Hey great win, Jim! Jim?…. JIM?!

I admit that I haven’t been kind to Jim Riggleman on the pages of Sully Baseball.

I questioned the reasoning of dumping Manny Acta for Riggleman and his less that sterling resume.

And I thought he was doing baseball a disservice when he benched some of his starters in critical stretch run games.

Well now he has the Nats playing on a roll and they have crawled back up to .500.

And what does he do?
He quits.

Now there are already articles being written in his favor and who knows? Maybe the Nationals organization IS a mess.

But I’m sorry. Why should the Nationals offer Riggleman more years? Even with the team above .500 now, he’s been a big league skipper over 12 different seasons. In the 11 ones before this one has a grand total of 2 above .500. He seems like a solid baseball lifer, but does 1 game over .500 before July constitute a lot of leverage?

And with this dramatic series against the Mariners (another team he managed since 2008), you’d think that the Nationals would be trying to ride some momentum.

Instead they have to answer questions about a manager who quit on the team. (Sorry, that’s what he did.)

He said to the media “I’m not Casey Stengel.”

No kidding.

And if the Nationals put up a good record for the rest of the season, it will make the Nationals decision to not retain Riggleman look even smarter.

Don’t worry… he’ll be an interim manager someday. Hey, he’s 22 years younger than the Marlins new manager!

You still worried about Tim Lincecum?

The Giants needed a win to take the series from Minnesota and they handed the ball to Tim Lincecum, who has looked decidedly human in his last 4 starts.

Like 0-2 with a 7.59 ERA in those 4 games.
Panic!
What should the Giants do?

Lest we forget that he had a crappy run LAST year as well.
Remember how he pitched in the post season?
4-1, 2.43 ERA, 43 strikeouts in 37 innings.
7 1/3 innings per start and winning the World Series clinching Game 5 in Texas.

So how did Linecum do today?
7 shutout innings, 3 hits 12 strikeouts and 2 walks.
Not bad.

Relax Giants fans.
He’s fine.

I’m betting the Pirates will continue their winning

With 45% of the season in the can, the Pirates have climbed all the way back to the .500 mark. It’s been more than a decade since the Pirates have been break even this late in the season. And with the Red Sox heading into PNC, I have no doubt that this upstart team from the Steel City will keep on winning.

Cue up “We Are Family!” It’s the Pirates year!

(Now my many Pirate fan readers know what happens whenever I praise the Bucs. They lose. And while I would LOVE to see the Pirates have a great year, guess what? I don’t want it at the expense of the Red Sox. I want the Pirates to be 3 games under .500. What can I say? I’m cut throat. And if anyone can handle a cut throat, it’s a Pirate.)