In case you missed it with all the Ike Davis love floating around, Bob Brenly has been kicking up some dirt over Chicago around Alphonso Soriano- ok the dirt was actually in New York too- though no one here is seeing it.  Soriano failed to run hard out of the box because he thought he had hit a home run.  Little did he know that many home runs at Citi-Field become triples for a fast player, and merely doubles for those that are slower, or say don’t run out of the box.

I actually had a vision the other night as I was listening to the game in the car and the broadcasters (New York broadcasters) noted that Soriano missed a fly ball that caromed off the wall, and thought to myself- perhaps Soriano’s eyesight is going.  Well, if he is admiring his own long hit, I guess that can’t be his excuse for poor defense.

Brenly apparently has been very critical of Soriano’s play- but particularly critical of his interest in his own performance.  Brenly certainly has a right to say anything he wants- and luckily, he doesn’t have to suffer through any of that “he doesn’t understand since he didn’t play the game nonsense.”  He was hired to be as critical as he wants, and to give fans that kind of insight.

But when you read the Paul Sullivan article about Sorinano’s reaction to Brenly’s words, something else becomes clear. While Soriano did not care what Brenly had said about him, he had a different reaction when his manager Lou Piniella had something to say about it.  For his part, Piniella hadn’t noticed Soriano out of the box because he too was watching the fly ball.  But reporters had asked him about it, and Piniella had to give them an answer.  And the manager, any manager, doesn’t want to throw his player under the bus without good reason.  If a reporter asks the manager, the manager has to have an answer, and so Piniella then had to address the issue with his player.

That’s the power the media has.

What is interesting is that Brenly also criticized Piniella, though no one has written that. Brenly, a former major league manager, described how he would have handled the situation if he were the manager.  Piniella didn’t see it, so he couldn’t react to it.  But clearly anyone watching from the press box saw it - since they asked Piniella later- and perhaps GM’s and owners saw it to. While its a story when a multimillion dollar player gets criticized- what happens when the star manager also gets criticized?  What happens if that starts happening a lot.

This is the last year of Sweet Lou’s contract, and with the team off to a pour start, and the team has a new owner- I am doubtful it will take too much criticism before rumors start to swirl about changing managers.  So Piniella has to answer the reporters questions.  He has to look like he is doing everything right. And yet it must be frustrating to be a guy like Piniella who has always been fiery to be at this point in his career and have to answer questions about a star player dogging it on the field. It must be frustrating to realize no matter how much you care about winning, you can’t make others care as much.  Maybe that is why all the kicking of bases and the yelling at umps has left his repretoire.

I have a feeling the Cubs aren’t going to be fun to watch this year.  Its going to get late early on the North side.  I also think this might be just the beginning of the end of Lou as a Cub.