It is becoming painful to watch this team.. Absolutely painful.. The lack of a bench is really disturbing.. Time to DFA Gathright.. I am going to go out on a limb here but what about Nate spears? Or Jake Fox? I think his bat plays…

Anyways – Im not a ledge jumper nor will I ever be and I am not freaking out but I am a little frustrated.

Aaron Miles for me will now be named Erin Inches. Honestly – please show me you can hit the ball out of the infield. He overthrew the cutoff man and I could having driven to St Lou and bopped him on the head.

Thing is its such a long season. Ill be thankful now that we are 8-7 when the way theyve been playing it should be 5-10.

Today is another day. It might be a radio day though – dont know if I can take Buck or Thumb Brennaman

I’m probably going to do this all year, because I terribly miss the man, but if Mark DeRosa was on this team, this wouldn’t be nearly as much of a problem. He is one of the most versatile players in the game and could substitute in any OF and IF position outside of SS. I believe we have faced ONE starting left-handed pitcher thus far in the season, and it is quite clear to me that “Lou’s obsession” (I love it, Al, I think we could market this aftershave) with left-handed hitters is silly. I don’t like any of our bench players, sans Koyie.

Maybe they saved a few million with DeRosa <—> Miles, but gee wiz….and spending money on Gathright when Pie could have done the same is lame.

Signing Edmonds might not be a bad idea right now, replacing Gathright. Gathright can run, but that’s about it, and Edmonds can still hit well, field ok, and be a more complete player than Gathright. I wonder how much money it would take to sign Edmonds, and if he would agree to a bench role if/when Bradley starts hitting well and staying healthy.

This team does not have the right feel. As mentioned above, Bradleys inability to be in the field causes this team to many issues.
 The construction of this team is on Lou. He had to be in Hendry’s ear about needing the lefthanded bats, however to be fair I am sure Hendry felt the same. But to the life of me how they did not prepare for this is inexcuseable. The whole baseball world knows about Bradley and his injuries and they know Hoffpaiur is a butcher in the OF.
 It was like Hendry and Lou made moves to make moves, this past offseason will not go down as one of Hendrys finest moments.
 Cubs need to be careful, the way the Cardinals are playing we could get buried fast.
 Early, yes, but I agree Al, Hendry needs to make some adjustments soon.

shows it’s true value. As is often said about things… you don’t what you have, until it’s gone.

At any rate, we’re still playing poor baseball. So, no matter how the roster is constructed, it’s a mute point until we start to play fundamentally sound.

We still can’t execute a sacrifice bunt properly with any consistency. Dempster moved the runner over last night, but it was nowhere near textbook.

We’re not hitting behind the runner to let him advance.

At least we didn’t get picked off last night, or make the 1st or 3rd out at 3rd base.

However, we completely ignored Pujols on 1st base, and let him get a jump big enough for LaRussa himself, to steal 2nd… in a crucial late inning moment.

Just boneheaded baseball.

Boy I’ll bet Lou is regretting listening to his boss now.

Last year, Mr. Everything off the bench was Mike Fontenot. This year, it’s Aaron Miles. I can’t fault Fonty because he certainly earned and deserved a chance at more playing time. So I guess I fault Lou and Hendry for not finding a Fonty equivalent to replace him.

Sounds like that’s what they’re trying to do now, so I hope they succeed. But it’s gotta be a heckuva lot harder to try now than back in spring training.

Maybe the Indians still owe us a sympathy PTBNL in the DeRosa deal. Once Jamey Carroll comes back from DL, maybe Tony Graffanino will be available. But that won’t be till mid-May at the earliest and I don’t think Lou can wait that long. But that’s the kind of guy we need.

Jimmy Edmonds, shouldn’t have let him go. Bring him back he’s a lefty and he still go get the ball.

Watching Sportscenter right now – I hate Papelbon. What a tool – act like youve been there before.

Bobby Scales is hitting the piss out the ball down at Iowa.

Does he only play 2nd base?

…about the lack of depth on the left side of the infield, and here it’s come to haunt the team early. On the bright side, the starting pitching has been pretty solid and the bullpen actually didn’t do all that bad last night.

We just have to hope a few guys can step up offensively and win the Cubs some games while these injury issues get resolved. I’m definitely not opposed to talking to Edmonds.

Hang in there, Cubs fans.

is Lou planning a blowup?

Worf, don’t light me up here. I just think there were too many changes to a good team. Jim Hendry and Lou took the philosophy of my workplace: If it ain’t broke, fix it until it is. I know it’s early but the team just doesn’t have the chemistry like they did last year. Hopefully with some more games they will start to look like a team again. The slow start is disappointing but it is still only April. Let’s keep our chins up and remember there’s still ~140 games left.

On that go ahead single in the 8th. Im sorry but Theriot needs to keep that ball in the infield.

God, what an awful “salary dump” that was.

Jim Edmonds needs to be given serious consideration right now. I love Reed Johnson, but the Cubs can’t win with him playing everyday while Bradley is hurt.

If only the Cubs would’ve kept Edmonds and DeRosa, and let Bradley go elsewhere to get hurt. Ugh.

didn’t think this was worth a fanshot/post but thought some folks might find this interesting. Scott certainly paid his dues in the minors for many years with the occasional cub of coffee in the bigs. Met him once briefly and have heard and read nothing but good things about the guy. From the SF Chronicle:

FRESNO TO HIROSHIMA: Scott McClain, who hit his first two big-league homers last season at age 36 but has been getting limited time with Triple-A Fresno, is heading to Japan to play for the Hiroshima Carp. The Giants are letting him out of his contract. “It’s definitely a good opportunity for him,” VP of baseball operations Bobby Evans said. “He’s a class act, which is one of the reasons we’re doing this.” McClain played for Seibu in the early 2000s.

I’m not on the ledge — at 8-7, the Cubs’ record is, at least, better than some other teams expected to contend, such as the Indians (6-11), the Rays (7-10) and the Mets (7-9). It’s too early for wholesale changes.

I thought this was an interesting perspective on the Indians bad start:

Yes, it’s time for the Indians to panic

The Cleveland Indians reached the Panic Number on Monday.

This is not some nebulous figure. The Panic Number is serious business. It portends doom for those unlucky enough to tumble into it. A sub-.500 record is almost a given. Playoffs? Say it like Jim Mora, because the chances are that slim.

And the thing is, because teams reach the Panic Number roughly a week into the season, there’s a natural inclination to scoff at it, to laugh it off as some kind of reactionary hokum not worth discussing.

So before burying the Indians with more than 95 percent of their season to play, allow us to present a few facts: Over the past 25 full seasons, 45 teams in Major League Baseball have begun their seasons 1-6 or worse. Of those 45, eight have finished the year with a better-than-average record. And of those eight, only one – the 2007 Philadelphia Phillies – made the postseason. In which they were promptly swept.

See why we call 1-6 the Panic Number?

It gets uglier when looking at the full seasons of the wild-card era. Since 1996, only three teams have finished above .500 after starting 1-6: the ’04, ’06 and ’07 Phillies, who seem to have a knack for reversing ugly starts.

With Carl Pavano as the Indians #3 starter, who in their right mind would have picked the Indians?

:)-

Hey, maybe Jim Hendry should ask the Sox about Brian Anderson, or Alexei Ramirez.

MARK

DE

ROSA

Yes, I can count .. and three sounds better than two with all of the bench depletion.

…to give the Cubs the benefit of the doubt with the moves they make.

Like a lot of people, I hated to lose DeRo but I was convinced that the Cubs knew what they were doing when they traded him and signed Bradley.

I never had any confidence in Fontenot as an everyday player (don’t get me wrong-I like him..off the bench but, I had a bad feeling that, playing everyday, his flaws would be exposed).

In the off season, Lou said that this was the team he wanted. I went into the season with guarded optimism. But, already, the flaws and lack of depth are being exposed.

I know it’s still early, but so far, I’m NOT encouraged. I’m having bad feelings that this could be like ’04 when the Cardinals ran way in the first few months and that was pretty much it.

I can’t believe Pujols stole 2nd so easily. Ugh. That was deflating.

And the strike zone last was pretty hilarious.

Back in the winter, when the trades were being made, I wrote here that I was going to suspend passing judgment until I could see how the team would finally look like. Now we know that for financial reasons mainly, and also in the look for left-handed hitters, the team has less depth than last year’s. It’s a good group of starting position players with no backups (or mediocre ones), and less talent.

Miles is no better backup than Fontenot was and the latter is no better starting 2nd baseman than De Rosa was. But Fontenot is a lefty, which satisfies Lou’s criteria. Hendry didn’t give a 2 year deal to Kerry Wood but hired Gregg, an injured closer with less talent? How does that improve the Cubs? Really? Milton Bradley, with his anger and injuries issues? While a lefty like Bobby Abreu was available for a comparable amount of money? And what did we get for De Rosa?

The pending sale and Lou’s requirement for more left-handed hitters put the team in this position. Tht’s why I don’t think this is the year. We’ll win more games than we’ll lose. The team might even win the division. I’m not jumping off any ledge. But this is not a championship-caliber team.

If he decides to stand pat and wait for things to sort themselves out, then I think we’re in big trouble.

What’s that MLB website I can go to and find out if a game will be shown on FOX in my market??

Lineup: riot, fuky, sori, dlee, font (3b), rejo (cf), soto, miles (2b), marshall.

Marmol: mri reveals grade 1 sprain, which is relief to club. Expected to throw in pen Monday, possible midweek return.

Rami news: Considered no worse today. No DL for now. And club hasn’t DL’d Bradley yet either. Thin bench now anorexic.

Rejo? Is that like HoJo? Well, hope rejo has his mojo working today…

Milton Bradley is not a problem. We knew this is what we would get. We can stand to play half the season without him.

Our other position players are not a problem. At least one of Soto, Lee, and Fontenot will have a down year, but it’s not likely that all three will; plus the apparent bounceback of Fukudome helps to alleviate if two manage to have down years. Remember that Fontenot was a slow starter last year, too.

Where things have been ugly is Lou and his bench not meshing well. It’s not any single player’s problem. We could stand to have Miles as a platoon partner with Fontenot and not much else. We could stand to have Hoffpauir useful for nothing except hopefully eventually pinch-hitting. We could stand to have Gathright do nothing but pinch-run and defensively sub. The problem is that we can’t have all three.

I’d rather see our pinch-runner be a slick-fielding middle infielder; I’d rather see our slugging pinch-hitter be able to play 3B. I think the bench will get worked out, probably with neither Gathright nor Hoffpauir being here in the end.

Maicer Izturis would do a lot to fix the IF depth problem right now.