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According to an Associated Press article on espn.com, Cubs skipper Lou Piniella admits to getting “teary-eyed” over his return to Seattle.

But what he should be shedding tears over is the play of his ballclub!

“Lou Piniella heard the roar from the Seattle crowd. He smiled and raised his right arm to wave to the people he helped thrill during the city’s baseball heyday in the 1990s,” the report said.

But look, Lou, it’s no longer the 1990s and you are no longer managing the Mariners.

It’s fine to display emotions, and it’s nice to have fond memories. For, as Bruce Springsteen once sang, “the time slips away and leaves you with nothing mister, but boring stories of glory days.”

“We laughed a lot, and talked about the old times,” Piniella said.

Ah, the good ol’ days. By the way, Lou, you do realize you are managing a team in steep decline, don’t you?

“What the hell do you want me to do about it?” Oh yes, I forgot.

“I have a lot of pleasant memories here,” Lou went to say. Well, I guarantee you that after dropping the first two and having to face King Felix tonight, those memories will not be recent ones.

Not that this is all Lou’s fault, of course. But he’s not blameless in this either. I don’t know about you, but after seeing his act all these years, I’d like to see a little more accountability from the man.

“We’ve done everything humanly possible here.”

Well, then, maybe it’s time for a new voice?

It’s kind of ironic how Lou started playing Tyler Colvin every day following his silly spat with Steve Stone.

Similarly, it wasn’t until after getting tired of hearing how he should move Alfonso Soriano out of the leadoff spot, and continuing to deny it, that he finally did it.

It’s as if he doesn’t try something without it being hammered into his consciousness repeatedly first.

Batting Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez back-to-back in the lineup far too long—refusing to play Mike Fontenot at third instead of Ramirez—letting Colvin rot on the bench—those are things that are humanely possible to change, Lou.

Bad fundamental baseball has to have at least something to do with the manager and his staff, right? At least we used to think so when it was Dusty Baker’s teams kicking the ball around.

Meanwhile, Lou, you can reminisce all you want about the past, but remember one thing.

There’s no crying in baseball.

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Thin-skinned Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella took exception to criticism about his use of rookie outfielder Tyler Colvin and went on a tirade before yesterday’s contest against crosstown rivals the Chicago White Sox.

Perhaps he should be worrying about the way his team is playing instead of the outside criticism about his decision.

Part of the description of your job as a manager is that people will criticize you. Until Piniella went off yesterday I didn’t know you had to have certain credentials before you were allowed to express your opinion.

White Sox color analyst Steve Stone took the brunt of the rant along with local talk show host David Kaplan also being confronted by an angry Piniella for comments he made on his show Chicago Tribune Live.

Stone had the same job with the Cubs for years, and was a former major league pitcher and Cy Young award winner.

I guess his credentials weren’t enough to warrant criticizing Piniella who often seems like he would like to be anywhere other than a post-game press conference following a loss.

And be careful about the questions you ask him, because he might shout back at you, “Do you think I’m stupid or something?”

Yes, I do!

Piniella went on to cite his record as a manager.

“I won over 1800 games as a manager, and I’m not a damn dummy,” said Piniella. “There are only 13 other managers that have won more games than me. So I guess I know what the hell I’m doing.”

Wrong!

Who cares how many games you have won as a manager in your career?

How many playoff games have you won as the manager of the Chicago Cubs? How about a big zero.

I’ve won the same amount of postseason games and I’m not even managing the team, though if I were I guarantee the ball club have been swept both years.

In 2007, Piniella pulled starter Carlos Zambrano in Game One of the playoffs with Arizona during a tie game to save him for Game Four.

I guess somebody forgot to tell Piniella that there is no Game Four in the first round if you get swept. Sounds like a playing to lose attitude.

In 2008, after the Cubs won 97 games and were the best team in the National League for the entire season, Piniella came out late in the year and defended the team’s performance no matter what they did in the playoffs.

“It doesn’t matter what we do in the playoffs; nobody can say we didn’t have a great year.”

Again, does that sound like a winning manager and the guy you want leading your team in the playoffs?

He also put Kosuke Fukudome in the two-hole when he hadn’t hit for the past three months. You could have put a fan from the bleachers in the game and he would have had as good a chance of getting a hit.

Then after the Cubs were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Piniella complained that the team needed a left-handed bat and that’s why they couldn’t compete in that series. So that got us Milton Bradley.

How did that work out?

I guess it never occurred to him that bad managing might have had something to do with it. In fact, I have yet to hear him ever except blame for anything since he became the Cub manager.

It’s always “I just make out the lineup, I can’t hit for them.”

Well, maybe the lineups you’re making out aren’t so good? And maybe, the players are tired of your act and that’s contributing to the listless play on the field?

Piniella does not have much contact with the players in the clubhouse, and leaves it up to the coaches to interact with them. Maybe they feel disconnected from him?

It doesn’t mean they’re trying to lose or play poorly, but when you don’t like your boss, it makes it tougher to come to work every day.

The attack on both Stone and Kaplan came from his limited use of Colvin, who has done a good job whenever he’s been in the lineup.

Piniella has been saying for the last two weeks that he’s done such a good job, I’m going to put him in there everyday. And then the lineup is posted and there is no Colvin.

His excuse is that he has five outfielders and has to get them all in the lineup.

“Ive got five major league outfielders, and I’m not going to abandon one or two of them. It’s just not fair and I’m not going to do it.”

I thought the job of a manager was to win. I didn’t know the job description included being worried about the player’s feelings.

The previous manager, Dusty Baker, was always criticized for not playing the young players and playing his favorites, and he was run out of town.

But the Cubs almost made it to the World Series with him managing the team. And he currently has an inferior Cincinnati Reds team way ahead of the Cubs in the Central Division standings.

So who is the better manager?

You can rant all you want about how many career wins you have and where you rank all-time in wins as a manager.

The question is what have you done for me lately?

Piniella won a World Series in his first year managing the Cincinnati Reds. Do you know how many times he’s been back to the series since?

Not once!

And he’s managed a lot of very good teams.

When you look at him in the dugout lately, unshaven and disheveled, you think you’re looking at a homeless person rather than the manager of a baseball team.

So I don’t care about your history. I care about now, and right now, Piniella deserves a pink slip.

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A long time ago, Jim Hendry, knowing that the World Series window for a team that had not represented the National League in the Series since 1945 was very short, went on a spending spree. Among other signings, he gave Kosuke Fukudome a big deal, (4-years, $48 million) locked up Carlos Zambrano (5 years, $91 million) and Aramis Ramirez (5 years, $75 million) and, of course, the most reviled contract in Cubs history, the 8-year, $136 million dollar behemoth handed out to streak hitter and strikeout machine Alfonso Soriano. These were all contracts handed out to players who were supposed to lead the Cubs to the promised land of AT LEAST getting to the World Series. That isn’t quite what happened. After losing a series to the Diamondbacks that basically involved no offense at all, the 2008 Chicago Cubs won 97 games and had their best chance to make it back to the Series since 03. But, the Dodger pitching staff made sure that pipe dream had no chance of happening, as the Cub offense failed for the second straight postseason to make an appearance. Even worse, the window has slammed shut with such force that Ryan Theriot’s hair lost a few inches, as the no-trade clauses will help pay declining superstars full value for below-prime production.

Strangely, Lou Piniella started to look like Dusty Baker after that season. First, he went from being “Sweet Lou” to a facsimile of the man he had been in Cincy, especially during his war of anger with Milton Bradley. Secondly, he suddenly lost all interest in the kids, suddenly having no use for Geo Soto, among others. Third, Lou, never being a fan of the media throughout his career, suddenly developed an adversarial relationship with the generally adoring Chicago press. Just….like…Dusty.

This season hasn’t been much fun. No, strike that. This season has made me understand why Primal Scream therapy works. After a 16-5 clubbing at the hands of the Atlanta Braves in which Carlos Zambrano was pounded and ROTY candidate Jason Heyward demonstrated he did belong in the bigs, the season was off to a horrendous start. Of course,the Cubs wouldn’t be the Cubs without having a losing record against half the teams in the National League, without getting killed by Albert Pujols a couple weeks ago, and without going 0-6 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. But, then, recently, Lou Piniella committed the most egregious sin in dealings with the media: He called out an analyst who criticized him for not playing Tyler Colvin. (Who should, like, totally be playing, man.)

The analyst? Beloved Chicago icon Steve Stone. Not the best target for Mr.Piniella, as he chooses a man who was a pretty good player and a damn good color guy. Piniella opens his mouth and says the following:

“We’ve got a lot of people here that haven’t managed and won any games in the big leagues, but they know everything, you know? They really do. I think they should really try and put the uniform on and try this job and see how they like it when they get criticized unjustly, you know? That’s all I got to say about that issue.”

Sounds innocuous, right? No big deal, it’s a man venting. Then comes this gem that opened the floodgates:

“And Steve Stone, he’s got enough problems doing what he does with the White Sox,” Piniella said in the home dugout, his voice raising. “What job has he had in baseball besides talking on television or radio? What has he done? Why isn’t he a farm director and bring some kids around? Why isn’t he a general manager? Why hasn’t he ever put the uniform on and be a pitching coach? Why hasn’t he been a field manager? There are 30 teams out there that could use a guy’s expertise like that.”

Reading that quote still makes the veins pop out in my neck, and I’ve been a Cubs fan for 15 years. I sat through some of the worst baseball imaginable (and that’s just on the North Side, I find it’s not a good idea to bring up Terry Bevington, who proved that as a manager, he was a great third base coach.)

See, what Lou fails to understand is that hiring a manager is completely at the discretion of a general manager. The pitching coach is usually at the choice of the manager. ALSO, as Bevington proved all those years ago, being a manager doesn’t mean a blasted thing as far as intelligence goes.

There are plenty of stupid people that were managers, on a repeated basis. Bevington disproves Lou’s dumb theory immediately, as do other mangerial dummies. (The name Vern Rapp mean anything to Reds or Cardinals fans?) Also, Stone has been in baseball just as long as Piniella, as both men have been part of five decades of baseball. But the difference between the two is this: One is managing the sinking ship of the 2010 Chicago Cubs, and probably will be quitting following this season. The other has seen thousands of ballplayers and is widely regarded as one of the gems of baseball analysis, who sat at the side of one of the greatest play-by-play men to ever broadcast a game, who watched this damned wretched team for at least a decade. As this season progresses, and my displeasure at the deteriorating skills of a guy once widely regarded as an amazing manager grows, I’ll look back at this with an expression much like the one Tony Soprano has when he finds out about Vito Spatafore.

To close this article, Stone’s reply is a classic:

“Lou’s probably grumpy, because he only went 3-for-11 against me with no RBIs.”

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FOXSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal wrote an article Monday in which he explained why he thinks the Chicago Cubs should let manager Lou Piniella go.

Bruce Miles of the Chicago Daily Herald wrote a blog later that day that included the following quote from Cubs general manager Jim Hendry:

“I’m absolutely completely confident in Lou Piniella,” he said. “I’ve never any thought about Lou not being the manager here this year. I have complete faith in the coaching staff, also. I have no intention of making any changes at all.”

Unless the firing of Piniella follows the precedent Starlin Castro’s call-up, where Hendry said the young shortstop wouldn’t be called up anytime soon about a week before his stellar big league debut, then Pinella shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

But considering the current troubles the team has had with finding the win column, should a change be made?

It worked for the Colorado Rockies.

The Rockies started 2009 off with an 18-28 record (a .391 winning percentage) under Clint Hurdle, and went 74-42 (.638) with Jim Tracy, who started the season as Hurdle’s bench coach, at the helm for the rest of the season.

Of course, they Rockies lost to the Phillies in the NLDS, but many believe that the Rockies wouldn’t have even been in that position if not for the managerial switch.

Would the Cubs receive similar benefits by showing the 66-year-old, 1,800-win skipper the door, and handing the keys over to, as Rosenthal suggested, bench coach Alan Trammell?

I’m not so sure.

Trammell was the manager for three years with the Detroit Tigers, posting a record of 186-300 (.383) that consisted of 119 , 90 , and 91-loss seasons.

The first year under Trammell’s successor, Jim Leyland, saw that same Tigers team winning the AL pennant. Since then, the team has only finished below second in the division once.

Granted, players such as Todd Jones , Joel Zumaya , Justin Verlander , Magglio Ordonez , and Curtis Granderson either saw an increase in playing time, or had just joined the team with their new manager, but were they really the difference between 71 and 95 wins?

Using Wins Above Replacement (WAR), Jones was worth 1.1 wins, Ordonez 1.7, Zumaya 1.9, Verlander 3.1, and Granderson was 3.7 during the 2006 season.

When you subtract the WAR values that Verlander (0.1), Granderson (1.2), and Ordonez (1.4) contributed to the 2005 team, you end up with an 8.8-game improvement.

It’s by no means a perfect way to analyze the situation, but it does give an idea of the difference between the two iterations of Tiger teams.

One of the main reason’s that Trammell is under consideration, though, is that he’s supposedly the polar opposite of Piniella in terms of personality. They say that Trammell’s mild-mannered disposition provides the perfect contrast to Piniella’s much more fiery one.

But I thought that one of the biggest knocks against Piniella both this year, and last, was that he’d lost his fire, and wasn’t nearly the hot-head that he’s known for being?

Yes, he’s had his spats with members of the media recently, and had quite the run-in with Milton Bradley last year, but he just hasn’t been the guy who argues with umpires every chance he gets, occasionally kicking dirt and throwing bases.

Beyond that, the Cubs don’t think that Trammell is mild-mannered at all.

Even if you want to say that switching to Trammell would simply provide a new voice, I don’t see where you’re coming from.

He has been the Cubs’ bench coach for the same amount of time that Piniella has been their manager. He’s involved in practices and games from spring training through the playoffs.

Are we supposed to believe that he’s been silent all this time? Or is he supposed to change what he’s been saying to the players after he becomes the team’s manager?

Extending that further, the players have expressed their confidence in Piniella, suggesting that they probably don’t want a change to be made.

Other detractors say that Ryne Sandberg , the manager of the Cubs’ Triple-A affiliate, and heir apparent to the major league position, should take the reins mid-season.

I see the sentimental value of naming the former Cubs second baseman and 2005 Hall of Fame inductee the manager, but I don’t see the team making that move, either.

He’s in his fourth season of managing at any level, and is likely coaching many members of future Cubs teams at this very moment.

Do you really want to take a fairly inexperienced manager that may be taking over as the major league manager in the next few years, away from a situation in which he’s familiarizing himself with his potential future stars? This, and the fact he will have to take over a tumultuous situation with a big league team that he didn’t even have a hand in starting.

I would personally prefer that he start with a clean slate, and (potentially) the players that he’s already coached, such as Andrew Cashner, Jay Jackson, Casey Coleman, Starlin Castro, and Tyler Colvin.

With Piniella in the final year of his contract, I say that you stick with him for better or for worse.

Unless he commits some atrocious act, replacing him as manager is just being trigger happy.

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When asked what his team needed to do to turn it around after a fifth-straight loss to the Pirates, Chicago Cubs skipper Lou Piniella had this to say:

“If we start doing the things that we’re capable of doing, I won’t have to answer these questions all the time.”

But the question remains, can this team turn it around in time to make any noise in the post-season picture?

The quest to find this answer began today with a 4-3 comeback win over the Bucs.

Down 3-1 in the seventh, the Cubs found a way to claw back and tie it. In the eighth, Soriano stole his way over to third, and Xavier Nady knocked him in with a single. Marmol was able to hold the one run lead in the ninth.

The win puts the Cubs at 16-22, and gave Lou Piniella his 1800th career win—something only 13 skippers before him have done.

Could this be the turnaround that the Cubs so desperately need? If you go back to the 2007 season it took a Piniella outburst in which he assaulted the third base bag during a late May game against the Braves. The Cubs would get hot in June and eventually catch and surpass a struggling Brewers team down the stretch.

The keys to getting this team going are simple. Sweet Lou needs to rekindle the fire that has made him one of baseball’s great managers. No offense to the calm 66-year-old that is having fun, but that isn’t what got him 1800 wins.

The next thing that has to happen is that big boppers Ramirez and Lee need to get it going. Ramirez is still hitting below the Mendoza line, and D-Lee is hitting a measly .230 and is second to only Ramirez in strike outs.

The final piece, and the one that has cost them the most games is the awful bullpen. Perhaps the biggest joke out in the pen is the $60 million ace that hits gatorade dispensers just as hard as opposing batters hit him. At 1-3 with an ERA of over 7.00, Zambrano has proven to be the poster boy for woeful Cubs pitching.

Also earning the nod for being a bullpen liability are former Notre Dame wide receiver Jeff Samardzija, Esmailin Caridad, and John Grabow. I know both Notre Dame and Caridad have only thrown a combined seven-plus innings, but a combined ERA of over 14.00 doesn’t help keep you in the majors.

Earning honorable mention is Justin Berg and Jeff Gray. The only thing keeping them from being picked on is they are a combined 1-0, even though their ERA’s are just under 7.00.

The few bright spots—and I do mean few—are the pitching performance from Carlos Silva, who is 4-0 with an ERA under 3.50. Dempster and Gorzellany haven’t pitched horribly, but in most games get no run support, and Lilly has looked decent in his few starts. Finally Marlon Byrd, who I thought would be a waste of money is leading the team in all of the triple crown categories.

Earning honorable mention is Soriano, who is hitting over .300 with seven homers, the newcomer Castro, who had seven RBI’s in his Cubs debut, and the bullpen performances from Marshall, Russell, and of all people, Marmol.

The bottom line is that anything coud happen in a division where the Cardinals are clearly the best team. What could help the Cubs is how mediocre the other teams are, and how many times they get each team the rest of the way. But it is gonna take a fire being lit to get this team going.

So what is the future of the Cubs in 2010? I think it is going to be a team looking to sell and get younger by the All-Star break.

If the Cubs can find any value in unloading veterans like Ramirez, Lee, Zambrano, Soriano, Dempster, and Lilly—they should do so. By now it is apparent that this is not the nucleus that will provide the North Siders with their first World Title since before the Great Depression.

However, in these tough times, there will be a lot more sellers than buyers, and moving the high salaries of these older players may be tougher than it once was.

The future of Cubs teams for years to come will depend on what management does with this year’s underachieving team. It could be the difference between rebuilding now and for the next two to three years, or sitting with a group of veterans that have yet to even win a playoff game.

Also, when Lou Piniella retires either at season’s end, or resigns before season’s end, look for the next Cubs manager to be Ryne Sandberg. He has spent several years in the minor league system now and already knows the players that will eventually get called up, in case the Cubs elect to rebuild.

To sum it all up, if the Cubs can’t get it together,they will look to rebuild, dump salary, and Ryno will be the skipper in 2011.

I am sure there are many Cubs fans that will disagree with me, but as Dennis Miller would say: “That’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.”

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The struggling Kansas City Royals have dumped Trey Hillman and replaced him with former Brewers skipper Ned Yost. But don’t expect Hillman to be the only MLB manager to be sent packing. There are plenty of other managers who also find themselves standing on thin ice. And so without adieu, here are the managers who I think will be gone before season’s end.

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With the Cubs floundering and appearing like a rudderless ship, the question arises if the clock is ticking on manager Lou Piniella’s job.

Mired in mediocrity, a $146 million roster seems to be going nowhere fast.

Is the leader at fault? Have the players tuned him out?

The Cubs just finished a stretch of 29 games against teams with losing records last year. Their record was a miserable 13-16, including a six game road trip with Pittsburgh and Cincinnati they just concluded where they were 1-5.

They were swept by Pittsburgh. Let me repeat that because I still can’t believe it. They were swept by Pittsburgh.

Piniella seems like he’s at a loss for words unless he’s going off on a media member who asks a question he doesn’t particularly care for.

He’s back to last years “What am I supposed to do” quotes.

Would you want a manager that doesn’t have answers?

You could say the Cub bats are silent, but they have six hitters with over .300 batting averages.

Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez aren’t hitting, but almost everyone else is. In fact, they’re probably exceeding expectations.

Lee is getting tired of his manager playing with the batting order. He commented last week that Ramirez and he have always hit, and they’re going to hit again.

He went on to say it doesn’t matter where they are in the lineup (this was in response to Piniella changing them in the batting order), but “That Lou likes to tinker with things.”

Perhaps if he learned how to manufacture runs instead of expecting everybody to always come through, the Cubs would have a few more wins. 

The starting pitching has been exceptional, but the Cubs have not taken advantage of it.

They are unable to win the close games because they don’t steal bases or take the extra base. They don’t bunt or hit and run, and they don’t know how to move the runner over or sacrifice themselves for the good of the team.  

As long as the wind blows out at Wrigley Field and the Cubs hit home runs, Piniella is a great manager.

Who wouldn’t be?

Do they need to be paying a guy $4 million to sit on his butt and hope the team hits?

In fairness, he has made some moves, including switching the guy who should be his best starting pitcher to eighth inning duty. Since that change came about three weeks ago, Zambrano has gotten into just five games.

Is that helping the team?

When Zambrano was asked last week why he hasn’t pitched in back-to-back games yet, he snapped, “Ask him,” referring to Lou Piniella. “I’m ready to go anytime he wants to put me in there.”

This is Piniella’s fourth season as the Cub manager and he’s worn out his welcome. Cub players are starting to tune him out. His act has grown old.

Making a change right now could be the best thing for this Cub team.

There is precedence with underachieving teams making moves in May and turning things around.

Last year the Colorado Rockies brought in Jim Tracy in late May after the team started out 18-28 and they ended up making the playoffs.

And who can forget the 2003 Florida Marlins bringing in Jack McKeon to take over a 16-22 team and leading them to the World Series?

I know as a Cub fan, I can’t.

This Cub season is not over. But it is if Lou Piniella stays on.

You can smell the rot of the team with Piniella at its core.

Wouldn’t bringing in Ryne Sandberg from Triple A Iowa make a difference?

Would Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez standing at the plate and admiring balls that fail to clear the wall be tolerated by Sandberg?

Would a complete player like Sandberg who could hit, hit for power, run, field, and throw sit back and do nothing like Piniella does, or would he try to make something happen?

A fresh approach is needed here.

Does anyone remember the speech Sandberg gave at his Hall of Fame induction about playing the game the right way?

Isn’t it about time the Cubs did that?

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