local tie to the band(s)/group(s) that will be coming in – but that’s just me taking a wild stab in the dark.
Former Red Josh Hamilton arrested
In the “Not Great, Bob!” category of former Reds in the news, Josh Hamilton was arrested for felony injury to a child 14 or younger after reportedly assaulting his daughter a month ago. Tom Steele and Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News reported on the incident yesterday.
Price actually didn’t do a bad job as the Reds’ pitching coach. When the writing on the wall of his managerial career became somewhat bold-italicized, I was wishing they could make it work, politically, to just move him back to that spot where he did his best work. Glad another team has picked him up.
The pitching results attained by Derrick Johnson and Bryan Price could be an interesting subplot of the coming season.
It will be interesting to see if their staff gets injured much “after” next season.