Breaking Rumor

According to The Source, Lou Piniella will be named manager of the Chicago Cubs within the next few days. The Source got that directly from Jim Hendry. While contract terms have not yet been finalized (meaning total dollars and total years), there seem to be no major impediments to arriving at mutually agreeable terms.

Call this site satisfied. Piniella would not have been this site's choice, but he was from the list of names given by the major media sources.

As this site has said, this is clearly the best choice for a team that wants to compete in 2007. If the fans could be certain that the 2007 Cubs would unload everyone with significant salaries in exchange for nearly ready talent, Piniella is not the guy you want. While such a strategy would be the preferred strategy, Jim Hendry has never shown both a willingness to do a complete "dump and reload" nor the scouting skills to make such a strategy a success.

Given that, hiring Piniella and dropping $50 million on free agents is the only way this team can compete.

For those of you upset with the passing over of Joe Girardi, let me explain this: There was no way that Jim Hendry was going to hire a guy with mixed credibility like Joe has. Jim has 8 months left to have a team 10 games over .500 or he's going to be rooming with Ed Lynch. Hendry had no choice but to take a known quantity.

If you are upset at anything, direct your ire at Denis FitzSimons and John McDonough. By failing to clean house entirely and fire Jim Hendry, they forced Jim to act with a sense of what is good for the short term and risk the long term. This is what I was talking about when I said the Cubs should avoid allowing Jim Hendry to pick a new manager without having his contract extended beyond 2008. Without the contract extension, Jim is thinking about saving his hide first.

And that led to the selection of Lou Piniella as the next manager of the Chicago Cubs.