Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Not for a moment, am I shocked that Wayne Krivsky got the 'boot' today. But I am shocked by the timing. You might have to look hard, long and deep to find a major league baseball team that has fired its general manager just 21 games in to a season. Jim Bowden's mid season firing in 2003 was out of the ordinary. Usually, most GM's are launched in the off season.

But the fact that Krivsky, a really engaging guy incidentally, was fired is not a shock. Walt Jocketty has been a "GM in waiting" since Bob Castellini hired him in January. In St. Louis, for 12 years, Jocketty was the consumate baseball general manager. Most of his trades involved sending promising minor league talent to other teams for established veterans. I don't think he'll do that here, not yet. But I wouldn't be surprised to see him place his hand print (foot print?) on the roster soon. He has some big decision to make, along with Castellini.

The owner likes Adam Dunn. But does he like him enough to lay about $60 million on him for the next four years? Bringing back Ken Griffey, Junior at $16 million next season wasn't going to happen, regardless who the GM is. But will Jocketty want to renegotiate a longer deal in exchange for less money with Junior?

As for Krivsky, I hope he lands another GM job in his career. He made some bold moves here, and some that were doomed from the start. Getting hoodwinked by predecessor Jim Bowden on a trade for relief pitching in 2006 didn't help him. But on the whole, says espn.com's Rob Neyer, Krivsky did well.

And Richard Justice, an old acquaintace of mine from the "DC Days", thinks the move will pay off big for the Reds. Justice has this on sportingnews.com.

His immediate concern has to be the performance of Bronson Arroyo, who was lit up again Wednesday night. Arroyo hasn't made it out of the sixth inning in any of his starts. Last Friday, against the Brewers, it took him 100 pitches to make it through the fifth. Wednesday night, against the Astros, Arroyo lasted just two outs into the fourth, allowing ten hits and eight earned runs. And he needed 91-pitches to accompish that.

The NFL draft is Saturday. Another videocast below from our good friend, Mike Florio of profootballtalk.com. Today, Mike is scoping out the position the Bengals hope to cash in on in round one: defensive tackles.

If Sedrick Ellis is there at #9 when the Bengals pick, I don't see how they pass on him.

My man, Chick Ludlwig of the Dayton Daily News is on the same page as me. If you give in to Chad Johnson's antics, you're just asking for trouble down the road.

Check out my web site: www.kenbroo.com. I'll have another Broo View Podcast posted within the next 24 hours. But the latest installment is on the front page. And you can access any of the archived Broo View Podcast in the "Podcast & More" section.