There can be no more wishful thinking.   There can be no more denial and eternal optimism.   Jim Hendry was permitted to go into hyper-spending mode with little oversight,.   His due diligence and objective analysis of his team and of targeted acquisitions was largely thrown out the window.    Fact is the window of opportunity for this team slammed shut in 2008.   Fresh off a second consecutive total and utter playoff collapse.   

A $146 million nightmare of a payroll.   Of which the only way to address is to start active pedaling the few legitimately marketable commodities whose contracts expire first, namely Derrek Lee and Ted Lilly.   Lee will have market value, particularly in San Francisco where the Giants are his "hometown" team and who have the pitching to have a special season.    Lilly on the other hand will surely draw attention from any number of contending ballclubs.   Other than that?   Well, you don't offer arbitration to Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot anymore.    What else?   Well not much else you can really do except sit on your hands and wait for the Soriano deal and the Kosuke deal and the Zambrano deal and, heck, even maybe the Ramirez deal to unwind.    Speaking of Ramirez?   Sure smells like he is in for a Troy Glaus and Eric Chavez type of decline that shall come all too early in his career to me.   Still a vitally important player, but like everybody else in the Cubbie lineup of today his best production days are in the rearview mirror.  

So Tom Ricketts, it is time you come down from your management suite and start the process that surely you must have recognized from the beginning would have to happen.    Time to ashcan Jim Hendry.   Either that or take the cowardly approach and kick him upstairs into a "senior advisory" role, or worse still an Ed Lynch no-man role.  

Cub fans are disgusted.   And I am not the only Cub fan on this planet who actually is rooting for losses right now.   It is the only hope for change.  

Lou Piniella?   I've grown disgusted of the man too.   But Piniella isn't really the problem.   Let the tired old man play out the string.   It's not going to hurt.  

Other than that?   I guess maybe we might have Starlin Castro and Andrew Cashner arriving soon enough to cause hope for the future while Rome burns around us otherwise.  

Blou

The worst possible scenario has bore fruit as far as the rotation.    Sean Marshall, who is proven to lack the stamina to be a starter and is very much needed in the bullpen, has likely wrapped up a spot.   Carlos Silva and all of his bonafide awfulness probably have too.    So a rotation to start the season of Dempster, Zambrano, Wells, Marshall and Silva.   Humbling, isn't it.  

Meanwhile, that leaves Lou to force this bullpen...Marmol, Grabow, Gorzellaney, Samardizija (he has no business earning a spot, but alas he will because Hendry has a special set of rules for his bonus baby), and Caridad the wunderkind.  

God save the queen if anything should sideline Dempster or Zambrano.    Or if Lilly can't come back to 90% his historical level.   The bullpen is a nightmare waiting to unfold, unless Marmol and Grabow pitch out of their minds.   Which they could do, at least for a couple months.  

Carlos Silva, quite simply, is human batting practice.    If there was any more need for proof than his wondrous Cub debut against the White Sox seals the deal.    I know it's very early in camp, but this guy A) can't pitch and B) doesn't care.    So lets just therefore cut to the chase and put him on the DL for the next two years under injury classification of maximum suckitis.  

Lou Piniella?   The remaining respect and confidence I have in the man is evaporating by the hour.   To actually say with a straight face that Silva flashed electric stuff during a side session with Larry Rothschild is the height of bold face lying and cluelessness.   We get it Lou....you don't want to be here and want to go home.   At least this season lets try not to simply phone it in on your behalf.  

People had better hope like heck that some of these no-name youngsters competing for jobs on the 12-man staff come through.   Else this is a 90 loss team.  

A big fat slice of humble pie is PRECISELY what the Blackhawks need.   Their play the 15 games preceding the Olympic break were iffy in too many regards.   A beatdown at the hands of the New York Friggin Islanders is the super duper attitude adjustment that this team needs.  

Memo to Stan Bowman....fire the weapon on Vocoun if that option does indeed exist.   Pony up Versteeg, Crawford and Beach.   The window to win a Cup is THIS SEASON.   So get a deal done.  If you have to overpay, then overpay.  

This deserves it's own fresh page of discussion.   I'm just going to throw this out there because I like to hear myself talk and, generally speaking, am a blowhard.   But that aside, there are a few things to contemplate.  

A.   There are rumors out there on these silly Twitter things that says Zambrano is "eminently available"

B.   Cubano Arnoldis Chapman is a free agent

C.   There is horrific rumor out there that Genius Jim covets Jose Contreras, he the 139 year old Cuban refugee who ceased being a good pitcher in 2006.  

D.   Objective analysis concludes that the Cubs are pressed up against payroll issues and have multiple issues to address on an aging and flawed roster with little help coming soon from the minors

Soooo....drinking all this in is Genius Jim secretly acting a whole lot smarter and realistic than I give him credit for and maybe, just maybe, is he thinking about selling the juvenile, enigmatic and overpaid Zambrano at the probable zenith of his remaining market value within the context of knowing...

A.    That he has excellent shot of landing Chapman

B.     He needs to free up salary, and moving Zambrano enables that

C.    He needs to come up with more good intriguing young pieces to augment a legitimate rebuilding campaign to presumably be built around a young core of Chapman, Castro, Cashner and hopefully several others

There are definite flaws to some of this, the biggest giving Genius Jim wayyyyy too much credit for being visionary and realistic.   But all I know is that I will personally drive Zambrano to the airport if it means we are able to sign Chapman AND secure some blue-chip young talent in return for Z.   

I invite the audience to rip into me as is usual course of action.  Viva a hoped for and desperately needed rebuilding campaign !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lets face it.   The addition of Marlon Byrd is probably a foregone conclusion.    Genius Jim will feed his extreme addiction to free agency under the delusion that Byrd can be the missing piece to a winning formula.    And just like the free agent signings of Jeremy Burnitz, Jacque Jones, Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome and Milton Bradley the Cubs will look back in hindsight and regret the contract they doled out.   

Byrd is not a good centerfielder.   Byrd is also 32 years old.   He'll come to Chicago and we shall watch him feebly get on his horse to chase fly balls they end up in the ivy.   Next to Alfonso Soriano the outfield defense should at least be entertaining in a blooper sort of way.   And Byrd at bat?   Oh, how I can't wait for his offensive game to grace the National League (dripping with sarcasm).  Which is another way of saying that like so many other Cub fans I will be sitting on my hands in 2010 and waiting for next offseason when, presumably, the Ricketts family will adopt wholesale changes.    So lets piss away one year in the process because Tom Ricketts isn't yet ready to hire a qualified baseball man to lead the operation instead of Crane Kenney.    I guess when you've waited 102 years it is no big deal to wait another.  

I hate Marlon Byrd before he even steps on the field.   And I know that I'm not alone.   But alas, this post will devolve into BLou bashing and the forest shall be lost thru the trees.   At least we have Al Yellon's retrospective series on old black and white photos to appease us through the wretched 2010 season to come.  

Excerpts from the book !!!!

Rewind to the 2006-07 offseason...

Genius Jim gets into a bidding war with himself that nets the Guess Hitting Hack for the princely sum of $136 million spread over 8 years.

Rewind to the 2007-08 offseason...

Nearly the whole attention of the offseason -- with exception of extremely overpaying for Kosuke Fukudome (who produces in line with So Taguchi) -- was 24/7 pursuit of Brian Roberts.      

Rewind to the 2008-09 offseason...

The offseason was devoted to Genius Jim's attempts to clear salary in a procession of domino moves that would enable him to swing a deal for Jake Peavy and have the financial flexibility to add a left-handed hitting outfielder.    Except at the end of the day the game of musical chairs stopped and the Cubs were left with an incomplete set of moves that resulted in the loss of Mark DeRosa and netted Milton Bradley, Aaron Miles, Aaron Heilman and Kevin Gregg.    I don't know about anybody else's grading curve, but all four of those additions get an F minus.   Oh, and he dished out an insane $52 million contract for Ryan Dempster, a 4th starter type who actually had the audacity to suggest the Cubs weren't ready to play the LA Dodgers in the playoffs.    Maybe that explains why Dempster pitched like a turd in Game One.    Say Ryan, how is it that professional baseball players can't manage to have themselves "ready" for the playoffs?!?!   What kind of an indictment is that, yet Hendry still feels it his deep obligation to dish out $52 million on this guy?!?!    

Now in the 2009-10 offseason...

Genius Jim....he the benefactor of baseball's third highest payroll....is left finding dump stations for Heilman and Miles while spending the rest of his time in between donut breaks trying to sell Milton Bradley.    Oh, and his wondrous payroll management resulted in having to let Rich Harden walk.   . 

I have come to the conclusion that Milton Bradley isn't going anywhere.    In fact, I'm starting to see signs of infamous Jim Hendry spin control (e.g., Rudy Jaramillo saying nice things about Milton, Ryan Theriot doing the same).    I want Bradley gone as much as anybody, but I think Hendry is realizing he jumped the shark on this one.    First, the market for Bradley is zilch despite the proclamations to the contrary by prognosticators like Ken Rosenthal.   Second, the Cubs have screaming need for a left-handed bat to break up Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano and presumably Geovany Soto in the heart of the order.  

Hendry isn't going to eat $20 million.   And finding no suitable alternative to Bradley that is economically viable he does an about face and keeps the man.   The spin will culminate with a press conference where Milton issues a formal mea culpa standing side by side with Jim Hendry at the podium.   

You watch.   I'm wrong about a lot of things, but I don't think I'm going to be wrong on this one.     

I have to say that I am getting thoroughly depressed already over the prospects for 2010.   My goodness, Jim Hendry was granted a stay of execution by the Ricketts family and then he is dumb and arrogant to say this week the Cubs only need a handful of minor tweaks?!?!    And am I actually reading right that Cub fans are debating the wondrous virtues of signing Marlon Byrd versus Mike Cameron?!?!     So we have Cub fans who actually wholeheartily endorse Hendry having yet another bad and expensive foray into free agency for a 30 something outfielder who we will deeply regret signing two weeks into the season?!?!

I've got news for Jim Hendry...the 2009 Chicago Cubs were a flawed and downright bad baseball team in many respects.    Ah Jim, in case you haven't notice you have a current rotation of the enigmatic child Zambrano, the horrendously overpaid Dempster and Wells, a guy who came out of nowhere in 2009 and who could just as well revert back into nothingness ala Rich Hill.  

Jim, you need to find a quality starting pitcher.   And you need to find a couple of decent arms for a bullpen that you vastly overrate.    A middle infielder who isn't graduate of the Smurf Aging Journeyman Former Non-Prospect Society" would be great too.    And do you HONESTLY have faith in Geovany Soto being your number one catcher in 2010?    Center field is a black hole too.  

The Ricketts family delayed dumping your regime for one more season.   At least do them a favor and at least try this offseason.   I know you can do it, even without Sam Zell and Kenny Crane handing over a stack of blank checks.  

P.S.   Before Josh Vitters joins the long list of prospect flops during your tenure, how about you get him some intensive offseason development help with his hitting approach and fielding.  

There.   I had to get that off my chest.   I've already seen enough of Earl Friggin Bennett to last a lifetime.   And to think some Bear fans scratched their head when Bennett couldn't beat out the useless Marty Booker and Brandon LLoyd for playing time in 2008.   

It's going to be a long season.    The NFC is uniquely strong, and the Bears might be fortunate to get to 6 wins.    Cutler has awful receiver options and Urlacher is done for the season.   To go on top of a wretched defensive secondary situation.    Maybe it IS time to root for a player lockout (joking...er...maybe half joking).   

Hence why I unfortunately still feel comfortable with my rotten prediction on how this season will ultimately shake out.   I'm sorry, but the Cubs remain a deeply flawed and mess of a team.   Donuts Hendry pulled off a nice move in getting Grabow and Gorzy, but I'm still not at all sold on this lineup or this defense or this bullpen getting it's act together to pull of making the playoffs in 2009.   Even in the wretched NL Central.    But kindly prove how I am wrong about this team's ability to perform well against the good competition of the NL.   Yes, even the Florida Marlins fall into that category in the extremely watered down National League.   Cubs can't beat the friggin Marlins for crying out loud.   This weekend was illustrative of the root problems with this team.  

You are now invited to crap on the messenger as always.   Let the feeding frenzy begin.   

Last season the Cubs entered the playoffs bursting with positivity.   97 wins, great pitching, great lineup, mojo...    Then it all came crashing horribly down in three games against the Dodgers.    The pitching meltdowns, the awful defense, the ineptitude of the lineup.    We all sat there in horror as the Cub played not one...not two...but three of their absolute most awful games of the entire season.   In fact, the Cubs could not have played more poorly than they did in that Dodger series.  

Well, this season has been an extension of the 2008 playoffs.   The offense hass been awful and the bullpen a nightmare.   The only good thing has been the remarkable consistency of the starting pitching.  But teams that waste good starting pitching are doomed to failure.   An old edict of baseball is thou shalt not waste good starting pitching.   And that is precisely what the Cubs have done all season long.  

A lot of you have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this team to go on a 15-5 kind of a run.   The presumption remains that we are head and shoulders above the rest of the deeply flawed NL Central and it's only a matter of time before it all comes together.    Well, I disagree.  

The 2009 season is over.   Call me Debbie Downer all you want.    But I've been following the Cubs since 1977 and I have never disliked a Cub team or been more disappointed in a Cub team than this one.    It is very, very hard to like this current team.  

It's over.   It's been over.   This team will finish the season in the range of 79-83 wins which will translate in 3rd, 4th or 5th place.   St. Louis will win this division barring the Reds pulling off a trade for a major bat or the Brewers pulling off a deal for a Roy Halladay type.  

When ERIK FRIGGIN ESTRADA has been invited TWICE in three years to sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame then you KNOW it is way past due time to pull the friggin plug on the tribute to Harry.    Is there any "celebrity" / "actor" more obscure and irrelevant on planet Earth?!?    My friggin goodness.   What's next?   Sam the butcher from the Brady Bunch invited in the booth with Len and Bob?    

Memo to Tom Ricketts.    Pull the friggin plug.    Yesterday.       

Jim Hendry has been permitted to explode the payroll up to $136 million, or third highest in baseball and first highest in the National League.    What we have gotten for his wondrous spending spree is a .500 style ballclub that is playing more or less to that expectation level.   But for the love of God nobody sit there and pour out the excuse that the dilemma right now is that Hendry's hands are tied.    His hands weren't tied en route to spending $136 million !!!    You say a GM's hands are tied if you live in Milwaukee, Cincinnati or a whole host of baseball cities where there are legitimate restrictive financial limitations.   You DON'T pour out that sorry-ass excuse when explaining what has gone wrong with this ill-constructed roster.    It's like a long-addicted crack addict saying that they need to be allowed a couple more crack hits and then they will have the addiction thing conquered.  

Is it just me or am I the only one who gets the feeling that Rocky Wirtz, John McDonough and Scotty Bowman may be manuevering to fire Dale Tallon?    I sure hope not because count me as a big fan of Tallon.   But that said I get the definite sense that McDonough is not enamored with Tallon and has already accumulated the political capital within the organ-I-zation to push Tallon aside.    McDonough is a shrewd operator and I would not put anything past him.    But I wish he would concentrate on marketing and leave hockey operations to the qualified people within the organ-I-zation.   

Carlos Zambrano is an immature jackass.   I've resigned myself to the fact that he is never going to grow up.   While he is a true workhorse and invaluable member of the Cub pitching staff, he also is unfufilled potential year in and year out.    His latest antics today against Pittsburgh are inexcusable and embarassing for the organization.    Grow up Carlos and stop being a self-absorbed jackass.   Your act has gotten very, very tired.    If I were Lou Piniella and Larry Rothschild I'd grab you by the neck and scream until my voice was hoarse.  

I have been unabashed supporter of the addition of Milton Bradley.   Fact is this guy can flat out hit and brings a desperately needed explosive charge into that Cub lockerroom in my opinion.   But that all said I am deeply disappointed in the unfolding events of the last two weeks.  

Half-hearted jog to the right field line on those two balls golfed by Johnny Cueto was enough to send me over the edge.    But what really got my goat most of all was the at-bat where Bradley assumed Ball Four.

Newsflash Milton!   Major league umpires don't like you, and truth be told given your sordid history can you really blame them?    Shut you're blankety blank pie-hole and serve your two-game suspension.    You're hurting the ballclub with this insistence on appealing a suspension.    Open up the major league rule book.   It expressly states thou shalt not touch an umpire with one's body or any article of uniform, to include bill of one's cap.   Well Milton, you bumped the umpire.   It is right there on the videotape.  

I'm also ticked off with how Hendry and Sweet Lou have refused to handle the fact that Bradley is clearly hurt.   For crying out loud the decision should have been made when the injury happend to put Bradley on the DL.    Have you EVER heard of a ballplayer with a history of leg problems being able to recover from a groin pull within a matter of a few days?!?!?    I sure haven't.  

Shut up Milton.   Get you're act together and play the game.   And make peace with the damned umpires before they really throw you under the train.  

Driving in the car this afternoon I ran into a very interesting topic discussion on WSCR.    Apparently there is a credible baseball blog (not BCB...I don't recall the name) that has supposed insider information that says Lou Piniella shall hang up his cleats after the 2009 season.   Dan Bernstein and Terry Boers stated that the information says Piniella has grown tired of all the clubhouse drama that goes with being a manager these days.   Alfonso Soriano is noted as one example of a high maintenance situation that has made Piniella weary (Soriano is not singled out).   

Long and short of it is that Piniella has made it known to Jim Hendry that 2009 will likely be it for him in the dugout   He'll go back home to Tampa, and speculation is he will take the Steinbrenner family up on their open offer to become "senior advisor" to the Yankees.   A role that will enable him to work from his longtime home in Tampa (actually he lives in the burb of Temple Terrace and has done so for over 30 years).  

Just reporting what I heard.   Interesting that another year was tacked onto Piniella's deal after last season that goes through 2010.    Whether there is sea legs to all of this, who knows.   Sounds though that Lou is tired of all the apparent crap that goes with managing today's modern ballplayer.   And perhaps too having to deal with the insatiable 24/7 appetite of the media and fans???  

Something that I think would be fun to kick around is those things we consider "certainties" about the Cubs.   If we were to rewind to January of last year NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY, could have envisioned the following.

-   The complete disintegration of Rich Hill.   We all thought he was a cornerstone of the rotation for years to come.

-   Felix Pie not working out. 

-   The addition of Jim Edmonds of all players on the planet.

-   The horrendous second half collapse of Kosuke.

-   The total and utter collapse of the Cubs in the playoffs versus Los Angeles, where it can be argued this team played its three worst games of the season.

-   The cold business-like pink slip handed Kerry Wood.

-   The departure of Mark DeRosa.

-   The arrival of Milton Bradley of all players on the planet

===

So just for kicks and giggles what might be some of the stunning storyline developments that happen in 2009 that nobody in their right mind would predict???  

I'm going to throw this wild prediction out there to the sharks.   

Beyond inking Milton Bradley, the "other" big move that Hendry made loose reference about shall be Derrek Lee shipped off to new home.    That new home will be the San Francisco Giants, with the Cubs getting Sanchez or Lowry in return.   

But here's the kicker.   This "other" big move shall lead to another "bigger" move.   Adam Dunn shall be playing 1st base for the Cubs in 2009.  

Seems to me that Boston owner John Henry has called Scott Boras' bluff and told him to pound sand.   So  if the Red Sox really are out of the bidding for Mark Texiera does that mean he goes home to the Baltimore Orioles, the team he grew up rooting for?    Or does Arte Moreno and the Angels swoop in and bring Texiera back to Los Angeles, even though he has stated he really wants to go back to the northeast?  

Also, does this mean Adam Dunn stops waiting and takes the big deal on the table from Washington?  

Interesting.   Personally I would like nothing more than for Scott Boras to FINALLY get his comeuppance.   Every time I think it is about to happen he gets the last laugh.   Remember last year when it looked like he overplayed his hand with A-Rod, only for A-Rod to go back to the Yankees for an unbelievable 10 year deal?