Another season of craptastic managing. I hope this is just cover because if he said otherwise now , he would look worse than he does and that is hard. Go home to Florida and enjoy your family because " what can I do" is not the response of a good manager whose team just keeps finding new ways to lose.

Not sure why he seems so disinterested this year but you can tell the difference.

If after the season he says the same thing, it will be different.

He has just managed so poorly this year. He needs to step up his game.

…what he did would start a firestorm of speculation, etc., and he doesn’t want to deal with it.
At the same time, I have a nervous feeling that, due to the oft-mentioned bad contracts, etc., we might be watching a rerun of all of this next season. I hope I’m wrong but…

… under Lou for the last season of his duties. A manager in waiting, if you will. Somebody who, over the season, could slowly take on more responsibility and be fully ready to manage come end of next year.

To me, it doesn’t seem that Lou’s lost his mind or anything. He’s still making the occasional shrewd move (putting Sean Marshall in left field vs. the cards comes to mind) and undoubtedly has plenty of knowledge to pass along. He seems to lack energy this year. A younger dude with some fire, learning from Lou, may be just what this team needs.

Ideas?

He’ll deserve to be here when they raise the gonfalon next year.

What kind of baseball relationship to Lou and Jim have? Do they get along? I’m curious. Obviously, Jim has the final decision, but did Lou have any input into which players were brought in or let go in the off season? If not, is that the reason for Lou’s mood? Did Lou prefer Ibanez/Abreu over Bradley, but did Jim go after Bradley without conferring with Lou first?

I’m just trying to get a feel for what is really going on.

Looking across town, Ozzie and Kenny appear to have a good GM/Manager relationship. They both have input regarding the players, but ultimately Kenny makes the final decision.

1. Lou
2. Jim
3. Both

Right now.

And cross your fingers that some contender is dumb enough to take the contract. Do it. Otherwise, Ricketts inherits a mess that hampers our payroll for years.

That gives Ryno a full year to manage at AAA, prior to being brought up to replace Tram as Bench coach when Brenly takes over the team in 2011. Ryno learns from BB, with Tram at 3rd base (he is a great coach, just not a manager) with Von Joshua still around since I’m sure most of the AAA guys he worked with will be on the team. I think that would be an ideal way to get Ryno into the big seat, assuming he wants to take it and is in anyway capable of it.

This is all conjecture, of course, and not necessarily what I want to happen.

in much the same way that managing the Yankees and Red Sox is a lot of work. Dealing with expectations and pressure, and in the case of the Cubs having to somehow put players with holes in their games into positions where they can succeed.

This is not to excuse Lou one bit. Rather it’s evidence that a lively (read: younger) man would be better for the job. Not just physically younger but mentally in shape and sharper.

When Lou implied that the job was tougher than he anticipated, I was mad at him for making excuses. But now I think he might have been saying “I’m too old for this”. Either way, I don’t think he should come back next year.

Obviously the outrageous contracts prohibit dumping Soriano, Bradley, or insert-overripe-veteran-here. So maybe the way to affect change in a more modest fashion would be to buy out Sweet Lou.

Wouldn’t The Green Monster be a beautiful backdrop for Soriano’s little hop?

If you do, perhaps include an “undecided” option because that’s kinda where I’m at.

from 1969 just starting…. Fergie is pitching… Could be good watching… Not sure of the date yet.

and new owners stepping in after the season. Basically Lou is saying, “I am here to do my job, but if you want to buy me out (after the season), I am all ears.”

I have been surprised by some of the things Lou has said in assessing the team’s performance lately. He seems to be making a lot of excuses, including injuries, lack of clutch hitting, etc… Well I seem to recall that Lou emphatically stated at the beginning of the season that this was the team that HE wanted. Time for Lou to shoulder blame too. Accountability starts at the top. Man up Lou.

with the new ownership. There is to much of Lou in the 07 and 08 playoff debacles.
Time to let Tram have another shot at managing.

I’ve been wondering if Lou will or shoud be back next year. I like him well enough and he still has those flashes of brilliance (the afore- mentioned Marshall in left field). But he appears to be somewhat adrift this year.

According to one of the workers at a local coffee place I go to, “Lou’s an awesome dude, but he’s getting OLD.” Which I took to mean that the young man thinks Lou should retire. According to one of my sports loving co-workers “Lou doesn’t get after his players enough. He’s turning into Dusty Baker.” He went on to say they should the Sandberg a shot or if they want him to get some more seasoning, try Bob Brenley.

I suspect that while Lou’s time maybe over, he may stay until his contract ends. Unless he decides to ask for his release or the new ownership buys him out. And who knows, maybe next year with some GOOD team changes in place, Lou will go leave a winner.

all back next year.

You can’t change 100 years of ineptiitude in 2 season or even 3 or 4. That has been the Cubs problem all along. That constant cycle of rebuilding and here it is…new general manager-3yrs. later a new field manager-1 or 2 yrs later new general manager-repeat. You need to give the management time to turn things around.

It isn’t like football or basketball or hockey where coaches have their own specific “systems” or “schemes” to implement.

I mean, Lou hasn’t been perfect, but it isn’t his fault that Aramis’s shoulder fell out or guys don’t hit with runners on or Kevin Gregg doesn’t have an out pitch.

Who’s to say Lou won’t change his mind? And at that point, the choice of him coming back may be out of his hands. It’s possible Ricketts will want to go in another direction.

Who wouldn’t love a job that pays you millions of dollars to doze and daydream for three or four hours a day.

That said, I was a fan of Lou’s until this season. His somnambulant management this year has me as mystified as everyone else.

Youth is needed in that dugout. Take a chance.

Especially since I have not heard a replacement suggestion that would be an improvement. It would be different if we had Joe Torre or even, shudder, Tony LaRussa interested in this job. But the names thrown around here — Trammel, Brenly, Sandberg — would not be an improvement, and would put us further in the weeds.

In a year, we would be lamenting the fact that we rode Lou out of town on a rail — just as those who wanted to see this team retooled after the playoff failures the last two years regret losing that 2008 offensive machine.

I admit that Lou has seemed too patient sometimes with the usual player “suspects”, but I also think that we are going nowhere if most of those guys don’t deliver. I love Sam Fuld, but if he will not replace the production of Soriano of 2008. I think that Lou was correct in believing that the odds were higher of that guy coming back, at least for hot streaks, than of Sam Fuld providing that much offense.

I’ll wait and see what happens with new ownership.