There's not enough Kool-Aid in the World
Today's Trib is reporting from the Cubs (bah) Convention that :
"Rothschild heard some boos when he was introduced Friday night"
Now, I'm not saying Goatriders were involved in that, and I'm not saying they weren't... *cough*MikeDonohue*cough* ... but what was really interesting was Lou Piniella's reaction to the booing. In suggesting that Rothschild shouldn't be blamed for the rash of injuries that the Cubs have had over the last few years, Sweet Lou said this :
"You can't blame a pitching coach for that. You can't blame a strength coach for that. You can blame a manager if he allows a guy to go out there and throw 100, 145 pitches consistently, and all of a sudden he breaks down, and that won't happen."
That's not all, either. Fat Boy Jim also weighed in on the subject :
"[Larry isn't responsible] for who comes in in the seventh - that's the manager's call."
Wow.
I mean, it makes sense that the Cubs are willing to throw Dusty to the wolves in order to provide a clean sheet for Larry, but this is far further than I ever thought I'd hear them go. There have been hints in the media for some time that the Cubs' brass held Dusty, and not Rothschild, responsible for the DL-a-thon of recent years - but this goes waaaaay beyond hinting.
This is the Cubs saying that Dusty was completely incompetent. And you know what? I believe them. Of course I do, he was completely incompetent. And I'm actually prepared to give Rothschild - for a very, very short period - the benefit of the doubt. He's got a couple of months to show me that he's a great pitching coach who was merely shackled by an idiotic manager, before normal service is resumed on my part.
But the real question here is - if the Cubs knew that Dusty was ruining an expensively-assembled pitching staff, and preventing his World-Class pitching coach from doing his job properly, THEN WHY WAS HE ALLOWED TO FINISH HIS CONTRACT?
Yeah, I know, I know - it's all water under the bridge now and I'm as optimistic as anyone about next year. If you're at the convention, enjoy - and if you're watching the football later, enjoy that too...
... and go Bears!!
Mike D.
Actually that was Jason who asked the "Rothschild" question. I was a wee bit too drinky from the night before to be able to make it down there in time to ask my question--which I'll post here later.
I was very glad to hear Jason's questions. Most of the questions were pretty excellent, in fact. It was just the answers that sucked.
Jason R.
Well, the answer did give some hope that Rothschild was gritting his teeth watch the arms get ruined. If that's the case, well...it give some hope.
Thats was the worst answer from Piniella. Most of the answers made him sound like someone who understood the importance of OBP (him, not Hendry) and the relative unimportance of the strikeout. I was fairly impressed with his take on hitting.
Gerald Perry sounded exactly like Gary Matthews, but he has a good track record.
Clute
If you'd paid attention during the Dusty fiasco of the past years, and I'm sure some of you have, you noticed that the Baker/Rothschild relationship was non-existent. Baker resented Rothschild being retained when he go there, guess he wanted a Wavin' Wendell clone, or should I say clown, for pitching coach as well. When you compare other teams manager and pitching coaches in their respective dugouts, you actually see them consulting one another. The only time Baker talked to Rothschild was to tell him he could get up from his designated white boy seat in the dugout and get me a Sandy Koulfax or Bob Gibson up and throwing. Rothschild a classy guy that didn't move on to Detroit because he felt a sense of loyalty to his pitchers and the Cubs for a job not done. Dumbrowski, Leyland and Pinella, are not all idiots because they back Rothschuld. Those individuals resume's speak volumes and if they think Rothschld is a quality pitching coach, it goes a lot further then what many of us out of the loop think his value is.
As far as why the Cubs retained Dusty if they suspected he was clueless, goes back to why we all thought many of the Cubs offseason decisions were the doing of Hendry. The sweater vest was behind the teams lack of acquiring any significant free agents and his credo on contracts futher led to the position that the Cubs would rather eat their own children than a contract.
I don't know if Hendry is the sharpest pencil in the box, but from the thin free agent pool this offseason, he's done a respectible job. It's just unfortunate McPhail wasn't ushered out years ago.