Reds Country, Your 2023 Manager of the Year

Get past your irrational dislike of David Bell

Manager of the Year

*

There’s a very interesting piece now on the baseball stats-centric website Fangraphs. How should media heathens charged with voting for Managers of the Year judge the candidates? Voting for MVP, say, is far easier. The numbers are front and center, blowing trumpet fanfares.

Acuna Jr. or Betts?

Judging skippers is necessarily more subjective. Managing people is subtle business. Managers must walk a minefield of media, ownership and players, and that’s before a single lineup can be questioned or a late-inning pitching choice reviled.

Winning matters, but not much. The Dodgers Dave Roberts wins a lot. He hasn’t won MOY since 2016.

Doing well with limited means, means a lot. But it’s not the litmus. If it were, Tampa’s Kevin Cash would win it every year in the AL.

So. . . what then?

Fangraphs posed the question to multiple Baseball People, including several current or former managers. What was interesting was what they didn’t say. No one suggested filling out a lineup card was vital. No one offered that in-game tactics should carry heavy weight. Or any weight at all.

Said Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, a leading AL MOY hopeful, “The bottom line for me is effort on the field.”

Fangraphs:

To former Rangers manager and current Diamondbacks bench coach Jeff Banister, any Manager of the Year should lead a team that displays “consistent effort, execution, preparation and energy.”

Who dealt with injuries? A low payroll? An unproven roster? “The first thing I’d look at,” said former Padres manager Andy Green, now bench coach with the Cubs, “is who overcame a great measure of adversity to be in the thick of the race.”

Former Reds skipper Bryan Price mentioned “hidden things that should drive the award.” That is, the battles a manager must wage behind the scenes while also making sure everyone — ownership, management, players — is rowing the same oars.

It’s hard enough to run a locker room without having to manage other elements of the operation, too.

Considering all the above, I’d ask youse to do one thing:

Put away your David Bell voodoo dolls and give the man his due.

Injuries? Check.

Low payroll? Check, check.

Unproven roster? Check, check, check.

Can you fault the Club’s “effort, execution, preparation and energy’’? Mental Es are to be expected when the average age of your players is somewhere between Senior Prom and First Legal Beer. Most of those mistakes have been aggressive mistakes. learning-curve stuff.

Often, the most important criterion for managerial success is fit. The young and improving Reds of the late ‘80s needed a little Fear of God to push them across the threshold. Come on down, Lou.

These Reds needed Bell’s understated steadiness and his unwavering belief in them. He let them define themselves. His lack of ego made their cockiness possible and advantageous. Managers set tones. That’s what they do, and it means more than where Run-DLC bats in the order.

And we haven’t even discussed the pitching-staff craziness.

David Bell deserves heavy MOY consideration. No team has exceeded more expectations or played harder. No manager has dealt with more stuff. Surely, you don’t give the hardware to Atlanta’s Brian Snitker and his traveling all-star team. Craig Counsell deserves a look. He deserves a look every year. He also has Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff.

Bell had Lodolo and Greene. Until he didn’t.

Roberts won’t win, again. Skip Schumaker (Miami) might, but he’s done no better than David Bell. You Bell bashers best prep yourselves for the unpleasant fact that David Bell is a Top 3 MOY candidate.

Tell me I’m wrong.

Now, then. . .

*

STICK TO SPORTS. . . Ten percent of US autoworkers are now on strike. Workers at Ford, GM and Stellantis (Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Chrysler) left their jobs at midnight. They made big concessions during the ‘08 Recession. While executives have profited handsomely since, workers have fallen behind. They’d like to make that up.

Union leaders want a 36 percent wage increase over four years. They say that’s in line with similar recent pay increase for top executives.

What say you?

I’ve worked at papers with unions and without. I’ve seen the biggest paper in Pittsburgh, the Press, fold up because the delivery drivers union and the parent company couldn’t make a deal. Scripps Howard closed the Press rather than cut a deal.

I understand the absolute need for representation of the rank and file. This country has made a lifetime habit of exploiting its workers. I know that the proliferation of unions — and strikes — helped create the vaunted and envied American Middle Class that bloomed in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

I know, too, that corporate profits and executive pay are through the roof. If you’re looking for a reason for inflation, look no further.

The steel unions got greedy at exactly the wrong time. Their members had good jobs and lived comfortably. Six weeks vacation, OT pay etc. They asked for too much at a time when the price for foreign steel was undercutting them.

I’m all for the autoworkers walking out. I hope they’re reasonable about it.

AND NOW. . .

HEY MICHELLE! offers you weekend alternatives to sitting in front of the Idiot Box. (That’s what my mom called the television.)

Cincinnati Ballet ~ Kaplan New Works Series Friday 7:30, Saturday 2 & 7:30, Sunday 1:00 at the Aronoff it runs through the 24th. This is such a powerful and energetic performance. 

Zinzinnati Oktoberfest ~ Friday & Saturday 11-11, Sunday 10-7 This year it’s on 5th St. Prost! Running of the Wieners is Friday 11:30-2, Stein Hoist Friday 5:30, Best Dressed, Chicken Dance, Bengal Pep Rally and so much more

USS Nightmare ~ The scariest boat around opens Friday.. grab tickets online. It’s docked at 101 Riverboat Row in Newport… if you dare!

KC and the Sunshine Band 7:30 Friday at the Hard Rock Casino

City Flea ~ Washington Park our biggest outdoor shopping event is going on Saturday 10-4

Bengals home opener against the Ravens! ~ Hit downtown for all the pre party fun! The banks will be Rockin and The Moerlein House will have a huge very interactive party with giveaways, live music, photo ops, beer pong and more.

Great Parks Hispanic Heritage Festival ~ Sunday 3-7 at Sharon Woods

Cones for a Cure ~ now through the 17th Visit your neighborhood Graeter’s and if you donate $5 or more you’ll get a coupon booklet worth over $25! Helping raise awareness and funding for pediatric cancer research.

Michelle Jones

www.heymichelle-help.com

Blogs about Cincinnati & travel 

IMBIBER DAVE puts some Shine on diner eats.

It’s time to revisit one of the unspoken heroes of the imbibing community. I need to show some love for the quintessential American diner.

Think about it. You can basically be anywhere in our great nation, and with a smartphone you can type basic words like gas, coffee, or diner into your maps app and boom you are off and running.

Now my go-to is the random joint I’ve never heard of, but has been well reviewed. Sure we have plenty of decent diner chains here in the city, but to me these are the bowling alley with bumpers protecting the gutters. You know it’s more fun when you accept a little risk, right?

So after a great round of golf on the West Side this week, we decided to grab something to eat, and the magic eight ball suggested we check out the West Shine Family Restaurant. Now I have family in this area and have been on this road hundreds of times. I’ve never even seen this building much less ventured inside.

It was of course full and bustling. Awesome sign. When I saw the Grippo crusted chicken sandwich I knew it had to be mine. Yes it was awesome. In fact everything on the menu looked amazing. My buddy’s goetta breakfast sandwich looked pretty righteous too.

Imbibing on an empty stomach can be a blast!

Cheers!
cincybeerguydave@gmail.com

*

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Musical tastes change. While I have my steadies — bands and solo artists I loved half a century ago and just as much today — I also look back at some of my musical choices as a high school kid and grimace.

I mean, Meat Loaf? The Archies?

No group personifies this lapse it taste more than these guys. I loved BTO in, like, 11th grade. Now? I can stomach Takin’ Care of Business, but the rest of the catalog, yuck. That would include this slice of Neanderthal-ism.

Your unfortunate choices, please.

Here's what team reporter Maddy Glab said in the video, which has more than 13 million views:

"There’s no control over Stefon Diggs. Dude's gonna do what he wants to do. He’ll look in my face and say f*** you … that’s how he treats everybody."

In the first of five posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, Diggs described the audio as "insulting to my character and to how I was raised."