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I was given permission by the original author of this from elsewhere to post this here. This is from O'Brien's weekly radio chat on 1360 Homer in Cincy. He takes questions from Lance McAllister and answers fans' questions.
I thought I'd post this week's chat, because I think it could start some good discussion(Thanks to Joseph for this, even though I'm not sure you read here:
It’s week 6. We know how much trouble the team had with the number 6 in Colorado this past weekend, so let’s hope this is easier to stomach than those 6th innings in Denver.
On to the festivities:
Lance Segment:
Away we go, Inside the Front Office with Dan O’Brien. Hey, call in and get a 20$ gift card to Gameworks.
Up first they discuss the draft again with Dan and Terry Reynolds.
Lance mentions that they must be excited about Jay Bruce. Terry says you hate to put a 5-tool label on an 18 year old, but he’s and exciting young player whom they got a lot of looks at and he seemed mature and very professional.
Lance asks how they passed on a pitcher based on the state of pitching in the majors. Terry replies with the best player available no matter the position mantra, but that pitching was always a need no matter, and they put an emphasis on it later.
The 2nd round pick from Arkansas was talked about next. Terry said he [Wood I think] would be a person who wanted to play pro ball and they are getting close to getting him signed already.
Final question to Terry, Lance asks what the two day period is like due to volume of players involved. Terry says the team has two boards that are filled with over 600 names, but he said there is a break so you can pull names off, but that this year was slower because of a new computer system used by MLB.
The focus turns to Dan now and Lance asks about how much faith and trust he must put into Terry. Dan agrees and says he trusts Terry’s judgment.
Now on to the big league team and Wily Mo. Dan said it was sort of ironic being WMP bobble head night. He said Wily’s a threat anytime he swings the bat and he was missed very very much over the last few weeks. He said Austin was given a chance to play everyday, but now you had to give the edge to Wily Mo because Kearns didn’t do anything to impact the lineup.
Lance mentions Marty asking about Milton being removed from the rotation. Dan says Milton has not been discussed as far as being removed from the rotation. He said Gullett and Hume are looking at video to get his mechanics back.
Lance follows up with how tough it is to justify putting him out after the D’lo and Graves situations. Dan says you have to look back over his career and how consistent he’s been and both parks he pitched in previously were HR parks and he’s always had success, but there were some things that needed ironed out with his mechanics.
The topic of how Adam Dunn has been so vocal over the last few weeks [chairs, Houston, etc], is that a concern? Dan says he hasn’t addressed anything like that to Adam. He said Adam at times makes fun loving remarks and likes to joke and a lot of people view them as such.
Lance ask about the fact that Andersen Machado is close, what’s the timeline? Dan said Machado and Olmedo will be playing for AAA tomorrow. Team is very happy.
For the listeners, on the surface Machado seems like he isn’t the type player the Reds normally have. Dan says he’s not a multi dimensional SS ala Larkin, but he’s consistent on the defensive side. He also brings speed. He also suspects he’ll have to play small ball and will hit lower in the order.
Caller Segment:
Caller #1 asks for clarification about FeLo being a 2B down the road and why wouldn’t he just go ahead and make FeLo the 2B now if that was the case? Dan apologizes and says the staff feels he could have just as bright a future at 2B and was not a statement about his future position, just that it could be an option.
#2 caller asks when they would concede the season and bring up younger players. Dan says it’s a process about getting younger over time, like bringing up Hudson. He said you have to bring players up when they are ready and it’s a judgment call, but you couldn’t bring up young guys just for the sake of doing it.
Lance interjects by asking about the 40 man roster status. Dan says it’s always a factor, and you always have to manipulate the roster as best you can.
Tim asks Dan about judging Gullett over his performance Dan had mentioned in weeks past that 40 games wasn’t enough sample to judge Gullett, but the caller brought up past years and wanted to know when he’d be held accountable. Dan says there are always ongoing conversations with Don and Tom Hume about the staff, but there was no doubt that Don had the qualifications to be an outstanding teacher. He could not base decisions on things that happened before he arrived.
Bernie asks about rebuilding the team, and assuming that this isn’t the year for the playoffs when is, 2008, 2009, 2010? Dan says he wishes he had a crystal ball so he could say. He repeats the mandate he was given to rebuild the team and organization from top to bottom and it would take time.
Chris in Westchester brings up Milton and Ortiz and how they should maybe not use the pitch to contact. Dan says PTC is really a more elaborate discussion than they had time for. He mentioned Hudson was one of a few pitchers who could get a swing and a miss, but most pitchers the Reds had were not. He said the Twins also used the PTC philosophy and lead the league in least runs allowed.
Next caller mentions how Allen said losing is unacceptable, so how many more times do you send out Milton before it’s unacceptable to have him still playing? Dan said that’s up to Miley’s judgment over the progress he is making, but at some point it may come to taking him out and giving him a rest so to speak.
Last caller says that earlier Dan said you had to consider Milton’s previous track record when you keep him in the rotation, but why didn’t you have to consider Kearns and Aurilia’s previous record and keep them in the lineup? Dan said Kearns came up with a flash, but his subsequent performance hasn’t lived up to that. In terms of Aurilia he said it’s clear the FeLo is the SS now and the AB’s would reflect that going forward.
Lance follows up asking if there is a chance Kearns is still hurt. Dan says there is no indication based on test results or what Austin tells them. He said Austin takes a ton of extra swings everyday so there was no chance he was still injured.
Dan also adds that Tejeda is one of the best in baseball and if the fans had a chance they should come out and watch him play this weekend.
That’s all she wrote folks.
As always, forgive me for the typo's, enjoy.
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He repeats the same reponse over and over.
