If you have been following the Reds this season (or recent years for that matter), this probably won’t come to a shock to you, but at a press conference today, GM Dan O’Brien announced the firing of manager Dave Miley and pitching coach Don Gullett. Though the firings didn’t come as a surprise to me, the timing did. I figured it would have happened a couple weeks ago or at the All Star break. Guess the team’s recent performance (losing 7 of the last eight) forced the upper management’s hand.

Personally, I’ve been wanting to get rid of Gullet for some time now. Though he’s been with the Reds since 1993, he doesn’t seem to be keeping up with rest of the league in coaching the up and coming pitchers. The team ERA is horrendous this season, the bullpen has blown more leads than they’ve saved, and the expensive, “star” pitchers that were signed in the off season have not panned out at all. During one game, the Reds lost to the Cardinals after having a 9 run lead - al in the ninth inning! In another game, our “ace” Paul Wilson had 7 runs scored on him - in the first inning, without getting an out. A change needed to be made in this area.

I thought Miley should have had a shot to finish the season, though. I think he has the respect of the players, more so than the CEO and GM, and he’s been with the Reds’ organization for 26 years. While the offense has struggled at some points through the season, I feel a good number of the losses have been the fault of the pitchers. While it was Miley’s decision on which pitchers to play, he was dependent on Gullet to get them ready and he had every right to expect the high salary pitching acquisitions to do their jobs.

Miley and Gullet were replaced by bench coach Jerry Narron and minor league pitching coordinator Verne Ruhle, both of whom have long time ties to general manager Dan O’Brien

How did the Reds respond to these firings? Right now, they’re beating the NL leading Cardinals 11-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Opinions anyone?