Rebuilding After Sweet Lou

On Tuesday, Lou Pinella announced he would retire after this season. Another Cubs season ending without a championship. This is a Cubs team that has fans actually experiencing a feeling of hope at the start of each season for nearly a decade, only to fall apart. Whether it be at the end, at the hands of Bartman, or during because of the anger issues of Milton Bradley and Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs just can't seem to make it to the promised land and clearly Sweet Lou was not the answer.

While I wanted Pinella to be Joe Torre's replacement in NY, it appears the Yanks made a good decision not to fire Torre, wait a year, then hire Joe Girardi. Pinella has been the manager of 2 very talented teams, in Seattle and Chicago, but was unable to produce rings. His fire is matched by no one, but maybe he can no longer lead players like he could in Cincinnati.

Or maybe Chicago has the same issue the Yanks had in the early aughts. Signing large contracts to big name players, or trading for those big names; Alfonso Soriano, Zambrano, Bradley, to name a few. It would take an excellent manager to squeeze the talent out of everyone and keep from disruption. I thought Sweet Lou could have been that guy, but it appears the Cubbies have to start over once again.

Part of starting over is revamping the team, trying to trade some of those large contracts, which won't be easy since most teams don't want dysfunctional players being paid a ton of money. That is on the GM though, and we'll see how many years it takes for him to gather enough talent to put up winning seasons again.

The other part is hiring the right manager. Cubs fan, Steve Wroblewski, suggested Torre, Girardi, Bob Brenly, or Ryan Sandberg as possible hires. Definitely very good managers available for the Cubs to choose from.

I'm going to knock Torre off immediately. I think LA will be his final managerial gig, by his choice. Just as I think Pinella wanted to end his career in Chicago, though preferably on different terms, a title maybe; I think Torre won't want to start over on a new team, especially a rebuilding one.

Next, I want to take Girardi off of the list. I want to, but I can't. If Yankees management were smart, they would sign an extension right now. There is no need to change managers, even if the Yanks do not repeat. Girardi did great things with Florida, and won a title with the Yanks. He would love to manage Chicago though and the Yanks are known to screw people over on occasion so Girardi can't be ruled out...yet.

Bob Brenly is a solid choice, as are Bobby Valentine and Clint Hurdle, given their managerial experience. My favorite out of that group is Valentine. He took a decent Mets team to the World Series in 2000, but hasn't managed in MLB for nearly a decade. It is pretty surprising no team has offered him a position yet.

The most interesting choice though is Sandberg. He has been working his way up the Cubs organization in managerial roles, but has zero experience coaching in The Show. This may harm his chance given the Cubs need to rebuild. Bringing him up now and not winning for a few years could tarnish his image for fans.

I think the best course of action for the Cubs would be hiring Valentine to manage and bringing Sandberg in as bench coach. This will give the Cubbies time to rebuild under an experienced manager while giving Sandberg more time to learn.

The Cubs though aren't known for making great decisions of late, so my guess is they'll bring up Sandberg right away. Let's just hope they give him enough time and talent to finally, finally, bring a World Series title to the North Side.