Lou Piniella’s Winning Ways
DMZ · April 11, 2005 at 5:15 pm · Filed Under General baseball
Folks, for only $8 you can see a 1991 version of Lou Piniella talking about hitting fundamentals. It’s on eBay.
How much will Lou Piniella’s instruction help you? Check this out:
Year: AVG OBP SLG
2003 Devil Rays: .265 .320 .404
2004 Devil Rays: .258 .320 .405
Oooooh yeah. Weirdly, I came across that listing while attempting to answer the question “how big did Lou’s gut ever become before he started to shape up?” as part of an argument today.
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16 Responses to “Lou Piniella’s Winning Ways”
Man, I still miss that old bastard.
What about the productive outs, hitting behind the runners, moving guys over, the little things that don’t show up in the box score?
Seriously, it’s not Lou’s instruction so much as the players Lou picks to be in his lineup. Lou’s penchant for “veteran presence” seems to be one of the major things holding the Devil Rays back from climbing out of the cellar. (That and the Red Sox and Yankees, of course).
“Weirdly, I came across that listing while attempting to answer the question “how big did Lou’s gut ever become before he started to shape up?†as part of an argument today.”
I think we know what he was researching at the HOF now…
It’s the owner folks. Not the geek GM (or non-geek in Tampa’s case) or the guy in the dugout.
Vince Naimoli threw some more temper tantrums this past week after a Mets scout used his private head at the ballpark (“ban him for life”) and then when a D-Rays fan (yes, there are a couple) razzed him about his spending policies.
This is what Lou gets for working for a guy who bothers local government to protect his wife from a raccoon and but not asking them to blow up that POS Tropicana Field aka Jerry Rhinesdorf Field.
Uh, whoops.
Lou went to the D-Rays after 2002- so you should be comparing 2002 to 2003.
2002 Devil Rays: .253 .314 .390
2003 Devil Rays: .265 .320 .404
This makes me want to fly my basset hound to Tampa, use Naimoli’s john, and have him mark some territory.
I guess that you can also note that the team ERA has improved every year also.
2002 – 5.29
2003 – 4.93
2004 – 4.81
Speaking of M’s-related questions to pose on the Internet. Go to Google and type in “Ron Fairly and the stupidest things ever said.” Down the list a bit, just below a Dan Quayle quote, you’ll find this gem from Ron: “Bruce Stutter has been around for a while and he’s pretty old. He’s 35 years old. That will give you some idea of how old he is.”
Ron Fairly, San Francisco Giants broadcaster
Y’know, small ball or no, I would much rather have Lou than Bob Melvin or Mike Hargrove.
Josh, not me. I wouldn’t want Lou anywhere near Felix.
#9 Here is another one on several other pages:
On Sports, Strange Moments in:
He fakes a bluff.
–Ron Fairly, Giants broadcast
And more recently, he was telling Dave that he “knew the commissioner was going to name the DH award after Edgar.” Dave promptly dismissed that staement by saying to the effect that ‘Bud Selig made that decision while watching the Edgar retrospective.’
Man, I really do enjoy that “take that” kind of banter. (“Jane you ignorant slut.”)
I remember something Buhner said about playing for Lou: “I would have run through a brick wall for that guy.” That is what Piniella brings to a dug out, to a club. That said, he creates as many whiner-wusses (Al Martin, Cirillo, Grieve) as he does loyal juggernauts.
Whatever, I miss him terribly–like I miss any of the dying breed of hard-nosed Baseball SOBs.
#11 Troy is dead right however: Lou and King Felix would have been a match made in Hell. Our Hell.
As Rick Rizzs told me many times, “Lou just loves to talk about hitting.”
The question is, would the Devil Rays have been worse without him. If Lou gets Joey Gathright up to replacement level, then he’s really done something. It’s not his fault he’s got guys like Joey Gathright on his team.
Lou had a great energy when he was here. But his lineup and roster/bullpen use decisions were on a par with Bob Melvin. Because we were perennial winners when he managed, and never had been before, he didn’t get much grief for it.
I think trading him away is one of the smarter moves the Mariners have made.
Does anyone really think that Hargrove will be a whole lot better than Lou with the young pitchers? It wasn’t really his slagging their arms as much as making them cry for not throwing strikes. That’s why he seemed to like Franklin and dislike Halama so much in 2001-2002, as I remember it.
What did you find out about the fat gut Lou? A google image search came up with some great pics, but it’s hard to date them.