FanHouse PeteMackanin

Dusty Baker announced part of his coaching staff today, saying that he's going to be keeping Brook Jacoby (hitting coach), Billy Hatcher (first base coach), Mark Berry (third base coach), and Dick Pole (blogger punchline, pitching coach) from the Jerry Narron/Pete Mackanin staff. While it's mildly interesting that Dusty is keeping so many guys from the old regime around, I thought this quote was the most interesting:

"I read where Adam Dunn said he had four hitting coaches in four years or something like that," Baker said. "That's not what you want. It takes time to get trust. In today's society, young people distrust authority. You have to build trust. You can't change coaches every year."

It's interesting in that he actually mentions Adam Dunn by name because first off, the Reds have yet to officially pick up Dunn's option, and secondly, people have been wondering how well Dusty will get along with Dunn, who doesn't exactly fit the mold of players Baker likes to manage. Still, by mentioning Dunn specifically, I think it's kind of Dusty's way of showing he's on Dunn's side, for now at least.

And while we're at it, there's still no word on whether Pete Mackanin will be offered a coaching spot or if he'll have to try and find a job elsewhere. Whether you like the hiring of Dusty or not, I think we can all agree that the Reds could've handled the Mackanin situation a lot better than they did.

What they did was they left a trail of toothpicks from an ESPN broadcast booth all the way to Cincinnati. It was only a matter of time before Dusty showed up at the office.

After getting a year off thanks to the Cubs firing him, Dusty Baker will end his short foray into broadcasting and rejoin the ranks of the baseball manager. The Reds have hired him to replace Pete Mackanin as the team's manager.

The Reds have chosen Dusty Baker as their new manager and have signed him to a three-year contract, ESPN reported on Saturday night.

Baker, currently an ESPN baseball analyst, has 14 seasons of managerial experience with the Giants (1993-2002) and Cubs (2003-06) and is a three-time National League Manager of the Year. He will remain with ESPN until the end of the postseason.

The Reds are expected to formally introduce Baker during a press conference on Monday.

Baker, of course, is already familiar with the NL Central since he spent three years in Chicago managing the Cubs. I have no idea if he's going to be able to turn things around in Cincinnati, all I know is that Aaron Harang might want to get his arm insured, and that I'm thrilled I won't have to hear Baker calling games anymore.

If only he'd hire Joe Morgan as his bench coach.

That's the word on the street in Cincinnati, as confirmed by both the Cincinnati Enquirer and FOX Sports. Both outlets have sources claiming that Dusty Baker has interviewed with the club and is emerging as one of the top contenders.

You really can't argue with his resume: he's a three-time NL Manager of the Year and has had playoff success, even if he doesn't have a World Series ring to show for it. Plus, the Reds have a stable of promising young pitchers just waiting to have their arms destroyed. (Unsolicited fantasy advice: if you're in a keeper league, start taking offers now for Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo and Homer Bailey ...)

I kind of feel bad for Pete Mackanin, who did an admirable job as interim manager after Jerry Narron was canned halfway through the year. Granted, the Reds still finished the year in fifth place, but they went a respectable 41-39 under Mackanin. If he could get the Reds to perform like that over a full season, they'd be within sniffing distance of a playoff berth (remember, this is the NL Central that we're talking about).

It's pretty much common courtesy in baseball to make personnel decisions pretty early on into the off-season. If a team is going to fire someone, it happens fast (see: Jim Tracy). Teams do things that way because jobs are filled just as quickly as they're opened and it's pretty rude to hold on to someone until they can't get another job. Meanwhile the Reds haven't made any movement towards filling their managerial position and it's leaving interim manager Pete Mackanin in an awkward situation:

"I haven't heard a thing," Mackanin said Friday from his home in Bradenton, Fla. "I'm twisting in the wind."

Mackanin is hoping to go from Reds interim manager to permanent manager. He met briefly with general manager Wayne Krivsky after the final game Sunday.

"He told me he wanted to get done with (the managerial search) as soon as possible," Mackanin said.

As the Enquirer points out, this is a particularly bad spot for Mackanin to be in because I'm sure he'd love to keep his Reds' job, but if he can't, I'm sure he'd love to try and get a job somewhere else (like Pittsburgh). Still, he's kind of tied to the Reds' job until they make a movement either way.

I feel bad for Pete Mackanin. Over 80 games as interim manager, he lead the Reds to a 41-39 record, which was impressive given the team's awful start under Jerry Narron. During that time he's seen less successful interim guys like Dave Trembley and Cecil Cooper get promoted to full time gigs running teams while he's stuck waiting for the Reds' front office to make a decision, which they seem to be in no hurry to do.

The Reds have started the process to find a manager. Beyond that, they aren't saying much other than interim manager Pete Mackanin is among the candidates.

"I've said all I'm going to say about it," general manager Wayne Krivsky said. "It's not something I want to take daily calls on."

"No comment," CEO Bob Castellini said.

Krivsky did tell Mackanin the club is going to look at outside candidates.

[...]

"We're trying to get the best person," he said. "It could very well be Pete Mackanin."

The rampant rumor is, of course, that the Reds are waiting for Tony La Russa to decide his fate in St. Louis. They can't comment on La Russa while he's employed by St. Louis, but since they've had since mid-season to fill this position with someone that isn't Mackanin, it's pretty clear that they're waiting on someone that's currently employed. Call me crazy, but I really doubt it's Jim Tracy.

When Pete Mackanin took over the Reds for Jerry Narron back in the middle of the summer, I didn't really think twice about it. Knowing that Mackanin was the Pirates' interim manager in 2005 and that he didn't get even a second look to take the job permanently, I kind of assumed the situation in Cincy was going to similar. But since Mackanin has taken the reigns, the Reds are 40-32 and have the best record in the NL Central. Owner Bob Castellini has been so impressed that it's now Mackanin's job to lose ... probably.

"If we can get a couple of pitching holes filled, we can have a dynamite team for next year," he said. "The club has responded to Pete. If we go in another direction, we have to find someone else they respond to.

"Pete's made a case for himself."

[...]

Still, Mackanin has gone from a strictly interim choice to a leading candidate for the job. The wild card in the manager situation is Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. Castellini was part of the ownership group in St. Louis and knows La Russa.

If La Russa does not return to St. Louis - and it's been widely speculated that he won't - it's likely that the Reds will at least talk to him.

You know what? If I played for the Reds and played for Mackanin the second half of this year and saw all the good things that have happened since he took over, only to see the Reds hire La Russa on reputation, I'd be pretty freaking pissed.

Interim manager has got to be a tough gig. If you're taking over for a fired manager, chances are pretty good you're inheriting a pretty crappy team. They're then left with a pretty small sample size of a season to prove that they're good enough to keep the job. If they finish strong, expectations are often too high. If they finish badly, they can be unfairly pushed out the door. Pete Mackanin is in such a position in Cincy right now. He wants to lose the interim tag, but only if the Reds think he deserves it and not because of the Reds' torrid play since he took the job:

"I feel like I'm in the mix, and I feel like I'm doing as much as I can to help my chances," he said. "I wouldn't want them to have a knee-jerk reaction to that. If and when they do hire me, I'll feel real good about it, instead of just as a reaction.

"I don't think (CEO) Bob Castellini's like that. I think he's going to think long and hard. That's fine with me. I don't want the job on a whim or a knee-jerk reaction because we play well for a week or two."

Mackanin may have trouble keeping his job just because of the bad track record of elevated interims of late. Sam Perlozzo and Jerry Narron, both fired this year, started out as interim managers. The man Narron replaced, Dave Miley, also started as the Reds' interim manager. It's possible new owner Bob Castelinni will just want a chance to start things over and I don't think anyone would blame him if he did, even with how the Reds have played under Mackanin.

As you can see, there's still no pictures of Mackanin in Reds' uniform on Getty. Maybe they're trying to tell Castelinni something.

You may be wondering just what "NL Central Syndrome" is, exactly. You've probably never heard of it before and that's because I just made it up. Still, I don't think that makes it any less real. There's really only one symptom of the disease: a delusional thought by a player, manager, coach, or executive that their team is better than they really are because their division is so bad it's created an illusion of competition. Many people around the Houston Astros have already been stricken with the disease. Now, Reds interim manager Pete Mackanin seems to have fallen victim:

"Who knows? You win eight, 10 in a row . . . look how far back the Cardinals were," Mackanin said.

[...]

"We're certainly playing better baseball," Mackanin said. "We keep doing that, and those two teams keep beating up on each other, and it might make it interesting."

The Reds are 15 games below .500. They are not good at baseball. They have no chance of contending in the Central this year. Still, they're only 9 games behind the first place Cubs, thus giving people like their interim manager hope. Ladies and gentlemen, I give to you a classic case of "NL Central Syndrome." Currently only the Pittsburgh Pirates and their fans are unaffected, though a three game winning streak would probably change that.

I kind of feel bad for Bob Brenly. He's from Ohio, working in the Cubs TV booth, and constantly reminding people that he'd like the Reds' semi-open managerial position, even though no one from the Reds seems to be paying attention. He said this once right after Jerry Narron was fired, and now that the Reds and Cubs are playing again, his name is resurfacing.

Former Arizona manager Bob Brenly, now working as a Chicago Cubs television analyst, said he has not heard from anyone from the Reds about their managerial opening.

But he would be interested.

"You're always interested," he said. "I'm an Ohio boy. I went to college in Ohio. I grew up as a fan of the Big Red Machine."

The Reds' next manager will likely depend on what owner Bob Castellini decides to do with general manager Wayne Krivsky this off-season. Krivksy is close friends with current interim-manager Pete Mackanin, who took over a Reds' team in July that was flat out awful and has had them playing slightly above .500 ball. If Castellini keeps his word and doesn't can Krivsky this off-season, it's probably a safe bet that he'll keep Mackanin in turn. If Krivsky gets the axe, well, someone might finally pay attention to Brenly.

Previously at FanHouse
Wayne Krivsky Gets a Vote of Confidence
Bob Brenly Is Interested, Are the Reds?

Being a copy editor at a newspaper must be a boring job. Read the stories, make sure they flow, make sure no one says anything stupid, etc. etc. The best part of the job has to be headline writing. It's even more fun if, say, the story is about someone with a funny name. If you don't have a player with a funny name, sometimes you just have to go with what's given to you. When Brandon Phillips hits a walk off single in the fifteenth inning to lead the Reds to a win, it makes a lot of Reds' fans happy at the end of the game. Thus, the Cincinnati Enquirer gives us this headline:

Phillips delivers happy ending

Now maybe my mind is just in the gutter here. In fact, that's probably the most likely explanation for everything. But still, don't you think that you'd make it your job as a copy editor to know all of the possible meanings of a phrase before you use it as a headline?

While we're at it, the Reds are on fire right now and so is Phillips. Since July 3rd, he's hitting .362 and slugging over .600 and the Reds are 8-3 since Pete Mackanin took over as manager, pulling them into a tie with the Astros for last place int he NL Central.