Kuzul

1: The key to building any successful baseball team is the foundation. That means building a solid base in the minor leagues that continually supplies the major league team with a stream of quality players, both position players and pitchers.

It also means not only drafting and scouting players, but getting the most out of their ability, and utilizing them to their strengths to become the best possible player they can be.

You have to be able to develop them and you have to be able to develop stars. That will keep your costs down on the major league roster and is the only way to build a successful team for the long term year in and year out.

There are many steps involved in building a championship franchise. Having a plan is the key. Those teams that are successful have a way that they do things and a philosophy in place.

Luck always plays a part, but having a plan and sticking to it helps you get lucky.

This is my way to build a baseball team, and these are my ideas.

Read, learn, and enjoy.

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With another season ending in disappointment for Chicago Cub fans, is it too early to shout out the refrain, “Wait Until Next Year?”

That’s the slogan of the Chicago Cubs, whether they realize it or not. No other team in the history of sports has been mouthing those words for a longer period of time; 102 years to be exact.

The slogan actually culled by the new ownership group, Tom Ricketts and family for 2010 was “Year One.” I guess that was because it was their first year running the team, and it sounds a helluva lot better than “Year 102,” and “We Still Can’t Win This Damn Thing.”

Next April is, “Year 103” and it’s time the Chicago Cubs fix the mess that they created, and start doing things the right way.

There is only one man for that job and his name is Ryne Sandberg.

Sandberg came to GM Jim Hendry after the 2006 debacle and asked to be considered for the Cubs managerial job that went to Lou Piniella. At the time, Sandberg had no coaching or managing experience.

Hendry suggested he get some before he tried his hand managing at the Major League level, so he gave him a job managing in the low minors.

That was four years ago.

Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg started riding the buses, staying in cheap motels, and eating at fast food dives to reach his dream of one day managing his beloved Cubs.

He’s had success including being named Manager of the Year in the PCL this year.

He’s considered one of the leading candidates for the job, along with Cub interim manager Mike Quade, who had a 24-13 record after taking over the team from Piniella.

That’s a very good record, and many of the current Cub players are saying Quade should get the job based on his trial run. That’s all well and good, but anyone was an improvement over the played-out Piniella, who should have been sent home a long time ago.

Sandberg didn’t get the opportunity to take over the team and see how he would do, but several of the players on the roster played for him and admired his managing style in the minors.

He helped to develop and teach them the right way to play the game, just like he said in his Hall of Fame induction speech.

Aside from running the bases, going the opposite way, hitting the cutoff man, and giving yourself up to help your team, he also meant play hard and play the game the way it should be played.

In other words, don’t stand at home plate and admire your handiwork. Run hard out of the box. That ball you’re admiring might not reach the stands.

Those are words that Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez need to hear, and they will, from a guy who gave up everything to go down to the minors to work on his craft.

This wasn’t a baseball lifer looking for a chance. Sandberg could have retired and lived like a king for the rest of his life with the money he made playing the game. But he had unfinished business, and that business was to teach today’s players how to play the game the right way.

He also has ideas. When interviewed a month ago, he mentioned that the Cubs need to set up a systematic way of doing things in their minor leagues throughout the organization, so players will know what is expected of them. Any players that come to the Cubs parent team should know beforehand how to play.

Why have the Cubs failed for over a century?

It’s because they keep getting people from outside the organization who have no clue what you have to do to win playing half your games at Wrigley Field.

The Cubs play more day games than any other team in baseball. That sets up late nights on the town, and coming in hungover for the next day’s game. You have to make sure you build your team with the type of players that will be able to handle the temptations and do the right thing.

Playing in Wrigley Field also allows you to know the quirks and nuances of the park. When the wind blows out, it’s a hitters paradise. But when the wind blows in, runs are few and far between if you build your team with a bunch of softball hitters.

You need players that can run the bases, steal, bunt, and do whatever is necessary to create runs when the conditions are not favorable. Sandberg knows this because he played here for so many years.

He won’t be fooled like a Dusty Baker or Lou Pineilla, who had no idea what they were getting into coming to manage the Cubs. And while Quade has been here coaching for the past four years, he has never seen a team that was built to win in this ballpark. Sandberg has. He played on it.

The 1984 Cubs had speed at the top of the lineup, with the “Daily Double” of Bobby Dernier leading off and Sandberg in the two hole. Both players got on base, worried the pitchers with their ability to steal, and ran the bases with perfection.

They set the table, and let the others drive them in. The Cubs had six players that year with over 80 RBI’s.

The 1984 Cubs were one game from the World Series because they had the type of team that could flourish both at Wrigley Field and on the road. The only other team they’ve had since then that could do that was the 2003 Cubs after they acquired Kenny Lofton in a late season trade.

That team was only five outs from the World Series before disaster struck, but it was the right type of team to have a chance to win it all.

Ryne Sandberg knows what it takes, and more importantly, maybe he could pass it on to JIm Hendry, to tell him what he needs to succeed.

Sandberg has the secret to winning at Wrigley. He also has the dedication and desire.

And one more thing: bringing back a hometown hero to run your team has had previous success in Chicago.

Mike Ditka took over a sad-sack franchise, and led the Bears to the Super Bowl in 1985.

Ozzie Guillen brought the Chicago White Sox their first World Series championship since 1917.

See the pattern here?

That’s why Ryno is the right man to end the drought on the North Side of Chicago.

Tell me I’m wrong.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Spending a week on a cruise ship tends to take you out of the sports loop.

That was my situation last week as I tuned into ESPN in my cabin and caught the hosts of Baseball Tonight talking about Texas Ranger’s outfielder Josh Hamilton.

I didn’t catch the beginning, but what I heard was something like, “If Hamilton didn’t get messed up with drugs at the beginning of his career, he might be on his way to the Hall of Fame.”

That brought back some very bad memories for me. The Chicago Cubs had him for a second in 2006 before GM Jim Hendry traded him to Cincinnati in a prearranged deal.

That was after the 2006 season when the Cubs finished with 96 losses and needed a little bit of everything, especially a left-handed power bat who could play center field.

They have been searching for that ever since, and still haven’t found that elusive lefty despite repeated attempts during the Hendry regime, including Kosuke Fukudome and Milton Bradley.

Because of the Rule Five draft, the former No. 1 pick in the amateur baseball draft fell into their lap, only for Hendry to drop the ball and make a huge error in judgement.

Here was a five-tool guy that gave you everything you were looking for in a player, and the only risk you had in taking him was the $50,000 you had to pay to draft him. And that really only comes out to $25,000, because you can offer him back to the team you drafted him from for that amount if he doesn’t stay on your roster for the entire year.  

After the 2008 playoffs when the Cubs went down meekly to the Dodgers, manager Lou Piniella complained about the lack of left-handed hitting as the reason the Cubs lost the series.

In my opinion, that was only an excuse, but how good would the Cubs lineup have looked with Hamilton in the three-hole? Who knows, maybe they would have even won a game.

And do you know what the Cubs received from Cincinnati for him? Cash considerations.

How many games has cash considerations won for the Cubs since then?

Meanwhile, the Reds kept him for a year and traded him to Texas for Edinson Volquez, who was 17-6 for them in 2008 before going down with an injury.

They got a good young pitcher, the Rangers got a guy that some people are starting to say is the best player in all of baseball, and the Cubs got cash considerations.

Is there something wrong with this picture?

A good general manager finds a nugget every now and then.

For a guy working with a huge budget, I can’t think of one player Hendry acquired that you could say he did his homework and made a good deal.

Looking at the other side of town and the Chicago White Sox, Kenny Williams acquired starting pitchers John Danks and Gavin Floyd for nothing. He also stole set-up man Matt Thornton for former No. 1 bust-out Joe Borchard along with acquiring Carlos Quentin for a minor leaguer.

That’s not counting closer Bobby Jenks, who he picked up off the scrap heap and who helped lead the team to it’s World Series victory in 2005.

That’s a fifth of the team that is contending for a division championship this year that he put together while giving up basically nothing in return.

Hendry’s claim to fame aside from overpaid, back-loaded contracts with no trade clauses was acquiring Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee for minor leaguers.

While you have to give him credit for pulling the trigger on those deals, they were only made because the other teams, Pittsburgh and Florida, couldn’t afford them and had to dump salary.

Think of what the Cubs team would have looked like since 2003 had he not been able to pull off those deals.

In other words, he has done nothing to improve this ballclub, and in fact, has handcuffed them and doomed them to at least two more years of failure before enough of his ill-fated contracts come off the books.

And this is the guy new Cub owner Tom Ricketts feels confident can rebuild the team to championship status?

Hamilton is currently leading the American League with a .359 average along with 26 home runs and 80 runs batted in. In his breakout year in 2008, he batted .304 with 32 homers and 130 ribbies. His current OPS for you stats guys out there is .1041.

He’s tearing up the American League and the Cubs received cash considerations for him.

Do you really think Jim Hendry should still have a job?

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In the year 2010, any baseball fan who hasn’t heard the term sabermetrics must be living in a cave, and anybody who doesn’t buy into the program has to be a dinosaur.

At least, that’s what they want you to think.

Bill James, currently of the Boston Red Sox, is thought of as the godfather of using statistical analysis to change the way the game is played and what should be valued.

For years, batting average and RBIs were thought to be key offensive statistics in determining the value of a player–not anymore.

According to “sabermatricians,” batting average doesn’t necessarily lead to runs, and RBIs are skewed by the amount of baserunners a hitter has the opportunity to knock in and therefore, aren’t valid indicators of run production.

This means that everyone since the inception of baseball has been wrong, and Bill James and his ‘ilk’ are the only ones that really know the keys to baseball success.

Can that be, or are they maybe a little full of themselves?

Anybody that writes an article and doesn’t acknowledge the importance of VORP (value over replacement player), WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched), WARP (wins above replacement player) etc. is called out as being ‘old school’ and living in another century.

Isn’t it possible that both worlds can collide and both sides of the argument have some merit?

The objective in a baseball game is to score more runs than your opponent. That is the only way you can win, but how you get there can take different paths.

Former major league baseball player and current minor league New York Mets manager, Wally Backman, has a theory of how baseball should be played and he has had a great deal of success in the minors with his style of play.

It’s called “Wallyball,” and it’s an aggressive style that puts the onus on the other team to make plays to beat you. He constantly calls for hit and runs, stealing bases, and taking the extra base.

He also sometimes orders his batter to bunt the runner over; blasphemous to a true sabermatrician.

Referring to that method of play, Backman said, “To bunt the guy over from second base with no outs, to drive the runner in from third base with less than two outs…to do the little things.”

According to sabermetrics, you’re not supposed to give up an out. The statistical analysis says that in the long run, you’re shooting yourself in the foot and you’re not helping your team, but since when does scoring runs not help your team?

That’s also been one of critiques of possible future Chicago Cubs manager Ryne Sandberg.

Quoting an article from the “Daily Herald’ by Barry Rozner, Sandberg is not of the “new school” that makes use of advanced statistics, and often relies on “small ball” giving away outs while sacrificing bunts at odd times— something the stats analysts frown upon.

You have waited long enough, so I’m going to let you in on the secret that the sabermetric fanatics are not aware of.

If you score first in a baseball game, you have a much greater chance of winning that game. So that means you have to do whatever you can to get on the board first.

Of course, 81 times a year you play at home and don’t bat first, so you have to depend on your pitcher and defense to keep the other team from scoring.

But what happens to a team that does score first?

Back in 2005, when I was getting into Cubs games as media, I would read the media notes passed out to the scribes taking in the game. They had lots of information and statistics, but there was one stat that really popped out at me.

It was late September and the Cubs were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates that day. The Pirates were their usual 30 games or so below .500, but when they scored first, they were four games over .500.

I thought that was a shocking statistic because of the huge difference when they scored first.

Recently when the Cubs played the St. Louis Cardinals, the Redbirds were 39-10 when they scored first, and even the woe-begotten Cubs were 37-20 when they got the first run across the plate.

These stats hold up over a great period of time. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the team that scored first in 2009 won 66.4 percent of the games played. Since 2000, it falls into a 64-67 percent win ratio.

That statistic obviously has far more impact on the game than any stat that has been developed in the past twenty years or so.

Score first and you win!

You put the pressure on the other team, and it changes the way they play and also gives you some confidence.

So, doing whatever it takes to score first including bunting should be the top priority. 

In the history of baseball, I don’t believe a team with that kind of winning percentage has failed to make the playoffs.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not completely against using statistics to build a better team, but take it for what it is and accept the fact that it doesn’t always work.

Take this year’s Seattle Mariners. They surprised everybody last year by coming out of nowhere and finishing better than anyone expected. They were built on defense, which was supposed to be the hot, new way to build your baseball team.

This year they’re entrenched in the AL West basement with a 39-67 record. That’s because they forgot that you also have to score in baseball, and as we now see is most important, find a way to score first.

I’ve always been a believer in OBP (on-base percentage). I was into WHIP before anybody knew or had a term for it. I always wanted my team to go after the guy who gave up less than one base runner per inning pitched.

A 1.30 WHIP is considered excellent by today’s standards. I was always a tough grader.

Admitting to these things probably makes me a closet stats geek.

But I also like the guy who can drive in the runs when he has men on base. There is no negative to that, and anybody would take a player like that on their team.

There are many ways to build a baseball team and just as many ways to win a ballgame. Just make sure you score first.

So for those people out there who because they are students of sabermetrics and think they know more than people that have watched baseball their whole lives, you just got schooled.

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I guess yesterday’s news involving Lou Piniella ending all doubt and saying he will not be back next year is good news for me. I won’t have to write anymore “fire Lou Piniella” columns.

But why is he still in Chicago? What is to be gained by that?

The team he has managed is going nowhere. They have been lifeless all year, and now they are playing for a lame-duck manager.

What is there to inspire them to play hard the rest of the way?

They know Piniella won’t have any say if they’re around next year. Jim Hendry will be evaluating them, and according to Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, he will be back next year.

I don’t know how much hope that inspires in Cub fans, along with the news that team president Crane Kenney will help with the managerial selection.

Despite the fact that everybody was brought back last year, I was hoping for wholesale changes after this dismal, disappointing season.

Unfortunately, the new owner is grading on a curve (Funny note: I first typed curse by accident. We know there are no curses here).

He’s not judging on the past, and like his “Year One” ad campaign, I guess it’s also Year One for Jim Hendry, so past failings are swept away and he started with a clean slate.

Ricketts is impressed with the offseason moves of adding free agent Marlon Byrd and acquiring Carlos Silva for Milton Bradley.

He is also impressed by the farm system that is finally starting to bare fruit after a two-decade slumber. But are there any stars in the system?

I know, I shouldn’t be greedy.

Starlin Castro has had a nice rookie year so far, and Tyler Colvin has exceeded everyone’s expectations, including the guy who drafted him, Tim Wilken.

While interviewing Wilkin in 2009, he mentioned that Colvin was a disappointment, and he sounded like he didn’t think he was much of a prospect anymore.

The Cubs didn’t either, and that’s why they signed Xavier Nady.

Colvin shocked them coming out of spring training and they were forced to add him to the team.

That’s one of the problems with this organization. They can’t even evaluate their own talent.

Geovany Soto was not even considered a prospect at one time. Ryan Theriot was close to being cut while he was still a switch-hitter at the Cubs’ request. On his own, he decided to just bat his natural way, right-handed, and he became a prospect.

Back to Piniella. He didn’t even want to play Colvin more than a couple of games a week until he got into a run-in with former Cub announcer Steve Stone, who criticized him on a local sports show for not playing Colvin more.

The Cubs are allowing Piniella to retire on his own terms because of the respect they have for him and his career. But what respect has he ever had for the organization?

He constantly refers to the Cubs as “they,” as in “One day, they’re going to win it all,” or “They have a nice team here.”

Does that sound like a guy who has been connected to the team? He has little contact with the players in the clubhouse, preferring to let his coaches interact with them.

Even though he’s retiring at the end of the year, it seems like he’s been retired for at least the last year-and-a-half.

What has he done here to earn respect? Win as many playoff games as everybody reading this.

He came here to take the Cubs to the World Series. Just making the playoffs and surrendering meekly to inferior teams wasn’t what he was brought here for.

He harassed the media anytime they asked him a difficult question in postgame press conferences, like, “How dare anyone question the great Lou Piniella.”

Well, I have news for him. He’s not so great as a manager.

He doesn’t deserve respect and he shouldn’t still be managing this team.

My choice would be Ryne Sandberg, who went down to the minors and rode the buses for three and a half long years to have a chance to manage the team he was a Hall of Famer for.

He’s hungry and he wants it. Looking at Piniella, I think his appetite has been satiated for a long time now.

I loved Sandberg’s Hall of Fame speech, where he talked about playing the game the right way. Sandberg played the game that way, and I’m hoping he would be able to impart that to his players.

He managed a lot of them on his way up through the organization, so they would feel comfortable and would want to play for him.

I haven’t seen anyone that seems to want to play for Piniella.

Piniella is looking forward to spending more time with his family. He’s been in the game for 50 years and says he is tired.

Jim Hendry was quoted at the press conference as saying, “He’s earned the right to go out the right way.”

Piniella said yesterday, “I want to go home.”

That’s what I think he’s earned, and he earned it a long time ago, so send him home now.

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Mount Zambrano erupted again yesterday during the Chicago Cub-Chicago White Sox Crosstown Classic because of his perception of a lack of effort by some of his teammates in the first inning where he gave up four runs.

Everyone is saying the Cubs should get rid of him because of his emotional outburst in the dugout.

I say it’s about time somebody on this team showed some life and that they cared about what’s happening on the field.

Former Arizona Diamondback manager and current Cub color analyst Bob Brenly said after the incident, “It’s good to see somebody show some emotion, because this has been a dead-ass team for the past three months. There have been plenty of opportunities for somebody to blow a cork.”

Zambrano’s anger stemmed from the first batter Juan Pierre bouncing a ball down the first base line past Derrick Lee who loped after the ball as it went past him for a double. Zambrano thought he should have dived for the ball. He had the same reaction to another play in the inning.

Many observers did think Lee could have possibly knocked that ball down.

Zambrano recorded the final out of the inning taking a throw from Lee as he stomped on the bag.

He then pointed up to the sky as is his custom after each inning…and then the heavens exploded.

He came into the dugout spewing venom, and according to a source said, “If you’re not going to play for me, then I’m not going to play for you.”

He was prancing back and forth in the dugout and came back at Lee when he reacted to Zambrano’s outburst and told him to shut the f–k up. Piniella and the coaches got in between them and Zambrano went into the tunnel.

He came back shortly after and sat on the bench before he was excused for the day by Pineilla and told to go home.

After the game, Piniella said his behavior was unacceptable. GM Jim Hendry responded by suspending him indefinitely.

There is now talk that Zambrano may have played his last game as a Cub, though his no trade clause and the $45 million left on his contract may stand in the way of that.

Hendry then proceeded to shoot himself in the foot as he has done before by saying, “He hasn’t been up to the standards that he was at before for two years….If you look at his last 50 starts, he probably ranks in the bottom third in the National League of overall performance.”

That comment should have every team calling the Cubs. I’m sure if they can find a trade partner now, they’ll really get top dollar in return for him.

But why trade one of the few guys on the team that actually shows he cares?

A comment to the Chicago Tribune today said, “The Cubs should suspend the other 24 players, not the only one that shows some fire and cares about winning.”

While I don’t agree that nobody else on the team cares about winning, there are a lot of guys just collecting a paycheck right now.

There is one thing you can never say about Zambrano and that is that he dogs it. There isn’t a player on the team that runs the bases harder when putting the ball in play.

I wish I could say that about some of the alleged star hitters on the team.

I also wish Pineilla and Hendry cared more about the pitiful play on the field than a player with a reputation for blowing up, aggravated because of his poor performance and what he saw as a lack of effort by his teammates.

I’m not condoning calling out his teammates during a game. That’s not good for the team.

But somebody has to inject some life into this corpse of a club, and the manager certainly isn’t doing it. Neither is supposed team leader Lee, who has been as dead on the field as his personality this year.

Zambrano has anger issues, and he’s probably always going to have them. But at least he doesn’t take losing lying down.

Trade Zambrano if you must and get whatever you can for him in return, but he’s not the problem. It goes a lot deeper than that.

An overhaul of the front office along with injecting new blood is what is needed here.

Jim Hendry has already said he’s not firing Lou Piniella this year.

New owner Tom Ricketts is currently on safari in Africa.

Hopefully when he gets home he realizes he has a lot bigger game to hunt and brings in some fresh meat.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Thin-skinned Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella took exception to criticism about his use of rookie outfielder Tyler Colvin and went on a tirade before yesterday’s contest against crosstown rivals the Chicago White Sox.

Perhaps he should be worrying about the way his team is playing instead of the outside criticism about his decision.

Part of the description of your job as a manager is that people will criticize you. Until Piniella went off yesterday I didn’t know you had to have certain credentials before you were allowed to express your opinion.

White Sox color analyst Steve Stone took the brunt of the rant along with local talk show host David Kaplan also being confronted by an angry Piniella for comments he made on his show Chicago Tribune Live.

Stone had the same job with the Cubs for years, and was a former major league pitcher and Cy Young award winner.

I guess his credentials weren’t enough to warrant criticizing Piniella who often seems like he would like to be anywhere other than a post-game press conference following a loss.

And be careful about the questions you ask him, because he might shout back at you, “Do you think I’m stupid or something?”

Yes, I do!

Piniella went on to cite his record as a manager.

“I won over 1800 games as a manager, and I’m not a damn dummy,” said Piniella. “There are only 13 other managers that have won more games than me. So I guess I know what the hell I’m doing.”

Wrong!

Who cares how many games you have won as a manager in your career?

How many playoff games have you won as the manager of the Chicago Cubs? How about a big zero.

I’ve won the same amount of postseason games and I’m not even managing the team, though if I were I guarantee the ball club have been swept both years.

In 2007, Piniella pulled starter Carlos Zambrano in Game One of the playoffs with Arizona during a tie game to save him for Game Four.

I guess somebody forgot to tell Piniella that there is no Game Four in the first round if you get swept. Sounds like a playing to lose attitude.

In 2008, after the Cubs won 97 games and were the best team in the National League for the entire season, Piniella came out late in the year and defended the team’s performance no matter what they did in the playoffs.

“It doesn’t matter what we do in the playoffs; nobody can say we didn’t have a great year.”

Again, does that sound like a winning manager and the guy you want leading your team in the playoffs?

He also put Kosuke Fukudome in the two-hole when he hadn’t hit for the past three months. You could have put a fan from the bleachers in the game and he would have had as good a chance of getting a hit.

Then after the Cubs were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, Piniella complained that the team needed a left-handed bat and that’s why they couldn’t compete in that series. So that got us Milton Bradley.

How did that work out?

I guess it never occurred to him that bad managing might have had something to do with it. In fact, I have yet to hear him ever except blame for anything since he became the Cub manager.

It’s always “I just make out the lineup, I can’t hit for them.”

Well, maybe the lineups you’re making out aren’t so good? And maybe, the players are tired of your act and that’s contributing to the listless play on the field?

Piniella does not have much contact with the players in the clubhouse, and leaves it up to the coaches to interact with them. Maybe they feel disconnected from him?

It doesn’t mean they’re trying to lose or play poorly, but when you don’t like your boss, it makes it tougher to come to work every day.

The attack on both Stone and Kaplan came from his limited use of Colvin, who has done a good job whenever he’s been in the lineup.

Piniella has been saying for the last two weeks that he’s done such a good job, I’m going to put him in there everyday. And then the lineup is posted and there is no Colvin.

His excuse is that he has five outfielders and has to get them all in the lineup.

“Ive got five major league outfielders, and I’m not going to abandon one or two of them. It’s just not fair and I’m not going to do it.”

I thought the job of a manager was to win. I didn’t know the job description included being worried about the player’s feelings.

The previous manager, Dusty Baker, was always criticized for not playing the young players and playing his favorites, and he was run out of town.

But the Cubs almost made it to the World Series with him managing the team. And he currently has an inferior Cincinnati Reds team way ahead of the Cubs in the Central Division standings.

So who is the better manager?

You can rant all you want about how many career wins you have and where you rank all-time in wins as a manager.

The question is what have you done for me lately?

Piniella won a World Series in his first year managing the Cincinnati Reds. Do you know how many times he’s been back to the series since?

Not once!

And he’s managed a lot of very good teams.

When you look at him in the dugout lately, unshaven and disheveled, you think you’re looking at a homeless person rather than the manager of a baseball team.

So I don’t care about your history. I care about now, and right now, Piniella deserves a pink slip.

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With his spineless decision today not to right an obvious wrong, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig again showed his detractors why they are right about what a weak leader he is.

Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga had a perfect game going with two outs in the 9th inning when first base umpire Jim Joyce blew a call on a play at first involving Jason Donald of the Cleveland Indians.

An obviously upset Joyce admitted after the game that he blew the call.

“I just cost that kid a perfect game,” Joyce said. “I was convinced he beat the throw until I saw the replay.”

You have to say Joyce was a stand-up guy for admitting his mistake, but it didn’t have to be this way.

Selig wasn’t the only one wrong here. Joyce was wrong for more than just his call at first base. He was wrong for not taking in the situation, and understanding how hard it is to throw a perfect game when he made his call.

As Pete Rose related on the “Waddle and Silvy” show on ESPN radio in Chicago: “I’m going to give the pitcher the benefit of the doubt on a bang-bang play at first. The umpire knew that is was a perfect game.”

Normally when you see a great play by an infielder in a baseball game and the throw and the player get to the bag at the same time, the call almost always goes to the fielding team, perhaps in recognition of that great effort.

Here you have a situation where a pitcher is about to throw only the twenty-first perfect game in the history of baseball. You would think the umpire would be a little more cognizant of that and make the right call.

You can disagree with me for saying if it was a tie, still call the guy out because there were two outs in the 9th inning of a perfect game, but sometimes you have to cut the guy some slack.

But in this case, Donald was easily out at first. Nobody questioned the call, and you have to question that if Joyce needed to see the replay and that he was really sure the guy was safe, maybe he should get some glasses or contacts, or maybe he shouldn’t be umpiring anymore.

Unfortunately the umpires didn’t huddle together and make the right decision.

Former Chicago Cub pitcher Milt Pappas still holds a grudge against former umpire Bruce Froemming for denying him a perfect game with two outs in the 9th inning in 1972 when he called a couple of borderline pitches balls to give pinch hitter Larry Stahl a walk. Pappas was livid, but he still ended up with a no-hitter.

It’s unbelievable how calm Galarraga was after the obvious blown call. Not only did he lose the perfect game, but that call also cost him the no-hitter.

For a journeyman pitcher who is unlikely to ever taste immortality again, his behavior was amazing.

But what was also amazing was Bud Selig’s decision not to act in the best interest of the game like he has the power to do and ignore the obvious mistake.

St. Louis Cardinal manager Tony LaRussa gave his two cents about the incident.

“I was thinking if the umpire says he made a mistake on replay, I’d call it a perfect game. If I was Bud Selig, in the best interest of the game, I’d give him his perfect game.”

Unfortunately Tony LaRussa is not Bud Selig.

There are people who would say that if you change this play, you would have to go back and view other games and see if there were mistakes made in them. Or that in the future, every time an umpire makes a mistake that the commissioner has to step in and change it.

That’s not the case, and this is a special incident.

This play was the last play of the game if the correct call was made. Changing it changes nothing other than doing the right thing. You don’t have to go back and start over from the point of the infraction.

The game was over.

Armando Galarraga threw a perfect game.

He already lost the thrill of the moment and the celebration that would have taken place after his outstanding performance.

Is it right to steal history from him, and his place in the Hall of Fame after pitching such a gem and handling it afterwards like such a gentleman?

No, it’s not!

But we’ve got a commissioner who decided that an exhibition game should determine who has home field advantage in the World Series, so the bigger surprise here would have been if he did do the right thing.

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As Chicago Cubs’ starter Carlos Silva morphs into a Cy Young candidate so far early in the 2010 season, Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry is getting more than his share of credit for pulling off that trade.

That credit is completely unwarranted.

You don’t get credit for signing the worst possible fit for your team in 2009 in Milton Bradley and ruining the season, and then receive accolades because the Seattle Mariners dumped their refuse on you and he turns out much better than expected, at least for now.

Actually even if Silva completely bombs the rest of the season, the trade still looks good because you got rid of a cancer and added a starting pitcher that gets you a win just about every time he takes the mound so far this year.

In fact, he’s off to the best start of any Cub starter since Kenny Holtzman in 1967, when he was a part-time starter while serving in the military that year.

Carlos Silva signed a four year, $48 million dollar contract with the Mariners after the 2007 season, while Bradley signed a three year, $30 million dollar contract with the Cubs starting in 2009.

To say both players were a disappointment for their teams would be an understatement of monumental proportions.

Bradley not only bombed on the field, but he literally blew up the chemistry the team had in the two previous seasons.

Instead of adding a potent left-handed bat, which was the goal, the Cubs added a petulant player who cared only about himself, eschewed his teammates, and was a marketing disaster.

Silva was almost as bad with Seattle, just without the personality disorder.

In two seasons, he won only 5 games, finishing 4-15 in 2008 with a 6.46 ERA, and 1-3 in an injury plagued 2009 season with a whopping 8.60 ERA.

Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik decided he needed a bit more pop in his lineup and took a chance that Bradley was the answer, just like Hendry did before him.

How has that worked out?

Bradley is hitting a robust .229 with three homers and 18 ribbies to go along with a .305 OBP and .667 OPS, not exactly numbers that are a sabremetric’s wet dream.

Not only did Zduriencik take Bradley from the Cubs, but he threw in $9 million dollars so Hendry would have a few dollars spending money since new owner Tom Ricketts took away his allowance and didn’t allot him any more money to fill out the team this year.

That’s why Hendry is now revered in town, at least for that move.

You listen to sports radio in Chicago, and you hear what a genius Hendry was to not only get rid of Bradley, but acquiring Silva from Seattle in the process.

But how brilliant was he when he passed on Bobby Abreu, Raul Ibanez, and Adam Dunn, and signed the only guy in the group who never drove in 100 runs in a season?

Not too brilliant!

That doesn’t even take into account the mental aspect of Bradley, and we all know about that, as Seattle has also sadly learned.

Along with his lousy production, he also spent time on the restricted list when he finally admitted there might be something wrong in that head of his.

So should Hendry get kudos for getting lucky?

Not in my book!

Let me know if you’re reading a different book.

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With the Cubs floundering and appearing like a rudderless ship, the question arises if the clock is ticking on manager Lou Piniella’s job.

Mired in mediocrity, a $146 million roster seems to be going nowhere fast.

Is the leader at fault? Have the players tuned him out?

The Cubs just finished a stretch of 29 games against teams with losing records last year. Their record was a miserable 13-16, including a six game road trip with Pittsburgh and Cincinnati they just concluded where they were 1-5.

They were swept by Pittsburgh. Let me repeat that because I still can’t believe it. They were swept by Pittsburgh.

Piniella seems like he’s at a loss for words unless he’s going off on a media member who asks a question he doesn’t particularly care for.

He’s back to last years “What am I supposed to do” quotes.

Would you want a manager that doesn’t have answers?

You could say the Cub bats are silent, but they have six hitters with over .300 batting averages.

Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez aren’t hitting, but almost everyone else is. In fact, they’re probably exceeding expectations.

Lee is getting tired of his manager playing with the batting order. He commented last week that Ramirez and he have always hit, and they’re going to hit again.

He went on to say it doesn’t matter where they are in the lineup (this was in response to Piniella changing them in the batting order), but “That Lou likes to tinker with things.”

Perhaps if he learned how to manufacture runs instead of expecting everybody to always come through, the Cubs would have a few more wins. 

The starting pitching has been exceptional, but the Cubs have not taken advantage of it.

They are unable to win the close games because they don’t steal bases or take the extra base. They don’t bunt or hit and run, and they don’t know how to move the runner over or sacrifice themselves for the good of the team.  

As long as the wind blows out at Wrigley Field and the Cubs hit home runs, Piniella is a great manager.

Who wouldn’t be?

Do they need to be paying a guy $4 million to sit on his butt and hope the team hits?

In fairness, he has made some moves, including switching the guy who should be his best starting pitcher to eighth inning duty. Since that change came about three weeks ago, Zambrano has gotten into just five games.

Is that helping the team?

When Zambrano was asked last week why he hasn’t pitched in back-to-back games yet, he snapped, “Ask him,” referring to Lou Piniella. “I’m ready to go anytime he wants to put me in there.”

This is Piniella’s fourth season as the Cub manager and he’s worn out his welcome. Cub players are starting to tune him out. His act has grown old.

Making a change right now could be the best thing for this Cub team.

There is precedence with underachieving teams making moves in May and turning things around.

Last year the Colorado Rockies brought in Jim Tracy in late May after the team started out 18-28 and they ended up making the playoffs.

And who can forget the 2003 Florida Marlins bringing in Jack McKeon to take over a 16-22 team and leading them to the World Series?

I know as a Cub fan, I can’t.

This Cub season is not over. But it is if Lou Piniella stays on.

You can smell the rot of the team with Piniella at its core.

Wouldn’t bringing in Ryne Sandberg from Triple A Iowa make a difference?

Would Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez standing at the plate and admiring balls that fail to clear the wall be tolerated by Sandberg?

Would a complete player like Sandberg who could hit, hit for power, run, field, and throw sit back and do nothing like Piniella does, or would he try to make something happen?

A fresh approach is needed here.

Does anyone remember the speech Sandberg gave at his Hall of Fame induction about playing the game the right way?

Isn’t it about time the Cubs did that?

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