Narron fired; Mackanin interim manager

[CincyRedsFan30]

Oh, they did stuff, it just wasn't smart stuff. (BTW, redsr, nice summary of the press conference...along with the quotes. In regards to your question...I think someone asked if Mackanin was a candidate to take over full-time...and Krivsky said "absolutely." I don't think from what I heard and saw that he will be the full-time manager but it sounds like he will be a candidate.)

It seems they were caught in the trap of going with aging veterans vs. younger players who have raw potential (I am talking particularly in the bullpen). They should have made the decision to get the younger pitchers experience from the beginning but Jerry and Wayne both like players who are savvy vets and of course play the game the "right way." The plan was disjointed. The bullpen usage patterns were disjointed. Nothing remained consistent from the beginning of the season.

Some quality pieces are in place (Harang, Hamilton, Phillips, Dunn, Edwin and probably even Arroyo), along with talent that could start to break out/improve at any time (Bailey, Coutlangus, McBeth, Salmon, Burton) and even those such as Coffey who could return to their past and play well again. Not all of those pieces might pan out but there are some options there.

What Krivsky needs to work on as we approach the trade deadline (if he has any hope of keeping his job after the end of the season) is looking for quality relievers who MISS BATS. We need some strikeout pitchers in the bullpen. We have a couple who do/have the potential to do that, but they are raw. We need some setup/back of the bullpen pitchers...a few of them...and ones that are MLB ready or as close to that as possible. The pen is full of middle relievers(at best in a couple cases) right now (in their current forms at least...though as I said, a few have the potential to develop into more).

The starting rotation needs work too. Hopefully Narron didn't abuse Arroyo to the point of destroying him and he can return to form and be a solid starter. Perhaps Bailey or Cueto will step up and be a No. 3 starter by next year or at some point within the next couple years. Belisle can fit in at the back of the rotation. But they really need to add a solid middle of the rotation starter, whether that me through a trade or free agency. If that starter takes a couple years or so to make it to the majors, then so be it, as long as we see progress in their development and hope they can help in the future. Castellini might also benefit from spending a little money in the interim to bring in a stopgap, though that is somewhat the strategy that ultimately doomed the team this year. If you are going to try to use stopgaps, at least make them worthwhile ones.

The bench needs a total overhaul too. That can be done without too much pain if Krivsky does things the way he should. We could also use a RH bat in the lineup that gets ON BASE(we struggle with that this year) and can hit it into the gaps.

Not all if the issues will be resolved immediately, but taking care of even some of them as fast as possible should improve the team's record a decent amount if the right manager is in place.

Players such as Weathers, Hatteberg, Conine and as much as I hate to say it...Griffey, need to be on the block. But Krivsky can't move them for just anything. He needs to get legitimate talent. Obviously most of those players will not net No. 1 or No. 2 starters...there are no illusions about that. If he plays his cards right though, Krivsky could cash in those players for several quality bullpen arms and perhaps a solid middle or back of the rotation pitcher that is ready or pretty close to being ready. He has to make smart moves though.

The trade deadline will define Krivsky. He was named the "Amazing Krivsky" when he first took over. If he doesn't get it done at the deadline, he might pull a very fast disappearing act.

[missionhockey21]

I am going on record, I think Mackanin has potential. Of course I can't attest to his ingame skills much yet (especially since I was out to dinner last night during the game), but I liked the press conference. The guy seemed to be intelligent, had a sense of humor, and just kind of charismatic. Of course he could be a turd wrapped in gold foil, but unlike some of the more recent interim managers he has a very different feel from a personality standpoint. Again, that has nothing to do with his skills as a manager and I am not saying to call off the search.... but, who knows, all managers have to come from some where. The manager of this team needs to make up for the lack of big leaders in the clubhouse we have, so if he has skills to match his personality, he could be legitimate candidate without question.

[missionhockey21]

It seems they were caught in the trap of going with aging veterans vs. younger players who have raw potential (I am talking particularly in the bullpen). They should have made the decision to get the younger pitchers experience from the beginning but Jerry and Wayne both like players who are savvy vets and of course play the game the "right way." The plan was disjointed. The bullpen usage patterns were disjointed. Nothing remained consistent from the beginning of the season.

See, I don't think using the vets is bad in itself, but Narron had too much faith in them after they would let him and the team down consistently. Bases would be juiced and he would leave them in and that was the problem. The bullpen was tough to manage in general though, even if Narron did it perfectly, I don't know how many games we would have gained as with the injuries, letdowns and slumps. I am not trying to excuse his errors, and perhaps reworking the pen in a big way from the start of the season wouldn't of led to this constant plummet as I think the bullpen as a collective whole lost their confidence outside of Weathers.

What Krivsky needs to work on as we approach the trade deadline (if he has any hope of keeping his job after the end of the season) is looking for quality relievers who MISS BATS. We need some strikeout pitchers in the bullpen. We have a couple who do/have the potential to do that, but they are raw. We need some setup/back of the bullpen pitchers...a few of them...and ones that are MLB ready or as close to that as possible. The pen is full of middle relievers(at best in a couple cases) right now (in their current forms at least...though as I said, a few have the potential to develop into more).

Absolutely. And I think this is what made the draft disappointing for myself, Krivsky or RCast (either one) didn't seem willing to buy up big arms in the offseason for the pen and given the price tags for talents like BJ Ryan in recent years, I can't see us acquiring a top notch closer via FA.... so why couldn't we have signed some of the plus power arms with a steep price and a Boras for an agent? If the Reds want to compete next year, they would trade the veterans that they can afford to for AA and AAA plus arm reliever with more than one pitch that could be considered plus and filthy, control can be honed with the right coach but stuff is something most either have or don't.

The starting rotation needs work too. Hopefully Narron didn't abuse Arroyo to the point of destroying him and he can return to form and be a solid starter. Perhaps Bailey or Cueto will step up and be a No. 3 starter by next year or at some point within the next couple years. Belisle can fit in at the back of the rotation. But they really need to add a solid middle of the rotation starter, whether that me through a trade or free agency. If that starter takes a couple years or so to make it to the majors, then so be it, as long as we see progress in their development and hope they can help in the future. Castellini might also benefit from spending a little money in the interim to bring in a stopgap, though that is somewhat the strategy that ultimately doomed the team this year. If you are going to try to use stopgaps, at least make them worthwhile ones.

Let's pray for Lohse to string together some starts that his stuff shows he can do so we can flip him for something quite attractive. When he is going right, I love the kid, but he is way too inconsistent and is soon going to be way too expensive. As long as we can get something better than Ward, I will be pretty happy in the end.

The bench needs a total overhaul too. That can be done without too much pain if Krivsky does things the way he should. We could also use a RH bat in the lineup that gets ON BASE(we struggle with that this year) and can hit it into the gaps.

When we're healthy, the bench is somewhat tolerable, not good... but tolerable. We need to improve on that and get some depth at AAA for 'just in case' type of situations.

Players such as Weathers, Hatteberg, Conine and as much as I hate to say it...Griffey, need to be on the block. But Krivsky can't move them for just anything. He needs to get legitimate talent. Obviously most of those players will not net No. 1 or No. 2 starters...there are no illusions about that. If he plays his cards right though, Krivsky could cash in those players for several quality bullpen arms and perhaps a solid middle or back of the rotation pitcher that is ready or pretty close to being ready. He has to make smart moves though.

If we could trade Griffey at a ridiculous high, I am for it. But I would love to have Griffey around to groom Bruce in the future. Not to mention, as I detailed in my article, Griffey's resurgence is beyond sweet on so many levels.

[CincyRedsFan30]

I am going on record, I think Mackanin has potential. Of course I can't attest to his ingame skills much yet (especially since I was out to dinner last night during the game), but I liked the press conference. The guy seemed to be intelligent, had a sense of humor, and just kind of charismatic. Of course he could be a turd wrapped in gold foil, but unlike some of the more recent interim managers he has a very different feel from a personality standpoint. Again, that has nothing to do with his skills as a manager and I am not saying to call off the search.... but, who knows, all managers have to come from some where. The manager of this team needs to make up for the lack of big leaders in the clubhouse we have, so if he has skills to match his personality, he could be legitimate candidate without question.

I agree and I liked his in-game management better than Narron's. He still made a couple questionable moves but I thought he did a better job overall for sure.

My initial opinion of him is a good one but we'll see if that remains the case after a larger sample of performance indicators.