Lou Pinella Column

Feelin’ Lou-py
by Scott Bolohan
Staff Writer

Oh, Cubbies. You’ve done it again. Lou Pinella was completely wrong guy for the job of defending National League Central 6th place Chicago Cubs. However, Wrigley Field will at least be a more interesting or dangerous place to be. They might need to amend the "beware that batted or thrown balls and other objects may enter the stands" warning to specifically include bases, hats, shoes, middle relievers, and anything else Lou can get his hands on. It’s going to be a long season. On the bright side, Pinella will bring fire that was missing under the tenure of Dusty Baker.

Although pretty much any other human being would have brought more intensity than Baker, they didn’t need to bring in a guy who wrestled one of his relievers in the early ‘90s. The Cubs should benefit from his presence, but mostly because it would be hard to see them doing any worse. However, Pinella has been a pretty good manager in the past, without a doubt. His .517 career winning percentage, two Manager of the Year Awards, and one World Series ring attest to this. But it should be noted that the difference with those teams were that they were actually good and not cursed.

On the down side, Pinella’s addition means that the Cubs will probably try to pour more money into free agents. Not that I don’t love last year’s "big" free agent acquisition Jacque Jones (OK, so I pretty much despise him), but if there is anything this club should realize, is that wasting money on free agents doesn’t keep the fans happy, although Old Style dulls this effect. Winning really makes them happy. Come September, the ever-loyal Cubs fans stopped flocking to Wrigley, leaving many open seats for the first time in years.

Looking at the teams in this year’s playoffs, it’s easy to see that their success was from their nucleus of young, homegrown talent. Players like Jose Reyes, Justin Verlander, Albert Pujols all came up through their team’s farm system. Only after establishing a core of good young players did these teams dip into the free agents market. While the Cubs have had some success with developing prospects in the past (if you want to call Mark Prior and Kerry Wood successes), and most noticeable now with Rich Hill, rebuilding the team should be their first priority, not bloating the payroll.

However, the hiring of Pinella seems to signal the latter. Unless the roster undergoes major changes, it would be hard to expect them to be in the playoffs in the duration of Pinella's three-year contract. That is, assuming the Cubs don’t start to rebuild. But if they just keep delaying the inevitable with old and overpriced stop-gap free agents, it will push their timetable for success further and further back.
As history shows, Pinella is no fan of rebuilding. When he took over the 55-win Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2003, where he specifically wanted to go to be closer to home, the next three years his win totals were 63, 70 and 67, finishing out of the cellar only one of those years, when he was forth place in the division. He ended up leaving the Devil Rays on bad terms, saying he was upset with the ownership’s commitment to winning. Those Devil Rays teams had more young talent that the current Cubs team by any measure, and now he takes over the current 66-win Cubs. Sound familiar?

It is surprising that the Cubs didn’t pursue more heavily the other main candidate, former Florida Marlins manager (and Illinois native) Joe Giradi, who took a very young and inexpensive Marlins team to the brink of the playoffs. Girardi would have been more patient with the Cubs and has already shown success motivating young players. Under Girardi, the Cubs would have been able to start a plan to inject more youth into the team while perhaps remaining somewhat competitive. Considering Pinella’s history with rebuilding, there would be very little chance that he would have agreed to manage if he was told that was their plan of action.

Pinella has already said he wants disgruntled New York Yankees third basemen Alex Rodriguez on his team. As my great-grandmother would say, "It’s good to want." It will be very interesting to see how the Cubs plan to do this with such little talent at the major league and upper minors levels. The only conceivable way that they could land Rodriguez is if they give up young pitching, which as Oakland and Detroit have recently shown, is the way to build winners. It would be great to see the surefire future Hall of Famer Rodriguez in a Cubs uniform, but another high priced superstar who has struggled under the New York pressure is not exactly the ideal fit for a team not going anywhere fast.

While Pinella will bring a new attitude to the team, his success will only be as good as the players. Pinella’s past frustration in building a winner with the Devil Rays should really not change just because he’s heading a couple hundred miles north. Under Pinella, the Cubs will be thinking about short term improvements, while ignoring the already bleak long term troubles the team faces. The Cubs really botched this move, but given the last 98 years, that really shouldn’t surprise anyone.

This appeared in the October 20, 2006 edition of The DePaulia