Season Over

It was official two weeks ago but the Cubs season is over. There will be no playoffs this season and the World Series drought will hit 99 years. So what is left to do this season. If I was GM, here is what I would do:

1. DFA both Neifi Perez and Tony Womack. Both serve no purpose on this team. Perez is supposed to be a defensive whizz and has made three huge critical errors this season. Womack is terrible at bat and in the field. They should not be around next season and the Cubs can probably get more production with a lot less money by somebody in the minors. Also it doesn't allow Dusty to play them over Cedeno or Murton (3-4 today by the way).

2. Trade Juan Pierre. Al suggested this a couple of weeks ago. Again Juan and his .280 OBP will get out of the leadoff spot and he serves no purpose for this team. If you want to bring up Felix Pie, this might be the season to do it. There is no pressure on the young players to do stuff this year, with no need to win anymore.

3. Hold on to Scott Williamson and Glendon Rusch and then trade them in mid to late July when teams are looking for extra pitching help. Jerome Williams could take Rusch's spot as the long man, and the Cubs have two very good set up men along with a good closer. I will not include the last two Dempster outings in his assessment. He has been awesome the last two years.

4. Do NOT trade Todd Walker, unless he asks for it. He was jerked around all last winter and finally stayed here and he has been a great asset in moving to first base when Lee got injured. He deserves to spend the rest of the season here if he asks for it.

Those are my ideas along with changing the batting order. Juan Pierre is pulling a Corey Patterson (Cub days) at the leadoff spot. He needs to get out there. I plugged the Cubs lineup into the Baseball Musings Lineup Analysis and got this lineup:
1. Todd Walker
2. Michael Barrett
3. Aramis Ramirez
4. Matt Murton
5. Jacques Jones
6. Juan Pierre
7. Ronny Cedeno
8. Jerry Hairston (whoever plays 2B)
9. Pitcher

Better than anything Dusty has run out there recently.

Lost Series/ Season?

The Cubs lost again today to be swept by the Padres. It marks the first time the Cubs have ever not won a game versus a national league team during the course of the season. They were 0-7 versus the Padres. Today the Cubs brought out some pink bats to help breast cancer, however it didn't help the hitting as the Cubs logged a great two hits the entire game. They also allowed two runs to score on wild pitches on the same batter by Scott Williamson. Brian Giles walked 5 times today, tying a major league record. There were no positives about the game today. Even Jae Kuk Ryu made his major league debut walking two and hitting one while allowing an earned run in one inning of work. There is still time to turn this season around, but it is running out, quickly. They have the Nationals coming into town, so now is the time to start winning series and turning the season around.

The Cubs

I haven't posted in a long time for various reasons, but the last week has been dissapointing for the Cubs to say the least. I was at the game last Sunday when they looked listless against a very good Brewer team. Since then they have played 7 more games and have won one of them, Monday against the Pirates. And according to many statistics, they are lucky to even have this many wins. It's not that the Cubs are unlucky, at this point they just are not very good. But what can you do as a fan, except take one game at a time starting with another Maddux start tommorrow night.

If you haven't heard, help is on the way. 12 strikeouts in 5 innings is impressive at any level. If anything, he might be able to hit left handed pitchers better than Jones or Pierre.

Mike North
If you are not from Chicago, Mike North is the morning radio host on the main Chicago sports radio station, the Score. Like many radio hosts, North has a big mouth and I really only listen to him while I'm getting dressed. But in that short amount of time, he has some real astounding things the past couple of days. So I'll try and report those more here and then report why he's wrong.

#1 Joe Crede compared to Ron Santo and Brooks Robinson

Granted, Mike North did say that he wasn't comparing them, but said Crede is approaching their abilities. I don't understand the obsession over Crede. One of the Score's commercial's has North saying that he would rather have Joe Crede over Aramis Ramirez, because of defense. North is entitled to that opinion, but I would tend to believe that 29 general managers in baseball would choose Ramirez ove Crede. Back to my point, here are Crede's numbers for his career before this season: OPS+ of 91. Ran Santo in his 15 year career: 125. Brooks Robinson in his 23 year career: 104. In fact his storied defense is ranked 12th in Range Factor this season, behind even, you guessed it, Aramis Ramirez. I think Joe Crede is a great 3rd baseman for the White Sox, he just isn't great. As baseball reference points out, he's more like Pedro Feliz, Casey Blake and Russ Davis.