It's the lead story on Yahoo! Sports today. Baseball columnist Jeff Passan is calling upon Cubs manager Lou Piniella to explode in rage and get the North Siders out of deep May funk that has seen them lose eight consecutive games and dip below the .500 mark (21-22).
If Piniella does blow a gasket, he won't be the first. Several Cubs players have already had temper tantrums this week. Whacked-out right fielder Milton Bradley claims umpires are conspiring to destroy his career. Ted Lilly, who wasn't even pitching during last night's 10-8 loss to Pittsburgh, was ejected from the game for storming on to the field to argue balls and strikes. Ryan Dempster, who did pitch last night, was seen punching Gatorade buckets after walking half the Pirates lineup in the same inning.
Here's my question about manager tirades: Do they really help? Passan points out the Cubs went 63-46 in 2007 after an infamous Piniella tirade that included dirt-kicking and hat-throwing. IIRC, Piniella had a couple similar incidents while he was managing the Tampa Bay Devil Rays from 2003-05. Unfortunately, Piniella's Tampa Bay clubs never won more than 70 games in a season, so I can't say there's any correlation between manager blowups and winning and losing.
After all, if all it took was a manager going nuts to provoke a winning streak, wouldn't every manager be going on a tirade every day?
I was actually going to talk about the Cubs, and I am glad you wrote about that so this gives me a chance to talk about them not to mention answering your question.
I like to grade teams at least three times a season, which is Memorial Day Weekend, All-Star Break, and September. The first fourty games are in the books, and the Cubs to me are not better. I told you in this blog before the season started that the Cubs stink, and they ain't doing nothing this year. So far, the Cubs are proving me right.
Here are several reasons why the Cubs have struggled:
-- I don't think they ever recovered from the shock of getting swept by the Dodgers. The Wrigley zealots had to know their team was going to have to deal with an emotional letdown heading to this season. It's not easy to recover from getting a swept in the NLDS for the second straight year especially with a team that was expected to go to the World Series not to mention flourishing in the regular season. I thought this team had the pieces to win a World Series, but in sports, it's not easy to win in the postseason even if that team is the best team of all the playoff teams. When disappointment happens, the players take it with them when they go back home for the winter, and then it carries to spring training and on the field. The hangover is there, and it's not easy to brush it off. It goes beyond that though.
-- I thought the starting pitching was overrated, and you can count on Zambrano and Harden to be on the DL, and lo and behold, Zambrano made a trip to the DL already, and Harden is on the DL. Sean Marshall has underachieved as a starter, and Ted Lilly is a waste of money along with Ryan Dempster.
-- The Cubs bullpen is as bad as the Twins bullpen. Outside of Carlos Marmol, who is exactly great? Even if you put Marmol in the closer, which relievers can set the stage for Marmol to close? Heilman, Cotts, and the rest of the stiffs are underwhelming to say the least.
-- I know much has been made of David Ortiz's decline on national sports shows, but Derek Lee hasn't showed you anything this season, and I think he is in the twilight of his career. Soriano has seen his best days. Milton Bradley has done nothing but be a pain in the posterior. Where would the Cubs be without Theriot or Fontenot?
-- The competition in the NL Central is much better. The Cardinals have overachieved with the play of Pujols and the starting pitching.
The Brewers have managed to do quite well without Sabathia and Sheets thanks to the pitching performance of Gallardo, who is coming off a great performance Monday against St. Louis. Dusty's Reds are playing well, and they are in the thick of the race.
I want to see the Reds win the division because I want to see Dusty stick it to the Wrigley zealots, who ran him out of town, and I believe it's going to happen. I love the Reds' young talent from their hitters to their starting pitching. Dusty has done a very good job whether you or any Wrigley zealot want to admit it or not.
Here's also another prediction that I will throw out there, which I mentioned to you couple of weeks ago. Lou will be gone after this season. Why does he need this torture? Also this team's window of opportunity is closed so at his age, why would he manage this group and deal with the zealots?
Now to answer your question about tantrums, it doesn't work. Sometimes it does, but when it does, you have to choose your spots. You just can't do for the sake of doing it. I don't think much of Ozzie Guillen as a manager, but I will say this. Ozzie's rants are timely as Ozzie says when it has to be said. A heart-to-heart talk to a player or a lecture to the entire can be more effective than creating a scene. Mike Ditka, who I thought was the most overrated coach in football that got too much credit than he deserved, screamed a lot, and in the end, it was ineffective, and that's why he was fired. A tantrum can work once in a while, but if you are doing this often, you are losing your players period.
Speaking of losing players, I think Lou will lose his team come September, and then he will leave in disgrace.
Carlos Zambrano went on an embarrassing tirade today:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap;_ylt=AnsyZ7muxe1KNOQXYp_h3F05nYcB?gid=290527116&prov=ap
I'm sure the local media will credit his antics with "sparking" the Cubs to victory against the lowly PIttsburgh Pirates.
It wasn't that bad. I had to admit Z mocking the home plate umpire throwing him out was funny. I did not see the Gatorade incident.
As far as that play goes, Z has a point. I thought the runner was out.
What I got out of that scene was Lou just looks hopeless when he approached the home plate umpire. I think he has given up, and I feel he has lost his players when you look at the players acting out of control as a result of the losses. That's what I got out of that more than anything, and Cubs fans better be concerned with what's going with Lou. I think Lou has approached this as a lost cause. To me, that more of an issue than Zambrano acting like a 5-year old.
The runner was safe. After seeing the replay, the Cubs admitted as such.
I watched the Twins and Cubs over the weekend, and I was paying attention about the Cubs all weekend. What I see is lack of leadership from the manager to the players, and what I see is a team that is not very good. If the Cubs think firing Gerald Perry as the hitting coach is going to solve the team's woes, then they are kidding themselves. I also have to think Lou was not board on this especially when the Cubs were a great hitting team last year.
The Cubs clearly miss Armaris Ramirez, but even then, the rest of the hitters are just bad. Their starting pitching stinks, and their bullpen stinks.
As for Lou, the guy should quit or be fired. It's obvious he can care less, and he does not have the fire to go after his players anymore. He looks like he is not even paying attention half the time. I want a manager that is going to be alert or be proactive, and that's what Lou used to be in his heyday. I know Chicagoans had issues with Dusty, but I never ever recalled Dusty being unalert or not caring.
The Cubs should hire Bob Brenly as the manager. Either him or Terry Bevington. I prefer Bevington because he was a great manager for the White Sox. Bevington won many games, and he was a taskmaster and a motivator for the White Sox. I have no idea why Bevington was blackballed, and it's unfortunate, but if the Cubs are serious of turning their season around, they should hire a new manager instead of a hitting coach.
I watched the Twins and Cubs over the weekend, and I was paying attention about the Cubs all weekend. What I see is lack of leadership from the manager to the players, and what I see is a team that is not very good. If the Cubs think firing Gerald Perry as the hitting coach is going to solve the team's woes, then they are kidding themselves. I also have to think Lou was not board on this especially when the Cubs were a great hitting team last year.
The Cubs had a chance to sweep the Twins this weekend. The Twins did not exactly look like a great team in their trip to Wrigley. On Friday, the Twins were fortunate to win because Milton Bradley helped them out. On Saturday, the Cubs failed to drive in runs. That's what losing teams do.
The Cubs clearly miss Armaris Ramirez, but even then, the rest of the hitters are just bad. Their starting pitching stinks, and their bullpen stinks.
As for Lou, the guy should quit or be fired. It's obvious he can care less, and he does not have the fire to go after his players anymore. He looks like he is not even paying attention half the time. I want a manager that is going to be alert or be proactive, and that's what Lou used to be in his heyday. I know Chicagoans had issues with Dusty, but I never ever recalled Dusty being unalert or not caring.
The Cubs should hire Bob Brenly as the manager. Either him or Terry Bevington. I prefer Bevington because he was a great manager for the White Sox. Bevington won many games, and he was a taskmaster and a motivator for the White Sox. I have no idea why Bevington was blackballed, and it's unfortunate, but if the Cubs are serious of turning their season around, they should hire a new manager instead of a hitting coach.
What a good story would it be if Bevington led the Cubs to the playoffs and even a championship!
Cubbie Love is back!
The Chicago Tribune had a big headline in their front page of the paper on Monday, and the Sun-Times had one too.
I thought Chicago is supposed to be a sophisticated town according to HeatherFromChicago so why would both newspapers in the same city would go publish this type of headline in a regular season. Does any other newspaper in a big-time city do this type of stuff? I have seen teams in first place, and you never see that headline in the front page of a newspaper.
It makes couple of Chicago newspapers look like a Podunk newspaper.