Almost from the start of this season, Jerry Narron was doomed. His 'every day 8' was chock full of free swingers who could not hit for aveage, his number two starter was slow out of the gate and slower as the season began and his bullpen was atrocious.

And worse, expectations were high. The Reds finished just three and a half games behind the Cardinals last season, carrying the pennant race into the final two weeks of the season. As the Reds GM, Wayne Krivsky, told me today there was no one in the organization who saw the 'bummer of '07 coming. Narron certainly didn't. After losing his job late Sunday night, he'll have a long time to reflect on what might have been this season.

What if his bullpen had featured a legitimate closer in Eddie Guardado? The lefty arrived from Seattle with a bad arm that needed surgery late last summer. But in the off season, the Reds did nothing to address the most key component of any bullpen. You build a pen from the back. Without a legit closer, set up pitchers like David Weathers and Mike Stanton had to close. And while Weathers did well in that role, it left his normal spot, set up, to middle relievers. Long relievers had to middle relieve. In essence, every pitcher was out of position in the bullpen. And with Gary Majewski still sore-armed from last summer and Billy Bray hurt in spring training, the Reds bullpen became a real liability, losing more games than any pen in major league baseball this season.

Bronson Arroyo was the 'steal' of 2006. When Krivsky swung a deal to get Arroyo here for Wily Mo Pena, and when Arroyo performed like a stud, the Reds suspect rotation became, over night, strong. But Arroyo was slow out of the gate and, in back to back games, tossed in excess of 120-pitches. Narron was forced to keep Arroyo in close games longer than he'd like, because his bullpen was abysmal. Arroyo paid the price with a tired arm.

Which brings us to the free swingers. The Reds 'every day 8' never saw a pitch they didn't think they could jack out of the park. 2-1 counts, 3-0, 0-2, 2-2, it didn't matter. The Reds would swing for the fences. They led the National League in home runs when Narron was fired Sunday. But hits with runners in scoring position, advancing the base runner, bunting and sacrifice flies were as rare in Cincinnati as low humidity in July.

It all caught up with Narron on Sunday. And a very good and decent baseball man is out of work. Don't cry for Narron. His contract runs through the 200 season and he'll collect evey nickel of the approximately $750,000 he has coming.

But the franchise he leaves behind remains in shambles, covered with the finger prints of three general managers, two owners and now four fired managers in less than seven seasons. The Reds farm system has yet to recover from the atrophy it fell into under owner Marge Schott, who held scouts in disdain. It's yet to recover from her general manager, Jim Bowden, who never met an over age free agent he didn't fall in love with. It's yet to recover from general manager, Dan O'Brien who understood how important rebuilding the minor league system was, but did it at the expense of making prudent major league roster adjustments.

Jerry Narron was fired Sunday. But he may be the lucky one in this equation. He doesn't have to clean up the mess he was handed.

I laugh a lot when I hear fans call for a manager's head. We hear it a lot here in Cincinnati and we're hearing it a lot this season. A lot of fans want Jerry Narron gone. Like last week.

Criticism of Narron ranges from his inability to manage his bullpen to being too placid inside the dugout. He caught a lot of heat a few weeks back when he didn't bolt from the dugout and corral an umpire for a bad call on a third strike. The fact that the game was over and that the next manager to win a 'ball strike' argument will be the first manager to do so didn't matter. They wanted Narron to bust a vein.

I laugh a lot, because I've heard it all before in Cincinnati. It was the same criticism that Bob Boone attracted, Dave Miley too. When things go badly, first blame the manager. Team broadcasters, stand by, you're next.

The facts about our Cincinnati Reds are this: they can't hit with runners in scoring position, they have the worst bullpen in the National League and their defense is anywhere from passable to atrocious.

Narron has control over the third of those problems. Why he hasn't demanded daily infield practice, which was a major league staple for all teams up until about ten years ago, is beyond me. But you can't hold him responsible for his roster. He only has imput, but not the final say.
That rests with his general manager.

The Reds are where they are by no accident. The new owner hasn't been in charge long enough and the owner before him wasn't interested in spending money for players, after signing Griffey, Jr, to a greatly discounted deal in 2000. The owner in the late 80's through the late '90's did her best to dismantle a once prideful minor league system. And her GM failed to sign and develope a starting pitcher of major league quality in eleven years on the job.

But if you fire Jerry Narron, it'll fix all of that right?

I had to laugh today, listening to the local radio here in Cincinnati. A sports talk host and a lot of his callers were upset that Jerry Narron didn't rush out to argue a ball four call that forced in the winning run from third base. It was a walk off 'walk' for the Padres on Wednesday night, a night when Narron left his starting pitcher, Bronson Arroyo, in for a nine inning 129-pitch game.

Like Narron getting up in an ump's face AFTER a game is over would have a different.

Look, get made with the way Narron handles pitching. Get mad because he doesn't force his woefully inept team to take infield practice. But getting on the guy for not screaming at an umpire? It never works as a motivational tool in major league baseball. That's high school, show pony stuff.

Here's what you should get mad at. The Reds bullpen is pathetic, save for David Weathers a complete untrustworthy bunch. The defense is dreadful. And the only organization with fewer hits, is NBC prime time programming.

Narron is one of the last things the Reds and their fans need to worry about right now.

If you head to my web site right now, you'll catch the lastest edition of Bengals Report, our off season look at the Cincinnati Bengals. Bengals Report newspaper executive editor, Marc Hardin joins me. Also, there's a fresh edition of the hottest sports show in cyber space: Broo v. Broo.

You can find it all on my web site: www.kenbroo.com

Look, I like Jerry Narron. I think he's a good manager and knows the game infinitely better than I do. But occasionally, he absolutely confounds me.

Wednesday night was a great example. Here he was, locked in a great battle with his counterpart in the the Cardinals' dugout, Tony LaRussa. The Reds and Cards were tied at one, with Bronson Arroyo and Braden Looper tossing terrific games. Narron had to know two things: one, Arroyo had thrown only 96 pitches through seven innings. Two: his bullpen has been anything but trustworthy lately.

Rather than allowing Arroyo to start the eighth inning, Narron elected to pinch hit for him, leading off the seventh. The fact that Ryan Freel, who hadn't picked up a bat since Sunday, failed to get on base is one thing. But why would you trade Arroyo for the bullpen, just to try and jump start your offense?

The Reds manager tried to defend himself on the Reds radio pre-game show Thursday. It didn't work, at least not for me. Lifting a starter who'd thrown only 96 pitches, allowed only five hits for the chance of scoring a run...given the shaky bullpen...is indefensible.

I like Jerry, but it was the wrong call.

Check out my web site, www.kenbroo.com. Just posted today the latest "Broo View" podcast. I've got comments from Marvin Lewis, Carson Palmer and other Bengals about the upcoming draft. It's in the podcast and more section.