It seems that in baseball, only the regular season counts when it comes to handing out the awards. Surely, that's the only reason that Lou Piniella won the NL Manager of the Year. (Full disclosure: I'm a White Sox fan and in turn, can't stand the Cubs.)
I will admit that the Cubs were a very good team in the regular season. They won 97 games and they should be applauded for that. But, yet again, once the Cubs got into the playoffs they were easily handled by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The entire team melted down in the postseason. The fielding was awful, the hitters couldn't hit, and the pitching left a lot to be desired. Now, not all of that can be blamed on Piniella. He's not the one playing the game out there. But there were decisions that he made that left one scratching their head. For instance, why in the world did he leave Ryan Dempster in for so long? The guy had no control whatsoever in Game 1.
Frankly, any manager that allows Kosuke Fukudome to get 10 at bats in the postseason has no business winning Manager of the Year. What made Pinella think that Fukudome could turn it around in the postseason when Fukudome hit .217 after the All Star break? That is unforgiveable. And for that reason alone, Piniella should not be the NL Manager of the Year.
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