Hey all.

Aaron, I think I agree. What Lou said is far from profound. Everyone that comes in to this job with the highest goal and leaves the same way. And says the same thing. Lou wasn't complaining. This is nothing new. That said, and going on the correct assertion that it will take a few years to get "untracked" and back on track, Ryno is the man for the job.

But before that happens, Hendry absolutely has to go. Nothing new here, in my opinion. Hendry doesn't want Ryno because he isn't "experienced". Hendry lives by the myth that the Cubs are always a "couple solid moves away" from contention.

The Cubs need a top to bottom change or NOTHING is going to change! It is so simple. And thus so frustrating.

This is why I've been away for awhile. Then I come back and say the same old sh*t. I am tired of the broken record.

Hopefully some exciting changes occur in November. I'm not holding my breath.

There is no curse and playing day games is a challenge but not the reason for the futility. Put in top notch baseball management with a vision and play baseball the right way and there is no reason why the franchise cannot be consistently successful and win a championship every 15 years or so. The curse is ownership that is not committed to winning or competent enough to install a first class organization... and a fan base that shows up year after year for dreadful product with some delusional irrational attachment.

Good Article Neil. Pinella is right about the futility and negativity but I am dissapointed he used it as a cop-out just like he copped out of the 2010 baseball season. Just say it like it is Lou, you need a push button team to manage to win and when you didn't get it you checked out. Maybe he should be asked about the curse again and he will get on that bandwagon as well.

I also see Ricketts was interveiwed and is giving Hendry full authority to bring him the final mangagerial candidates. Doesn't sound like a change of direction to me. He also did not rule out another price increase stating that they are mapping out pricing strategy now. He feels good about the attendance in 2010 and feels they will win in 2011 and get the attendence back up to that of the record season 3 years ago. I believe Tom found the Cubs Cool-aid spring source (next to the holy water cabinent) amongst the purchase assets and in partaking heavily in it.

Couldn't agree more about EVERYTHING you said.

However, I'd add that just like when he was with the Rays, Piniella is a sore loser and there's nothing wrong with that. But he quit on that team, and once he figured out he didn't have the team necessary to win a championship (which I noted as far back as last year, and again this year), he quite on the Cubs.

I used to love the idea of signing Girardi, but guess what...that opinion has changed. I don't think there's anyone better than Sandberg right now, but leave it up to Hendry to screw that up, and sign someone like Wedge.

Case in point has been the last 5 games down there. It all started against the Omaha Royals, with the Cubs winning 8-7. They were staked to a 4-0 hole early on, then tied it in the 4th with 4 runs, but the pitching give up 3 in the 8th. Rather than hang their heads, as the parent club often does in that situation, they erupted for 4 runs in the 9th to win.

After that, they used that confidence to remain hot, and win 20-9 the next day. Then, the very next day, they roar out of the box again, scoring 4 in the first, only to see the lead evaporate by the piss poor pitching of Samardzija, where he gave up 6 runs, 1 run, and 4 runs in successive innings. But, again, rather than hang their heads, they scored 2 runs in the 5th, 3 in the 8th, and narrowly lost in the 9th after scoring 1 run.

After a tough loss like that, and in a playoff race nonetheless, it's often hard to come back from a defeat like that. However, Sandberg had his club ready again the next day, showing the fight the parent club often lacks. The Cubs were down 3-0 in the first, then scored 1 run each in the 2nd and 3rd innings, only to see the 1 run deficit disappear in the bottom of the 3rd when the Isotopes scored 2 runs. But again, rather than hang their heads, they came back to score 2 runs in the 5th, pulling once again within 1 run, and after holding the Isotopes scoreless in the bottom of the inning, they scored 4 more runs in the top of the 6th, and never looked back from there.

It seems that no matter what the situation is, Sandberg gets the most out of his players, and has developed a guy like Marquez Smith into a power hitter, who is now hitting .327, .399 OBP, 17 hr, 52 RBI, and 30 walks vs 63 K's.

The most amazing thing of all, is Sandberg overcame a 4 game losing streak to start the season, and turned the I-Cubs into a winner thereafter. Not only that, but this is a guy that has done it by using some of the same guys that failed under Piniella, such as Berg, Schlitter, Atkins, Gray, Stevens, Samardzija, Hoffpauir, Fuld, and Castillo (albeit briefly for him)

Now, we can make the argument that those guys failed under Piniella due to their quad-A status, but there is absolutely no denying that both Piniella and Hendry were piss poor roster managers. Piniella consistently misused his relievers, and destroyed their confidence. He also sat most of the young position players when they came up, then would rely on them in crucial situations, like bottom 9th inning, RISP, and 2 outs. If they pull through, sure, it'd build confidence, but when you call upon a young guy that maybe got 1 at bat the preceding week, to pinch hit, what do you think will happen? Heck, even MLB veterans pull through about 10-20% of the time in that situation.

But yet we saw it consistently from Piniella, didn't we? He has NOBODY to blame but himself. I will concede the point that negativity abounds in Wrigleyville, but it's all about how you react to that negativity that proves your worth, and Piniella has proven that he has no worth at all to the club. It takes a true leader to stand up, and tell his players to block everything out, and just have fun, and play the game.

Mentally, baseball at all levels is not much different at all. As you go up levels, from college, to rookie ball, to A ball, to AA, AAA, then the pros, you'll have all sizes of crowds to contend with, but for the most part, guys block out that noise (unless you're Jacque Jones or Milton Bradley). My point is that if you think for a moment that having your team go down 11-4 in the first few innings wouldn't have a team rattled, then you've probably never played the game before.

I've had poor coaching where we've been down big early on, and my coach basically conceded the game to the other team, and told our pitching coach to get me ready to "get some work in, because this is out of hand", and I was the closer. When you hear that type of talk in the dugout, I don't know how it can't affect you, and I could see that it affected the other pitchers too, knowing I had to come into a game I normally wouldn't have gone into, and even our position players looked defeated after hearing him say that (which he did that type of thing all the time, which is why we never did well until he was canned the following year)

Conversely, I had a coach in high school during the playoffs that brought in our closer in the 4th inning after I'd given up 7 runs (I was a starter in high school). He came in, and didn't fare much better, giving up 3 runs in one inning, and we were down at that time, 10-1. He then pulled the entire team into a huddle, and I'll never forget what he said.

He goes, "this game's not over by a long shot. They got to our 2 best pitchers, and their own pitchers don't even come close to Aaron and Tommy. Are you gonna just roll over, or are you going to pick Aaron and Tommy up, and get us to the championship."

I never cried in baseball up to that point, but I looked at Tommy's face, and I just about broke down. We let the team down, but here was our coach calling everyone else to pick us up, and most of the other guys put their arms around us, and said they wouldn't let us go out like that.

We had a freshman stud that came in and shut them down the rest of the game, not even allowing a hit, and we came back to win the game 15-10, and went on to win the championship.

That coach, to me, seems a lot like Sandberg recently. His teams could've rolled over, and conceded victory to the other team, but they came back to win. It's actually a lot like when the Rockies were unstoppable a few years ago to close out their season with like 22 straight wins or whatever it was, and they did it in surprising fashion too, roaring back with huge deficits to boot.

I'm not saying that Sandberg is the best coach in the world, but you can definitely see in the box scores that his players give full effort, and that is PRECISELY what this team has been lacking.

I'm reminded of the storied Nebraska Cornhuskers football team when they brought in Bill Callahan, and accomplished NFL coach that took the Raiders to the Super Bowl, and arrogantly thought he could implement the same strategies in college, and get the Cornhuskers a championship as well. But not only did his players lack effort, but they were completely embarrassed along the way. Then comes along Bo Pelini, and players want to run through walls for him, because they have so much respect for the guy.

I see Sandberg much in the same light as I do Pelini, judging by the comments young players have made while coming up through the system. Guys like Hoffpauir, Barney, Atkins, Coleman, etc., have all raved about his leadership skills. You can tell they play hard for him, because they have respect for the guy. And while I'm sure Girardi would command respect as well, and he's battle tested at the MLB level, I just think that based on our team going young in the future, given comments by the Ricketts family, then the ONLY choice, has to be Sandberg, and they'd be fools to select anyone else, outside of Girardi (who would be insane to leave the Yankees given our current situation, especially if they win another WS trophy this year).

Anyway, that's just my take. Any thoughts?

Just a comment concerning long posts as well. No matter how insightful they are I scroll right past anything over 3 paragraphs. I may read the first paragraph but I can't read a comment that is longer than the original article.

I love your passion though Aaron. Maybe just give an outline with some bullet points? It would be easier to read.

I don't know ... I LIKE reading a well written comment, long or not. If you only want to read short comments, read twitter posts.

Wow! Nice dissertation Aaron...lol! I agree about Sandberg though. He's exactly what we need. That being said, this is the Cubs so don't hold your breath. I'd also like Brenly, he knows the team and his comments during telecasts are usually spot on. With that being said, bring on Wedge or some other cat that has lost in previous stints. That's Hendry's MO. He's a bum, the fact that Rickett's keeps him shows that Rickett's balls haven't dropped yet. He's not willing to make a tough decision so when in doubt...status quo.

I can't say it enough times. Unless Ricketts overrules Hendry, they aren't going to hire Sandberg as manager. Trust me.

I will bet you anything that Fredi Gonzalez is the next manager.

I'm not saying I agree with that, I'm just telling you what I know and what I think they will do.

It truely aggrevates me when baseball players complain about playing day baseball. What about all the people who have jobs requiring physical labor? They usually are up at 5 or 6 AM, work up to 6 days a week, and work anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day. Pressure? When a ballplayer doesn't do well, they may lose a game. Big deal! When someone performing physical labor has a bad day, people can get seriously injured or killed. It just goes to show how removed from reality professional athletes really are.

Pinella. Herman Franks. I've heard the same trash before: "it's probably going to take them a couple of years at least to get untracked." Hey, it's been 102 years. Or from 1945, it's been 65 years.

Same old, same old.

From the Sun-Times:

In a recent interview with old friend Bill Madden of the New York Daily News, Piniella said this about the job he just left -- and the roster:

''I went to a lot of places other people wouldn't have gone. But everywhere I went I was always confident I'd win. Chicago, however, there was just so much negativism that I wasn't aware of. My only regret is that I couldn't win a championship for the new owners there. I just didn't realize the futility there, and it's probably going to take them a couple of years at least to get untracked.''

At least.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/2665406,CST-SPT-cub02.article

Marmol is nasty good when he is on but has no control over his game...the reason for this is terrible mechanics. I doubt anyone can help him get his command...he is a pitcher that works in streaks but I don't think that is the presense that is ideal in the last inning. While he can be very unhittable I think they with a good trade or development of a young arm get better quality and consistency.

Marmol also appears to have fragile confidence, and is effected by the umpires. If an umpire is inconsistent or is squeezing the strikezone, Marmol tends to get flustered and starts aiming his pitches. The walks then just pile up.

At 6-3 is Quade good or was Hendry being negligent for leaving Pinella in so long?

With Hoffpauer getting clutch hits does that provide a reference for how much of a liability Derrick Lee was this summer? I don't know but I am really tired of watching Marmol load the bases and walk in runs. Maybe a good pitching coach can straighten him out but it ain't gonna happen here. I think he shoulf be traded while there is value and he is a good value. There has to be a better option if you're serious about closing out games in the future without the constant trepidation of the 9th inning antics. When the Cubs are down against a team with a good closer I feel it is hopeless. Do other teams feel that way when our closer comes in?

Q's crew. I like that.