I don’t know if the Reds are going to wait out the end of Dusty Baker’s contract, extend him, or cut it mercifully short, but it’s been a constant source of discussion lately, and apparently even on Baker’s own mind. From Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports.com (HT Rocktman):

Reds manager Dusty Baker asked management about a contract extension, according to a major-league source, but evidently the team is not yet ready to decide upon his future.

Baker, in the last year of his deal, could be replaced if the Reds continue to flounder.

What I do know is that I was taken by surprise when the Reds hired Baker, and I don’t want to again find myself in the position of coming to terms with a new manager before I had a chance to talk about my needs. Baseball *is* all about my needs, after all.

So today I’m beginning with the first in a five-part series about what I see as the requirements for a manager of the Reds. Hopefully someone in the front office will hear my prayers and find a candidate that matches my exacting specifications, just like they did in Mary Poppins.

These requirements are generic and are not intended to endorse or condemn any particular candidate. Any resemblance to the opposite of any current manager are purely coincidental.

Requirement #1: Open Mindedness
I think a good manager should be open-minded about evaluating performance and deciding courses of action. A person who stubbornly insists that “his gut” or “his stats” or “his tarot cards” is the only source of information worth paying attention to is limiting himself unnecessarily.

Beware of managers who try to assess talent based entirely on facial structure, as well as those who have never looked up from the spreadsheet long enough to notice the player’s face.

Interview questions to ask to check for Open Mindedness:

Question: Tell me how you construct a line-up.

Good answer: I’ll consider numbers like OBP, though I also like putting my faster guys near the top and taking the pressure off the new guys by putting them down a little lower.

Bad answer: Well, everyone knows that it has to start with CF, then SS, regardless of the kind of hitter they are or how they’re doing.

Tune in tomorrow when we talk about the benefits of hiring a former crappy player to be your manager.

The Reds are traveling to Houston and are apparently too jet-lagged from the one-hour time zone difference to be able to take the field today. Normally, Monday nights are when we take in the Indianapolis Indians (and their Monday night dollar menu), but alas, they are visiting the fine town of Louisville where Travis Wood has held them scoreless over 3.

Wherever shall I get my baseball fix today?? I contemplated staring at my wallpaper for three hours, but I decided that might make me a little creepy.

Instead, I checked out the email being sent to me by the Reds. Today they are advertising that the Cubs are coming to town May 7-9, and May 8 will be team photo day. As an added bonus, they want to remind me that there is an All-You-Can-Eat section in the ballpark, where you can bring your friends and loved ones to gorge themselves on hot dogs, peanuts, and…medical waste?

Maybe I’ll check out the blogs. Slyde has written a tome about Aaron Harang’s pitches, but at least it’s got more pictures than my Operations Management homework, which is what I’m ultimately trying to forget exists with this rambling.

After the comedy of errors that the Reds subjected us to yesterday, Dusty Baker declined to talk to the media and instead held a closed-door meeting with the team. After said meeting, Brandon Phillips was heard to say, “we deserved what we got,” so we presume he gave them a piece of his mind. And possibly a piece of his toothpick if he wasn’t careful.

It’s traditional for organizations to respond to poor performance with a reprimand. On a second or third offense, someone may even lose their job. But these days smart companies know that what’s important is not making people pay for failing to meet expectations, but rather identifying the root cause of the problem and creating a plan to prevent it from happening again.

For example, calling the team into the board room so you can scream at them is the appropriate plan if the reason they’re sucking is because they’re going deaf and couldn’t hear your instructions before you raised your voice. Or, maybe if they are playing badly because they just didn’t understand how important it was to you that they do well.

But if the reason that the team can’t seem to remember how to run the bases is because they haven’t practiced running the bases for three weeks, maybe running a couple drills is in order. If the reason opposing pitchers last the whole game is because the team needs to appreciate patience, then maybe installing a zen garden is the way to go. If the reason the team is failing to perform to the level of their talent is lack of leadership, then ahem there probably isn’t much more you can do than blow your top and hope for the best.

Boxscore

And by Cubs, I mean my son’s third-grade little league team.

There have been very few bright spots to the Reds season thus far. Today’s game didn’t provide any. Shoddy, unfocused play was the theme for the day. Starting pitcher Johnny Cueto assumed the third out of an inning and jogged into the tag when Drew Stubbs hustled down the line to beat the throw. And then 2 other times, the Reds’ last out of the inning was from a runner getting caught in a rundown. Not to mention the embarrassing scene when Stubbs caught a fly ball to center and threw it into the stands, thinking it was the third out. It was the second.

The Reds never scored, being shutout for the first time of the year. They managed only 4 hits off the San Diego Padres, but their lack of strike-zone judgment got them 7 strikeouts to just 2 walks. Dusty Baker has even called out the team for striking out too much, although his solution seems to be to swing more. “You have no chance if you don’t swing,” he said, upset by a called third strike on Chris Dickerson to end Friday’s game.

Baker’s teams always seem to have problems with strikeouts. I blame his “be aggressive” philosophy that Cubs fans grew to loathe. With the team’s dismal 7-11 start–and given the heroics required for that record, we could very easily be looking at a 4-14 or 2-16 start–broadcasters and reporters seem to be getting more critical of Baker and the team’s approach. We’ll see if that concern ever reaches those that matter and could greatly improve this team by firing Baker.

Until then, we’ll have to suffer through terrible line-ups, tons of strikeouts, and lots of losses. With it being so early, 2010 is starting to look like a very long year.