Well the Cubs and Sox begin their series that I’m calling “The World Series of Ineptitude.” But unfortunately, no Barrett to possibly spice things up. Which brings me to my first topic:
The Barrett Trade
I can totally understand this trade, and wasn’t at all surprise. He’s been a bother in the clubhouse, and is unpredictable with his emotions in the field. We already have one of those guys who’s more talented, so we don’t need the second hothead. Plus, he’s a defensive liability right now, which you could forgive if he hit the ball, but he’s not even doing that. And this also frees up about another million dollars, which might mean another trade is in the works. This was obviously a “get rid of Barrett” trade, not a “get Bowen” trade.  However, we do have a plethora of top backup catchers now, so that’s good…?
The Rest of the Year
I kind of want to see the Cubs deal away Jaque Jones, Matt Murton, Mark DeRosa, and Cliff Floyd. The only one of those four I would really like to see go is Jaque Jones (let’s face it, he’s just not helping anymore, and he’s not a key piece to this team anymore). The main thing I want is for the Cubs to clean house a little bit, and let the young guys who are clearly going to be the key players the next couple years take over (ie, Pie, Pagan, Fontenot, Hill, and Theriot). And if we’re able to make a run at the playoffs this year, that would be cool, but this is just not going to be the team that wins it all this year. It’s just not going to happen. But I feel like the pieces are almost there, and with Piniella with a year under his hat, I think we’ll be in a good position to make a run at it next year.
So that’s the answer for me right now. Lower all expectations (at least for this year). At least it’ll make it a little easier to deal.
And I can’t imagine of two more creative ways to lose than what the Cubs did in the last week. Having a benches clearing brawl, a pitcher taking a no hitter into the eighth, ends up pitching a complete game two hitter, and loses. And then just a few days later, the Cubs blow another one by completely screwing up a rundown. Unbelievable.
That’s why I feel like the Cubs are closer than you think. If they were smart at all, they would have a pretty good record right now. And I feel like that’s something that Piniella can fix.
We’ll see. At least we can prove that we’re the slightly less inept Chicago team this weekend.
Morgan, I’m going to have to disagree with you on some of your trades. Yes, get rid of Jacque Jones and Cliff Floyd. But don’t trade Matt Murton – he just needs to play. The kid is hitting almost .300 in AAA (up from .250 a week ago) now that he’s actually playing every day. In the Trib the other day Lou was complaining about lack of right-handed hitting. DeRosa has become a pretty important cog in the offense where Derrek Lee is not hitting for power like he can. Let Pie play. Pagan is not an everyday major leaguer. He’s a 3.5th outfielder, much like Murton. But I definitely agree with starting Theriot. He rocks!