Piniella to Retire

So the big news in baseball today is Lou Piniella officially announced that he will retire after this season. The announcement isn't a big surprise, but I like that this happened early in order to let the Cubs search for a new manager as soon as possible.

There are some contingencies though since we'll see if the GM sticks around, the guy who brought in the large and long-term contracts of Soriano, Zambrano, and Fukudome.

Some people seem to think Sandberg is the natural choice to become the new manager, but I can't remember too many former players who did well as managers of their old teams. It didn't work out for Alan Trammell in Detroit, but that was more of the Tigers being very young and horrible--they were seriously rebuilding.

Interestingly though, a column floats Trammell's name as a possibility. Click HERE to read about him and other possible candidates.

Regardless of what happens with the GM and Manager, the Cubs are bad team with bad contracts right now. But, heck, they're only something like 10 games out of first in the Central, which is neither horrendous nor particularly inspiring here in late July.

I think it's just time to ship off contracts you possibly can (Lilly and Lee) and get to building a ballclub for next year. I'd love to see Adam Dunn playing first base for the Northsiders next season.