It's June 14th, and the time for saying "it's still early" has come and gone. The Cubs need to decide now, not in a few weeks, whether or not they are going to try to win the NL Central or the Wild Card. For now, I'll try to be optimistic and say that the Cubs still have a chance to win the division as they had the same record in 2007 at this point (although the 2007 team was more talented, in my opinion).

That being said, I believe that they need to make the following moves, and run with the following line-up for the most part if they are serious about being contenders:

1. Promote Ryne Sandberg to take over as manager of the Cubs. Alan Trammell could stay on as the bench coach. If Sandberg does a good job, he could stay on next year and choose his own bench coach if need be.

2. Remove Randy Wells from the starting rotation and replace him with Tom Gorzellany. Gorzellany has not earned the horrible treatment that he has received this year. If Wells has any options left, demote him to AAA to work on things and bring up either Jay Jackson or Thomas Diamond to take his place in the rotation. If he doesn't have any options left, make him the mop-up man.

3. DFA John Grabow. He already has a 6.75ERA in AAA while on his "rehab" outings. It's not going to work.

4. Attempt to work out a three way trade involving Kosuke Fukudome, Mike Lowell, and a third team (such as the Rangers). If we need to include cash go ahead and do it, but insist on better prospects.

5. Allow Tyler Colvin to play every single day, with an off day here and there. Plug him in the three hole with Byrd hitting behind him and leave him alone.

6. Trade Xavier Nady and one of Jeff Baker or Chad Tracy in an attempt to get someone serviceable in the bullpen that we can control for a few years.

7. When Ramirez says he's ready to come back, send him to AAA to rehab for a while and get his swing back. If he continues to hit .160, he shouldn't play no matter how much he makes.  If he comes back from his injury and is his old self, then great.

8. Let Fontenot play 3B every day until Ramirez comes back (and longer if necessary, see #7). Why one of our team's best hitters is sitting on the bench every day (and rarely pinch hitting besides that) is beyond me and most real Cubs fans I'm sure.  Let him lead off as well.

9. Work out a trade to get Jake Fox back (now that he's been DFA by the A's). If Ramirez doesn't hit, let Fox play 3B. In the least, we can actually have some power off the bench instead of what we have now along with a guy who can play multiple positions (including catcher, if we need offense there).

10. Offer Ted Lilly a two year extension (2011-2012) with a mutual option (2013).

I would play this line-up: Fontenot 3B, Theriot 2B, Colvin RF, Byrd CF, Soriano LF, Lee 1B, Soto/Hill C, Castro SS.  

I believe that just sitting on our hands will not make things any better. Like I said above, it's time to do something to try and rescue what is left of this season before it's too late. 

If we're going to give up, we need to get as much as we can in trades for Lilly, Fukudome, Lee, Tracy, Nady, Baker, and others and bring up some of the kids to see what they can do for the remainder of the season.  I'm sure that Cubs fans would rather watch our future play than what is on TV every day right now.

As many of you already know, the next Cubs Convention is scheduled for this January 15-17, 2010.  I wrote about this once before, but does anyone have any inside information into who might be there this year as a special guest, or if there are going to be any special events planned for the participants?  I thought there might be, since it's the 25th Anniversary.  I haven't heard anything and was not sure if it was worth going or not.  From what I heard there are still rooms available at the Hilton (unlike in previous years, go figure).

As everyone knows, the 25th Annual Cubs Convention is scheduled for this coming January 15-17, 2010.  I was wondering, does anyone know of anything special that is being planned or that is in the works, such as extra special guests or events?  I have my passes already but I'm curious to know something before they post the usual list of participants in early January.

That being said, I'd like to see them bring someone like Mark Grace to the event one year, and the 25th Annual event would be the perfect time to do so.  Unfortunately, since he's associated with the D-Backs he'll probably be unable to come.

On a side note, I'd also like to see them monitor the autograph/photo lines better.  Last year I watched people constantly cutting in lines in front of people who had waited for hours.  These people usually had bags of balls that they are just going to get signed so that they can sell them on EBAY.  It'd be nice if they actually kept the cutting to a minimum for once, on behalf of the real fans who are there.

Can anyone else think of any events, attractions, or special guests that you'd like to see at the Convention this year (try to keep them serious please)?

 

It was reported today that Rich Hill is now a free agent.  I think that he has enormous potential and is worth at least a minor league deal with an invite to spring training.  If he gets his back situation fixed, he could fill a spot nicely in the rotation. 

I'm guessing that a lot of teams will go after him, with the potential that he has shown in the past.  I'd hate to see the Cardinals get him and then watch Dave Duncan turn him into a 15-18 game winner.

Just think about the following quote from Michael Barrett about Hill which I found on Wikipedia.org:

[Hill's] curveball is so electric that the first couple of times I caught him, I had a tendency to come up on the curve because it bites so much. You just don't see a left-handed curveball like that anymore. When he's good, it doesn't hang, and it's nearly unhittable."

It's worth a shot.  The guy has excellent stuff when healthy, and I think it will just take some work to get him straightened out.