A Different Drum
I hinted about this last week, but now David Kaplan over at Chicago Now (whatever that is) is taking it a bit further. He suggests that the Cubbies should make a run for Tony LaRussa (and/or Dave Duncan) in the off-season.
But, but… I thought Lou Pinella was the answer for the Cubbies. Never mind that.
If LaRussa does decide to leave St. Louis, there are a number of teams who would love to have his services.
Now, my opinion might be a tad bit biased, but I think LaRussa/Duncan-to-Cincinnati makes the most sense. While I would love to have both, I’ll gladly take one of the two. If had to choose, I’d take LaRussa to manage, but if we land Duncan as pitching coach, I’ll be happy with that, too. However, the argument of choosing one over the other is probably moot because it sounds like where one goes the other will follow.
Right now I think the chances of LaRussa/Duncan (I’ll just consider them a package deal) coming to Cincinnati are about as good as Dusty Baker winning manager of the year this season.
Want to know why?
Because getting LaRussa and Duncan here makes perfect sense. That’s why it will never happen.
A couple of years ago the Reds were clearly starting a youth-movement, and who do they hire — Dusty Baker. A man famous for not being a fan of playing youngsters over veterans.
A couple of years ago the Reds had a (supposed) up-and-coming young pitching staff. Who do they hand the reigns over to — Dick Pole. A man who has seen his pitching staff digress rather than improve.
It seems so simple.
- Bring in Tony LaRussa, a man with a proven history of embracing and developing young players, and have him be the man to try to get the Cincinnati Reds back on course. The Reds would (finally) have a respected manager, which could possibly attract some free agents. If it doesn’t attract free agents, it could very well encourage younger players to stay in Cincinnati when their contracts are up.
- Dave Duncan has done wonders with the St. Louis pitching staff. Wonders. Period. What else needs to be said? Someone needs to be brought in now to correct the errors on this pitching staff before it’s too late to correct them. I think Dave Duncan is that man.
Or we can just stick with the status quo — Dusty Baker — next season, which is precisely what the Reds are going to do.
A couple years ago they hired Dusty Baker, a man known for not playing youngsters over veterans.Then they hire Walt Jocketty,another man known for trading youth for veterans, riding itself of Wayne K. who if nothing else was a good evaluator of YOUNG talent, not quit sure where you got the youth movement thing from,seems to me the reds are playing more youth now (Bruce,Votto once he proved to be more valueable than Hattiburg,stuck with EE like it or not..bye (Joe Randa) EV,Jonny Ceuto,even Homer. Ryan Hannigan as back-up,Paul Janish,back up, that’s a lot of youth in the last two years.The one posistion that fills your description is CF Corey Travaras, over Cris Dickerson.I’d love to get Duncan and Larussa here but not because they will play the younger guys,but because they will teach and play them correctly.
If the Reds really want Dave Duncan as pitching coach in 2010 they’ll sign his recently released son, Chris, to at least a minor league deal yesterday. It’s a Bob/Aaron Boone-type deal, you have the player, daddy comes following…only with a much, much better daddy as a coach (and for what it’s worth, probably a worse son as a player!).
I think TLR deserves a lot of credit for what he’s done in St. Louis, but…
He had Mark McGwire when he was more juiced than the starburst factory and now has Albert Pujols. I won’t go into the Pujols drug question because I don’t think that’s fair, but it’s easy to say that Pujols is the best player in the game and has at least been the best in the NL over the past 5 seasons.
Phil Jackson and Bill Bellichick are also great coaches. I’d like to see where they’d be without MJ, Kobe, and Brady. I don’t know how many miracles TLR can pull if he left St. Louis without a superman hitter.
I realize that LaRussa isn’t a miracle worker, but do you want to know why I like him — because he’s not Dusty Baker.
Hey, is this real? Do we really have a chance of getting LaRussa? These are my damn Reds. Stop giving me false hopes.
btw, “A Different Drum”, your title for this funathon, was written by, you guessed it, Michael Nesmith (yes of the Monkees) – Linda Rondstat’s first hit. Do yourself a favor and check out Nez’s solo stuff. Videoranch.com. Good stuff.