As I’m writing this, my beloved Cubs sit uncomfortably 6 games behind the hated (but much respected) St. Louis Cardinals in the N.L. Central standings and while I can’t say that I didn’t see it coming it still makes me sick. You see, I was born a Cubs fan because my father was a Cubs fan from the North side of Chicago, and that’s exactly why I can’t shake this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I also feel horribly for my daughters who will (most likely) end up as Cubs fans too. There’s so much to say about this.
Let’s start with what’s freshest in the minds of Cubs fans and talk about the heaping pile of crap that is Kevin Gregg. I’m sure he’s a nice guy, but he sucks at being the closer on a major league team. He’s given up 12 home runs this season and blown 6 of 29 save opportunities (including 3 of the last 5) and as bad as that is, Gregg’s save percentage is better this year than last year when he blew 9 saves. Can anyone tell me what Jim Hendry was thinking when he traded for this bum? Speaking of Hendry’s off season failures, let’s not forget about Joey Gathright, Aaron Heilman, Aaron Miles, and (of course) Milton Bradley.
Now while Milton Bradley has no doubt underperformed while wearing a Cubs uniform, it isn’t bad in the same way you might think. Coming into 2009, I thought staying healthy would be his biggest issue, but so far this year Bradley has played in 97 games, which is more than I thought he’d play all year and we’ve got over a month left in the season. That would be a positive if he wasn’t so bad in the field and at the plate. Bradley is currently hitting .263 with 8 home runs, 30 RBI, and an OPS of .786. That projects out to 10 home runs and 36 RBI for the whole season. Not terrible considering his career averages are .278, 11 home runs, 43 RBI, and an OPS of .823. What is terrible is that Cubs general manager Jim Hendry spent $30 million on this guy just to make the team more left handed and “balanced” for the playoffs. That’s going to count for absolutely nothing since the Cubs won’t be playing post season baseball this year.
The Cubs also let backup catcher Henry Blanco and utility guy extraordinaire Mark DeRosa go for peanuts. In fact, with DeRosa now playing for the Cardinals and with Aaron Miles playing for the Cubs, it’s almost like an even (if indirect) swap. I think we all know who got the better of that one. And while Hank White may not be lighting it up for the Padres, he’s a way better backup option than Koyie Hill when Soto isn’t in the lineup.
2009 has also seen almost every Cub in the lineup except Lee (who started the season really slow) and Theriot performing well below their career averages. It’s seen some truly great starting pitching get wasted just because the offense can’t score a few runs. A few weeks ago I hear a stat that the Cubs were 50-13 (or something like that) when the team scored 3 runs or more in game. The team is currently 4 games over .500 so it’s pretty easy to figure out they don’t score much. We’ve seen Zambrano being his crazed self, we’ve seen Soto admit to taking bong rips, and we’ve seen manager Lou Piniella act the part of senile old man who just doesn’t care anymore. I mean, the manager on the other side of town, Ozzie Guillen, is 10 times the manager Lou is right now.
So the long and the short of it is that the Cubs aren’t making the playoffs. I admitted it to myself and my co-workers last week, and I’m saying it to y’all right now. THE CUBS WILL NOT MAKE THE PLAYOFFS. The math is actually really simple. The Cardinals currently have a record of 68-52 so if they just play .500 baseball the rest of the way, they’ll end up with 89 wins. The Cubs are 4 games back in the loss column with a 60-56 record. If the Cardinals play .500 ball (I suspect they’ll be better than that) the Cubs will need to go 30-16 over their remaining 46 games to win the division, and that ain’t never gonna happen. Not with this team, not this year.
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While I agree with you on just about every point (I do think Hill did a great job as backup catcher, though Blanco was certainly a clubhouse leader), I still won’t be admitting defeat just yet. Logic would demand acknowledging the fact that this team doesn’t have it to make the push, but I just want to believe otherwise. Besides, since when did being a Cubs fan and logic go hand in hand?
Amen! This is just a hard team to root for. I do like the effort Koyie Hill puts forth behind the plate and his bat has progressed some recently. While D Lee’s numbers may look good, he does not hustle, which is pretty much par for the course for this Cubs’ team, beyond Milton Bradley (who has been an incredible bust) and Ryan Theriot — and Rich Harden, who always busts his ass down the line. I’m a lifelong Cubs fan, but has got to be one of the hardest Cubs teams to root for in a long time!
It could be worse,at least your not bringing your kids up to be Cleveland fans.
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