The Home Stand

Not much you can say about this. The Cubs are 3-5 with one game remaining on the home stand against three of the worst teams in all of baseball. Minimally they should be 6-3. They cannot continue to play this way if they are to have any dwindling hope of contending.

The only bright spots have been the solid pitching of Zambrano and Dempster, which by the way makes Tuesday's 9th inning meltdown even harder to take. Even though the first three batters in the order continue to hit for average and get on base and even though Pena and Ramirez have shown signs of waking up, the Cubs don't score runs. The reason they don't score runs is that especially after the top three, they don't take pitches, walk, or work the count.

As a whole, you can't win in this game unless you play baseball. I mean you have got to have your head in the game all the time whether you are hitting or in the field. Looking over the Cubs lineup, only three position players seem to fit that bill, viz., Fukudome, Barney, and Pena.

Sure the injuries have hurt, and the injuries to the starters have really hurt, but there are at least 8 or 10 games this season the Cubs should have won or just gave away. The return of Garza and Wells to the rotation is going to help, but even there you have to conclude that they simply do not have a fifth starter, so this is going to have a bad long-term effect on their chances.

Quade has been dealt a bad hand and has had bad luck, but it is one thing to be forced to manage your pitchers knowing you have only got three reliable arms to start and three reliable arms to relieve, and another to continue to tolerate absolutely mindless baseball in the field and at the plate. So far that is what Quade has been doing. I feel sorry for the guy and I sympathize with his position, but somehow or other the play of the team reflects the personality or standards of the manager.

You have to ask yourself how come they cannot play respectable ball against bad teams, how come they cannot seem to get in front of ground balls, throw to the right base, be in position to take throws of all kinds, etc. These skills can be taught and practiced.

In terms of hitting, maybe Mike needs to take a page from the books of some of the old-line managers who used to fine people for swinging at the first pitch after a pitcher has thrown 8 consecutive balls. You know, the little things Brenly is always talking about.

Anyway, up and down, looking at the play in the first third of the season, it looks as if the Cubs are a team with some reasonably talented players and a couple of very talented players who are just plain lazy or dumb or whatever. A frustrating bunch to watch, to be sure.

Actually, lost in the almost ceaseless flow of bad news is the minor injury to Alfonso Soriano that will keep him out of left field for at least two weeks. This is the only way to get this hopelessly inept player on the bench as no matter how badly he performs even the most minor actions on the field that do not involve trying to hit a home run on every single pitch, the Cubs will never sit him down.