Entries associated with the tag "Lou Piniella":

With the Cubs and the White Sox going south the last few days, both Lou Piniella and Ozzie Guillen lost it. Yet Sweet Lou's tirades seemed real, while Ozzie's seemed a bit of a masquerade, even though his language was harsher. Piniella barely made it through a minute of a post-game media conference after last Thursday's blown save by Kerry Wood, triggered by a key misplay by left fielder Alfonso Soriano, and that was after bashing a Gatorade cooler. (No doubt he wished he'd had a water cooler on hand to get real satisfaction.) When some scribe wondered afterward if he'd thought about replacing Soriano with a better defender, say Reed Johnson, in the ninth inning, Lou blasted back, "You're damn right I thought about it. You think I'm stupid or something?" Then he stormed out muttering profanities, perhaps having learned something from the recent Lee Elia anniversary.

Guillen, by contrast, held no profanities back after the Sox' fourth straight loss before the game on Sunday, but word is he was actually quite subdued and not angry while making the comments, and the old scapegoat -- the idea that the Cubs get preferential media treatment while the Sox are "the bitch of Chicago" -- made it seem he was just throwing up a smoke screen for his players, especially as he was talking about the situation in Chicago while on the road in Toronto, where there would soon be a much better whipping boy available in a badly blown call by umpire Dale Scott (something that no doubt would have cost Guillen money in fines if he had blamed the loss on it). As it was, neither outburst worked to inspire the teams. The Cubs lost their ensuing series in Saint Louis and Monday's series opener in Cincinnati, while the Sox were swept in Toronto with losses Sunday and Monday night. Time perhaps to start shouting at the players.

Who could have blamed him for taking out the candy basket?

Actually, I'm referring to what Lou Piniella called "the bubble gum thing," the dugout receptacle that holds the chewing gum and sunflower seeds so essential to the Norman Rockwell game that is Major League Baseball. Carlos Zambrano, frustrated by a so-so pitching performance that ended in a 5-3 loss to the Phillies last Friday, had thrown one of his fits and, again to quote Uncle Lou, "flipped [the basket] over a little bit." 

Lou lamented that these days "there are no more water coolers. Now you have to tussle with the Gatorade."

Sullivan elicited from Piniella that, after being forced to cough up $200 to $300 for each smashed water cooler back in the day, he'd taken them home and kept them for a while in his garage--after all, he'd paid for them.

"'I wish I had kept them,' he said. 'I'd be selling them on eBay.'"

Ozzie Guillen better start reading his Bible. He's in danger of losing his title as Chicago baseball's King of Quotes.

For years, baseball statistical experts from Bill James on down have been debating the role of the closer. Is it best to save your best relief pitcher for the ninth inning and the last three outs? Or should he be deployed in the middle innings, when it might be the actual critical moment of the game, say, with runners on in the sixth or seventh inning and the opponents' heart of the order coming up? Most of the statistical analysis has concluded there's nothing special about those last three outs and that your best reliever should be brought in at the critical moment, the way Napoleon used his reserves. At the same time, the conventional baseball book insists there is something to the "closer mentality," closing out a victory.

The Boston Red Sox tried it without a closer early after Bill James joined their front office, but they sure had set closers in Keith Foulke and Jonathan Paplebon when they won it all in 2004 and last season. 

Look at Lou Piniella's bullpen usage -- especially this spring -- and he might be having it both ways. Last season, Carlos Marmol was clearly the Cubs' best reliever by any statistical analysis. Yet Piniella used him at critical junctures in the middle innings, leaving the ninth, usually, to Ryan Dempster. This spring, he appears to be leaning to keeping Marmol in the same role, with the veteran Kerry Wood as closer, provided his arm and now his back hold up. Coincidence, or has Lou intuited -- or even read -- what the statheads have been espousing?

"I think that's just coincidence," Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus said last week after the BP book signing at the DePaul Barnes & Noble downtown. "I think the fact was he wasn't comfortable putting a rookie in the closer's job. He was the best reliever, obviously, but he didn't want to let him close."

Fine, but it sure seems as if Lou's going to go with Wood as closer this season and Marmol again in the cavalry role. There is, indeed, something to Wood fitting the traditional closer's mentality as a tough Texas fireballer. Yet Marmol has been, statistically, the Cubs' best reliever in spring training. Coincidence? I think Lou really has intuited something new about the game -- that the biggest outs might come in the middle innings -- while at the same time staying true to the baseball book. And who can argue with that? Not me; I've got Wood at a $1 salary in my keeper fantasy league. 

When I look at this year's White Sox -- at least, in their everyday lineup -- I see last year's Cubs. Both have abundant talent but lumpy roster configurations, bulbous at the corners and thin up the middle. Yet when Lou Piniella came in as the Cubs' manager a year ago, he was free to experiment. He used more than 120 different lineups over the 162 games -- seemingly trying something new every day early in the year -- until he arrived at things that worked that had previously been discounted, such as playing Ryan Theriot at shortstop, where he hadn't played since the low minors, and putting Jacque Jones in center field.

Can Ozzie Guillen work the same magic? Although Ozzie earned praise for his intuitive approach during the championship 2005 season, ever since he's been overly devoted to players and their set positions -- on the field and in the batting order. The Sox have two players at third and a hole at second, but has Ozzie even considered moving Josh Fields across the infield, the way Lou moved Theriot a year ago?

Apparently not. What's more, it's still unclear how Ozzie will solve the outfield clutter involving Jerry Owens, Nick Swisher, Carlos Quentin, and Brian Anderson -- four players and two spots, with Jermaine Dye apparently set in right. If Ozzie goes with a set lineup, he'll likely put Owens in center and bat him leadoff, with Swisher in left hitting second. General manager Kenny Williams faces a similar dilemma in whether to deal Joe Crede for whatever they can get for him -- not fair value, evidently -- or stick with Crede at third and send Fields back to Triple A Charlotte.

For what it's worth, here's what I'd do: Stick Crede at third and Anderson in center, purely for their stellar defense early in the season, when the weather will make homers scarce and defense imperative. I'd stick Fields at second and deal with his poor range and hope that Joey Cora can teach him to turn a double play in short order. I'd stick Swisher in left and bat him leadoff, but freely insert Owens -- with Swisher, Paul Konerko, or Jim Thome sitting -- depending on the weather conditions and the pitching matchup. Here's my 13-man Sox offensive roster:

Catchers

A.J. Pierzynski, Toby Hall

Infielders

Paul Konerko, Josh Fields, Joe Crede, Orlando Cabrera, Jim Thome, Juan Uribe

Outfielders

Brian Anderson, Nick Swisher, Jermaine Dye, Jerry Owens, Carlos Quentin

I'm sending Danny Richar and Alexei Ramirez to the minors as a double-play combination, both to be returned ASAP or in the event of a Fields catastrophe at second. Here's my opening day lineup in Cleveland against C.C. Sabathia, to be tinkered with on a daily basis after that:

Cabrera, ss
Quentin, lf 
Thome, DH
Konerko, 1b
Dye, rf
Crede, 3b
Fields, 2b
A.J., c
Anderson, cf

Look, I'm not saying I have all the answers. I'm suggesting that Lou found a way to put the best eight position players on the field at the same time last year for the Cubs and it worked out pretty well for them, and with their roster the Sox need to seek out unconventional ways to do the same. If second base is a hole and Richar or Ramirez isn't ready (don't talk to me about Uribe as an everyday player), why not try Fields at second? If a trade needs to be made, and Crede can't be moved, shop Dye instead with an idea of opening right for Swisher and platooning Owens and Quentin in left. What I know is that Anderson and Crede are so good defensively they belong on the field on a daily basis, at least early in the season, when the weather's cold. It will make the pitching better at a time when pitching dominates.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella tried to put an optimistic spin on the season in his final words after being swept out of the playoffs last weekend. "This is just a start, fellas. We're gonna get better," he told reporters in the Wrigley Field media interview room after the third game. "We'll reconvene next spring and take this thing further." The Cubs went from worst to first in the National League Central Division in Uncle Lou's first year, true enough, but is there just cause to believe that upswing will continue, and not be just a one-year mirage, the way it was in 2003 -- and 1998 and 1989 and 1984?

The Cubs are not a young team. On the pitching staff we can expect continued improvement for Rich Hill and Sean Marshall, and perhaps Carlos Marmol will move up to closer after looking overworked as a middle reliever at the end of the season. One can expect more consistency from "ace" Carlos Zambrano, and perhaps, just maybe, a full season for Kerry Wood. But this season Ted Lilly was as good as he's ever likely to be (up to his implosion in the playoffs), and Jason Marquis will never be reliable. On the offensive side, Geovany Soto looks ready to be the starting catcher after being named Most Valuable Player of the Pacific Coast League, but otherwise Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Alfonso Soriano are all at or near peak levels with little room for improvement, which can also be said of Mark DeRosa, Jacque Jones, and, should he return, Cliff Floyd. Felix Pie has a hole in his swing and may never be ready for the majors, and even Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot, the little players who could and did this year, might have maxed out. Most painfully, the Arizona Diamondbacks revealed in the playoffs how easy it was to attack overaggresssive hitters like Soriano and Ramirez, and even Piniella admitted before that third game he couldn't change a leopard's spots on that count.

Even worse, the Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies are both showing in the National League Championship Series what true, homegrown talent looks like (even if Chris Young isn't homegrown but was spirited away from the White Sox in the trade for Javier Vazquez). In the Cubs' own division, the Milwaukee Brewers still have the best young talent core in the majors, and having come so close this year they figure to shore up their pitching staff beyond Ben Sheets and Yovani Gallardo. Even the lowly Cincinnati Reds are restocking on the quick, with Jay Bruce and Joey Votto and pitcher Homer Bailey set to join a team that already includes the fearsome Adam Dunn, Brandon Phillips, and, yes, Ken Griffey Jr., just as the Cubs' discarded Dusty Baker is being mentioned as a managerial candidate. At this point, they look like the Brewers of next season.

The Cubs aren't just going to have to get better next year, they're going to have to get a lot better just to get to the playoffs, much less advance. Will whoever eventually buys the Cubs be ready to throw another $300 million to general manager Jim Hendry to improve the team again over the off-season?  

Writing about Lou Piniella's decision to yank Carlos Zambrano after the sixth inning in Game One of the National League Division Series, Rick Telander goes batty:

"What might be remembered as Lou's Boo-Boo or his Dopa-in-Maricopa had all the potential to be the kind of lingering goof that could fry the manager into part of the loser's omelette that is Cubbie lore."

Say wha? You have to crack a lot of eggs to make that one.

The Cubs sent Felix Pie down to Triple-A Iowa before opening the second half of the season after the All-Star break. The writing was on the wall: manager Lou Piniella had been favoring Angel Pagan of late in center field. Pie was hitting only .216 with two homers and 18 runs batted in, while Pagan was hitting .267 with three homers and 13 RBI in fewer at-bats. Yet, as Paul Sullivan pointed out today in the Tribune, the Cubs were 32-16 in games Pie appeared in. Some of that was no doubt padded slightly by games where Pie was inserted late as a defensive replacement with the Cubs ahead, but a .667 winning percentage speaks for itself, especially on a team only one game over .500 overall. Pie had six stolen bases to Pagan's three, and also had shown progress in plate discipline, with 11 walks against 139 at-bats, for an on-base percentage of .272 -- not great by any means, but not abysmal. Most important, the Cubs simply looked better with Pie in center field. He has great range and had yet to make an error, and that played a factor in the team's improved pitching since his arrival. If the Cubs sent him down because they think he was overmatched and needs more seasoning, fine, but if they think the team is better without him, they're wrong. A sharp-fielding center fielder brings a lot of intangibles to a team, and those intangibes are made tangible when a record of 32-16 turns up in games a center fielder plays. That's no accident.

Which brings to mind the White Sox and Brian Anderson. Anderson played center field like Jesus' son last season. Baseball Prospectus estimated he saved the team 12 runs over the average center fielder -- almost a run every 10 games he played in, which is considerable. The Sox looked better early in the season, when Anderson was playing more, than they did later, when manager Ozzie Guillen was giving Rob Mackowiak more time in center. There's no denying Anderson struggled early, but when he bottomed out at .152 on June 10, the Sox were already 38-23 and about to run off nine straight wins. Yet for some reason the Sox and Guillen did nothing but doubt Anderson, even after he started hitting. They urged him to play winter ball, attacked him when he resisted, and pooh-poohed it when he came home from Venezuela early with stomach problems. They never really seemed to want to play him this season with the acquisition of Darin Erstad, and at one point Guillen even played Anderson in left with Erstad in center -- inexcusable. True, he was hitting an anemic .118 when sent back to Triple-A Charlotte April 29, but that was in 17 at-bats over 13 games.

I'm not necessarily saying Anderson would have saved the Sox' season. He's hit only .255 at Charlotte, with eight homers and 31 RBI, while suffering from a shoulder injury. But it couldn't have been any worse. The Sox were 12-11 when Anderson was sent down, meaning they're 28-36 without him on the roster. Also, small sample size or not, I can't resist pointing out that the Sox' record with Anderson starting in center this season was 2-1 for a winning percentage of, you guessed it, .667.

Lou Piniella's old-school. But is he sexist? In a New York Times interview with Deborah Solomon that's inspired a lot of male-female back-and-forth in blog land he conceded that maybe a woman could manage in major league baseball--if she had the assistance of "a good hardened professional baseball guy that would help her with the x’s and o’s during the ballgame." Women don't know the intricacies of the game, he explained, though some "sportswriter women" probably think they do. "Plenty of women already know the intricacies of the game," Solomon shot back. But it's true, Lou, we don't have balls to scratch.

Other edifying points: Piniella vows that his "kicking-dirt episodes are over," names error-prone A-Rod as the smartest baseball player he knows, and reveals that he enjoys Bible reading. Why are the Cubs doing so poorly? "I don't know," he said. "I've been here a couple months."

With our baseball teams racing each other into the abyss heading toward next weekend's interleague city series rematch, the managers are doing their best to keep the media and the fans entertained -- with their quotes off the field. My favorite of the season so far has come from the Cubs' Lou Piniella, who when asked about the club's offensive woes said, "Let's talk about some bikinis on the beach or surfers on La Jolla." The White Sox' Ozzie Guillen is no piker in that regard, and offered this after the Sox' loss Monday night: "It's the same game over and over. It's like watching ESPN News after 11 o'clock at night, the same thing over and over for 24 hours." The Cubs may have won two in a row against the suprising Mariners, but both teams are still sitting well under .500, and after getting swept by Phillies, the Sox have lost an abysmal 15 of their last 18 games. The managers aren't managing so much as providing comic relief.

But you know what? Even when it comes to providing great quotes they're getting beat. My favorite sports line of the year so far came from none other than tennis's Maria Sharapova at the French Open. When fans booed her after she went ahead and served an ace when an early-round opponent tried to signal for a timeout, Sharapova ignored them and went on to win, saying afterward, "It's tough playing tennis and being Mother Teresa at the same time." Roll over, Leo Durocher, and tell Ozzie and Sweet Lou the news.

It's usually forgotten these days, but new Cubs manager Lou Piniella has a cameo in one of the most important baseball books ever written. He turns up in the early pages of Jim Bouton's Ball Four--in fact, in the first actual diary entry of Bouton's account of the 1969 season. That spring saw Marvin Miller lead the first players' strike at the start of training camp. The disruption was short, the gains minimal by today's standards, but it was the first baby steps in a labor movement that has seen baseball players form the most powerful union in any sport. Anyway, Bouton was one of the de facto player reps on the expansion Seattle Pilots, and after attending a union meeting in New York was assigned to call a few of the new Pilots to tell them what was going on. Piniella, then slated to be a rookie--if he made the team--was one of his players.

Here's how Bouton describes it: "I reached Lou in Florida and he said that his impulse was to report, that he was scared it would count against him if he didn't, that he was just a rookie looking to make the big league and didn't want anybody to get angry at him. But also that he'd thought it over carefully and decided he should support the other players and the strike. So he was not reporting." That inspires Bouton not to report--although in his typical cowardly fashion he finds an out by insisting the team find housing for himself and his family, and by the time they do the strike is over. Yet there's no denying Piniella comes off well.

It did seem to have an effect on his chances of making the team, however--at least with the Pilots. Bouton later writes of Piniella asking, "Who do we play tomorrow?" Manager Joe Schultz replies, "Boys, if you don't know who you're going to play, you don't have your head in the game." Piniella was dealt on April Fool's Day to the Kansas City Royals--where he proceeded to win the Rookie of the Year Award to begin a career that saw Bill James place him in the top 100 left fielders of all time. So don't worry if Lou doesn't know about the Billy Goat curse or who Steve Bartman is--or even who the Cubs are playing tomorrow. History shows he's got his head in the game.