is pinella the man for the job?
well, the cubs have gone and done it again. today, they hired lou pinella as their next manager. his assignment? win the world series before the century mark hits. since the cubs last championship was in 1908 this means sweet lou has 1 season to win it before the century mark, and 2 before he’s canned for failing to do so. it will only be a matter of months (8 to be exact) before ‘sweet lou’ will be referred to as ‘poor old lou’ in cubdom.
i think pinella is exactly what the cubs need. a hard-nosed manager that won’t take any crap from anyone. someone that will teach the fundamentals and will be straight and blunt with his players. someone with a championship background that can instill hope and a sense of pride in the woeful cubbies… even though sweet lou is exactly what the cubs need i think he was the wrong choice.Â
i think girardi was the man for the job. the cubs are several years away from winning it all, and there’s no way they’ll be able to turn everything around in one season, let alone 2. the cubs are a project that need a long-term solution, and girardi has shown with the marlins that he can do a lot with a little. could girardi turn everything around in 3 seasons? probably… but we’ll never know now. pinella is the man at the helm now, and i hope (with that never-ending cub fan hope) that i’m proven wrong and he is the one that will lead cub nation to the promised land!
i didn’t think dusty could do it… i wanted ned yost… let’s hope that hendry’s hire does us some good this time!
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i’m with you on this one. pinella would have been sonny’s choice.
i like what steve phillips had to say on sports center:
what’s frustrating about this is that i completely agree… and what’s more frustrating is that it wouldn’t be a true statement if girardi were the manager. i think the cubs would improve tremendously with the players they currently have if girardi were managing the team–i can’t say the same of poor old lou.
i’m already disappointed with the ’07 cubbies…
Sean Salisbury from ESPN now on ESPN 1000 Radio out of Chicago also had a good quote “The good Lord himself couldnt come down and manage this team to the playoffs at this point”
Peter Gammons also had some of the best insight I have ever heard when it comes to the Cubs…He was talking on Dan Patrick Show today about how the Marlins, Angels, Diamondbacks, and maybe Tigers who all were bad bad teams then turned it around with a new manager, had already been through the hells of rebuilding, and in that process of building execellent young talent they also banked quite a bit of money in those previous years, then when they were ready to sign people like Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Ivan Rodriguez, Maggs, etc, etc they could. The Cubs however are owned by a media empire that works on 1 year budgets as most companies do. Spend what you got or lose it. That is the corporate model. There is nothing for the Cubs / Tribune Co to bank…they have a budget even at $100M, they must use it or lose it…I think this is so true…the Cubs have a LONG LONG ways to go – but I will give them this, they did hire a good manager for once. But as many have pointed out, they simply do not have good players. When Zambrano could win 20 games, and D Lee could post MVP numbers and they still could miss the playoffs, something is seriously wrong.
have you seen this report on espn that piniella would like for the cubs to sign a-rod. extending ramirez’s contract and thus keeping a player that is much younger and cheaper would be the better route.
of course, as a cardinals fan, i hope that a-rod is sporting the little bear asap.
NY Post also reported Kenny Williams offered Crede & 1 of 3 starters (Buerhle, Garcia, or Vazquez) to the Yanks for A Rod. He has to be removed from that team in NY if Torre wants a chance at winning, it is a no win situation for him there….his teammates dont like him, and NY fans are way too harsh on him…whether the cubs get A Rod, re-sign A Ram, and heck even get someone like Soriano too, their pitching is just flat out not that good to make a run at anyone yet. PS – NY Post also said the only 2 players that interest Steinbrenner on the Cubbies are D Lee & Zambrano. I doubt Hendry would give up either.
a-rod a cub… that has potential if he shifts back to short.
a 3, 4, 5 lineup of d.lee, a-rod, and a-ram… that’s nice… real nice. not to mention jones at 6 and barret at 7. that’s a nice mid-end lineup which would be made solid with a signing of soriano to bat leadoff. now if only we can get some pitching…. and actually make all the above stuff happen.
rumor has it the cubs are going hard after jason schmidt… that’d be nice to go with zambrano.
the cubs have potential–but only if they make this happen and shore up their rotation. there bullpen should be okay, especially by putting wood in the pen (something they should have permanently done 2 years ago–and not as an experiment)
will all of this happen… probably not. so, i’m not so hopeful… but i sure would like to see it. and even though a-rod’s been a “bust” in NY, i’ll take his “down” year any day! (.290-35-121)
I’d love to see a-rod in Chicago. The simple fact is, managing is not the Cubs’ problem. As your favorite manager to hate was quoted as saying … “”They replaced a great manager with a great manager,” La Russa said. “I think Dusty [Baker] is a great manager, and I think Lou is a great manager. So the managing part of that franchise is taken care of. And it has been taken care of.” … translated – it’s not the manager, silly.
I actually think Pinella is TOO good for the Cubs … I don’t think he will manage to avoid criticism and I think Chicaga wants that. He’ll be gone in a year.
Going to Chicago would have been career suicide for Girardi … he probably was the best man for the job, and even though they say they only wanted Pinella, I guarantee Joe was discussed if not talked to. But there is no way he could have succeeded there. The expectations would have been unachieavable and he would have ruined himself. Chicago is not the place for an up-and-comer with a future. It’s place for a guy who has achieved to try to perform one final miracle before retirement.
keep drinking the kool-aid aaron! =)
Although my team wont win back to back titles, the next best things as are about to happen (assuming the cards hold on get to the w series) – (A) The second worst thing for a cubs fan is to have the Cards win another series before them or (B) if Detroit wins it all, it goes to show once again that the true best divisionin all of baseball is the AL Central.
yes lamullet is my favorite manager to hate–which is why i can’t put any stock into what he said about dusty and lou being an even swap. after the ’03 run came to such a disasterous end, and then the ’04 collapse–dusty was done in chicago making him no longer a good manager. dusty stopped caring after ’04 and you could tell cause it translated into his players who stopped caring.
hendry should’ve cut his losses a lot earlier, but didn’t. a good manager can turn around players in a hurry–case in point jim leyland in detroit. it takes a good manager to get the best out of their players, and at this point i don’t think we saw the best that the cubs had last year.
poor old lou can probably do that in his first year–playoffs are a real possibility with a new mindset and attitude (and that’s not the kool-aid talking). case in point: detroit’s team isn’t much different this year than it was last year. the cubs can turn it around–and if they have an amazing off-season it’s a real possibility… but i guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
p.s. ~ i’m pulling for the tigers anyways. i don’t care what division they’re from, and i don’t really care what division is the strongest–cause if the cardinals make the series it doesn’t really tell the world that the NL central was the toughest division in the NL or in baseball–so you’re point doesn’t hold any water.
So many Cub fans are drinking the Kool Aid early this year trying to say they are much like the tigers….sorry folks, cant even begin to compare the two. The Tigers decided 3 years ago to rebuild the right way. Trade everyone away, stock pile some cash, build through an entirely revamped minor league system and throw the kids into the fire. They did indeed. Their pitchers were toasted often during this time, but it has come around to work wonders for their staff now. The stockpiling of money enabled them to get the likes of Magglio, IROD, Jose Guillen, and a veteran pitcher to toss into the mix of the good young arms they already had in Kenny Rogers…every analyst I have heard has said this same very thing…Cubs and Detroit are 2 completely opposite situations….The cubs have 2 legitimate pieces in D Lee and Zambrano. Ramirez has proved time and again he is way overrated and is not a true team leader. I would trade him in a heart beat.
The Cubs have zero bullpen, no legit starters outside Zambrano, and their outfield is probably the absolute worst in the game. I don’t care what numbers Jacques Jones puts up when the games don’t matter, he couldn’t throw my grandma out at second with a soft line drive right to him.
For 3 years I heard about the “Great” Cory Patterson, then it was 3 years of wait until the “Great” Angel Guzman comes up, now it’s Felix Pie. All these so called talents yet none of them turn into jack crap in the majors.
Lou will win more games than Crusty ever could that is for sure, but unless the Tribsters are willing to start cutting and dealing for real talent, I wouldnt hold my breath at a playoff run in the next 2 years.
cory may not be great, but he’s on a team that recognizes what he can do– 45 SB’s last year and 16 HR’s for a non-regular starter is pretty good coupled with a .276 BA.
he may not be great, but he has a lot of potential–he was just unfortunate to play under baker who couldn’t teach anyone anything, and abused his players.
it’s not just cub fans that think these players are great either–there are teams all over the league trying to get some of the young talent away from the cubs. i’ll also remind you that baseball america had the cubs farm system ranked #1 a couple years back when these so called “flops” were in the minors.