Rob

People who haven't seen him play don't know how freaking horrible he is. They just see the steals total.

I said it yesterday, I'll say it today. I forsee Lou putting an offense out there with plans of running a small ball offense. We'll manufacture one run through seven innings after running out of two rallies, one caught stealing and one busted hit-and-run, bust through with three more runs in the eighth on a three run shot, and lose 7-4.

Piniella inherited Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, Willie Randolph, Rickey Henderson, Tommy John, and Ron Guidry in Ney York, and Steinbrenner spent plenty to keep the roster in decent shape. He then caught lightning in a bottle in Cinci, but let's go ahead and give him full credit for that. His other claim to fame is winning 116... but with your roster looking like this: C - Dan Wilson 1B - David Segui 2B - David Bell 3B - Russ Davis SS - Alex Rodriguez LF - Brian Hunter CF - Ken Griffey Jr. RF - Jay Buhner DH - Edgar Martinez With Raul Ibanez, John Mabry, and Carlos Guillen on your bench, you should be able to win more than the 79 games he won in 1999. Think about it. ARod, Griffey, and Edgar while all were extremely productive, and Lou can't manage a winning record? Even Dusty managed winning records when all he had was Barry Bonds. Speaking of Dusty, let's agree right now that Manager of the Year means jack squat. The BBWAA doesn't know a bloody thing about baseball, which they've proven time and time again with their HOF balloting. If they don't recognize Ron Santo and Bert Blylevin as great, they don't know what great managing would be either. Also, board icons such as Jim Leyland and Mike Hargrove? Really? I've seen some people lament that Jim Leyland was able to spark a turnaround in Detroit (a dubious claim at best) while the Cubs can't seem to turn it around, but I've never seen anybody say anything positive about Mike Hargrove ever on this board. Not once. Now if you wanted to try and pull some numbers that make them better than Earl Weaver, feel free to try. Um, lets see 18+ years service in an industry and being recognized for excellence in that industry. Gee what employer wouldnt want that. Do you realize how stupid this remark is? That's funny considering the numbers you're tossing out. Experience only matters if you are learning from it, and Lou and Dusty have proven time and time again they knew how to play the game, but they have no intimate understanding of the mechanisms behind the game. If you're the skinniest kid at fat camp, you're still at fat camp. If you're the most successful horrible manager, you're still a horrible manager. Just because there aren't many Earl Weavers doesn't mean we shouldn't hold them to the standard of what a good manager actually is.

Christina Kahrl doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of BP. While everybody else maligns the moves we've made, she seems to defend most all of them.

I think Todd is the Cards new setup man. He came in with a man on and nobody out in the 8th today, struck out one, gave up one hit and no walks. I think he's at a 7:1 SO:BB ratio in 5 innings for the Cards now.

I must have missed the part where Lou didn't actually make any of the mistakes I listed on the first page. How sophomoric of me. They aren't mistakes, they are nitpicks using the benefit of hind-sight. This thread doesn't exist if Izturis or Jones gets a hit. Expecting Lou to pinch-hit for Izturis is wrong. How many current managers would have pinch-hit in that situation? Any? Izturis isn't a good hitter, but that situation is just fine for him. All you want is the ball in play to score a run, even just a ground ball, and Izturis does that fairly well. Marshall was under 100 pitches and in control of the game. I don't understand why he should have been taken out because someone reached base. People would then cry that Lou doesn't have faith in his younger players and isn't giving them a shot. And why would Ward be a better choice than Jones in the 9th? Both are lefties and Jones had better numbers than Ward against the pitcher (albeit in such a small sample). This "mistake" is just fan disapproval for Jones showing up. Ummm, 1. I didn't nitpick about any particular in-game decision from last night. 2. Lou's been lucky to get a free pass from a thread like this so far. It was past due time. 3. And the benefits of hindsight? We all blasted those particular (from my earlier post, not yours) decisions the moments he made them, and he's been wrong about the lot of them. Hindsight has nothing to do with it; it's just good baseball sense and Lou couldn't have less of a grasp on it.

I interpreted that to mean when Dusty screwed something up, it stayed screwed up. Yeah, that's what I was shooting for. Dusty may have stuck it to us, but at no point were we uncertain it was coming... it was just what he had been doing for the last few weeks.

I must have missed the part where Lou didn't actually make any of the mistakes I listed on the first page. How sophomoric of me.

you're going to wait that long? i'm already on the "lou sucks" bandwagon. I was pissed off about the signing when we made it... then he did such a great job in the offseason and talked such a great game. It was obviously too good to be true, though. We would have been much better off with Fredi Gonzalez.

Lou has been such a tease this year. He flirts with good ideas, and then discards them. Use Theriot as the everyday SS to get Izturis out of the lineup? Let's do it for a week and then can the idea. Guzman as our fifth starter? Let's give him three starts, and then pull him after he only gave up a single run in two of them. Murton at the top of the lineup? Let's try it a few times to start off the season and then use him in a strict platoon. Pie in CF? Let's give him 50 PA to work through his adjustment phase and then use him strictly as a defensive replacement and pinch runner. And that's not even saying anything about his absolutely horrid managing of the bullpen and his insatiable need to double-switch when unnecessary. Oh, and how many bad times he's picked to try hit-and-runs. After Pagan's 0/4 night, I fully expect Jacque to start against the next five lefties. I'm actually starting to miss Dusty Baker. At least his mistakes were made once, and you knew what they were after you saw the lineup card... and you always knew he'd bugger the pitch count. But at least as we went in to close games, you didn't know he'd be doing his best to proactively ruin our chances come the sixth inning. Anybody else here noticing Fredi Gonzalez has a better win% in Florida with crappier players?

Daryle Ward does look like he could do a fair bit more damage than JD.

I can already see Lou putting in his small ball lineup tomorrow night in anticipation of making this a running game. We'll get 4 runs, three on a home run, and lose 7-4.

The trick is to use the Cubs as your "my luck could always be worse" excuse. Everytime something unexpected and horrible happens to me, I watch something worse happen to the Cubs that night, never unexpected... but still horrible.

Isn't that where we get thrown out after Aramis's pants fall around his ankles and trip him up between 2nd and 3rd?

nah, we'll get a fake rally 2nd and 3rd 1 out in the 9th, then 2 strikeouts. No, it'll be Hoffman in the 9th. The fake rally happens this inning, because nothing will happen against the hoff. I think Murt pulls one down the left field line but gets thrown out trying to advance to 2nd.

Was that a straight SB or did Lou call another damn hit and run?

You know what would have been awesome? PH Floyd for Izturis.

Son of a... This is what I get for not just re-watching the Lost finale.

Leaving Izzy on the bench at the start of the game would have been the better move.

Aramis' grand slam? I think all of the grand slams have come with the bases loaded I think the bases were empty for DLee's.

I would have rather he laid down a neifi-style bunt there.

DAMN IT!!!

Going 3-10 in a September callup is far from a huge success. The other teams and GM's who passed on Brown were correct. Beane was the one who was wrong. No offense to Beane, it happens to everybody. Sorry, but I'm still inclined to think the fact that Beane's longshot gave even a modicum of production to the big league club and the fact that Cincinatti and Montreal's sure things at #3 and #5 still haven't made it out of A ball makes this a notch in the win column for Beane. Even had Brown never made it past AAA, it still does show that performance analysis can be just as valuable as conventional tools-oriented scouting... making Moneyball a success. How is that a success at all? Brown was never good, and the only reason he ever made it to the majors was, most likely, because he was a former first round pick. And the only reason Grueler and Everts aren't in the MLB is because of injuries; it happens to every team. I'm not sure how Brown's failure equals a success for performance-based analysis. People before the draft said he sucked, Beane took him and, sure enough, he sucked. Surprisingly, the two legitimate first round talents he took (Swisher and Blanton) ended up being productive players. All the Moneyball draft shows is that, no matter what approach you take, the draft is a crap-shoot, and you shouldn't use one approach at the expense of all others. If you call Brown's draft selection a success, we better keep you away from the Cubs before you give Hendry an extension. I'll go ahead and admit I may have jumped the gun, but I think everybody expects far too much from the #35 overall pick, sooo... Since 1970, people taken with the #35 pick. Ron Kinner Dennis DeBarr George Lusic Eddie McMahon Gary Harqis Mitch Lukevics Tom Hawk Linvel Mosby Edwin Hook Scott Glanz Jim Weaver Mark Langston Jim Opie Mickey Brantley Matt Kinzer Mike Schooler Cliff Brantley Terry Jorgensen Wynn Beck Brian Hunter Stan Spencer Jeff Ware Johnny Damon Todd Dunn Sean Johnston Mark Bellhorn Jason Marquis Mark Fischer Aaron Rowand Brian West Tyrell Godwin J.D. Martin Luis Atilano Matt Fox Cesar Ramos Kylar Burke Only Langston, Damon, Bellhorn, Marquis, and Rowand have any success drafted from that spot in the last 36 years. While it's too early to tell on the most recent draft picks, none are looking too strong. So yeah, it's possible to find a valuable major leaguer at that point, but it's the exception rather than the rule. Even getting a guy to the majors is a success of sorts, is what I guess I was trying to say, and the further you get from the top five picks, the faster your chances of getting anything from them fall off a cliff.

I was gonna say - maybe you're onto something here. I say keep him in the rotation except when his special time of the month comes, then give him a bottle of Midol and a "Steel Magnolias" DVD and put him in the bullpen. I thought Midol came in pill form? :?

I've moved into the top 100! Sitting at 99 with an ESPN of 194. Once Scotty Pods comes back and Randy Winn comes down to earth, I should be in pretty good shape.