Rothschild has survived the Baylor, Baker and Piniella managerial eras and seems to be almost considered as some sort of "Guru" in some circles. I can't think of any free agent or young pitcher that he has really developed. Prior, Wood, Zambrano, Marmol others have all come through the system and had alot of success, but all these guys mentioned had considerable talent to begin with. Why shouldn't this guy be broomed out if/when Piniella has had enough and Sandberg (or whomever) is brought in to manage the team?

_________________
1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

I'd call Wood/Prior/Zambrano bigger failures than successes. One guy battled injuries throughout his career relating to poor mechanics, the second is an all-time bust, and the third can't even be coached into drinking a fucking bottle of water when it's warm outside. I think one Maddux or another will be the pitching coach next year when Lou and Hendry are gone.

_________________

Rothschild must have pictures of Santo & Banks. How this guy keeps his job is beyond me. Hopefully Ryno will get rid of Larry next year since it appears that Maddux will be Rynos Pitching Coach.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

I hope next year's a fucking '80s reunion: Ryno as manager, Maddux as pitching coach, Jody Davis as bench coach (maybe he could teach SoTo and Koyieeee something), Andre Dawson as Hitting Coach and Mark Grace to take over for Santo. The Band is back together!

Other than Jody, all of these would be upgrades.

_________________
CSFMB 2014 Nascar Pick 'em Champion

We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much. — Ronald Reagan

And by June you all will be bitching and moaning about them as well.

I am not a big Roth guy, but he is way down the list of problems. No pitching coach was going to make a difference with what happened with Prior and Wood. Plus the starting pitching has been a strength of this team for the last few years, I think he deserves some credit for that. The bullpen is a mess, but I don't blame him for that, that lies at the feet of Hendry.

I will have no problem if he is let go after this year, but let's not be dumb enough to think that if we only had a better pitching coach this team would have won over the last few years.

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

...and you'll be there to point it out, each and every time...

For future reference, it works better with your like a moth to a flame comment

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I like to mix things up a bit, but duly noted...

I guess Ivan DeJesus will get to keep his job then. The Cubs need to make GlenAllen Hill hitting coach to compete with McGwire and the Cards.

No, no, to compete with BigMac, you need Slammin' Sammy as hitting coach!

Sammy never could beat him, so we need GAH.

Apologist is right but he also sits comfertably with the MJ of pitching coaches working for his team. Pitching coaches are overrated in general imo but Rothschild has wornput his welcome. If I were making a case for him you have to give him credit for Marmol, he was a catcher.

You can give him some credit for Marmol, but more probably goes to the guys in minors for the three years he pitched on the farm.

Duncan has "fixed" former retreads Carpenter, Lohse, Wellemeyer, Pineiro, Bottenfeild, Woody Williams, and many others as is well documented. There are enough of these stories that there is almost a mystique attached. I'm not saying it's undeserved, but there are also many cases of a scrub pitcher going to St Louis, having a big year, then sucking the next year for another team because the big year was kind of a fluke. Duncan preaches a pitch to contact philosophy, emphasizing sinking and cutting fastballs and works much better with groundball type pitchers. He also positions the defense at bat to at bat.

Rothschild doesn't have a discernible trademark philosophy, and his staffs seem to be strikeout/ high pitch count types. He has done good things with Lilly, Dempster and Wells to name a few, but also failed to develop prospects like Guzman and Simardzija. Some young pitchers like Nolasco have fared better in other organizations. I'm not saying Rothschild is the main problem here, but I don't think he's done enough to survive 3 regimes.

_________________
1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

Duncan cheats. Why dont any of the pitchers take the "wisdom" with them?

I'm not entirely sure what Rothschild does, but his results are good.
Here's the Cubs total staff ERA+ during his tenure.
(ERA vs. league average, adjusted for ballpark. League average = 100)


2002-2009 Average = 110



As a comparison, I got Dave Duncan's staffs' ERA+

1982-2009 average = 104


Or here's Leo Mazzone's:

1991-2007 average = 117

What is he doing that constitutes cheating?

You might be overlooking the defensive shifting I mentioned earlier. Duncan has charts and videos of every hitter and is responsible for most of the defensive shifts in the game. The positioning is coordinated with the signs to Molina and vary according to pitch location. Most pitching coaches don’t assume anywhere near that level of control over in game strategy. He has honed his system over many years and probably comes from his playing days being a light hitting catcher. The only other team, to my knowledge, that uses such an extensive system is the Halos, Scioscia also being a former catcher.

I was watching the 20 inning Mets / Cards debacle last night,and there is no doubt that the Duncan Effect can be observed. Mets have a bunch of pull happy hitters like Francoer, Tatis and Bay. In addition Bay and Wright stand way off the plate. Now when you start to observe outfielders shading to the right when the book says to play these hitters to pull, you know there is a methodology to the way the pitchers are throwing. Sure enough Cardinal pitchers were throwing sinkers and fastballs on the outside all night (often 3 or 4 inches off the plate) and for some reason Mets hitters flailed away and never adjusted or tried to hit to right.

This is the kind of stuff that pitching coaches do, you know... teach pitchers how to pitch. Duncan is a different animal altogether, more like a Defensive Coordinator, so comparing him to Rothschild or anyone might not be completely fair.

Some Duncan projects have regressed, but not all. Looper went to Milwaukee and blew. Wellemeyer looks awful in SF right now. The book is out on Pineiro. Marquis has been much better than he was in St Louis. Lohse signed back, but he didn't look all that good last year. In any case the biggest variable in all of these is Duncan so it's fair to say his philosophy doesn't work on everyone.

_________________
1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011