LaRussa should be on the hot seat

BREAKING NEWS: JOE MADDON OUT; Phil Nevin named interim manager, per MLB Network.

There's not much reason to think anything would be radically different for the Angels if they had gone with Showalter. Showalter may (or may not) be a better manager than Maddon but the main issue in LA has been talent development and acquisition. Maybe Showalter would have been better for Adell (pretty lost) and Marsh (standard struggling for now) but Maddon has done fine by Walsh and has been creative with Ohtani. Neither Maddon nor Showalter was going to turn the pig's ear pitching staff into a silk purse the last three easons. Anyway, under Maddon, the Angels have been 10 (in just 60), 18 and now 8.5 (in just 56) games behind -- so (a) yeah, it definitely ain't working but (b) I don't think any manager was gonna make that big of a difference.

The Angels are the AL version of the Phillies.

Now that Maddon's out, clearly the answer is Girardi to the Angels, and Maddon to the Phillies.

That list of managers - almost all of them should be fired: Lovullo, Matheny, Martinez, Mattingly, Bell. All of them are lousy from what I've seen of them. The other guys listed should have more rope.

The Post changed the headline to say Maddon instead of Girardi.

Angels should look at firing the GM. Lets be real here - the top line talent is there but the supporting cast isn't. When your everyday shortstop is a 43 OPS+ lifetime guy who you got off waivers last winter you aren't going to win. When the farm is ranked 28th out of 30 in MLB you aren't going to win. No playoff appearances since 2014, 7th straight year of sub 500 ball right now. 2015 is the last time they finished a season within 10 games of first. I just checked and their current GM inherited Maddon when he took over between 2020 and 2021. So I can see giving him more rope, but not a lot more. If I ran a ML team I'd be talking with the Angels about a deal right now as I see the GM as being on thin ice and needing to make a splash of some kind.

It is quite sad to see a team with the money and stars be so unable to add whatever they need to win. Reminds me of the Jays of the early 00's with Carlos Delgado, Roy Halladay, and Vernon Wells (among others) but unable to win 90 in a season, then letting Delgado leave as a free agent (7.6 WAR after leaving), Wells they dumped (-0.2 WAR post leaving), Halladay they traded (perfect game, playoff no-hitter, Cy Young award, 2nd in Cy voting, all in his first 2 years away then injuries and done). Part of me wonders when the Angels will decide to try to dump Trout and Ohtani - hopefully not but one can't help but wonder. I prefer stars to stay with teams as that is better for baseball imo. I hated having George Brett beat my Jays but couldn't imagine him ever playing for anyone but KC back in the 80's. Same for Ripken with the O's for example. I hated seeing Pujols as an Angel, among others moving.

I gave myself the manager quiz the other day ... I think I only named about 20 with another one or two I should have gotten. I didn't know Matheny was in KC, can't even remember now who's in Det, probably woulda forgot the Cards' guy (again!) if the Cubs weren't playing them at the time.

I think Matheny is getting canned too. The team looks listless, the fans are restless. They're bad, but they have young talent and they're wasting them. They have a new owner so let's see if he has the balls to overrule Dayton Moore.

Matheny, Mattingly, Martinez, Bell, and Servais are all actively hurting their teams, but I think only the first two are in imminent danger. The Reds are tanking, Martinez won a World Series, and Servais had the surprise 90 wins last year; those three will likely linger until September.

The Nats roster is awful - they have Maikel Franco and Alcides Escobar starting. Its amazing Martinez has won 21 games.

Stephen Strasburg returns to start Thursday’s game for the Nationals. Keep hope alive.

I don't think the Reds are tanking. They are something like 16-14 over their last 30. They are creeping back to respectability and have a better shot at .500 than losing a 100 games which looked inevitable.

They don't have a bad team at all.

I don't think the Reds are tanking. They are something like 16-14 over their last 30. They are creeping back to respectability and have a better shot at .500 than losing a 100 games which looked inevitable.

They don't have a bad team at all.

Even Votto's looked more like the Votto of old since coming off the IL. .298/.420/.719 with 7 doubles, 1 triple and 5 HR in 69 PA. He's brought his OPS up from .413 to .729.

The Reds gave Wade Miley away and are playing young guys and scrubs, I don't know that they're tanking, but they weren't trying to compete either. But you're right, the team is not awful, especially if some of the youngsters improve this year. I'm really surprised how non-awful the Pirates are. Derek Shelton is manager of the year.

I don't think the Reds are tanking. They are something like 16-14 over their last 30. They are creeping back to respectability and have a better shot at .500 than losing a 100 games which looked inevitable.

They don't have a bad team at all.

The Reds are terrible and won't be near .500 at season's end. Are you the same person who kept claiming that the Diamondbacks weren't a bad team last year?

LaRussa should be on the hot seat

He's not getting attention nationally, but locally there are some very vocally loud people calling for his head. But realistically, he's not in danger as long as Jerry is alive.

Yes, the Reds have been 500 the last month and even against some good teams. It's called a good stretch. Of course they weren't gonna challenge the Spiders but all this good baseball has brought their overall WP up to 364.

current and career OPS+s

Almora 101 82
Drury 121 87
Reynolds 101 75 (already waived once this year)
Farmer 105 84

Those guys are 28, 29, 31 and 31 so no reason to believe they've found some new level of production. Votto (in terms of overall) and Aquino are the only guys we might expect to hit better than they are (Aquino could hardly be worse). The bench is abysmal so even with those over-performances, the team OPS+ is 84 and there's no reason to expect a substantial improvement.

The pitching staff also looks poor. Mahle's a better pitcher than that, Greene should improve some with experience but Castillo is pretty likely to get traded. Greene's only 22, threw just 106 innings last year, none officially in 2020 although I assume he was at their facility and he missed all of 2019 ... Will the Reds shut him down come Aug/Sept? Only two relievers are having a good season. Jeff Hoffman might be the latest struggling starter to find success in the pen; Alexis Diaz is yet another guy who K'd 13/9 in the minors. With 28 and 25 IP respectively at 1/3 of the season, the Reds are leaning a bit too heavily on those guys.

All told there are only 5-6 guys you'd want on your roster if you were a competing team. That's probably more than the Cubs and Pirates so I won't be surprised if the Reds pass those two ... but the 23-33 Cubs are actually carrying a 102 OPS+ and a 98 ERA+. Both the Reds and Cubs are about league average in scoring but that's largely park factor in the Reds case while the Cubs offensive numbers and solid run differential are still heavily affected by 21-0, 9-0 and 7-0 wins over the Pirates. Both, along with the Pirates, are among the worst in runs allowed.

Cubs v Reds 2-2
Cubs v Pitt 4-5
Reds v Pitt 4-3

Naturally, the Pirates are 5-1 against the Dodgers but 0-6 against the Brewers. The Reds are 0-4 against the Dodgers and 0-6 vs the Padres. The best the Cubs can claim is 5-5 against the Brewers but they haven't been crushed by anybody yet (0-3 against Dodgers). Three pretty equally crappy teams and the fate of each largely boils down to whose AAAA players continue to surprise and who trades away the most productive players.

Wow ... ALE 49-25 vs ALW

The reds suffer from depth issues. They simply can't replace players with anyone any good if they get hurt. I still think they could be a .500 team but they are likely to sell off the players that would get them there.

I thought the D-backs had a good team last year. Still do. They were beset by underperformance and injury. Plus they played in a division with three 100 wins teams (on average ). This years performance with largely the same team is more representative of where I thought they were.

BTW, the Reds have been proven right on Miley. He was hurt, they knew it, and they let him go instead of being 10% of their payroll. The cubs also made a good move picking him up. They have more money to spend and he still might given them half a season

Miley will pitch Friday night for Cubs.

Reds have ROY 2B India on the shelf and three hot prospects at MI. Farmer and Drury would be decent backups all over.

but I agree that they trade Castillo, and the bullpen is a dumpster fire. so I wouldn't get too excited.

I thought the D-backs had a good team last year. Still do. They were beset by underperformance and injury. Plus they played in a division with three 100 wins teams (on average ). This years performace with largely the same team is more representative of where I thought they were.

Ha ha. They were 52-110! There were two, not three, 100-win teams in their division - and they were 100-win teams because they got to feast on the terrible Diamondbacks! This year's performance is on pace for 74-88, which is obviously also not a good team.

I don't want to be gratuitously mean-spirited, but they had the most losses in the NL in like 60 years so if you think they were a good team, you might want to see a doctor.