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Kevin Millar: Lou Piniella was lacking
Posted: Tue Apr 5, 2011 3:04 pm
by ramadden
Kevin Millar: Lou Piniella was lacking"[Mike Quade] is different. If you're off on Friday, he told me like two or three days before. So that makes me play more hard for him, because he has a lot of respect for me. And he knows what he wants, and he knows how to treat the players."
"I'll tell you right now, Mike Quade is a baseball guy," Millar said. "The first thing speaking with [Cubs pitcher Ryan] Dempster [is] he loves this guy. It's a different feel.
"Nothing against Lou Piniella, he managed a lot of years and you get to the point where you don't think about those things, but it was a little frustrating from the player's side -- period. There were no line-ups, Lou didn't know who was playing and who was going in, and it gets old. So then what happens ... you get guys in bad moods, and then what happens is you're kind of like, 'Whatever.' That's the way the Cubs kind of played to an extent."
More:
http://sports.espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/news/story?id=6293806This article is less important to me for what it says about Piniella. I find what the players say about Quade more important. You can tell that the players really respect him, and I think that's a good sign for our future.
Re: Kevin Millar: Lou Piniella was lacking
Posted: Tue Apr 5, 2011 4:49 pm
by mattbulls
The players seemed like different people when Quade took over last year. Compared to when Lou was coaching.
Re: Kevin Millar: Lou Piniella was lacking
Posted: Tue Apr 5, 2011 6:25 pm
by Old Style
It seemed like Lou gave up after getting swept in the 2008 NLDS. Tank was empty, he should have retired then.
Re: Kevin Millar: Lou Piniella was lacking
Posted: Wed Apr 6, 2011 5:27 am
by Posey H8er
I would agree that maybe Lou became 'out of touch' with his players as he got older, but I still can't understand Millar's stance on playing hard being dependent on knowing what days you're going to play.
I'll always love and respect Lou for his years here. They were better than the Baker years, that's for sure. Lou genuinely appreciated the fan support too.
Re: Kevin Millar: Lou Piniella was lacking
Posted: Wed Apr 6, 2011 1:58 pm
by ramadden
Posey H8er wrote:I would agree that maybe Lou became 'out of touch' with his players as he got older, but I still can't understand Millar's stance on playing hard being dependent on knowing what days you're going to play.
I'll always love and respect Lou for his years here. They were better than the Baker years, that's for sure. Lou genuinely appreciated the fan support too.
I think it's partly just a general respect thing. I also think that they thought Lou was not only out of touch with his players but that he wasn't fully invested in winning.
I think Lou's years here were good in the sense we made back-to-back playoff appearances. However two first round sweeps aren't very inspiring and it's hard to say that 2003 (however it ended) wasn't a special year.
Re: Kevin Millar: Lou Piniella was lacking
Posted: Wed Apr 6, 2011 5:41 pm
by Posey H8er
oh i agree that '03 was special. but the years that followed with baker were so much more negative. not to say that '09 and '10 weren't negative, but i don't think it was as bad. and i tend to agree that Lou was a little out of touch with his players which is why we had a couple down years recently (along with a minor hit in talent).