It’s hard to pin Reds’ troubles on manager Bell
And now we switch to Cincinnati’s favorite parlor game, ripping the Reds manager. In my 34 years here, Shred The Skipper has never been less than overwhelmingly popular, more fun for fans than the games themselves. Some Reds fans would rather their team lose if they deem the L the fault of the manager.
It proves them right in their righteous trashing. It gives them an outlet to expend their fury. Besides, in seasons such as this one, what else are they going to do?
In metaphorical terms, where else are you gonna go?
Last Saturday, David Bell removed a kid pitcher named Connor Overton after 5 1/3 shutout innings and 75 pitches. Soon enough, a 2-0 Reds lead became a 4-2 Rockies lead. Art Warren came in and flamed the game. Walk, two-run double, two-run triple. No one blamed Art Warren whom, last we checked, was the man playing with matches.
Everyone blamed Bell.
In fact, what Bell did was what almost any of his peers would have done. The Dodgers’ Dave Roberts is a successful manager, yes? He removed Clayton Kershaw after seven innings last month, when Kershaw was throwing a perfect game.
You might not like the way managers use starting pitchers these days. They might as well call starters Designated Five Inning Guys. I’m with you. But there’s a reason the Reds opened the year with 15 pitchers. Contemporary strategy compels it.
Baseball managers, like democratic heads of state, are prisoners of circumstance. They’re beholden to events beyond their influence. In that sense, Bell running a team totally untouched by greatness is no different than a president being blamed for high gas prices.
Very likely, Bell didn’t march into Bob Castellini’s Small Park office last winter and declare, “I’m gonna quit if you don’t tear up this roster!’’ That’d be like President Biden (or any president) begging the Saudis to decrease oil production so gas prices can soar.
Bell has to answer for the Reds’ dismal record, even as anyone knows Joe
Torre couldn’t fix this team. I defy any of the fan screamers to offer a solution to the Reds’ embarrassing roster problems. How many other organizations would have tolerated Aristides Aquino as long as this one did? Aquino made a career out of one month, three years ago.
That suggests the Reds organizational outfield depth chart was so pathetic that they depended more on hope and miracles than on actual talent. And that’s Bell’s fault?
With all due respect, there are and will continue to be players on this team known only by their moms and girlfriends. Good luck to them. We wish them well. But let’s be honest, they don’t belong here.
Torre is a Hall of Famer for his managing success. He was a Hall of Very Good player, who scored fewer than 1,000 runs, hit just 252 homers, lacked speed and defensive excellence. But he has more postseason Ws than any manager and won four titles skippering the Yankees.
How did Torre do that?
Hint: It wasn’t with Bell’s players. The Yankees of 1999 included two
Hall of Famers in their primes (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera), four players with at least 102 driven in, seven with at least 17 homers, four starting pitchers each with at least 12 wins and Rivera mopping all messes 45 times.
The last year Torre managed, he ran the 2010 Dodgers, when his shortstop wasn’t Jeter (Rafael Furcal) and his closer was Jonathan Broxton, not Rivera, and nobody drove in 100 runs. The Dodgers finished 80-82, fourth in the NL West.
It’s about the players.
Torre was the right guy at the right time in the Bronx. He was a perfect picture of grace and dignity in the eye of the Steinbrenner hurricane. He set a needed tone. He’d have been Buttermaker with the ’22 Reds.
Bell did well last year with a bullpenless team that crashed late. He doesn’t have that team anymore. You can ignore that all you like, but it doesn’t change what’s real. Torre managed the Mets, Braves and Cardinals for a combined 13 seasons. He managed three playoff games. He lost them all.
Then he went to the Bronx and became a genius. Funny how that works.