Cubs Manager Lou Piniella Deserved Better Fate In Finale
Surely, this was not the way Lou Piniella envisioned his managerial finale.
After 48 years of being a Major League Baseball player, manager and general manager, Piniella took off the uniform for the last time after the Atlanta Braves routed the Chicago Cubs 16-5 sending the outgoing manager with a reminder what winning baseball looks like.
Thankfully, Piniella’s career won’t be judged by one lackluster August afternoon. (more…)
Moving Derrek Lee To Braves Could Open Up Position Battle For Cubs
Before the wheels fell off in 2010, Derrek Lee had himself a productive career for the Chicago Cubs.
A fixture at first base since 2004, Lee has played 924 games in his career slamming 179 home runs, driven in 574 RBIs and hitting at a .282 clip. When you discount the season in which Rafael Furcal and Scott Eyre teamed to obliterate Lee’s wrist in 2006, the slugging Cubs first baseman averaged 31 homers and 97 ribbies in five fully healthy seasons from 2004 through 2009.
The 2010 campaign has been a struggle for Lee, who was coming off a 2009 season where he hit 35 home runs and drove in a career-best 111 RBIs. Lee hasn’t hit for power (16 home runs in 475 plate appearances) or average (.251), and his lack of production in the line-up is one of the many reasons the Cubs are among baseball’s biggest disappointments.
However, Lee could get a chance to make amends over the season’s final months and possibly into October now that this trade with the Atlanta Braves has gone through. And upon checking out the initial reports, it could be a win-win for all parties.
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Cubs Manager Lou Piniella Should Call It Quits
What does it say about a franchise when Lou Piniella’s four years as Chicago Cubs manager ranks among the best over the franchise’s past 50 years or so despite not having won a playoff game?
Other than Sweet Lou, only Jim Frey (.519) and Leo Durocher (.504) have winning percentages above the break even point. Jim Lefebvre broke even with a .500 career in his two years with the Cubs.
With his 312 wins as Cubs manager, Piniella has more Ws than Frey, Don Zimmer and Don Baylor. Zimmer, Frey and Dusty Baker were the only Cubs managers to lead the squad to postseason victories. Baker was the only one to win a postseason series.
Now, here’s Piniella, on what amounts to be a victory lap void of actual victories.
And here I am, saying it must stop.
Now. (more…)
Starlin Castro (Not Jason Heyward) Is Earning Your NL Rookie Of The Year Vote
Step aside, Jason Heyward, for Starlin Castro is in the midst of making a compelling case for National League Rookie of the Year honors. (more…)
And Now We Remember Ryan Theriot’s Time With The Chicago Cubs
Mired in a crippling losing streak in a season that really never got off the ground, seeing Ryan Theriot wearing Dodger blue is a sight for sore eyes.
On the other hand, it took the Chicago Cubs dealing its most valuable asset, left-handed starting pitcher Ted Lilly, to get rid of the team’s underachieving pipsqueak second baseman.
To the untrained eye, the celebration of trading away a player with a .284 batting average and 19 stolen bases would be viewed as bizarre. However, like many of my fellow Cubs fans, yours truly tired of Theriot’s poor decision-making skills at the plate, in the field and on the basepaths to the point where it was acceptable to hate your own player.
Believe it or not, it wasn’t always like that. (more…)
