Who Wants to Hire an Out of Work Genius?

Word has come down that Wayne Krivsky has been relieved of his duties as General Manager of the Cincinnati Reds. He will be replaced by Walt Jocketty, who was hired this offseason as some sort of Special Advisor to team president, Bob Castellini. Sadly, Wayne was only with the team for a little over two years but one look at his resume shows that his regime was responsible for much of the top-level talent currently on the Reds big league roster and contained within the minor league system.

Focusing on the salad days of Krivsky, prior to the 2006 season, he made three key acquisitions which continue to pay dividends in 2008:

1) Catcher David Ross was acquired from San Diego in exchange for minor league pitcher Bobby Basham. In his first season with the Reds, Ross hit .255/.353/.579 with 21 bombs in 90 games. Last season, he was kicked by a mule and forgot how to use a bat. This season he’s in AAA but kickin’ ass in AAA. Nice job Wayne.
2) Right-handed starter Bronson Arroyo was acquired from the Red Sox for outfielder Wily Mo Pena. Arroyo is currently winless but does sing and write his own music. Most songs in his catalog are chili-themed, typically the subject matter includes making and/or selling chili at a nice profit or how much Arroyo enjoys eating the chili once it has been prepared.
3) Second baseman Brandon Phillips was acquired from the Indians in exchange for minor league right-handed pitcher Jeff Stevens and a check for $50. Phillips is owed some sincere praise after becoming the first Reds’ second baseman to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season or as he put it, “B. Phill came to get his rocks on and eat popcorn.” He already said that Krivsky can stay at his house until he gets back on his feet.

Those three are just the starting point. Krivsky was the man responsible for getting Eddie Guardado, Jorge Cantu, Kirk Saarloos and Juan Castro into Reds uniforms. Not to mention the Kearns and Lopez trade which brought in pitcher Daryl Thompson who is having a very nice season at AA. If you ask him, Krivsky’ll tell you Thompson was who he was after the whole time. You can forget about Majewski.

Apparently, new GM Jocketty spent some time with another National League Central team where he enjoyed some modest success (but only from 1994-2007). He was fired this offseason so that the team could focus on losing for the next decade or so. Prior to his tenure with the Reds, he developed a reputation as a keen evaluator of major league talent and a man passionate about fresh fruit and vegetables. The latter is something of high import to Team President/Fruit and Vegetable magnate Castillini. Jocketty uses his Juice Tiger each morning. I think you'll find that carrot juice is surprisingly sweet.

Whether you hated Krivsky all the time or just most of the time, you do have to admit that roughly 1/10 of his trades worked in the favor of the Reds. That’s something that, I personally, am really going to miss. On a more positive note, the firing gives Krivsky time to focus on his many other endeavors, for example he enjoys gardening. He also lists plotting the death of Washington Nationals’ general manager Jim Bowden as one of the things that he likes to do with his spare time. The current plan is to break into Bowden’s home and strangle him in front of his children, but Krivsky knows he can do better and now he finally has the time.