Reds Fire Jerry Narron

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jul 1, 2007 10:32 PM EDT in News

The Reds have fired manager Jerry Narron, ESPN.com reports. As with the Lloyd McClendon firing and so many other manager firings, this manager probably wasn't the best in the world at his job, but the real blame for the Reds' situation lies not with him but with the people responsible for acquiring talent.

It's hard to make lemonade with overripe lemons like Jeff Conine, Chad Moeller and Juan Castro, or with never-will-bes like Norris Hopper, Victor Santos and Kirk Saarloos, or with players who are a horrible fit for the Reds' ballpark, like Eric Milton. Narron was actually doing a reasonable job keeping the really bad players from getting too much playing time; the trouble is that there were just too many bad players. Narron did preside over the re-emergence of Josh Hamilton, which has to qualify as a near-miracle that could be a boon for the franchise. It seems he also did a nice job making the first base platoon of Conine and Scott Hatteberg into a reasonably effective one, which isn't bad considering the players involved. He hasn't been able to do much with a catching tandem of Dave Ross and Javier Valentin, but I'm not sure that's his fault.

The '07 Reds have had some discipline issues (Edwin Encarnacion was benched for failing to hustle, but Ken Griffey Jr. and Brandon Phillips committed similar offenses and didn't get in trouble) and some Reds fans have accused Narron of over-managing and trying to get too fancy with his lineups. Those things are worth considering, and they're the sort of things that might upset me if I were a Reds fan. But, again, from this outsider's perspective, this seems like yet another case in which a manager is fired for reasons that don't really have to do with him.

Our old friend Pete Mackanin, who briefly took over the Bucs after McClendon was fired, will be the interim manager of the Reds. Until today, he'd been an advance scout for Cincinnati.

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Question from Red Reporter

What can you tell us about Mackanin? Was he at least competent at his job? It's been a while since the Reds have had a competent manager.

Narron's biggest problem is that he was terrible at managing a bullpen that was terrible to begin with. Perhaps it was a no-win situation for him, but he overworked guys that were barely effective to begin with, and he used guys that have never proven to be effective in critical situations in the game. Yes, the players did nothing to help him keep his job, but he did little to prove that he was very effective anyway.

This was evidenced this past week when he pinch hit Juan Castro for Josh Hamilton in the ninth inning because Castro was batting 1.000 against Alan Embree in his career. Of course, he was just 1 for 1 and that at bat was 7 years ago, but Jerry actually said that his prior success against Embree played into the decision. It's hard to have confidence in a manager that makes those sort of decisions.

Anyway, thanks for any info on Mackanin that you can provide.

by Slyde on Jul 1, 2007 11:07 PM EDT reply actions

It's hard to say.

He managed the Bucs for less than a month, all after rosters expanded and after the Bucs had dropped out of contention. Pretty much his first order of business was to move Jack Wilson from the No. 8 spot in the order - which is where McClendon was using him - to the No. 2 spot. Wilson didn't hit any better then than he does now, so that told me Mackanin didn't have much of a clue about lineup construction.

Mackanin's most important job with the Reds will be helping develop young guys like Homer Bailey, Hamilton and Encarnacion. I'm not sure whether he's any good in that area or not. The couple of times I can remember where actual advice he gave players made it into the paper, it was always like, "You need to relax and stop thinking so hard." It didn't seem like high-level thought. That obviously doesn't make him worse than most other managers, though.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jul 1, 2007 11:19 PM EDT up reply actions

Thanks for the response

Is he a good baseball guy? Does he know how to play the game the right way? Those are very important tools in Wayne Krivsky's arsenal.

by Slyde on Jul 2, 2007 8:17 AM EDT up reply actions

If that's what's important to Krivsky...

...then he should really look to pay big and hire Jim Tracy away from Pittsburgh. Tracy's all about "playing the game the right way"...

by Bill C. on Jul 2, 2007 11:54 AM EDT up reply actions

Ooh

and he's from Hamilton, OH, which is just outside of Cincinnati and the hometown of Joe Nuxhall. The locals would LOVE that. I don't doubt that it's not being discussed at some level in the Reds organization.

by Slyde on Jul 2, 2007 5:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Bullpen

I don't watch every Reds game, so I'm sure you know much more about this than I do, but I gave Narron a bit of a pass on the bullpen simply because most of the pitchers in it are bad. It isn't like you can look at the pitchers in the 'pen and think, "Hey, this guy could be good, why don't they use him more?"

By the way, Lloyd McClendon was a master of making important decisions based on tiny sample sizes. It's not just Narron. It's amazing how many managers make those sorts of errors.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Jul 1, 2007 11:22 PM EDT up reply actions

You are correct

The arms in the bullpen are subpar for sure. Narron's big problem was that he would warm up just about everybody in the pen every game. And then he'd bring somebody in to get two outs (usually they'd get just one) and then change the pitcher to have a righty face someone like Yadier Molina. So he'd unnecessarily use 4 pitchers every night and pitch half the bullpen 3 or 4 days in a row so that when the time came that he would actually need a good game from the pen, they'd all be worn out. Surprisingly, when bad pitchers get tired, they get worse. Who knew?

Anyway, I'm sure we've all seen managers that make poor decisions. And the Reds problems do not all fall on Narron's shoulders. As fans though, we all have hope that the next guy won't be as bad, but it's rarely the case, isn't it? I look forward to the day when the Pirates and Reds are competing for titles again like in the 70s and early 90s. Hopefully our management teams are looking forward to that too.

by Slyde on Jul 2, 2007 8:23 AM EDT up reply actions

Yours, maybe

Ours is too busy counting coin to care.

by bucdaddy on Jul 2, 2007 9:02 AM EDT up reply actions

I hear ya

We just got out from under a cheap regime when Carl Lindner sold the team before the 2006 season. We now have an owner that acts like he wants to win, but we're not so sure about the competence of the men he put in charge of running the team.

Hopefully you guys will be lucky enough to have someone outside the organization buy the team eventually. At the very least, it gives you a couple of months of hope that things will really change, even if they don't right away.

by Slyde on Jul 2, 2007 9:14 AM EDT up reply actions