Piniella not returning to D'Rays in 2006

[E.J.]

Two sources speaking on condition of anonymity told The Tampa Tribune that Piniella will not return as the Devil Rays manager next season.

 

According to the Tribune, the Devil Rays will buy out the remaining year of Piniella's four-year deal. Piniella will receive $2.2 million of the $4.4 million he was to have received in 2006. The Rays will also pay $1.25 million in salary deferred from Piniella's first season in 2003.

 

Piniella will be free to take another managerial job next season, but has hinted he may take the season off, the Tribune reported.

 

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2168523

 

 

I hope Hendry doesn't get any wild ideas. The one guy who's probably worse than Dusty Baker would be Piniella.

[USSoccer]

Stay away, Jim Hendry. Just. Stay. Away.

[BigbadB]

Stay away, yes! However, this buy out thing looks awful nice. If only Cubs brass was that smart.

[Mizzou]

Obviously not the most ideal of choices, but given a choice, would you rather have Sweet Lou or Dusty?

[USSoccer]

Obviously not the most ideal of choices, but given a choice, would you rather have Sweet Lou or Dusty?

 

Poison.

[BigbadB]

Obviously not the most ideal of choices, but given a choice, would you rather have Sweet Lou or Dusty?

 

Let me go take a look at how Piniella structures his line ups and I'll get back to you on that.

 

Better OBP in the #1 and #2 spots in the order.

 

Probably explains why the D'Rays #3 hitters have more RBI's on the year than Derrek Lee.

 

I'll take Piniella over Baker.

Edited September 22, 2005 by BigbadB

[USSoccer]

Obviously not the most ideal of choices, but given a choice, would you rather have Sweet Lou or Dusty?

 

Let me go take a look at how Piniella structures his line ups and I'll get back to you on that.

 

-young guy he has no choice on

-young guy who outplayed an old guy

-Huff

-Old guy

-youngish guy who hustles

-old guy who's blocking a top prospect

-old guy

-K Gonz

-Random DH

 

:P

[BigbadB]

Obviously not the most ideal of choices, but given a choice, would you rather have Sweet Lou or Dusty?

 

Let me go take a look at how Piniella structures his line ups and I'll get back to you on that.

 

-young guy he has no choice on

-young guy who outplayed an old guy

-Huff

-Old guy

-youngish guy who hustles

-old guy who's blocking a top prospect

-old guy

-K Gonz

-Random DH

 

:P

 

Which one of those guys is Gomes? Will Baldelli be back fully healthy next year?

[burnt out cubbie fan]

Obviously not the most ideal of choices, but given a choice, would you rather have Sweet Lou or Dusty?

 

Let me go take a look at how Piniella structures his line ups and I'll get back to you on that.

 

-young guy he has no choice on

-young guy who outplayed an old guy

-Huff

-Old guy

-youngish guy who hustles

-old guy who's blocking a top prospect

-old guy

-K Gonz

-Random DH

 

:P

At least he plays the young guy that outplays the old guy...

[USSoccer]

Obviously not the most ideal of choices, but given a choice, would you rather have Sweet Lou or Dusty?

 

Let me go take a look at how Piniella structures his line ups and I'll get back to you on that.

 

-young guy he has no choice on

-young guy who outplayed an old guy

-Huff

-Old guy

-youngish guy who hustles

-old guy who's blocking a top prospect

-old guy

-K Gonz

-Random DH

 

:P

 

Which one of those guys is Gomes? Will Baldelli be back fully healthy next year?

 

Well, I was doing that tounge in cheek, but Gomes would be 5th in that order. I would assume Baldelli would be healthy by ST, which means they have Gaithright, Crawford, Gomes, Huff and Baldelli in their OF. Seems a bit crowded...

[USSoccer]

FYI tonight's OF is Gaithright, Gomes and Crawford. Munson is DH'ing.

[USSoccer]

Obviously not the most ideal of choices, but given a choice, would you rather have Sweet Lou or Dusty?

 

Let me go take a look at how Piniella structures his line ups and I'll get back to you on that.

 

-young guy he has no choice on

-young guy who outplayed an old guy

-Huff

-Old guy

-youngish guy who hustles

-old guy who's blocking a top prospect

-old guy

-K Gonz

-Random DH

 

:P

At least he plays the young guy that outplays the old guy...

 

he's platooned L/R :P

[USSoccer]

Obviously not the most ideal of choices, but given a choice, would you rather have Sweet Lou or Dusty?

 

Let me go take a look at how Piniella structures his line ups and I'll get back to you on that.

 

Better OBP in the #1 and #2 spots in the order.

 

Probably explains why the D'Rays #3 hitters have more RBI's on the year than Derrek Lee.

 

I'll take Piniella over Baker.

 

So do you think Tampa's reluctance to play their top prospects and block them with vets is more indicative of their GM's philosiphy, or is it in line with Piniella's? Prior to being in Tampa, did he develop any position players in Seattle? Was he responsible for the Reds team in 1990?

[AramisRamirez]

well i guess im the only one on the board that would rather have lou Piniella than dusty baker. ive personally had it with dusty, and while lou isnt that muich better i still think he's an improvement. but i dont think its a terrible idea to keep dusty if llou is the only viable alternative because lou has alot of faults of his own. but i really cant blame their record on him because the players on the roster are terrible. they have carl crawford, aubrey huff, danny baez, and 30+ scrubs. meanwhile if crawford could get his OBP up he'd be one devastating player. he's headed for 90 RBIs, 50 SB's, and a .300 BA.

 

dusty had a poor year managing but he's certainly not the only problem here. as ive said before i blame hendry and trib brass, dusty and the coaches, and of course the players. but hendry had his worst off-season to date this past one. he pretty much did nothing except get rid of some bad attitudes. we were better off without sammy and moises, but we could have used some other talent besides burnitz.

 

dusty will probably be back but if thats the case hendry has to really remake the roster. we need an infusion of high quality players proven on the major league level.

 

with murton and cedeno starting next year, we could use 2 or 3 really good players to stack the lineup. we're not that far off, not as far as i thought. i dont think we're at the point however where one guy like furcal will make us a playoff team. i did mention that manny ramirez as a lone addition would probably get us a post-season series.

 

sweet lou. interesting, but may be more trouble than ihe's worth by having him get adjusted to our roster, dusty as much as i dislike him atleast knows our roster and as long as neifi and macias arent on the roster we should be ok.

id personally rather have grady little take over than lou, but att this point dusty's return wouldnt kill me as much as it would have 2 months sgo,

 

it ended up hurting us. dusty seems intent on letting murton become an everyday so im atleast happy about that.

[RynoRules]

I've said this before, I know, but I do not understand the anti-Piniella animus on this bd. Other than his current stop in baseball's version of purgatory, he's done nothing but win, including a WS and one of the greatest regular seasons in history.

 

More importantly, in direct contrast to our current manager, he would never put up the stupid mistakes and lack of "fundamentals" that the Cubs have been known for over the past two seasons.

[UK1679666180]

He's a better manager than Baker, there's no doubt about that. But, I think we would've seen the same things regrading Perez over Cedeno, Hollandsworth over Dubois, and then Hollandsworth over Murton as we did w/Baker.

 

I think Lou would treat the pitchers the same as Baker has as well.

 

He'd just be a better in-game manager and take responsibility if the Cubs underachieved in back to back years.

[Tim]

I've said this before, I know, but I do not understand the anti-Piniella animus on this bd. Other than his current stop in baseball's version of purgatory, he's done nothing but win, including a WS and one of the greatest regular seasons in history.

 

More importantly, in direct contrast to our current manager, he would never put up the stupid mistakes and lack of "fundamentals" that the Cubs have been known for over the past two seasons.

He's a better handler of pitchers than Dusty, but his philosphies of how to run a team and game strategy are still 180 degrees from my own. That's why I don't like him.

[UK1679666180]

He's a better handler of pitchers than Dusty

 

I think he'd run pitchers into the ground if they were productive enough down in TB.

 

Price held him back in Seattle, but he still managed to overwork pitchers like Garcia.

[Tim]

He's a better handler of pitchers than Dusty

 

I think he'd run pitchers into the ground if they were productive enough down in TB.

 

Price held him back in Seattle, but he still managed to overwork pitchers like Garcia.

I forgot about Garcia. He seems to have a better handle on whom to use in the pen at any given time than Dusty, but that doesn't seem hard.

[UK1679666180]

He's a better handler of pitchers than Dusty

 

I think he'd run pitchers into the ground if they were productive enough down in TB.

 

Price held him back in Seattle, but he still managed to overwork pitchers like Garcia.

I forgot about Garcia. He seems to have a better handle on whom to use in the pen at any given time than Dusty, but that doesn't seem hard.

 

He can manage a bullpen very well.

[RynoRules]

He's a better handler of pitchers than Dusty

 

I think he'd run pitchers into the ground if they were productive enough down in TB.

 

Price held him back in Seattle, but he still managed to overwork pitchers like Garcia.

I forgot about Garcia. He seems to have a better handle on whom to use in the pen at any given time than Dusty, but that doesn't seem hard.

 

These are fair points, but to counter, if we compare most managers' strengths to Dusty's weaknesses (most of which are severe), you always end up concluding, "but that doesn't seem hard".