By now everyone is aware of Lou Pinella's tirade and indefinite suspension from baseball. MLB is supposed to rule on his actual suspension today/tomorrow. My suggestion to MLB....please make his suspension last a long time.
Since the Cubs signed Pinella, I was not crazy about the decision. Ask my buddies about my position the day it was announced. While most Cub fans were dancing in the streets about Lou being a savior, I thought to myself...."Is this guy really any good?" Were we not the same giddy fans about signing Dusty Baker prior to 2003?
So I did some research and this is what I found out about Lou's career:
Career Coaching Record to Date: 1540 - 1446
Comment: Not too bad, but I would have figured a savior would be much better than slightly above .500
1986-1988 Coached New York Yankees to a 2nd, 3rd, and 5th place finish in their division....basically he made the team worse each year.
1990: Won a World Series with a decent Cincinnati Reds Team (91 wins), not one of the best World Series teams in the last 20 some years...although better than the stupid 2006 Cardinals
1991-1992: finished 5th and 2nd in the division with the same Reds team....again, the team got worse
1993-2002: Coached Seattle Mariners to some great seasons, including 116 wins in 2001, but fell short of winning anything meaningful in the playoffs. During that run he finished first in the division 3 times but also had losing seasons 3 times. Keep in mind these teams had guys like A-Rod, Randy Johnson, Ichiro, John Olerud, Edgar Martinez at their finest. I probably could have coached them to 110 wins myself.
2003-2005: Coached Tampa Bay to 3 awful seasons. Granted these teams were bad, but the discouraging thing is that he did not really show any improvement with up and coming young talent winning 63, 70, 67 games respectively. His attitude and demeanor proved that he is not able to coach young teams and that he can not coach fundamentals.
Which led me to my concern over being the Cubs manager. Can he coach? Of course. Is he a savior? By no means. Will he help the Cubs? I said no preseason. I said we needed a fundamentals coach, one that could be patient and help teach some of these veterans that were never taught properly. Someone that would convince these guys that there is no curse. 1/3 of the way through the season, I believe his attitude and demeanor is playing against the team. He puts so much pressure on the team without teaching how to succeed that it looks like a bunch of little leaguers that are so afraid of upsetting their dad, that they actually end up playing worse due to a preoccupation with their dad's approval/disapproval. This was amplified when the "sibling rivalry" between Zambrano and Barrett broke out in the dugout. Both were under so much pressure from daddy, that they took it out on each other.
Alan Trammel is 1-0 as the Cubs manager in Lou's absence. I say, lets give that a shot. The team looked relaxed and excited to play in Lou's absence.
Lou, if you want to help the team win, stay at home and yell at the TV, let the Cubs relax and play for fun....We have enough talent that once we have fun, we will win.
I predict the Cubs go on a winning streak in Lou's absence.
Go Cubs Go!
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