6/26 Lou asks for feedback & gets it
Lou Piniella asked the players for feedback on his performance during a 15-minute closed door meeting on Saturday and they gave him some. Piniella called a meeting to follow up after Carlos Zambrano’s tantrum on Friday, which resulted in the pitcher being suspended indefinitely.
“Part of [the meeting] was to get their input,” Piniella said. “I told them if they wanted to criticize me as a manager, so be it and that’s the truth. I want what’s best for the organization.”
The only suggestion Piniella revealed was that the players would like to have the lineups posted a little earlier.
“It’s just to see who’s playing the next day,” Piniella said. “That’s basically the crux of it and I told them we could work on that and do that. The whole thing here is to stick together and play hard and be aggressive and take it to the other team.”
Dealing with outbursts in the dugout like Piniella did on Friday is difficult.
“A Major League manager has to handle different situations,” Piniella said. “That’s part of the job. The losing has been tough on me. Something like this [with Zambrano] shouldn’t happen, it shouldn’t happen. There’s really no excuse for it. These guys are trying. I know we’ve struggled, but they’re trying, believe me.”
– Carrie Muskat
mlblogsmuskat1
I hope they considered that Big Z might be right. Many of his teammates are tanking it on defense. Ramirez comes back after several weeks off and isn’t ready for a bunt or a hard hit. Lee has had many lapses this year, doesn’t dive much, and stays the same distance off the line he did when he was younger, even though he has lost a step. Theriot has quit diving too. And who can forget Nady jogging after the Konerko pop-up in game 2 at Wrigley that fell and drove in the winning run.
However, Big Z’s communications approach was absolutely wrong. You can’t show up your teammates in public like that. Even if they are dogging it.
It is so disappointing that Lou won’t pull his veterans when they dog it. They get rewarded with another at bat, etc.
Perhaps Ryne will manage next year and pull them right away when they make bone head mistakes or just aren’t there to play.