04-16-2022, 09:16 AM
I agree about the system being flawed, but the fact is that the Castellinis are punching above their weight when it comes to being owners of a MLB team. They are not MLB-owner rich and they depend on profits to pad their wallets. Their outside income source is significant, but the Reds are still far from an expensive toy to them. They covet the money from baseball operations more than they want to win.
I'm not sure it's a foregone conclusion that selling means an exit from Cincinnati. The fanbase here will support the team if they are competitive, and this town almost always sides with ownership over expensive players on average.
The problem, to be honest has less to do with spending and more to do with sucking at baseball operations when it comes to the current ownership. Teams like the Rays, A's, and Guardians spend a lot less than the Reds, yet still manage to avoid half-decade stretches of abject, intentional failure. This is what has turned the fans vs the Castellinis. We trusted them to execute a tear-down rebuild after 2013, and it went pretty badly. The benefits from it were good for barely two seasons of decent MLB-level baseball. Now it's back to sucking and bailing crap contracts by attaching good players to them and resulting in a worse roster overall.
The Castellinis meddle. They extend players they cannot afford because they were awful at developing in-house talent to replace them. Up until very recently, they stank at developing starting pitching. Their trades this year were unintelligible from a baseball standpoint, and made them look inept and silly.
If they committed to 90-120 mil payroll as they have in the past, that more than enough to compete IF they are shrewd at baseball operations and trades/development/free agency. Unfortunately, they are morons and end up shelling out to dudes like a washed Moose, and overmatched Shogo, and swap out identical deals from Miley to Minor that make zero sense.
I wish they could spend like the Yankees, but I really wish they'd just be better with their decisions. Better yet, hire a non-family stooge for a GM and let him rip. Keep your hands off of the baseball side and stop embarrassing yourselves.
I'm not sure it's a foregone conclusion that selling means an exit from Cincinnati. The fanbase here will support the team if they are competitive, and this town almost always sides with ownership over expensive players on average.
The problem, to be honest has less to do with spending and more to do with sucking at baseball operations when it comes to the current ownership. Teams like the Rays, A's, and Guardians spend a lot less than the Reds, yet still manage to avoid half-decade stretches of abject, intentional failure. This is what has turned the fans vs the Castellinis. We trusted them to execute a tear-down rebuild after 2013, and it went pretty badly. The benefits from it were good for barely two seasons of decent MLB-level baseball. Now it's back to sucking and bailing crap contracts by attaching good players to them and resulting in a worse roster overall.
The Castellinis meddle. They extend players they cannot afford because they were awful at developing in-house talent to replace them. Up until very recently, they stank at developing starting pitching. Their trades this year were unintelligible from a baseball standpoint, and made them look inept and silly.
If they committed to 90-120 mil payroll as they have in the past, that more than enough to compete IF they are shrewd at baseball operations and trades/development/free agency. Unfortunately, they are morons and end up shelling out to dudes like a washed Moose, and overmatched Shogo, and swap out identical deals from Miley to Minor that make zero sense.
I wish they could spend like the Yankees, but I really wish they'd just be better with their decisions. Better yet, hire a non-family stooge for a GM and let him rip. Keep your hands off of the baseball side and stop embarrassing yourselves.
