I, for one, want Lou gone.
He's been merely collecting a paycheck this season. He's not making smart baseball moves at all, and it's really been detrimental to the Chicago Cubs.
For instance:
1. Last week. Ryan Dempster has a 4-2 lead. Runners on 1st and 2nd and 2 outs. He's up around 115 pitches in the 7th inning. Joey Votto is up. Votto has killed righties this season, and not hit lefties so well. In fact Sean Marshall (who made Votto look stupid the day prior) was ready and warm in the bullpen. Lou comes to the mound, fiddles around...and let's Dempster stay in the game. Dempster promptly GROOVES a fastball that was hit and still hasn't landed. Reds went on to win the game. This is just one example of many times where Lou has refused to play the statistics of the game.
2. Lou constistantly let DLee, Ramirez, and Soriano bat 3-4-5 for the first month of the season (before Soriano got hot) when they were all 3 in a huge slump. Soriano has since gotten hot...but Lou STILL has DLee and Ramirez (the easiest outs on the team, right now) in the two biggest run producing spots in the lineup. Stupid....and unexplicable. Lou finally slid ARam down into the 5 spot....but that was only for 2 games. Now he's back to cleanup.
3. The mishandling of the bullpen. I don't necesarilly disagree with Zambrano being the 8th inning guy. But let's look at the setup role. Lou let Grabow and Caridad blow 5 of the first 8 games to start the year! We started the season 3-5 because of those two pitchers alone.
4. The current mishandling of Starlin Castro. Does anyone else not see that Starlin is clearly a number 2 hitter? Did it REALLY take Theriot being out of the lineup and Fukudome sliding into the leadoff role for Lou to let the kid hit 2nd? Now, let's look at this through the common sightline of the Chicago Cubs organization. This kid is the SS of the future, right? This kid is supposedly a 4 tool player, and the 5th tool is supposedly going to be coming with reps as an everyday SS. Then why are we letting him hit in front of the pitcher? This kid has shown great patience, the ability to hit the ball to the right side of the infield (hence, moving runners). He has excellent speed and bat control (indicative of a good number 1 or 2 hitter). He also has moderate to average power. Shouldn't he be batting in front of the 3-4-5 hitters, where he should see more strikes (hence being able to put the ball in play, move runners over, get on base, etc...)? Nope. Lou wants to hit him in front of the pitcher, where there is no security in the lineup for a 20 year old rookier in his first major league stint. Instead, let's bat Marlon Byrd (our best run producer through the first month and a half) in the 2 spot where, statistically proven, he has a lesser chance to drive in runs....Meanwhile, our ELITE prospect rots in the 8 hole batting in front of the pitcher slot. You can't evens steal bases in the 8 hole because most pitchers can't hit a decent fastball (so why waste the off speed stuff on a pitcher).
I could go on. But it's been apparent that Lou is going through the motions and refusing to shuffle things up. What can it hurt? We are already behind the PITTSBURGH PIRATES in the division.
Things Lou has said that make me feel like he's quit on the team:
(When asked why Fontenot he didn't bunt with the tying run on second and no outs with Fontenot hitting in the bottom of the 8th three weeks ago) "I don't know. I don't know."
Well Lou, If you don't know. Who does? You're the manager of the Chicago Cubs. Shouldn't you have a reason for your strategies. "Not knowing" why you didn't bunt Fontenot (especially after he didn't move the runner in the EXACT SAME situation 2 innings prior) is not something a man making a few million bucks a year to be the manager of probably the most beloved team in professional baseball, isn't an excuse.
/rant
