07/27 CUBS (Zambrano) @ Milwaukee (Greinke) 7:10 CDT, CSN TV

[CubColtPacer]

For me, as was mentioned, the 2006 team was supposed to be crappy, seeing their lineup. This team, full of mostly high-paid players expected to do well absolutely kills me when they struggle.

 

A lineup containing Castro, Ramirez, Soriano, Pena, Soto, and Byrd should be awesome, and most of those guys aren't even having awful years.

 

The complete lack of clutch hitting is the sharpest dagger to me though.

 

But it's not like we're 6 games back and can say, if we only had clutch hitting* this year, we'd be right in it. Instead you can say, if we only had clutch hitting this year, we'd be run of the mill bad, rather than terrible, and realize we're not 45 years away from contending.

 

*I have no idea if our clutch hitting has been worse than it should be.

 

It's only a little bit worse than it should be. Not enough to make a big difference (although combined with poor baserunning and a relative lack of productive outs probably contributes to the frustration about clutch hitting).