An Embarrassment

Well, the game was an embarrassment for sure, and losing again to the Pirates (4 straight now), a team that had scored only one run while being swept by Cincinnati in the series immediately prior to this one was embarrassing to say the least. But the real embarrassment is the commentary and behavior of the Cubs brain trust of Lou Piniella and Jim Hendry.

Earlier this week, Hendry was widely quoted as saying there wasn't anything wrong with the makeup of the team that required a serious solution immediately (wrong) and that the eighth inning relief problem was not the reason they were losing (right). Of course, Lou promptly trotted out the usual lame post-game baloney. Frankly, the press should just sit there and stare at Piniella when he comes out for the post-game charade, that or simply read off what they think he will say, something everyone has memorized by now anyway. "What can you say, I can't explain it. Gee whiz, I'm trying. You make out the lineup card if you know so much."

Today he offered the truly staggering piece of reasoning that even though Zambrano blew the game in the eighth inning and even though he has struggled in most of his relief appearances, he is the only alternative he has in those situations and so he would continue to use him until he succeeded, at which point Lou implied he would move back to the rotation. At least that is what the words he used actually meant. Whether he had any comprehension that that was what he was saying is anyone's guess. Wow! I mean even for Piniella, that's quite a leap of logic.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that there is a substantial lack of consensus between Hendry and Piniella on the strengths and weaknesses of the team and on how to deploy the players on it. Piniella evidently believes that he needs a right-handed power arm in the bullpen and he is going to sulk and gripe and grumble until he gets Hendry to trade for one. Hendry seems equally convinced that he is not willing to part with a significant player to acquire one and that anyway nobody answering that description is available. What it seems to boil down to in my mind is the inevitable conflict between a GM who has or thinks he has a future with the organization and a manager who knows he doesn't. The fans are the losers here. They deserve to see a competitive team every day and this team just seems to have quit trying.

So in a way, the Zambrano fiasco captures what I am saying in a capsule form. I - and I might add most of the commentators who know anything about baseball - realized from the beginning that this experiment had little chance for success. He is just not suited to be a relief pitcher. The Cubs, after they signed him, tried to make him a closer in waiting. When he came up in 2002, he was used in relief and he was pretty awful. To Dusty Baker's credit, or his pitching coach's, the organization moved him into a starting role and he was really good. Despite his problems the last couple of seasons, he is still a good starting pitcher, and potentially a really good one. But starters moving into relief, especially late inning relief, have to make real adjustments to their style and sometimes, more often than not, they cannot do so successfully and furthermore they have no incentive to do so. All this is going to do is possibly destroy his confidence altogether and certainly diminish whatever trade value he might have should he become so disgusted with the franchise that he waives his no-trade clause.

Well, tomorrow is another day and the Pirates are throwing another lefty and that means Piniella will be trotting out the righties of doom again. Hey, they scored six runs, didn't they? And who better to bat cleanup than Xavier Nady? He blasted a can of corn sac fly on Friday. And he is hitting .174 and .111 in the last month and .156 against left-handers. This guy is a keeper.