Soul

That #4 pick could be very, very interesting. Trouble is, Angelo has already alluded to the idea that getting a high 1st rounder might cost more in salary than the team is planning on, given they still will need to sign a few high-profile guys soon.

It's because it always seems the wrong hitter is coming up for the situation, and this is what happens to bad teams. BTW, the Cubs are putting out a terrible black hole 7-9 pretty much every day now. It's no wonder we go 7 innings scoring no runs then score 5 in one inning. This is what happens when you don't have a very good offensive team. When all the chips fall your way, you get a bunch of runs. But consistency? No way -- ain't gonna happen.

What's really crippling this team is that it was put together like a 2 year old does a 1,000 piece puzzle.

I'm still a little shocked we went into the season with such a mess in the OF, and nothing but total crap @ SS. That's all on Jim. I appreciate how hard he worked, but he left Lou with some irreparable situations and you can see it's starting to frustrate him.

.....which is what usually happens to really bad teams.

he earned his spot in spring training. it's stupid to just give up on the kid after you put him on the 25-man. You mean after almost a whole year now of horrible offensive and average defensive play? Because that's what he's given the team so far. He had a decent April 2006 and nothing else. Wuertz also "earned" himself a demotion to AAA last year in Spring Training and 3 appearances in the regular season (all of 2.2 innings). Was that the right move? Ronny needs to be sent down to AAA to work on his hitting and one good game is not going to change my mind. The problem is that if you send down Cedeno there is no other MIF on the 40 man roster that can replace him. You would wind up with a bench of 3 outfielders, 1 catcher and one infielder. With Floyd, Ward, Murton, Blanco and Theriot there would not be much flexibility in making late game changes. DFA Miller. Bring up Guzman to be the fifth starter. Send Ronny down. Bring up Fontenot. Then you have four MIF (Izturis, DeRosa, Theriot, Fontenot) for two spots. Theriot can play SS also. I'd rather DFA Izturis than send Ronny down. Ronny sucks, but there's nothing else there. This is the worst group of SS-wannabes I've ever seen. I think nothing happens @ SS. We're stuck with crap, and we'll have to live with it all year long barring a trade.

I think the difference between this year's team is that last year's team really was bad enough to lose 96 games. They deserved to lose 96 games. That team, on paper, was horrid. This team really is not that bad on paper, and their luck evens out or even stops being absurdly bad, they'll be better than the 2006 Cubs. Not that bad on paper, true. Many teams perform below expectations for the entire year though. It happens. The other thing is, we could be significantly better than last year and *still* be a bad team.

And more than one season has ended in April. I'll never understand why Cubs fans get so uptight when other Cubs fans start to panic after a horrible start to the season. The Yankees are 1/2 a game out of last place and just lost to those last place Devil Rays. Should we write them off too? Again, we're talking about the Cubs. The Yankees are 2 games under .500, but have a recent history of early struggles still ending up with 90+ win seasons. If the Cubs won 90+ for the past 10 years, I don't think I'd be very concerned about the start. But they are 5 games under .500, playing .368 ball, coming off a season when they played just .407 ball. So your comparison is worthless. And I believe we pretty much tanked the season last April/May, too. We see this most years. It's nothing new.

Our ace is a basket case who still can't meltdown even when he's leading by 3 or more runs. That's not even close to being very good. I know everyone loves heaping on the bullpen right now, but it's not like it's a disaster. The main weakness is our sleepy offense. Some guys are eventually going to break out because of their history (Soriano in a big way, Jacque in a less big way), but Lee's lack of power is worrisome given his injury last year. I know he's got a bunch of double so far, but he hasn't had anything slapped down by the wind moreso than a guy like DeRosa. Maybe this is just the current variation of his old slow starts...I hope so. Even if it is, Zambrano needs to be traded to pump up the offense ASAP before he flakes out even more. Our offense has been just fine though lately-here are the scores from the last 8 games: 12, 3, 6, 3, 1, 6, 9, 4-avg-5.5 runs per game. The offense has been fine-not great, but just fine. The problem is that when the offense is good, the pitching fails-and when the pitching is good, the offense is terrible. It's just a matter of putting it together in the same games. What you've just described is a losing baseball team. Every team in the league that sucks will tell you "we just can't get both going at the same time." We've gone through this many other years, too. It's the same old story. If we don't rectify this by May, then we are finished. We're already in an ever-deepening hole that will be difficult to climb out of. Yes, but most of the teams who would say that aren't in the top half of the league in both pitching and offense like the Cubs are. In pitching perhaps, but the offense looks better than it really is because we blow a team out one day, then lose by 1 run the next 3 days. And our middle relief is horrid outside a couple guys.

Our ace is a basket case who still can't meltdown even when he's leading by 3 or more runs. That's not even close to being very good. I know everyone loves heaping on the bullpen right now, but it's not like it's a disaster. The main weakness is our sleepy offense. Some guys are eventually going to break out because of their history (Soriano in a big way, Jacque in a less big way), but Lee's lack of power is worrisome given his injury last year. I know he's got a bunch of double so far, but he hasn't had anything slapped down by the wind moreso than a guy like DeRosa. Maybe this is just the current variation of his old slow starts...I hope so. Even if it is, Zambrano needs to be traded to pump up the offense ASAP before he flakes out even more. Our offense has been just fine though lately-here are the scores from the last 8 games: 12, 3, 6, 3, 1, 6, 9, 4-avg-5.5 runs per game. The offense has been fine-not great, but just fine. The problem is that when the offense is good, the pitching fails-and when the pitching is good, the offense is terrible. It's just a matter of putting it together in the same games. What you've just described is a losing baseball team. Every team in the league that sucks will tell you "we just can't get both going at the same time." We've gone through this many other years, too. It's the same old story. If we don't rectify this by May, then we are finished. We're already in an ever-deepening hole that will be difficult to climb out of.

Jacque must be nigh untradeable. Otherwise he would have been moved by now.

It's way too early for me to read all of that, but yeah I agree something must be done about the glut of outfielders on this team. It can't go on forever. Someone's going to have to get traded, probably for a relief pitcher so we can junk Eyre/Ohman.

I'm not going to write off the season just yet, but I'm definitely starting to panic. How could you *NOT* panic with what you've seen? It's typical Cubs, find-a-way-to-lose baseball. We've seen this movie before, ladies and gents. And it usually ends with us out of the playoffs.

I'm starting to panic. I never expected to be five games under this early. We're digging a mighty big hole for ourselves.

Like I said in ST, there's definitely an injury. Just a matter of finding it.

Seriously, name one manager the Cubs have had who is better. About the only argument I can really see is Riggleman, but only because he seemed to understand situational baseball better than the others. Certainly the results he had haven't been close to Lou's in his career. Who else? Frye? Popeye? Both seem a little more like lightning in a bottle than actual great managers. Though I did like both and they were probably an upgrade over the other bozos we've had throughout the years. Lou > every other manager we've ever had. A case can definitely be made.

Read Game of Shadows. There's loads of evidence he used. Loads.

Most of the working world gets 3 days of bereavement leave, standard. So not many people are taking a YEAR off. But by all means, let's bash Dungy. People's Christian beliefs are at fault for how they choose to grieve a loved one? That's one of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. Please.

In answer to the original question: Because we suck. Thanks, I'll be here all week.

Zambrano's pitching, and all the Cubs can manage is WCI stinkin' U? Gawd.

Last year pissed me off because of the late trade down that took forever before our first pick...and then it was Danieal Manning and WHO WAS HE ? Many are still waiting for the answer to that question, interestingly enough.

Plenty of the Chicago media did though.

That's been true since the day Soriano signed. I'd still rather have Murton in RF than Jones, right now. It's not like Jones possesses a great arm anyway.

You've got to be kidding me. What possible justification can you give for wanting or thinking that Wade Miller not only deserves another start, but will show improvement? He's terrible. He's done. He's not the pitcher he used to be, and people need to accept that. If he starts another game, it will be another loss. This team is not good enough to have a guaranteed disaster start pitching every fifth day. It's this mentality that has contributed heavily to 99 years of losing. Yeah, I don't understand it either. It's not like Miller's just rusty or something. He's lost a full 10 MPH off his fastball, and his entire success was based on a 97 MPH fastball. It's not like with Dempster, where he was a slider pitcher so you knew if he could get that pitch back, he'd have a chance to be effective again. With Miller -- this guy was a fireballer. That's how he learned to dominate. I see very little, if any, reason to believe a fireballer is going to learn how to be a finesse guy with an 87 MPH fastball and a couple other, average pitches. I think it's clear he's finished.

The way Fonz was hobbling around yesterday, I'm a little suprised the Cubs are going to be starting him *anywhere* soon. Are they rushing him back?