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.