1. The Ricketts ownership transition isn’t going to happen in time for the offseason, meaning JIm Hendry is coming back.

2. The payroll is already sky high at $135 and extremely doubtful to be expanded any further.

3. Cubs have a preponderance of veterans whose health and best years are in the rearview mirrow.

4. Plugging holes with journeyman minor leaguers isn’t going to work. Expecting names like Fontenot, Fox, Hoffpauir, Fuld and Hill to be viable longer-term answers is as silly as thinking once upon a time that Matt Murton was a viable longer-term answer.

Ryan is just fine at SS, and I’d keep him there. UZR has him as greatly improving his defensive performance this year, going from slightly above average last year to pretty good this year. He’s been nothing short of great for this team the last two years. Having a 3+ WAR SS is nothing to sneeze at. Good SS’s are hard to come by.

Yes, Geo does need to get into (much,much,much,much) better shape, but at this point in his career it’s all on him. He’s a grown man and has already had some of the best doctors, consultants, trainers, dietitians, etc. at his disposal since he took over as catcher in late 2007. I’m sure he has been provided a proper regimen and nutritional analysis at some point the last couple of years, as it’s no secret that he’s a lardass. The only silver lining I see in Geo’s season is that his awful performance fuels him into turning in the most productive and active offseason of his career.

It’s uncanny how Soto’s numbers this year mirror most of his minor league career. A good diet does not a great hitting catcher make. I still can’t believe how many people buy into this idea that Soto is not hitting because he is not in great shape.

As for the rest… Hendry needs to go. The guy has some good attributes, but in the end, a good GM doesn’t sign Aaron Miles for 2years/5mil. You could see that albatross a mile a way. And Soriano…. uffff…. two years ago many didn’t care, and said “it’s not my money”. I see a lot of people changing their tune now. Not only is his contract ridiculous, but you can’t get a better player because he “has” to play LF given his contract.

I feel like we can blame coaches and managers all we want but the fact is this season has been lost so far due to injuries. Look at everyone who went on the DL and weren’t healthy. Even the best teams can’t win in those conditions. Add to the fact that the Cardinals added significant upgrades to their team all year, they became the better team. Congrats.

Now for 2010, here is what I’d like to see them do:

1) Work with Jake Fox and see if he can play adaquate 2B. If he can’t, suck it up and try to sign DeRosa or another solid 2B (or move Theriot to 2B and sign a SS).
2) Sign a solid closer (if anyone is available). Maybe Wagner is worth a wager. Even if Marmol can close solidly through the rest of the season, I think there are better closer options.
3) Replace Matt Sinatro. Okay, maybe this isn’t his fault (please tell whose it is) but Cubs get picked off and CS more than they should be. Bring in someone who can work with the team on the base paths better.
4) Get the team healthy in the off season. No winterball if it’s not necessary. They need to be healthy for the Cubs. That needs to be their priority.

That’s all I can think of. The fact is, if everyone is healthy next year they should be the best team in the NL. I’ll emphasize the word should….

Then Aramis shouldn’t see the field again. That’s the TOP priority.

Soto should be benched as punishment for general sucktitude. Let Hill and whoever would be the catcher call-up handle it.

Other than that, I good.

First, I say let Baker continue to start. I honestly don’t know that much about him. But, would like to see if he can handle 2B on a daily basis. Otherwise finding a 2B over the winter will be a priority.

I agree that now is the time to figure out if Marmol can handle the closing duties. If not, finding a closer become A2 or even A1 priority.

It seems like a lot of young pitchers who see a big increase in innings struggle the following year. Can’t remember what team it is but, they are limiting their young ML pitchers to no more than a 20% increase of innings this year. If the Cubs let Harden go over the winter, a move I am not opposed to, then Wells will be needed next year. So his innings need to be monitered and maybe have his spot skipped a couple of times in Sept to insure his health for next year.

I agree with the fact that there are several players whose subtraction from the team would improve the team IMO. But. I don’t see them releasing ‘em or finding teams that will take the contracts. Sadly we’re going to have to live with them for the next couple of years or more in a couple of cases.

I truly hope that the Cubs can stay in the race to make “Ramirez needs to have surgery now” blogs meaningless. If the Cubs schedule surgery for the first few days after the Cubs season ends he should have more than enough time to rehab and be ready for ’10.

I can see the benefit in all these ideas, but the five things I’d like to see

1) Place Milton on waivers say thanks for everything and hope someone claims him and takes us out of our misery. This gives you the chance to play Fox, Fuld or Hoff
2) Put Aaron Miles on a plane home, he is worthless
3) Convince Lou to take an advisory role within the Organization, thus we may get something for the 4 million
4)Marmol closes but that is it, he is burnt out ! The guy has pitched a ton the last 400 days dating back to last season. He pitched winter league and in the WBC.
5) Finally, Stop the excuses and just play better, if you sucked say we played like crap, if you did well move forward with quiet confidence.

This team has no chemistry this year, while the Cubs have a decent amount of good individual players they lack the intangibles and the edge that you see in championship teams. My hope is that the organization realizes the error(s) in their ways and they are prepared to rectify them and stop using the ownership drama as a crutch.

I’m not in favor of making any changes which move the team towards giving up on 2009… until the end of the month. The players on the field deserve at least that. Now… this doesn’t mean you don’t make changes to make 2009 more of a success between now and Sept 1. There’s 6 weeks left in the season, and they’re only down 6 games to the Cardinals and 5 to the Rockies. That’s only one game per week at most to make up… and the Cubs schedule the rest of the way is cake. With Zambrano and Lilly healthy and Harden dominating, it’s possible to make up one game per week.

It would help if the Cardinals and/or Rockies would lose, as I type this the Cardinals just finished taking a series against the Dodgers after scoring a run off their closer. But it would also help if the Cubs brain trust would stop placing all their hopes on just re-shuffling a bad hand and actually go out and get a couple more aces to at least help. B.J. Ryan didn’t work, and they whiffed on John Smoltz completely, and to make it worse, he’ll now be helping their main rival.

Even assuming Carlos Marmol becomes the closer we would all like him to be, we still need a new Carlos Marmol in the 7th and 8th. We would all like if Angel Guzman, John Grabow and Kevin Gregg could do the job, but if they could, we wouldn’t be pulling out a new dartboard with 6 weeks left and hoping something sticks.

Jim Hendry has some more work to do, which doesn’t involve sitting on his hands, hoping Lou Piniella spins some magic he really hasn’t had since he coached the Reds almost 20 years ago. I won’t claim to know the relievers he could claim off waivers, but he should have done something by now… anything. If it involves taking on a contract for next year, just look at what the Mariners did in getting Bill Hall from Milwaukee. They gave up nothing and will pay him nothing to play for them the rest of this year and as much of next year as they want. Hendry needs to find a deal like that.

I’m either going to condemn him for the moves he makes that fail… or for doing nothing. I guess he’ll have to figure out which he wants because if this team doesn’t make it to the playoffs with a $135 million dollar payroll… the first thing a new owner should do is send him on his way.

The Cubs franchise needs a leader who’s hungry for the job (please refrain from donut jokes) much like the Seattle Mariners got when they hired Jack Zduriencik from the Milwaukee Brewers. I hope that guy is Jim Hendry, but if it’s not, they need to go into the Indians or Dodgers or Rays organizations and find someone who hasn’t had their shot yet.

Hendry has 11 more games before I won’t have a shred of resolve left to fight for him to keep his job. And if the players on the field aren’t at least 7-4, the same will be said for the Cubs playoff hopes.

Send Jay Jackson back to AA in the near future. Tennessee’s in it … Daytona is not. Obviously, they have to judge if he’s “learned his lesson”, and here’s hoping it was simply a youthful mistake and not a character issue, but Jackson is the most ready, of our top pitching prospects (Cashner/Jackson/Carpenter) to help in some role in 2010 as of right now (obviously, offseason could change things). Having him chew up A+ makes little sense … if they deemed that he’s learned his lesson.

At some point this team will learn that they need guys that can actually manufacture a run. A “sparkplug” who can steal bases and create havoc. The problem the Cubs have is that, mostly, team speed comes from outfielders and our OF is locked in for 2010 and not fleet of foot.

They need to commit to addressing the lack of team speed and a REAL leadoff hitter. I’d think about:

1) Trying to pry FA Orlando Cabrera from MIN and moving Theriot to 2B
2) Getting uber-utilityman Chone Figgins and sticking him somewhere and at leadoff spot

The team should still play to win for the rest of the season whether they have a realistic chance at postseason or not. There are still some paying customers attending to see their team win. There are also postseason berths impacted. Players, manager, staff and front office are in this for the duration. In a sense, all of the players are worth protecting or none of them are. If Ramirez needs surgury, that would be good or I think smart to get taken care of. Similar reasoning would apply if Zambrano is better off shutdown for the rest of the season or maybe Reed Johnson is better off not returning.

Rumors about the new owner taking over, if true, would mean the GM and manager can be determined. If they have to look for somebody else, they do that even though announcements could be held till latter. They can get on board with the budget and whether or not it is going to be increased.

They seem to be letting Baker play and bat both RHPs and LHPs. I would like to see Fox at 1B for a few games to see how he handles it.