THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

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.