coaching

[redsrbetter]

The Reds currently have a record of 41 and 35. Thats puts them in with the 3rd best winning percentage in the National League. They are the leaders in the wild card race and we are near the halfway mark of the season.
With the problems that this Reds team has endured, you have to wonder how they are in this position. The bullpen has been abysmal of late with Todd Coffey being the only sure fire reliever to keep the Reds in the ballgame. Every single reliever not named Coffey or Belisle have an ERA over 5.00. Thats just not going to get it done for a normal team. But for some reason, The Reds have been able to make due. So how are they doing it?
Do the Reds owe credit to their manager Jerry Narron? This guy has been a winning manager since taking over for the Reds midway through last season. He has posted a 89-83 record (.516 pct.) which is far better than his predecessor. Bad lineups or not, this team is winning despite some woeful defense and horrid bullpen stints.
Or should credit be given to Tom Hume? The Reds interim pitching coach has done something wonderful with this starting rotation. No doubt Vern Ruhle had an impact with guys like Milton and Claussen last season once he took over for the previous pitching coach Don Gullett. And Krivsky's addition of Arroyo has been unparalleled, but Hume has got something amazing going on with this staff. Arroyo is tied for second place with most wins by a starting pitcher and he has the second lowest ERA in the major leagues. The Reds ace of last season, Aaron Harang, has somehow quietly become a huge strikeout pitcher. He is currently in 3rd place in all of baseball with a 105 mark. Did anyone expect that out of him? Those two are at the top in many statistical categories and we have a few other pitchers in Eric Milton and the young stellar performances coming from Elizardo "Easy" Ramirez. This is a list of 4 guys that have kept this team in ballgames. Is it safe to say that Tom Hume has a lot to do with this? Or can we just say that we have four pretty good pitchers that have had luck come their way nearly every outing? I think it is the first one. Last season under Don Gullett the starting rotation could not find a way to keep the games close. But now under Tom Hume and some of Vern Ruhle's conditions, this staff is doing just the opposite. We currently have the best starting rotation this team has seen in at least a decade.
On the other hand, the hitting coach Chris Chambliss seems to be catching some heat from the team hitting on a drought all of a sudden. This team simply scores runs off of the long ball. 0,4,2,3,0 are the respective runs scored totals of the last 5 games prior to today. All of which did not feature a long ball from the Reds bats. Then the Reds went deep today and won the ballgame. But the runs were only scored off the long ball. So does Chris Chambliss have some sort of inverted bias toward hitting a HR and choose to look past the fact that this team is worse than 22 out of 29 other teams in baseball at getting hits? But they are the 3rd best team in baseball in hitting HRs despite their recent drought. Or could we credit Chambliss for their ability to get on base with the walk. The team is in 9th place in baseball with a .340 OBP. But what good is a walk unless that runner scores? Well, with the Reds in 4th place in the NL in runs scored, they are delivering. So wether it be from the long ball or not, they are scoring more runs by way of the walk and the HR than most of the teams in the NL. So can we argue that Chambliss has done a fine job versus being on the verge of losing his job?
All of this said brings up a fine point as well. The point that Krivsky has been a great GM so far, but his work is still not done. He has a lot cut out for him and this article should have that clear and dry by now.
Krivsky has a fine manager in place, he has a pitching coach that has the starting rotation in a better position than we have seen in a very long time, he has a hitting coach utilizing the team's abilities to get on base and score runs. So Krivsky is going to have to get those players whom these coaches can utilize to better the team. A few strong bullpen arms and a contact hitter to help this team score runs with RISP and they are ready for the playoffs. They could likely even do without the contact hitter but it would be a nice addition.
All in all this team has done a great job under the current management and its my belief that it would not be this solid without these guys. Could we get better management? Maybe, but why concentrate on that when it would be hard to find anything better, and it would be far better time spent to find some relievers?

[CincyRedsFan30]

Good post, redsr, but I just can't take Narron seriously for two reasons:

1) His lineups

2) His bullpen management

On number two, I know he has had to work with a lot of poor/struggling pitchers lately, but the goal is to still put guys in the right situations. I don't feel he's done that.

As for the lineups, those are just inexcusable, because those can be manipulated by him and he continues to hit Aurilia 4th vs. RHP even though his numbers are blatantly awful against them. There is no justification to continue to hit him there, yet he does and even claims that it is his best possible lineup!(He said that yesterday according to Marty)

I think he has also tinkered with the lineup overall too much.

The bullpen situation is more understandable, but with a small margin of error to begin with, he needs to totally MAXIMIZE the potential output of our offense and I don't think he's done that this year. That is a broken Golden Rule for a manager if you ask me.

[redsrbetter]

Agreed, but how is this team having its success despite the lackluster lineups Narron has produced? And despite his need to put in the wrong pitcher at times the team needs soemone else. How do we still have the 3rd best record in the NL.

[redsfan28]

They're winning IN SPITE of Narron.

[CincyRedsFan30]

They're winning IN SPITE of Narron.

Agreed.

Maybe he should be given some credit for "getting a lot" out of the players, but his No. 1 job as manager is to put the team in the best position possible to win each game and I don't think he does that.