Shrek is Out, Skeletor is In

This guy stepped down as manager today.

What kind of baseball do you play?

My mom always thought he looked like this “guy.”

You be the judge

Well, his plan to retire at the end of the year didn’t exactly come to fruition, but surprisingly, it’s not due to the poor play of the Cubs.  He’s leaving the job to spend time with his ailing mother.  Of course, I wish them both well.

I’m a little torn on Pinella as Cubs skipper.  While he did lead them to two straight playoff appearances, there were also two quick exits.  2009 was marred by major injuries and Milton Bradley, and may felt that the season was Hendry’s fault, not Lou’s.  2010 is more on Lou, but he was handcuffed to a degree.  Having to rely on so many rookies when the expectations are so high can’t be easy.  That being said, he did make many, many boneheaded moves that even I could easily recognize.  Trotting out Lee and Ramirez in the 3-4 holes while they were going through their multi-month slumps was just ridiculous.  It was a guaranteed rally killer and we had productive guys that could have moved up to fill the void in the meantime.  Our early bullpen issues weren’t due to the rookies, but rather due to poor management.  Overuse of bad guys, very little use of anyone not named Grabow, allowing the same guys to get shelled game after game without consequence.  Not playing the hot batters while they were hot.  I could go on and on.

But, I suppose this should be a little bit of a celebration, so I’ll say this for the man.  He made it so Chicago Cubs fans now expect to win.  That wasn’t really the atmosphere before.  Those two big seasons and the one that got away not only made people antsy for a title (or an appearance in the NLCS…), but also gave them a taste for winning.  Now we’re going through withdrawals and are hoping for a nice fix in 2011.

For the rest of the season, Pinella will be replaced by this guy.

He will rip that Vanilla Coke can in half with his teeth

That’s third base coach and former cubs AAA manager Mike Quade.  I always thought he looked like this.

I think his skull cane is corked!

Uncanny, isn’t it?

Many people would have assumed the interim job would go to this guy.

Keep sittin' for now

He’s the current bench coach and was filling in when Lou was gone during other points in the past.  But Hendry announced that Trammell is out of the running for the job in 2011 and beyond and so they decided not to make him interim manager to avoid getting his hopes up.  Interesting piece of news.

Someone that is still supposedly in the running for next year is this guy.

Only a 4 of hearts? Who else is in this set?

I personally don’t want to see him manage the Cubs.  I think I’ve said this before, but my main reason is that he will eventually screw up.  This will cause Cub fans to hate him and it will ruin his legacy.  Then he’d only be the two of hearts.

It will be interesting to see what transpires in the off-season.  It’s odd having it start in July (with the Lilly/Theriot trade) instead of October.  I guess I need another fix, too.