The Cincinnati Reds have fired General Manager Jim Bowden and Manager Bob Boone. The Reds, dead last in pitching and with one of the worst defences in baseball, for some reason also fired their hitting coach Tom Robson and third-base coach Tim Foli. Triple-A Louisville manager Dave Miley will take over the team on at least an interim basis.
Few doubt that Boone is one of the smartest people in the game and that Bowden was the most creative GM in baseball. But in the end, too many factors did them in: the Ken Griffey injuries (and, some might argue, the Griffey trade itself), the regression of Adam Dunn, the refusal to send Barry Larkin packing years ago, the failure to get the most out of a talented roster, the overreliance on pitching coach Don Gullett to turn broken-down warhorses into thoroughbreds, the obsession with five-tool, zero-skill outfielders, and the inability to meet championship expectations in a tough baseball town fostered by Griffey's arrival and the opening of Bud Selig's panacea, a new ballpark. The only surprise, perhaps, is that Carl Lindner, author of most of his own misfortune, didn't wait till the end of the year. Maybe when Griffey's season ended, so did Bowden and Boone's.
Will Boone and Bowden get a second chance? Almost certainly, it says here: Boone will join the ex-catcher managerial merry-go-round, and some smart team will hire Bowden to be the Resident Genius in a back room of the front office, where he can spin his crazy ideas while being kept from implementing most of them. And what next for the Reds? Will they recycle the Ray Knights and Kevin Malones of the baseball world? Or will they join the growing ranks of sabrmetric devotees, wooing Paul DePodesta or someone similar to Beaneify the team? Lindner is renowned as a cheapskate, and he may decide he likes what Beane and Ricciardi are doing with smaller payrolls. Keep an eye on developments in Cincy.
Few doubt that Boone is one of the smartest people in the game and that Bowden was the most creative GM in baseball. But in the end, too many factors did them in: the Ken Griffey injuries (and, some might argue, the Griffey trade itself), the regression of Adam Dunn, the refusal to send Barry Larkin packing years ago, the failure to get the most out of a talented roster, the overreliance on pitching coach Don Gullett to turn broken-down warhorses into thoroughbreds, the obsession with five-tool, zero-skill outfielders, and the inability to meet championship expectations in a tough baseball town fostered by Griffey's arrival and the opening of Bud Selig's panacea, a new ballpark. The only surprise, perhaps, is that Carl Lindner, author of most of his own misfortune, didn't wait till the end of the year. Maybe when Griffey's season ended, so did Bowden and Boone's.
Will Boone and Bowden get a second chance? Almost certainly, it says here: Boone will join the ex-catcher managerial merry-go-round, and some smart team will hire Bowden to be the Resident Genius in a back room of the front office, where he can spin his crazy ideas while being kept from implementing most of them. And what next for the Reds? Will they recycle the Ray Knights and Kevin Malones of the baseball world? Or will they join the growing ranks of sabrmetric devotees, wooing Paul DePodesta or someone similar to Beaneify the team? Lindner is renowned as a cheapskate, and he may decide he likes what Beane and Ricciardi are doing with smaller payrolls. Keep an eye on developments in Cincy.
