LOOKING AHEAD

So, now that we have the 2006 season to look forward to, I thought I'd take an early look at the potential free agents who'll be gracing the market. As far as I know, no major sports site has a comprehensive list yet, but google found one site for me that had all sorts of information, which I will trust to be accurate. You can observe the list yourself by going here: MLB free agents.

First, let's take a look at the team's needs. We need a definitve closer (sorry, Ryan Dempster). The Cubs have perhaps three guys who I'd trust in the bullpen next year, Dempster, Williamson, and Novoa. So, they need two lefties and a closer in the other spots.

The Cubs also could benefit from a better second baesman, although at the moment Todd Walker looks like their best bet. They could use some better bench players, as Macias is a waste of uniform and Hollandsworth somehow managed to land a starting gig when in reality, no other team in baseball would probably take him in any capacity. The Cubs need a center fielder and leadoff man, they could benefit from a better right fielder as well.

Let's also not forget that the Cubs will have some considerable money cleared next year for the free agent market. Sammy, Nomar, Remlinger, Hawkins, and their high salaries are all gone. The Cubs will have cleared about 30 million or more in spending cash. Here's a look at some of the options available.

Second Baseman:
Ray Durham 34 next year, .296 avg, .365 OBP, 9 homers, 25 doubles so far in 2005
Eric Young 39 next year, a good bench player .272 avg, .342 OBP
Mark Grudzielanek 36, .303 avg, .342 OBP
Poke-ah, hell, there's no one good available at second base

Short Stop:
Rafael Furcal 27 next year, .276 avg, .340 OBP, 22 doubles, 10 triples, and 11 homers so far this year, and 38 steals
Rich Aurilia 34 next year, .276 avg, .332 OBP, 13 homers and 54 RBI in 88 games
Rey San-shit, this list sucks too

Right Field
Sammy Sosa (mwahahahhahaha, oh, how I kid)
Brian Giles 35 next year, .299 avg, .421 OBP, 13 homers and 68 RBI so far in 2005

Center Field
Jacque Jones 31 next year, .258 avg, .337 OBP, 19 homers and 60 RBI
Preston Wilson 31 next year, .262 avg, 21 homers, 69 RBI
Kenny Lofton 39 next year, .310 avg, .372 OBP, 13 steals in 274 at bats
Johnny Damon 32 next year, .324 avg, .372 OBP, 31 doubles, 8 homers, and 14 steals in 2005 so far

The Bullpen
Lefty Relievers:
Scott Eyre 2.78 ERA in 55 IP 1.07 WHIP
Mike Myers 37 next year, 3.41 ERA in 29 IP 1.17 WHIP

Closer
Trevor Hoffman 38 next year, 32 saves, 2 blown, 3.59 ERA, 1.10 WHIP
Billy Wagner 34 next year, 31 saves, 2 blown, 1.65 ERA, 0.85 WHIP
Eddie Guardado 35 next year, 29 saves, 2 blown, 1.81 ERA, 0.99 WHIP
Ugueth Urbina 32 next year, 10 saves, 6 blown, 3.45 ERA, 1.20 WHIP
B.J. Ryan 28 saves, 5 blown, 2.77 ERA

In Other Words...
Not exactly a ton of options, are there? I think the Cubs could improve the bullpen, though. But do we want the Cubs to get an expensive center fielder? Do we want them to upgrade with a bunch of guys in their 30's or older? Felix Pie could be ready next spring, and I'd rather see him in center than even Johnny Damon.

I'm not going to come out and say exactly what it is that I'd do at the moment... I want to see what things look like later on. But this will be the winter to test Hendry's mettle, assuming he isn't given the axe. Which he probably should be.

ARE WE RACIST FOR HATING DUSTY?

I'm not big on talking about professional journalists. I occasionally look at their articles and comment on them here, but for the most part I treat them the way they treat me: I ignore them. They are either the pawns of the organization that they cover, or they're desperate to promote readership, so they write controversial things that they can't really back up.

One journalist over at ESPN has insinuated that Cubs fans are racist because we boo Dusty Baker. Dusty himself blames we internet bloggers for turning him into a hated man. Makes me wonder if Dusty doesn't read the blogs from time to time, or at least hear about them from others. So, although I sincerely doubt that he'd ever see this, I'm addressing this post to Dusty Baker.

Dear Dusty,

When you came to Chicago in November of 2002, I was one of many to celebrate your arrival. Like many other Cubs fans, I heralded you as a messiah. You were going to liberate the Cubs and take them back to the Promise Land. You were intelligent, you were a winner, and you looked kinda cool with your hip shades and South American tooth picks. You were almost certainly more loved than any other new coach who has ever come into Chicago.

And you delivered, during that first season. You took us to the playoffs. You coached the first Cubs team to win a post season series since the fabled time before the Titanic sank. Yeah, that season ended in heartbreak. But it was still an amazing year, and many people held you responsible for that success.

But the problem was, you weren't responsible for that success. The team won in spite of you. Because, as we discovered in 2004 and again this year in 2005, you have no real interest in giving your team the best possible chance to win. If you did, you would keep Todd Hollandsworth on the bench, ready for pinch hit situations. If you did, you would either use all of your seven relievers, or you'd return one to Iowa and give the Cubs another much-needed pinch hitter. If you did, you would've kept Corey and Neifi away from the top of the batting order where they only did damage.

Dusty, you can't fool us. You have no respect for the young players, or else you'd actually play them. I don't think anyone could possibly convince us that Todd Hollandsworth is better than Matt Murton. I also disbelieve that Neifi is better than Ronny Cedeno. Yet you insist on Murton and Cedeno hacking away at Triple A pitchers (or rotting on the bench in Chicago) while Hollandsworth and Neifi disappoint again and again.

You were given the most gifted rotation in the last 100 years of Cubs history, and you overused and abused them. I believe you are responsible for the DL time Prior and Wood have seen. I believe you have the tendency to leave them in for too long, thus allowing them to cough up the tying or even losing run.

Dusty, we don't hate you for no reason. We hate you because we want to win. We hate you because you are condescending toward us, explaining time and again how the Cubs never won anything before you got here. Newsflash, Dusty, the Cubs haven't won anything since you got here, either. Furthermore, the Cubs beat your Giants to reach the post season in 1998, and they were only a few games away from reaching the post season in 2001. The Cubs aren't entirely a losing franchise. They've had just as much success (or lack thereof) without you as they have had with you.

I apologized for you a lot longer than many. I defended you. But as time went on and you continued to do the most retarded things possible, I began to give up. Your situational baseball is pathetic, Dusty. A high school coach could do as well. There's just no excuse for the mistakes you constantly make, and you have somehow succeeded in pulling off the unimaginable: there will probably be an even bigger party when you're fired than there was when you were hired. In three short years, you've gone from beloved to hated. I'd almost think that was impossible, even for a city like Chicago.

There are schmucks out there who'd accuse me and others of being racist because we dislike you so much, Dusty. Well, I'm not being racist in my dislike of you. I loved that you were a Cub in 2002. I loved it. I was so excited for the future. Now, when I look toward 2006 and beyond, I feel a lead weight in my stomach and I have no hopes of the Cubs winning a championship. Dusty, you've killed my hope. That is why I wish you were away from Chicago.

I also wish, sincerely, that I could tell you about it face to face. If, for some reason, you are here in Chicago as the manager come the 2006 Cubs Convention, I will try to attend. And there, I will tell you to your face exactly how I feel. You've killed my hope.

Please stop killing the Cubs.

Sincerely,

Kurt Evans
writer of a Cub Fan Nation and Goat Riders of the Apocalypse

BACK FROM VACATION

So, I spent about seven days in a cottage in Northern Ontario. There was satellite TV, although I didn't watch it at all. But there wasn't a phone jack, so I missed out on any sort of baseball updates. To be honest, that didn't really bother me.

The Cubs are technically still in it, but let's face it. They are in the position they're in for a reason. They are lacking in fundamentals. The Cubs could have the best team of all the teams in the wild card race, and they'd still lose for that reason.

Take Corey Patterson, who doesn't belong in a major league uniform. Baker was quoted recently as saying that Corey needs an overhaul of his total game. If Dusty notices you suck, then you really must suck!

I guess I was pretty lucky, having my first blogging year filled with a competitive Cubs team. The 2004 team was, flaws included, pretty interesting to watch. The 2005 team is mostly just annoying. I can remember my August vacation from last year. Everywhere we stopped, I wanted to find an internet connected computer so I could see how the Cubs were doing. It was crazy, and it was fun, and I wish the team was like that this year. Instead, they've become hard to write about, and I'm sure they're hard to read about, too. (I know that whenever the Cubs are on a losing streak, I stop reading the blogs, news articles, etc. It's just too depressing.)

So, we really need to focus on the good things, unless we're just leaving the season behind us for the football year. That means the Bears for many of you, and the Bills for me. But this is a Cubs blog, so I'm stuck with it. Point is, there are positives. They just involve personal statistics. I want to see how Maddux, Carlos, and Prior will wind up. I want to see what Kerry Wood's bullpen ERA will consist of. I want to see the final numbers put up by Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. I want to see if Nomar can have a good August and September. When the Cubs start to suck, that's all that I really have left.

But, suck or not, I'm still in a baseball mood, and I'm still looking forward to how the season turns out. Even if I know it won't end in fireworks, at least not for the Cubs.

WHAT'D I TELL YOU?

It's amazing to watch an accumulation of tremendous talent turn into a pile of crap. Well, maybe it's amazing the first time you see it. But this is Round 2 in the Dusty Baker era, and no one is happy.

The drama has continued. Dusty wants to insert Wood back in the rotation, against strict doctors' orders. Heaven forbid Dusty risk the arms of his pitchers. He'd never do that, right Chad Fox?

I remember back in April or May, my girlfriend and I were talking about an August vacation. Maybe a cottage, maybe a trip to Europe. She wanted to go somewhere for at least a month, I wanted to go somewhere for no more than two weeks. Why? Because I was afraid I'd miss out on some good baseball.

We leave for a week tomorrow to go to a cottage in upstate Ontario (uh, up-providence?) I don't know if there will be TV. There will be very limited internet access. I might get to keep up with the "progress" of the Cubs. Do I want to?

The answer is: only if it involves the axing of Dusty Baker. Dude's gotta go. Simple as that.

THAT CLINCHING MOMENT

I've always believed that there are moments during a season when you gain a greater insight into your team. Perhaps they have a rousing come-from-behind, and then you know that they'll never quit. Or maybe they'll outright dominate an ace, and then you know they can beat the best. Or, as we've seen tonight, they'll have that one, terrible inning when everything goes wrong. And then, you know just how bad your team really is.

The second inning of tonight's game was a very telling moment for me. We saw play after play of shoddy defense. Todd Walker threw to the wrong base. Nomar bobbled the ball. Rich Hill threw ball after ball without a dugout visit.

And that was when it really hit me.

The Cubs aren't just going to miss the playoffs. They're going to miss the playoffs by about ten games. They aren't going to drive it hard until the last week of the season. They're going to drop like a stone. They aren't going to win 90 games this year. They won't win 80.

Tonight in the second inning, I saw the Cubs for what they really are. A team lacking leadership, fundamentals, and discipline. I saw a team that is helmed by a man who no more belongs at the head of a dugout than I do. Dusty Baker doesn't just need to be fired. He needs to be fired out of a cannon. That's how bad it really is. Fire him out of a cannon, out of Chicago, today. Please.

I had high hopes this year. All Cubs fans did. But everything went wrong. Things continue to go wrong. Tonight, the Cubs spirit was broken. Tonight, the season ended.

I just hope Dusty Baker is considerate enough to apologize to Derrek Lee for ruining one of the greatest single season performances I've ever seen.

But I doubt it.

BACK TO WORK

I apologize for leaving this page without an update for more than a week. I've been busy keeping Goat Riders active and have found my time too sparse to blog here, as well. That will change soon, though.

I suppose the biggest piece of news is that Raffy Palmeiro has proven to be a liar. According to the Tribune, he tested positive for a "serious steroid," and there's no doubt he ingested it intentionally. However, while it's interesting to watch a man's career turn to nothing, I'm more interested in Ryne Sandberg, who has finally been enshrined in Cooperstown.

Ironically, I've been reading Ryno's autobiography. In some ways, that book is surprisingly candid, although Sandberg dances around certain topics - like his first wife's infidelities. But he blasted Larry Himes and the Cubs regime of the mid 90's, and in the end, I think the book reads a lot like a 300 page version of his 23 minute Hall of Fame speech.

Ryno also did his best to pitch Andre Dawson's future induction into the Hall of Fame. You can make an argument that his numbers are borderline, but if this was 1985, rather than 2005, I think he'd be a lock. As Sandberg said during his speech, the Steroid Era has inflated statistics and left some great players out in the cold. Dawson's 2,700+ hits, 438 homers, 1500+ RBI, and 300+ steals might not compare to someone like Barry Bonds, but you know he not only came across those numbers legitimately, but he did it while practically crippled.

I doubt it, but it'd be nice if some of the voters actually listened.