Great post, if I do say so myself.

The saddest part of this slumping team is that they cannot afford to sell off even the valuable pieces.

To replace Juan Pierre in the organization, you need 2 pitching prospects.  I'd take 1 really good one.  Or even an excellent OF prospect and a mediocre pitcher.  We're going to get an AA pitcher and have to eat some salary.

Walker would get full value, but the only way I personally want to see him traded is if we also trade Neifi! and Womack so that we have to play Theriot.  Bynum will get some value.  Murton will be valuable, but that's exactly why I don't want to trade him.

Of the veterans if I were God of the Cubs, I would keep:
Ramirez, Lee, Walker, Zambrano, Eyre, Howry, Dempster, Williamson, Prior, Barrett
Of the rookies I'd keep:
Cedeno, Marshall, Marmol, Ardsma, (I'll sell Murton if the price is right), Ohman, Guzman

If Maddux wants a trade, I would go talk to the other GMs.  If he wants to stay, I thank him.
Wood has no value, yet.  I'd trade 1 or 2 of the young pitchers or even a vet if we get REAL prospects in return and several of them.

You can have the rest of the team for some AAA players and the right for somebody else to watch them stink.

I am horrified to admit that I watched half of the Mark Prior game and no others since Wednesday.

Bad game.

Jeremy Piven was my personal highlight of the cubs' season so far.  Maybe he could switch jobs with Dick Pole as cubs bench coach, I have no doubt that he could motive the 25 people who put on cubs uniforms and pretend to major league baseball.

to help ease the pain.

"Rookie Of The Year" is on FMC right now--I think that Cubs team could beat this one.

1. The Cubs are 3-7 over their last 10 games but:

Philadelphia is 2-8;
Cincinatti is 2-8;
Cleveland is 2-8;
Atlanta is 1-9;
Arizona is 1-9;

2. The Cubs are NOT in last place but:

the Pirates are,
Tampa Bay is,
Pittsburgh is,
Atlanta is,
KC is,
San Fran is,
LA (Angels) are.

Sure we suck but other teams suck MORE.

Thanks for the DIRELY needed laugh.

I'm a diehard Cubs fan, but hope died hard here .. and I'm about done mourning it.

I will still go to Atlanta in September .. but for ONE GAME. I want to be able to justify to myself all of the childish abandon in buying Cubs jerseys, ball caps, festooning my car with Cub bumper stickers and being STILL in possession of not only the Ferguson Jenkins mitt that turned me into a Cubs fan in 1969 as well as a "W" pennant I've yet to fly ONCE in a ball park upon watching a Cubs victory.

My jersey says "FAN SINCE 69" .. I'm celebrating my own insanity and loving every minute of it. It hurts too much to memorialize a single player of this franchise that has torn my heart out for years. So I made my loyalty the star.

Any psychologists here? Boy, you could really dig something out of that for therapy, couldn't ya ..

Fecal League Standings

Kansas City.... 18 49 .269
Pittsburgh....... 26 43 .377 (7)
Chicago.......... 26 41 .388 (8)
Tampa Bay......29 40 .420 (10)
Florida............ 28 37 .431 (11)
Atlanta............ 30 39 .435 (11)*

*Does not include the 6/18 Atlanta v. Boston results

Following today's loss, Cub strategurist  Dusty Half-Baked met with Tribco lackeys to discuss the team's playoff drive.

"Dudes, we're in a groove now, misfiring on all cylinders. We closed the gap on KC and remain tied with the Pirates in the win column. We feel good opening a gap over Tampa Bay and Florida, but we're playing with a look over our shoulder at the surprising and surging Braves who are on an incredible run. I don't think they can sustain their play much longer though.

We're happy right now, you know we had to battle back from a terrible opening series this year and really our play for the first three weeks. Once we took Lee out of the line-up and Maddux got over his early season histrionics, we got into a really good grove. Our hitters are over being patient and swinging at anything---being aggressive don't you know---we finally put together an outfield that is slow and can't throw and Walker is over his early season tom-foolery.

We can still make a run at KC and I really think we'll catch Pittsburgh this week to take over the wildcard spot. With Woods and Prior peaking, dudes, we're going to be where we need to be come playoff time. The only cloud we have now is Z's pitching, but Larry and I feel two or three 150 or 175 pitch games will get him straightened out."

So why not make something good out of this season...

It's not too late to make a run for being worst team ever.  Kansas City sure seems to have this season locked up, but if we make a run for it and keep losing every 8/10 games, maybe we can have a 110 loss season and be known as the terrible team we are.

Hell, what else is there we have a chance of doing?

The Peoria Chiefs won the first half pennant!

Hey gang, we gotta take the good news where we can find it.

via the outfield sign at Great American Ball Park with my father.  Even from that perspective it was ugly ugly ugly. I'm still shuddering.

All we could do is find comfort in the schadenfreude of watching the Sox beat the living snot out of the Reds.

The game was definitely not fun.  I posted that I just didn't want Prior to turn into Rusch and look what happened.  

I hope that next year's team isn't worse.

  I read Al's recap and I agree that all we can do is laugh.  I went to the game on Sunday with my oldest son (19 years old).  I bought him a scorecard because he wanted to score the game, something I taught him to do many years ago to keep him interested in the action on the field.  We shared a bag a peanuts and had a hot dog.  He bought himself a "frosty malt" and me an ice cream since it was Father's Day.   He told me that he still thinks our seats (in the upper deck behind home plate) are great because you can see the whole park from where we sit.  He plans on taking his girlfriend to a game this summer.  My younger son (17) stopped by on his break from being an usher at the Friendly Confines during the middle innings to say hi and see how we were doing.  It was great having both my boys at the park on Father's Day.  Despite the Cubs unbearable performance at the game and for that matter the whole season, the older one wanted to stop after the game for a t-shirt because he didn't have a Cubs one.   He also bought one for his girlfriend.  As we drove home talking about the game, my son caught me shaking my head.  He asked me why.  I told him it was because I was sorry I made him into a Cub fan.  It is the standard joke we tell about a parent dooming their children to  the misery of watching the loveable losers at Wrigley.  But I'm not really sorry.  My sons share a passion for the Cubs and for baseball that transcends winning or losing.  They watch their team.  God or bad, win or lose, rain or shine,  the Cubs are their team.  They won't jump on a bandwagon or be fair-weather fans.  I respect that.  They go to the games for the right reasons and while they are often disappointed at the results of the game, they are always entertained and glad they went to the park.  Do I wish they would win more, yes.  Am I going to stop being a fan, Hell No!

The Cubs will be in Heaven in 2007!