Rick Morrissey calls out Lou Piniella in today's Tribune and basically implies that Lou's an idiot.
It wasn't just the catch that stood out. And it wasn't just the fact that the regular left fielder, Alfonso Soriano, never would have made the catch. It was knowing that Soriano never would have tried to make that catch. But don't waste your time blaming the guy for his inability or unwillingness to track down a fly ball. We're so far past that, we'd need a rear-view telescope to see it. Everybody knows Soriano should not be a regular, and everybody has known it for months. Everybody but Lou Piniella.
Piniella makes decisions the way glaciers make trips to the 7-Eleven. Either he doesn't like change or he has a fatal habit of being loyal to players who don't deserve his loyalty. Or perhaps he's aware that Soriano is the highest-paid player in team history. Yeah, that could be it. Whatever the reason, it's bad.
How many times over the last three years has Piniella stood by players who didn't deserve his trust? It was like pulling impacted wisdom teeth to get him to take the closer role away from Kevin Gregg. How many times did Gregg get lit up before Piniella realized what everybody else realized?
Piniella let Milton Bradley be awful for eons until Bradley "blossomed" into a No. 2 hitter. He should have benched a slumping Fukudome earlier in the second half last season, and Fukudome certainly had no business being in the lineup in the playoff debacle against the Dodgers. And so on.
The best managers aren't afraid to make decisions. It's true that a baseball season is long and that most players have ups and downs. But a perceptive manager sees when something isn't working. From Day 1 in Chicago, Soriano has looked lost in left field. A socialite in a biker bar couldn't have looked more lost.
You know Rick, just because Lou isn't doing exactly what you want him to do doesn't mean he isn't making decisions. It just means that he is making different decisions than you.
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4 comments:
I like Sam Fuld
Yes, I know you do. It still doesn't change the fact that sentences like this are crap:
"It was knowing that Soriano never would have tried to make that catch. But don't waste your time blaming the guy for his inability or unwillingness to track down a fly ball."
Yes, Soriano is terrible defensively but should a journalist really be telling everyone that Sori is "unwilling" to chase a fly? Does he have a quote or a source or is he just talking out of his ass again? I think Sori is very willing, he's just not very good defensively. Morrissey writes a whole article attacking Piniella but it sounds like most of the things he doesn't like are Hendry's fault. Lou didn't sign Sori or Milton to big contracts, didn't sign Gregg to close and didn't bid against himself for Fuk. Lou is playing the shitty hand he's been dealt and will have to do so next year as well.
Very frustrating...
Is it too much to ask to get a decent sportswriter in this town?
I think this is a dumb comment:
Piniella let Milton Bradley be awful for eons until Bradley "blossomed" into a No. 2 hitter.
While Milton hasn't lived up to his contract or expectations in any way, the guy OBP'd .379 before the all-star break and .392 after. Those are No. 2 numbers, and they aren't awful at that. He's basically Fukudome; On-base guy with occasional power.
Now if he has beef with Piniella for refusing to hit Fuk and Milton 1 and 2 because they both can hit left handed, that's another thing.
I like that he said "Piniella let Milton Bradley be awful".
That's hilarious, Lou totally should have forced him to be good whether Bradley liked it or not.
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