Friday, April 23, 2010

One month...yes...one more month...or else!

I honestly didn't think the Cubs would win last night.

They didn't. Well...considering how poorly they are playing, I guess that wasn't much of a stretch.

Tom Gorzelanny pitched wonderfully. Unfortunately for the Cubs, so did Johan Santana.

The Cubs did have plenty of base runners, but were unable to drive anyone in.

Look, when you have your #5 starter going up against the other team's ace pitcher, well, you are probably going to lose. The sad thing is, we had a number of opportunities to win this game....well, until the bullpen came in.

Marlon Byrd had a good night. Theriot got on twice. In the end, all the hits were so scattered that it resulted in basically no offense, again.

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Jason Stark of ESPN posted his weekly rumblings and grumblings article this week where he takes a look at a number of the teams that are far exceeding or falling well short of expectations. The Cubs were included in that list. For each of these teams he basically says whether he (and other ESPN experts) think that the starts for these teams are either illusions or reality.

Well, he says that this poor start for the Cubs is unfortunately a reality.

Yep, three weeks into the season.

I'm not throwing in the towel...but the SABR geeks are looking more and more correct about this team...they are not a contender.

So right now I'm going out and saying that they really have one month to show some spark...to start playing like I thought they could. And in one months time, if this team is still significantly under .500, then I will call for the team to be blown up and a rebuilding process to begin.

Look, this core of players, Lee, Ramirez, Zambrano, Dempster, and later on Soriano and Fukudome, have had plenty of time to try to accomplish something. This is the seventh year since the 2003 season, and 4 of the previous 6, these guys fell short of expectations, and on of those years, 2007, was more of a fluke than anything else.

This is a team of underachievers. It might be time to disband it and start over...as painful as that seems.

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The Cubs go to Wrigley North tonight to play the Brewers...I'll do the preview at lunch time.