Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A question

With the Cubs and Mariners doing battle until 11:30 and an early morning World Cup game for the U.S., I have just one question in light of Lou Piniella returning to Seattle, where he managed for 10 years, and Milton Bradley being back in the same ballpark as the Cubs.

Who is having a worse year?
  • Lou Piniella
Piniella is the lame duck manager of a team eight games under .500. He usually looks like a homeless person. He answers "What else can I do?" in response to 90 percent of reporters' questions, and yelled at a reporter and at Steve Stone for suggesting he should play Colvin more, and then promised to play Colvin more each time. He was also roundly criticized for moving his highest-paid pitcher to the bullpen (a move I agreed with, but I doubt he takes much solace in that).
  • Milton Bradley
He's batting .214 with a .301 OBP. He's earning $11 million and yet is owned in just 3.6 percent of ESPN fantasy leagues. He spent 13 days on the "restricted list" after admitting he's crazy. He has managed not only to make the Cubs' trade for oh-so-terrible Carlos Silva look good--he's made it look like one of the best trades they've ever made.

Last night's game was a perfect example of Lou and Milton's struggles--the Cubs lost with another meek performance while Bradley went 0-for-3.

2 comments:

  1. Let's see .. since I don't give a squat about the Mariners and/or Bradley -- I'm going to say Piniella is having the worse of the two, and, sadly, I don't see it getting much better. But .. wait til next year!!

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  2. I think Bradley is definitely having the worse year. His craziness in addition to the very poor performance far exceeds any failing by Lou personally. Lou is an easy target for the Cubs' failures, but the players carry way more blame.

    I'm not sure how I'd answer reporters' questions any differently if I were him. Lou's rants about Steve Stone are hilarious while Bradley's rants about Chicago are just sad.

    A scary question: Who is having the worse year? Aramis Ramirez or Milton Bradley.

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