Nah, it's much more simple than that. No conspiracies going on. The fact is Jim and Andy don't have a clue about what is wrong with the Cubs and what needs to be done to fix it. I don't really think Jim and Andy think there is anything wrong. It's just all bad luck. Wow! That might actually be true. It would explain some things. If this is the case, the Cubs may never be a contending team year in and year out. Judging from MacPhail's comments in the herald it's not that far off. Our big problem is "Timely hitting" Hmmm. Who's better at "timely hitting". . . Someone who doesn't suck, or someone who does suck? Someone hitting .300 or someone hitting .200? This is hard. Well, it depends. The .300 hitter could be hitting a "soft .300", a la Todd Walker, which is why we spent the offseason trying to trade him. meanwhile, the .200 hitter might just need a change of scenery, a la Juan Pierre and Jacque Jones. That's why we managed to get them for so cheap this offeseason. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that they've noticed the scenery yet (maybe Jones has a little bit).