This team was not built with foresight.

what’s the point of him taking up a roster spot if he’s not going to play? Especially since his salary is so small. Drop him and Patton and suddenly two more players can come in and hopefully help us be a more complete team.

This roster is completely mindboggling.

And I really miss Rami.

…“we need to get more left handed” thing but the ‘08 Cubs scored a hell of a lot of runs! The fact DeRosa was shipped out for Bradley perplexed me then, just as much as it does now. I gotta think that if the Cubs tried getting Dero back now, they’d pay a big price while being the laughing stock of MLB.

And became even more depressed. The guys looked so happy.

When I read stuff like “make Marmol the closer,” sounds like you’re just blowing up more stuff. He’s fine where he is, and so is Gregg.

If I’m making changes right now, the biggest one is letting go of Patton and replacing him with either another reliever or another utility player. Give Hill a little more playing time. And that’s about it.

The answers to the Cubs’ current woes are right on their roster. The guys who have shown a history of producing need to live up to their records. If they do that, they’ll be fine.

Good thing the powers that be aren’t as panicky as the fans.

Believe it or not there is a bright side to this whole thing:

1.) We are still only 4 games out of first and we are still .500.

2.) We play the Pirates next series at Wrigley. I couldn’t ask for a better team to end a streak.

3.) This streak is happening in May and not August or September. Gives the Cubs plenty of time to make moves, get people healthy, and turn things around.

I remember telling my fellow Cub fan friends in the off season that this season was going to be mediocre. They laughed, but it looked like I was the only reasonable thinking one.

 Jim Hendry essentially tried to relieve the salary room by trading away players for cheaper options that he hope would be just as serviceable. For example: Trading away Pie and then signing Gathright and signing Miles then trading DeRosa. The same philosophy goes for the bullpen as well. This experiment has utterly failed.

In addition, the Milton Bradley signing is looking dreadful everyday. I support the guy and would even love if he hit .300 with 30 HR, but he is sucking it up right now, in addition to Soto, Fontenot, Theriot, and pretty much every other Cub not named Fukudome.

One change I do like is Koyie Hill for Henry Blanco. The rest are garbage.

The Heilman deal is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Before the trade, we had Cedeno and Garrett Olsen. Had we still have Cedeno, he would look real nice at 3b right now. Or DeRosa, which every Cubs fan knew that trade would come back to bite us in the ass when Ramirez went down.

I liked Patton at first, but the General must go.

I liked it when Fontenot was declared the starting 2b, but he is horrifically slumping right now. The problem is we have no viable option at that position other than him.

The difference between this team and 2008 is simply defined as: the bench and the bullpen, both of which that are dead compared to the glorious 2008 season.

I’m not really worried about our starting pitching or our outfield.

Our outfield—Soriano, Dome, Bradley, Reed, Micah—have all been doing as they should, or exceeding expectations, sans Bradley. Soriano’s going through one of his typical droughts, and will likely carry us through June or another few months when he’s hot. Dome’s been himself circa pre-All-Star break 2008, and Micah’s been a great addition. I strongly dislike Bradley, but that’s for another post.

Our pitching isn’t really the problem. All 6 of our starters (Zambrano, Harden, Lilly, Wells, Marshall, Dempster) have ERA+ of 96 or greater, with 4 of them greater than 100. We lead the league in SO/BB/9IP, but we give up too many homers. Hell, even 3 of our 4 biggest bullpen arms aren’t as terrible as I thought: Heilman, Marmol, and Guzman are all over ERA+ of 100. Granted, there’s no confidence in the bullpen, but we are mostly a .500 team (when it feels like .350) because our arms have been pretty damn good. This is a good sign to me. If our arms are on, I believe that we are neither as good of an offensive team like 2008 (where we were #2 in MLB), but sure as shit aren’t an anemic (or bi-polar) offense as it appears this year.

Theriot and Fontenot are great guys to have on a team…if you need someone to spot-start every other day, come off the bench (like LBR was properly used last year), or have enough defensive and offensive players in the infield to compensate for their daily use. But considering both Mike & Ryan have very positive UZR/150s @ 2B and negligible or negative ratings at SS or 3B, their utility becomes strikingly similar. Riot’s OPS+ in 2009 is above his career average (but still alike last year’s performance of 93). Fontenot is down, which I’m assuming is because he’s not being used correctly. Miles just sucks. When the most consistent infield lineup includes Miles, Theriot, and Fontenot, I’m not confident that we can put a team on the field that can out-score the other.

Every team goes through this stuff, but because it’s the Cubs, everybody notices it more.

Let’s bring him up. I can not stand watching Fonty, Miles, and everyone else not hitting.

Did the ’08 team have a week like this (other then in the playoffs)?

having HWSNBN walking back and forth on the concourse behind us the entire game and seeing giggling female cubfans of ALL AGES lining up to get their picture with him was just depressing. My wife actually asked me if why anyone cares about a schmuck making noise like that CONSTANTLY.

The drunk Padre fan that found it humorous to “pretend” to bump into cub fans while pretending to use a push broom as we all were tying to leave the stadium was the cherry on top. I’m just sort of numb and don’t care right now. Maybe a good 3 game series with the Pirates is what we need.

…the Brewers are losing to the Twins right now, and then the Cardinals start a 3 game set at the Brewers tomorrow.

Right now what the Cubs obviously need is some hitting — clutch hitting — and getting more men on base so when someone starts to hit in the clutch, runs will suddenly appear on the scoreboard.
Start by bringing up Fox — off the bench or somewhere in the lineup. For crying out loud, the guy’s hitting .425 with 50 RBIs. What more does he need to do?
Next — someone tell Lou and Gerald Perry that Theriot does not have to try to knock the ball out ot the park. When it ain’t broken, don’t go trying to fix it. The guy was hitting well over .300 this year after hitting over .300 last year and all of a sudden the manager and his hitting coach want him to become something he’s not.
Next — bring up Tony Thomas from Tennessee and give him a shot at 2B. None of the four guys the Cubs have put out there have proven that they are the answer. The kid can hit; give him a shot.
Freel — a body for Gathright. If Freel can’t be in the lineup now when we are getting absolutely zero production out of Fontenot and Miles, why on God’s green earth is this guy on the team. Find another body who Lou will at least put in the lineup.
Get rid of Patton, Heilman, and Cotts.
As for Patton — I thought the Cubs were contenders for the division title if not the favorites. The Cubs cannot afford to carry a pitcher who is doing absolutely nothing right now. Replace him with a bat.
Heilman — I’ve said enough about him. One last time — what you see is exactly what the Mets saw in ‘08 and exactly why the Mets got rid of him.
Cotts — He has been nothing short of useless since he came here from the South side.
What is he supposed to do? I would expect that most of us think of him as a situational lefty and mop-up. Well after hearing on the tube the other week that Lou was reluctant to use him against Prince Fielder because of Fielder’s stats against Cotts, I asked myelf