“It’s finally over,” most Reds fans are saying. The Cincinnati Reds have relieved their manager’s duties, David Bell is no more, per C Trent of The Athletic. There’s a lot of things to say, a lot of things to write, some good, some…scary. I’m going to go into depth with some stuff I didn’t necessarily like about David Bell.
The Monotone, Boring Voice
There was truly nothing more bewildering than watching the Reds blow a lead and then listening to David Bell’s pressers afterward. The lack of…care? Accountability? There was just a ton of questions. The amount of fights I got into on Twitter with other Reds fans about this, too. Truly no one made my blood boil worse than Bell after the game.
The Lack Of Real Preparation
It felt like the team went into Spring Training unprepared, it felt like they went into divisional games unprepared, it felt like Bell’s teams cared more about who won the 3 point contest in Spring Training than they cared about winning MLB games. It seemed like there was no real good scouting report posted and plans were rarely executed. The amount of times folks would get thrown out on the basepaths, or the amount of errors the team would make with no discipline. Maddening.
If you want further proof of the above, how about David Bell answering Charlie Goldsmith’s question about the Reds not making the playoffs again? WILD. And as some have pointed out, perhaps this was the final straw.
Lying Through His Teeth About Injuries
Look, folks. I was the biggest hater of this, for sure, but a lot of you agreed with me. I CANNOT STAND the way he lies about injuries. There’s no competitive gain in this sport when it comes to it, it’s not football, where if a star RB is out/hurt, you can lie and make the team gameplan a different way. My god it drove me insane. He knew Christian Encarnacion-Strand was hurt the 2nd time and would miss the season. He knew Jeimer Candelario was hurt.
Never Using The Hot Hand
How many times did we see David Bell call on the wrong guy from the bullpen when baseball is a momentum game? I can cite 10 times in 2021 alone… the lack of feel for the game was actually insane. Lucas Sims got chance after chance, Tyler Stephenson would sit the bench after a 3 hit game, list goes on…
Lineup Construction
For a long time, this was one of David Bell’s biggest weakpoints. I actually thought he was more conservative in 2024, and provided some more consistency. But in years prior, the lineup was just straight garbage.
What was your least favorite thing about David Bell?
