The Nightcap

Despite the early struggles for the Cincinnati Reds this season, Bryan Price has been a refreshing change at the helm for the hometown team. Let's preference this with the fact that I personally liked Dusty Baker and stood up for him until the end, so this is not a bashing of Dusty but rather a deeper look at some of the actions by Price that may not have occurred if he weren't leading.

The first change that Price made which is very un-Dusty was to acknowledge in Spring Training that he would not hesitate to bat Jay Bruce behind Joey Votto despite both swinging from the left side and that he did not buy into the idea that left handed pitchers should only be used out of the bullpen for left handed batters. Price has used Manny Parra on multiple occasions, currently as I write this, to pitch an entire inning regardless of who is swinging, and guess what: it's working.

Price again showed his differences when being interviewed after the Mets' walk-off grand slam win against the Reds in New York. Price was asked about a defensive decision by Joey Votto on a sacrifice bunt opportunity in which Votto tried to get the lead runner as opposed to taking the out. The  response from a clearly ticked off and emotional Price was along the lines of, "I don't care who would have got out. I care that we did not get anyone out. I care that we walked the guy to start the inning." This is quite the contrary reaction to recent seasons in which Baker most likely would have responded in a manner such as, "Well, you got to let guys try to make plays and sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't but you can't punish a guy for playing hard" While its easy to like the support that Baker showed his players at all times, it is very refreshing to see a manager clearly disappointed in mistakes by his players and holding them accountable.

As the Reds offense, and team in general, was struggling Price decided it was time to move Joey Votto up to the two hole in the lineup. (As I am typing all of this Thom and The Cowboy are stating pretty much everything I have researched) Since the switch on Saturday, the Reds have scored 26 runs and Votto is 8-14 with 2 home runs, a double and 5 RBI. Does this mean that the lineup switch suddenly triggered all of these things? Most likely not, but at least Price was willing to give it a shot.