The Cincinnati Reds recent struggles prove Jim Riggleman is not the guy

He may get an interview, but Jim Riggleman is not the person the Cincinnati Reds are looking for to lead this franchise into the future.

We’ve stated here before, you can’t win a pennant in April, but you sure can lose it. The Cincinnati Reds proved that, and then some, this season. After getting the ballclub back to a respectable record around the All-Star break, there were some who were advocating for Jim Riggleman to have his ‘interim’ tag removed. Not doing so was the right call. Riggleman is not the guy the Reds need.

Jim Riggleman has forgotten more baseball than I’ll ever know, but the team’s performance over the last several weeks has been horrendous. Not only are the Reds not winning, but they’re also not even scoring. The Reds have scored only 16 runs over the last 12 games. That’s barely a run per game. On top of that, they were shut out in five of those games. Yes, five!

While the entire lack of production cannot be laid at the feet of Jim Riggleman, he has to be held accountable for some of the shortcomings. Motivating this ballclub was something Riggleman did very well toward the middle of the season. They were 15-11 in the month of June and 13-11 during the month of July. A record of 28-22 (.560) is pretty darn good.

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However, 9-19 in the month of August is pretty darn bad. The Reds have only 9 wins so far in the month of September and 14 losses. That includes losing streaks of 3, 4, and currently 5 games.

Yes, injuries to Scott Schebler and Joey Votto no doubt played a role in the Reds’ struggles after the All-Star break. But, Phillip Ervin more than made up for Schebler’s absence during August and Votto has not been his normal, steady self this season.

The Cincinnati Reds attendance numbers are floundering this season. Over the last two months, their largest at Great American Ball Park was on August 11th against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Just FYI, that was also the date of the Jake Owen post-game concert.

Aside from that blip on the radar screen, the Reds had more than 20,000 in attendance at three games during the last two months. The Cincinnati Reds need something to energize their fan base, and continuing to do the same thing they’ve done in recent history (promote from within) is not the answer.

Yes, Jim Riggleman earned an interview with the Cincinnati Reds, but he hasn’t earned the permanent position to lead this ballclub into the future. Hopefully the Reds will make the right move and avoid an internal hire.