Whether or not Lou Piniella was in his final year of his contract, he wasn’t going to be brought back in 2011.

Piniella came in to overhaul a team and bring light back to earth. And he did a good job in winning back-to-back NL Central Division titles in 2007 and 2008. Add a second place finish to last year. That’s not a bad run. Actually, a hell of a run. It just doesn’t seem like Piniella has done that well.

I thank him for getting us there, but the post season collapses hurt, a lot. And that’s all that matters. Arizona and Los Angeles put us to bed rest.

Thing is, the Cubs have stunk this year. Aside from just rolling off 8 of their last 13, this team has been stuck in the ground. You could blame the front office moves, out of reach for Piniella to fix. He needed depth, and didn’t get it. The worst thing to happen to Piniella was letting Mark DeRosa walk out, his most versatile player.

Many fans have lobbied for this team to be blown up. And I’m right there. What I really want to hear is this team admit it’s bad. Aramis Ramirez was meant for 2003-2005, not 2010, as is the rest of the team. Carlos Zambrano, Derrek Lee. This is a then team of years past.

So when the Cubs are 42-52 and 10.5 games out of the division, Piniella announcing his retirement is just a sign of the times. This puts hope into next year already.

Go ahead and speculate, but there’s three guys, and three guys only who should be considered for the Cubs managerial job next year.

1. Ryne Sandberg
2. Bob Brenly
3. Joe Girardi (the man for the job)