[NU Sports] Torre probably out in NY, Pinella in?

[Jeff Beamsley]

I think that Pinella will get fired first because George's strategy (the
best team that money can buy) doesn't work anymore.  Baseball is all about
pitching and pitching these days is all about young arms.  Young arms come
from the minor leagues. Small payroll teams have discovered they can be
competitive by investing in minor league salaries rather than major league
salaries.  As a result, smaller payroll teams are holding onto their young
talent rather than selling them to the Yankees.  Look at the twins, sox, and
tigers and you'll see that their AAA teams are successful too.

That's not to say that the Yankee's don't have a good AAA team too, they do.
But the Yankees figure they can be successful because they can afford to
purchase proven talent.  When you look at what was really the key to their
success this year, however, it was the emergence of a couple of their young
pitchers and Cano getting some playing time.

I think that Yankees will always be able to buy their way into the post
season with a great offense, but as long as we continue to see a wealth of
pitching coming out of the minor leagues and drug policies get enforced,
defense and small ball will beat teams that depend on offense to win.

Both the bears and the sox appear to have built a good foundation for future
success.  In the case of the bears, it was investing in defense.  In the
case of the White Sox it remains a strong commitment to pitching.  Unless
you have a player who dominates the league (like Jordan in his prime),
championships are lightning strikes.  Last year the Sox dominated a weak
division, this year it is the bears.  This year the AL Central was the
toughest division in baseball.  Next year the NFC North could recover too
and the bears might have a tough game every week and won't appear so
unbeatable.

The Bulls appear to be on the right track too.  They have a lot of scrappy
young kids, a young coach, and a young GM.  Unfortunately they happen to be
in a division that will likely be dominated by LeBron for as long as he
wants to stay in Cleveland.  So unless LeBron gets injured or traded, I
don't see the Bulls getting far in the post season.  That's not the fault of
ownership, other than not being in the position to draft or trade for
LeBron.

As far as hockey is concerned, living in Michigan, the Red Wings are the
Yankees of hockey and are following pretty much the same pattern.  The
nature of hockey is changing too.  It depends so much more on young fast
forwards and young talented goalies.  Don't know what the Black Hawks are
doing about that, but the Red Wings are working to get a lot younger.

Jeff







-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On
Behalf Of Mike Nolan
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2006 9:33 PM
To: nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com
Subject: [NU Sports] Torre probably out in NY, Pinella in?

It appears the man who REALLY made "You're Fired!" a part of the New York
lexicon is about to dump Joe Torre for another retread, Lou Pinella, so I
guess Joe Girardi is headed back to Wrigley if the Cubbies ever get their
front office staffed.

Pinella and Girardi have my sympathies, both appear to be headed into what
are likely to be no-win situations.  Any bets on who gets fired first?

The Bears are trying to prosper despite inept ownership, the Sox, Bulls and
Black Hawks have yet to do that (beyond a fluke year in 2005 for the south
siders and the MJ years at the Stadium.)  But the Tribune has proven to be a
worse owner than the Wrigley family for the Cubs, and 20 years ago I
wouldn't have said that was possible!
--
Mike Nolan

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