logo

We're the Team to Beat Latest Posts

Back from the Break: Spying on the Cubs

Written by Mike Mariano | 16 July 2010

First series after the break:  Chicago Cubs.  Instead of our usual Phillies perspective, let's take a glance in at how the enemy is doing:

Justin Bridgman, writer for Talking Chicago Baseball -- a fantastic writer for a great blog.  Needless to say we were excited to get his insider info.  And what better way to get over our own struggles then to talk to Cubs fans!

WTTTB: I'm a long time Lou Pinella guy, think he's still worth keeping around despite the losing or is time to part ways?
JUSTIN: I love Lou, he's become sort of a caricature at this point though. A lot of people wanted him fired about a month ago, but I never minded keeping him the rest of this season. Sure he just sits there and thinks about when he can leave and start drinking, but nobody else could get this team to do any better.

At the end of the season Lou will leave and go drink himself silly in Tampa. For now he seems to be good enough about limiting his pitchers pitch counts that he can stay for the rest of the year and not destroy anyone's arm.

WTTTB: I keep reading about the "disappointment" Cubs, is that how you see it or did you see this amount of struggling coming?
JUSTIN: On one or two individual players I'm disappointed, as a team I could see it coming. The best case scenario at the start of the season was the Cubs all over performing and being within a game or two of St. Louis. When Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Zambrano started to be bad at baseball that went out the window. It's a shame too because they've gotten some real nice performances from some unexpected places.

WTTTB: Almost 10 games out, Is there any hope for the Cubs at the deadline or is it sell time?  If so, who do you think gets moved?
JUSTIN: It's over. The fire sale will start as soon as Jim Hendry can drug some other GMs and start moving all the bad contracts. Ted Lilly will be moved for sure, probably to the Mets or Twins. Derrek Lee could be traded if the Angels want him. 

Hendry will probably listen to all offers for Carlos Zambrano, Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Theriot, and Kosuke Fukudome. Any team that trades for one of those players, good luck with that. Unless of course you get Hendry to eat most of Soriano's money, then he might give you another year or two of good production. 
WTTTB: F*** one, Marry one, Kill one: Geovany Soto, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano?  [you can skip this if you'd like]
JUSTIN: This could get awkward, I'll try to justify it in baseball terms. 
F*** Soriano because he still looks okay now, but you know pretty soon it's going to be bad again.
Marry Soto because it looks like he will be pretty good for quite some time.
Kill Zambrano, simply because a repeat of the Milton Bradley offseason cannot be good for my mental health.

Of course the Cubs front office would marry Soriano (4.5 more seasons!), kill Soto (we have Koyie Hill!), and F*** (over) Zambrano 

WTTTB: What do you/will you possibly tell your kids when they realize that they're going to grow up miserable as Cubs fans?  (Before 2008, I had considered explaining to future Philly fans myself..)
JUSTIN: This is a tough one. I don't think I'll intentionally raise my kids as Cubs fans. My Dad is a Yankees fan, we moved to Chicago when I was young and Sammy Sosa was full of steroids. I can simply tell them that I'm an idiot that in some twisted way enjoys watching a complete train wreck of a baseball organization continually make mindblowingly stupid decisions. 

I adopted the Texas Rangers in April as my team that makes it baseball fun to watch. Maybe I'll make my kids Rangers fans. 

More from We're the Team to Beat