Reds manager Bryan Price ready to take the helm

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<section class="storytopbar-bucket story-headline-module" id="module-position-NCwL6viUL0o">[h=1]Reds manager Bryan Price ready to take the helm[/h]</section><section class="storytopbar-bucket story-byline-module" id="module-position-NCwL6vlFWNQ"> Bob McManaman, azcentral sports 11:38 p.m. EDT March 14, 2014
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Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price is a rookie manager this season, replacing Dusty Baker.<meta content="" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Photo: Christopher Hanewinckel/USA TODAY Sports)
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Bryan Price remembers that last bus drive from the airport to Chase Field in May 2009. It felt a little more like a funeral procession than a baseball club returning home from an early-season road trip.
"We knew what was happening before it actually happened," said Price, the Diamondbacks' pitching coach at the time. "Well, a few of us did."
What happened was this: The Diamondbacks had just lost their third consecutive game, 3-1 at Dodger Stadium to drop their record to 11-16. Amid a growing disconnect, General Manager Josh Byrnes informed manager Bob Melvin that a change was going to be made and Melvin would be out.
The firing would be announced formally, he was told, when the Diamondbacks returned to Phoenix. But the team still had two games to play in San Diego.
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"Bob managed those two games in San Diego before he was fired, knowing he was going to be fired when we got home," Price recalled. "When we came down that back road into the stadium, it was lined with TV trucks so everyone knew except the players and most of the coaching staff. It was only Bob, Gibby (bench coach Kirk Gibson) and myself that knew what was happening."
You know the rest of the story. Byrnes appointed A.J. Hinch as the new manager. Melvin was sent packing. Price, who had been Melvin's pitching coach for two years in Seattle and was on his third season with him in Arizona, resigned out of protest.
When Price looks back at it now, he can reflect with a much more positive view. Five years later, things actually turned out well for all involved.
Byrnes is the general manager of the Padres. Hinch is his assistant and a Padres vice president. Gibson, the National League Manager of the Year in 2011, is in his fourth full year as skipper of the Diamondbacks. Melvin, the American League Manager of the Year in 2012, has guided the Oakland A's to back-to-back division titles the past two years.
And after four seasons as Cincinnati's pitching coach, Price, 51, is now the first-year manager of the Reds, armed with a team many expect to challenge for the NL Central.
When Price was hired to replace Dusty Baker, he leaned on several of his former mentors and fellow coaches, including Melvin and Gibson.
"I got a lot of advice and a lot of it I asked for," Price said. "More than anything, I think the best advice I got was holding everyone accountable to the same set of rules. That, and always remembering how difficult the game is to play."
There is plenty of pressure on Price, however, because the Reds have been competitive for the past four seasons and yet have failed to go deep into the playoffs.
They didn't do much to the roster in the off-season, a clue by ownership that the talent is there to win now. So expectations remain high, as they should with any team that features such players as Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce, Homer Bailey and Johnny Cueto.
"Definitely," Price said. "We're not in a situation where we're going to rebuild. We're in a situation where we feel like we're good enough to win right now. And we have to appreciate that situation. As much as we want all of our players to grow and get better, we have a high expectation in our ability to compete for a championship and that's what we have to be held accountable to."
The Reds haven't won the World Series since 1990 and yes, Price said, that's the goal. To get there, they will have to fend off their two toughest division rivals, the Cardinals and Pirates.
"It's a tough division, but we're a really good team," Price said. "I really don't feel like we're the Number 3 team in the division and no one else here does, either. However, last year we were. That's the fact. We had two better teams in the division and we need to change that order."
 

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