WGN Morning News Blog

I guarantee that when Carlos Marmol entered the game last night, no one was throwing their shoe at the TV in disgust. Yet this morning, it's as if Lou Piniella went ahead and pinch hit for Derek Lee with Buddy Lee, the tiny dungarees mascot.

Yanking Carlos Zambrano cost the Cubs last night, but does that make it a bad decision on Piniella's part? That depends on how you judge a decision. If you judge a decision solely on its outcome, then sure, it was a bad one. But if you judge a decision on how it was reached, on the information used to make it, and on the amount of thought given to its future ramifications, then it wasn't such a bad one.

Say Piniella left Zambrano in the game. He lasts the entire inning, but labors, throwing another 25 pitches. That's a pitch count of 110. The Cubs then lose the next 2 games and face elimination in Game 4. Well that's a must win, so you gotta ride Zambrano out. He goes 8 or 9 and throws another 125 pitches. Cubs win the series and Zambrano struggles in the NLCS. They end up losing and critics say it's because Zambrano was so overworked and Piniella didn't utilize his "great bullpen."

Don't even doubt that's what every sports column in Chicago would be charging. That's exactly what they'd be saying.

And I'm not saying they'd be wrong.

Point is, Piniella was damned if he took Zambrano out, and damned if he left him in. The only way any decision he makes during these playoffs is guaranteed to be a good one, is if the Cubs win the World Series. And we can't brand any decision he makes a bad one, until (or unless) the Cubs are eliminated.

What do you think?