Reds fire eight staffers
From the Reds:
Class A Dayton manager Donnie Scott will join the Reds' coaching staff tonight...he'll stay with the team through the Cubs series next week . . . Class AAA manager Rick Sweet will join the staff in San Francisco.
In other player development news, the Reds announced they will not renew the contracts of assistant director of player development Grant Griesser, fielder coordinator Tim Naehring, extended spring training coordinator/roving instructor Rick Burleson, roving hitting instructor Jim Hickman, outfield/baserunning coordinator Lynn Jones, Billings coach Ricardo Cuevas or Chattanooga manager Jayhawk Owens...Chattanooga pitching coach Grant Jackson is retiring.
I thought Naehring did a good job in his seven years with the Reds. I think the problem was the player development staff didn't have much to work with. To wit: There are very few players the Reds released that ended up being successful elsewhere.
Just spoke with Naehring: "I didn't see this coming. I heard two weeks ago that Wayne (Krivsky) was unhappy with some things on the minor league level. I didn't think it would come to this. But I'm not stupid. I know anything can happen."
Naehring wouldn't go into specifics as for the reasons he was fired.
"I don't want to get into because I'll snap. I know what kind of job I did. I had a good relationship with my boss, Terry Reynolds. He was appreciative of the job I did. We had a very good year on the minor league level. I'm proud of what Jay Bruce was able to accomplish."
Naehring, the LaSalle High and Miami grad who played eight years for the Boston Red Sox, said he wasn't sure what he will do next, but that he's already gotten phone calls from other organizations.
posted by John Fay at 12:49 PM
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Post a Comment*The right reaction...
It hard to see so many guys to go (shows that there could be a large problem) and I hope that they end up on their feet. The other side of the coin is, look at the condition of the minor league teams/players. How many drafts have there been since 2000 and view the poor development of pitchers and position players that were drafted or picked up. The guys let go last year and this can talk but the record they have in development is fairly poor. You can blame Marge, leather pants, Dan, and Wayne all you want (and you can since they are the ones who hire and fire) but the minor league guys have done little in improving the Reds. But this has been the norm for 20+ years so should we be shocked at all by now?
The Reds need minor league coaches who will teach pitchers (throwers) how to pitch and bunt. Position players how to hit and not just to swing at the ball. And then all the little things, running the bases, bunting, and fielding their postions. When it seems the best development guys the Reds have are old players who show up at spring training, you know there are problems.
Adrian
It sure seems that with these moves Krivsky will be back. I doubt if Mr. Castellini would allow a "lame duck" GM to make these moves. If I'm not mistaken all those released were hired before Krivsky and he now wants his own people in these positions. John, besides Naehring are you surprised by any of these moves?
"Leather Pants". I like that. Too bad that's not the only thing we'll ever remember Bowdon for.
Anyways, Firing Minor League staff is only a small part of the solution. Next they have to fire some of the Major League staff. I don't see Mackanin coming back next year. But they definitely need to get rid of Jacoby and Pole. Jacoby helped Dunn some. But the other major thing he was hired to do was improve situational hitting. He failed at that. The Reds leave way too many runners on base. And it's very clear Pole is not communicating with the pitchers. Arroyo mentioned something this year about not being able to prepare the right way. Isn't this supposed to be something the coach can figure out?
Jayhawk Owens surrpises me. The Lookout had a losing record this year, but his him teams finished first at least three times in his first six years as a manager. He was 81-69 two years ago and was Southern League manager of the year.
I'm not surprised about Griesser. He and Naehring are very tight. But I thought they should have made Griesser player development director and left Terry Reynolds as a scout when Johnny Almaraz left.
I don't know much about the others.
Could this be a shift in organizational philosophy? The firing of the manager in Billings just before the season ended was indeed odd for that time of year. I read somewhere that the players were complaining of some strange drills and odd times to conduct these in season drills. Now this rather big over haul.
I don't have a problem with these moves,but I still don't have any confidence that Krivsky knows what he is doing. He can find some raw talent, but the player moves this year have left me more than perplexed. Jorge Cantu at first base. Jay Bruce left at Louisville. Folks, there is no excuse for the Reds not contending in this weak, weak division.
Wayne Krivsky is firing others hoping to avert his own firing by the owners.
dick pole should be fired at the end of the season.
I'm hopeful that Wayne is making these moves in developing something like the Dodger or Orioles way through the 50's & 60's and into the 70's. There was consistant talent developed through the system. The coaches were more than coaches, they were teachers, and I see that being the Reds problems. Players need to be more fundementally developed. Know how to bunt, how to play situational baseball, and to have an overall class about themselves. It drives me crazy too see (and not just with the Reds but all of baseball) lackluster efforts and hustle. I see too many times players on their heels and looking like they are going through the motions. Pitchers need to learn to pitch and not throw as was pointed out by another writer earlier. Have to learn to throw inside from the time they arrive in Billings, Sarasota or Dayton. I think the scouts have gotten alot of guys with good raw talent in the past. But there hasn't been an organizational philosphy put into place to teach them the correct way to play. Hopefully this shake up will cause some hirings of people who are like Pete, and run to first base everytime or like Mario Soto who could flip a batter on his can with an inside pitch because they are hanging out over the plate licking their chops to hit one out, especially now in our little ballpark.
Lack of player moves is more like it, G. Alan...Kriv spent the year tweaking the roster with the AAA shuffle, and picked up a few castoffs from other organizations.
What surprises me is how many chances he gives guys like Coffey and Stanton. Curious how they're both signed through next year...
G.
There is an excuse. BAAAAAD pen. This team is a minimum of 10 games better with a solid pen.
10 games better still leaves us about 10 games out of first place by next September.
Krivsky should fire himself.
It's his fault that the Reds can't contend in MLB-LITE division.
Next year with healthier starting pitching, Milwaukee and St. Louis will be stronger...(who knows if the Cubs will ever get better pitching)...so the division should improve. All the hitting in the world won't help the Reds get closer to the playoffs without new pitching and a new (and good) manager.
Sounds like the scape-goating will continue, when the problem is not the lower level goats but the big ones at the very top.
Krivsky had a bad team last season for which he got a pass. He did nothing in the off season to improve the team and insisted that he thought they would contend. Well as we all know they were out of it by early May. Now 15 games under .500 in the easiest division in baseball. The record speaks for itself.
Hopefully, Castellini ordered these firings at the request of a new GM who has of course, not yet be introduced.
Those of you who think Krivsky is getting fired--especially after today's shake-up of the development side--are either drunk, stupid or delusional.
He wasn't getting fired anyhow. Nor does he deserve to be. But for some reason many of you think an organizational in such pathetic health as the Reds prior to the Castellini ownership can be turned around overnight.
There's a thick line between reality and fantasy--fantasy baseball, that is. Yeesh.
Mr. Redlegs, no one said they thought Krivsky was going to be fired, they all wished he would be though. It sounds like you need psych care or at least milk and cookies for all that hostility, either that or you must be sleeping with Wayne...quit defending the indefensible, he's one pathetic GM. And I'm sure we're stuck with him for many years of sub .500 baseball yet to come.
Reds are 15 games under .500. What's fantasy baseball about that?
Yes, the solution to building that winning team NOW is firing the GM and the development staff every two years.
O course, that sends no message whatsoever to all those free agents everyone believes is dying to play in Cincinnati and all the millions upon millions the Reds will throw at them. Know what happens when a team like the Reds go after a pitcher?
Milton, Cormier, Stanton . . . and on and on. The Reds have to overpay the market by almost twice.
But tell us, fantasy-league GMs, what moves you would have made to make this team better?
When you have a limited budget, with limited (radio and TV revenue) resources, with a bandbox ballpark, with no talent and organizational depth by which to make a franchise-altering trade . . . you have to develop talent, you have to make piddly moves, you have to take risks, you have to absorb the blows against the successes.
But many of you know better. Says so right in your Street & Smith's. Give us names, not armchair hypotheticals. Let's hear it. . . .
Mr Redlegs: are you any relation to Mr Red? Your head is about as fat!
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