First of all, let me say, I like the trade. I’ve never been a huge Hairston fan so I’m not sad to see him go. And Phil Nevin is having a better year than most of the Cubs starting line-up. He started out on a tear and has definitely cooled as of late (2 for his last 25 AB - both home runs). He will add some pop to a power-hungry Cubs lineup. It will also move Todd Walker back to his natural position which is always good. I think Nevin will also make a good pinch hitter coming off the bench. Definitely better than Michael Restovic and Neifi Perez. Welcome to Chicago Phil Nevin.

My wife and I attended the game on Sunday against the Braves. It was very hot and humid, we were both exhausted from a day of hot and humid moving, so we decided to cut our stay at the ballpark a little short. Quite frankly it didn’t seem like there was a lot beckoning us to stay.

Watching the game, in person, I saw a few things that bothered me.

1. Aramis Ramirez has lost any sort of swing or rhythm in the batter’s box. He looked awful. His swings looked worse than Jae Kuk Ryu’s swings.
2. On the topic of Ryu… I felt bad for the guy. I think it was the third pitch he had thrown that Edgar Renteria planted in the seats. And it only got worse for the guy. He’s clearly not ready for the big leagues.
3. Which begs the next question. Why didn’t our old pal Dusty start Glendon Rusch instead of making all of these crazy roster moves to bring up guys who aren’t ready? We know Rusch isn’t the answer as the 5th starter but over his career with the Cubs he’s performed well in the spot-starter, long relief role (which he filled on Sunday when Ryu was lifted in the 2nd.

On the other side, I did see some positives. Well… let’s wait a little bit on that. Don’t want to get ahead of ourselves.

The Cubs did win on Monday against Cincinnati. Woody looked a lot better. A huge problem that’s beginning to rear it’s head (as it does every year at about this time on Dusty “led” teams), the bullpen. Their arms are getting tired and what was, at the beginning of the year, a huge strength for the Cubs, is now blowing games that the Cubs cannot afford to lose. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the series againts the Reds turns out. The Cubs send Maddux and Zambrano to the hill over the next 2 nights. That alone should be a good sign. It hasn’t been yet this year, but hope springs eternal.

I know I’m very late to the dance with this one. Sorry. I was at a wedding and I didn’t get to see the action myself. Let me start by saying that I abhor violence of any kind and don’t support the use of violence to solve problems. I think what Michael Barrett did was wrong and cheap. Now that I got that part of me out… I also thought it was hilarious. From what I’ve seen AJ Pierzynski made a clean play (he has a right to the baseline) when he bowled over Michael Barrett.

Pierzynski has long been considered a bad guy, a bad teammateand an all around douche-bag, so you might say that he had it coming. But that’s not why I was fired up when I heard about it. I was fired up because it showed me that at least someone on the Cubs still had a pulse. Something, quite frankly (Stephen A. Smith), I was starting to question. Their bats have gone silent and their young pitching (read: Marshall, Hill, and Guzman) along with their old pitching (Maddux) have certainly come back to Earth. Of course, when you’re getting the worst (that’s right… THE WORST) run support in the majors, it’s hard to blame the pitchers. It looked like, with Sunday’s win over the White Sox, that the Cubs might have been able to use the emotion of the brawl to awaken the bats and get the pitching back on track. But, if Monday’s 9-1 loss to the impotent Marlins is any indication… they still can’t hit or pitch very well right now.

There has been a lot of talk about Kerry Wood being the saviour of the 2006 season for the Cubs. These lofty expectations for a guy coming off shoulder surgery. He’s missed a ton of time over the last couple of seasons due to injury but now fans are looking to him to save the team’s season?

That’s just ridiculous. Expectations at the beginning of the year were that Wood would come back from his injury onto a team that was contending for a division title, but thingshaven’t exactly turned out that way. Derrek Lee’s broken wrist has led to a team that just can’t score runs. Whether that can be blamed on the manager or not is a different conversation.

I expect Kerry Wood to come off the disabled list and take the ball every fifth day and probably throw about 60 pitches (which will hopefully get him past the 4th inning) and contribute to the team. He’ll probably increase his pitch count slowly and be up to 100 pitches after 3 or 4 starts. I think Kerry Wood is a huge upgrade over Angel Guzman or Rich Hill, but he’s not going to come off the DL and drop 20 Ks on the Nationals on Thursday. And he probably won’t do that this year. I don’t think that is the end of the world. I’d like to see Kerry Wood win a few more than half of his games. I’d love to see come back and dominate. He might. But not right away. I think he’ll be fine, but I think the expectation that all of the Cubs’ problems will be solved by having one pitcher back from injury is just silly. Their problems run much deeper than that.

I’ve been good. I’ve tried to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, had patience with him in dry times. But he’s got to go. As much as I’d love for teh Cubs to win the World Series this year, they’re not going to. They have a good young team, with some solid veterans, but they’re not going to win it all. Hell, I don’t think they’re going to make the playoffs. The Cubs need to get a new manager in there to prepare for next year (Ah… I said it already, it’s only May).

I was watching last nights game when Juan Pierre caught Bonds’ 714 homer. Thankfully it became an out. However, the situational decision to pitch to Bonds in that situation is reason enough for Baker to be fired. It was the fifth inning and there were men on first and second. At that point, the Giants held a 2-1 lead, and had 2 outs in the inning. Why on earth would Dusty pitch to Bonds? Risk putting the game out of reach (with the Cubs offense 4 runs is definitely out of reach)? No. No. No. You walk Bonds, and take your chances with Pedro Feliz, who at games end was batting .234.

This is just the latest example of the poor decision making that Baker exhibits on a regular basis. The problem is, it’s not just the questionable game decision that Baker makes that are evidence. Baker has lost his clubhouse before, and it seems that he’s lost it this year. In 2004, Sammy Sosa’s last year with the Cubs, the players were boss. There was the corked bat, the telephone calls to the television booth, the radio smashing, Sosa leaving early. All of those things tell me that Dusty is ill-equipped to manage a professional baseball team.

Now is precisely when a team needs a manager. When a teams’ top 2 pitchers, All-Star, MVP candidate first baseman are all on the shelf, the Cubs’ need a manager who can pull everyone together and do the best they can. Now, I don’t expect the Cubs, with so many guys on the shelf, to win 80% or even 70% of their games. Currently one would be nice. I do expect the Cubs to play .500 baseball no matter what. Period. You’ve got and have spent the money on a team that is supposed to contend for the division. Granted there are injuries. If this team turns into the Marlins when 3 players are hurt, when those players come back I don’t think they’ll automatically turn into the best team in baseball. Jim Hendry, and the Cubs cannot lean on Dusty’s track record of near success anymore. I want more for the Cubs. Fire Dusty Baker.

Let me join my Minnesotan brethen and say… Jacque Jones has got to go. He’s been doubled up twice for misjudging a fly ball. Twice. I can understand once, just got a bad read… or temporarily went brain dead or something like that. But, twice in one week. Are you kidding me? If this guy hit 40+ homers or got 200+ hits, I’d deal with it. He’s never had more than 173 hits or hit more than 27 homers. With those numbers you’d damn well better learn how to run the bases and play defense. For all of the quality moves Jim Hendry has made… Jeromy Burnitz and Jacque Jones stain Hendry’s record… big time. I’d much rather see John Mabry in RF everyday. It seems like he actually attempts to put the bat on the ball.

I don’t understand how a pitcher as awesome as Greg Maddux can post a 1-9 record against the Diamondbacks. The team changes every year so he’s not even facing the same people. I can understand not pitching well in certain ballparks, but in this day and age of transient players it just doesn’t make sense to me.

Same thing for a pitcher who owns a team like Zach Duke. I mean he’s 4-0 vs Cubs with a 0.72 ERA. This is a guy who’s only won 10 games in his career. What’s going on here????