Jerry Manuel vs. Lou Pinella: Which Manager Has a Worse Disadvantage?

The gauntlet has been thrown. Jerry Manuel took our first Stupid Call of the Week by throwing K-Rod for 100 pitches in the bullpen and Lou Pinella fired back with the second Stupid Call of the Week by moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen. So I decided to pit manager vs. manager to see who has a worse disadvantage at doing their job. Is it "Sweet" Lou Pinella and his band of lovable losers, the Chicago Cubs? Or is it Jerry Manuel and his unlucky group of New York Mets? Best of 7. Let's get to it!

	Jerry Manuel	Lou Pinella	Dis-Advantage
GM	Omar Minaya - What can you say about Omar that hasn't already been said? Oliver Perez. Lack of bench depth. Tony Bernazard. Lack of starters. If the Adam Rubin press conference didn't do him in, you wonder what will finally end the misery?	Jim Hendry - One hamstringing contract after another. Alfonso Soriano. Milton Bradley. Now Carlos Silva. Also, surprising lack of NLCS appearances despite playing in weak division and weak league and spending plenty of money	This one goes to Jerry. Minaya's public spat with Carlos Beltran put this one over the top this year.  1-0 Jerry
Team Curses	You wonder if breaking ground on Citi Field is going to be this team's ultimate downfall. 2006 NCLS breakdown, two seasons of losing on the last day of the season and then last years debacle	The Billy Goat. Merkle's Boner. Steve Bartman. Collapse after collapse and bad fortune after bad fortune. A century of losing. The team has tried to sacrifice goats on Harry Caray's statue and it hasn't even worked. And there's even an "Ex-Cubs Factor"	This is all Sweet Lou. Now that the Red Sox and White Sox won, it's the Cubs all alone. The Indians haven't won in 60 years and it looks like nothing compared to the Cubbies. All tied up at 1
Personal Failure	The team replaced Willie Randolph with Manuel…and the team went on to do the same thing they'd done the year before: lose the last day of the season. Last year was just depressing in Flushing but injuries played a factor	The team was the best in the National League in 2008 (they made the playoffs in 2007). Then the playoffs happened and they were summarily sent home. Like zero wins. Two first round sweeps! Dusty Baker was there for the 2004 collapse but Pinella hasn't been close to that level since.	I think it's a tie. Both teams were awful last year and don't look that much better this year. Jerry hasn't made the playoffs with the Mets. And even though Pinella has, zero playoff wins is embarrassing. Still tied at 1
Injuries/Bad Luck	Last year was the injury year for Jerry. Carlos Beltran. Carlos Delgado. Jose Reyes. Johan Santana. This year has started out poorly as well with Beltran out, Reyes missing time, and K-Rod's dead arm	Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, and others have all hit the injury bug. Geovanny Soto got caught toking up and suffered a sophomore slump. Milton Bradley was a clubhouse cancer. Kosuke Fukodome has been a disappointment.	Jerry takes another one here. Last year became comical. I just was waiting for the Mets to acquire Carl Pavano and a black hole to be blown into the universe. 2-1 Manuel
Un(ful)filled Position	Starting Pitching behind Johan--Jerry really hasn't had a #2 and forget about a steady #3, #4 or #5. This year, Minaya refused to go after guys like Jason Marquis or Joel Piniero who while not great, would have provided some rotation depth	Closer -- No offense to Carlos Marmol, but this Cubs team would be much better with Marmol in the 8th inning (and Carlos Zambrano in the rotation). Hendry has watched guys like K-Rod, Jose Valverde, Brian Fuentes, and others exchance hands and has sat still. And the lack of bullpen arms has hurt Pinella	I'm going with Pinella here. The problem with having Marmol in the closer role and having a gaping hole in the 8th inning has manifested to the point that the Cubs move Zambrano to the 8th inning. Ouch. 2-2, is there a comeback in the works?
Pain In the Ass	Oliver Perez - Maddingly inconsitent. Shows flashes of Ace lefty brilliance and then looks like Rick Ankiel pitching other times	Alfonso Soriano and Milton Bradley - Can you imagine how awful life must have been for Sweet Lou last year with both of these guys on the team? Bradley had to be jettisoned off at any cost this past winter and Soriano's antics have to frustrating the traditional Lou to no end. And, for some reason, Scott Eyre as well	Lou, Lou, a thousand times Lou. If you put Fukodome in CF, the 2009 OF may be the most frustrating outfield ever assembled. 3-2 Lou! One more and he takes it all!
Fans and Ballpark	The Mets have a nice new ballpark, but many games the past two years it's been less than full because of the product on the field. I don't blame the fans for not coming out. It's much more fun to rip Jerry on WFAN or ESPN Radio than to pay to boo him in person	This is one place that I think Pinella has it easy. He has an old ballpark that's always full. And I think the fans have more patience with him because they're used to losing and despite the White Sox winning in 2005, they're not very good now. One black mark: the First Baseball Fan is a proud White Sox supporter in what used to be a Cubs town	Gotta go with Jerry here. I think the fans liked him at the beginning but no sane Mets fan hasn't thought at one point or another that he needs to be fired. 3-3. On to the 7th and deciding game!
Make-fun-of-ability	The subject of many back-page headlines and late-night jokes--  including some very funny "compromsing" videos of Mr. Met. When your mascot is even getting killed in the media, it's bad. The whole team is a joke at times	It seems that the Cubs have truly become the lovable losers in the media. Movies have made their way to Wrigley Field from Ferris Bueller's Day Off to Rookie of the Year but most are in endearing ways	Whoa, Jerry takes another one home here. His team is a laughing stock at this point. Jerry wins it! Jerry wins it!

I truly believe that both managers are trying to get fired, also known as "Pulling a Costanza", but Jerry wins the award. Here's a video celebration: