Time To Launch Pinella?

With the Chicago Cubs losing their 4th straight game to the Pittsburgh Pirates is 2 weeks, you have to wonder at what point is this season going to be lost? And if it's already starting to reach that point, is it time to make a change in the manager's office?

While I agree that the blame for this years team falls squarely on the shoulders of GM Jim Hendry and the players that actually play on the field, we all know that Hedry is not going to fire himself at this point, that decision will have to come from either President Crane Kenney or owner Tom Ricketts. Almost always the manager gets fired first to try and spark a team, because quite frankly, when a team fires a GM, the new GM almost always wants to hire his guy to be the manager. So, firing Hendry would in essence also be firing Lou Pinella anyway. So why not just can Pinella to try and spark the team?

Sure, more than likely it won't spark the team, but just a couple years ago Colorado fired Clint Hurdle and interim manager Jim tracy took over the team, lead them back to a wild card and a World Series berth. Why not try the same here? Honestly, what do you have to lose? The "veteran leadership" on this team is the reason why this team has the record it does. Derek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Ted Lily and Carlos Zambrano have performed poorly up to this point. Lily had the excuse that he's still coming back from surgery and Zambrano could blame his move to the bullpen for his latest under-performing, but what about Lee and Ramirez? Especially since Lee is in his walk year and Ramirez in a possible walk year? Maybe the way to show them they need to play better is the ultimate example of being responsible for the actions on the field and launch Lou.