One week ago the Cubs were 13-13, coming off of a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks and looked to be back on track to get the most out of their team this season.

All was well in Wrigleyville.

Fast-forward to present day and the Cubs are 14-20 and coming off of being swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates (14-19) and about to suffer the same fate against the Florida Marlins (16-17) pending tomorrow’s matinee as the Cubs try to stop their four game slide.

So one big question continues to pop up in my mind, as I always love to play the blame game. That question is… Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry for the three-day delay with posts, there is just very little going on. With that in mind, I will try to squeeze out whatever stories are happening and give you some updates on the Cubs.

Here are a few stories that have happened over the past few days.

Aramis Ramirez returns to the diamond

Ramirez has missed some time this spring because of a sore right tricep, but he returned on Tuesday against the Royals as a DH and went 2-3 with an RBI. He hasn’t played since March 13th, but he looked like he hadn’t missed any time in his three at bats. Read the rest of this entry »

The Cubs outfield has been extremely expensive over the past couple of years, and they have failed to get their money’s worth, as they sign free agent after free agent to big contracts without much, if any, improvement.

Although getting rid of Milton Bradley was a great move and took money off the payroll, the Cubs still have a lot of money tied up in two out of the three outfield spots, and they need to start seeing some production from those corner outfielders.

They did make a move to bring in a centerfielder coming off of a career year, and they will need him to produce if they want to be competitive. But he isn’t the only guy that they have their hopes high on, with another free agent outfielder who will back up two out of the three outfield spots and battle for playing time.

Here is a look at the outfield:

LF: Alfonso Soriano
CF: Marlon Byrd
RF: Kosuke Fukudome Read the rest of this entry »

The Cubs were pretty quite this past off-season. They didn’t make too many moves, and the ones that they did make were more to sure up the bench rather than to provide a punch to the lineup.

They were, however, able to get rid of last season’s big mistake. Milton Bradley will be ruining the Seattle Mariners this season, after his work of art in Chicago.

However, if you ask Bradley, it was Chicago that ruined him, not the other way around, just ask the wordsmith known as Milton.

“Two years ago, I played, and I was good. I go to Chicago, not good.”

So lets see if Bradley returns to “good” this season, it should be interesting.

However, the Cubs didn’t just get rid of Bradley, they also found a couple of players who will come in and be pivotal to helping the Cubs try to get back to the top of the NL Central. Read the rest of this entry »

A little over half way to the end of the season, the Cubs have finally jumped past the St. Louis Cardinals and stole the division lead.

Before the All-Star Break, the Cubs split a four-game series with the Cards. Since the break, however, the Cubs are 8-2. The Cardinals are 4-6 since the break, including losing two of three against the Phillies in their most recent series.

The Cards now go from facing the defending champions to facing this season’s best team, the L.A Dodgers, in a four-game series. The Cubs face the Astros, and have a chance to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the division. Read the rest of this entry »

Alfonso Soriano has been horrible as of late, bad enough for there to be rumblings of him being benched for a couple games.

His batting average over the past five games has been a measly .095, and he hasn’t gotten a hit in his last 15 at bats.

However, today, he went 2-5 with one gigantic RBI.

The Cubs started the day locked in an outstanding pitching duel between ace Carlos Zambrano going up against White Sox stud Gavin Floyd. Read the rest of this entry »

It was a big night for the Cubs’ Mike Fontenot, who was celebrating his 29th birthday in style.

Fontenot went 4-5 with two runs, one RBI and a home run.  Not a bad night for the birthday boy.

But Fontenot’s night was just a footnote on a night when the Cubs were finally able to break out of the funk that they have been in all season and pull out a 7-1 win over the down-trodden Astros.

The Cubs were finally able to capitalize on a strong pitching performance, giving Ted Lilly plenty of room to sit back and pitch without pressure, and he responded well to the run support.

Lilly allowed just three hits, two walks and no runs over six and 2/3 innings.  Lilly’s strong performance was yet another quality start for one of the most consistent pitchers in the Cubs starting lineup. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Easter, and the Cubs will be playing in about an hour in the rubber match against the Brew Crew.

Fresh off of a Blackhawks shutout over the Detroit Red Wings (I had to watch hockey today with my family) the Cubs will try to add another win for Chicago tonight.

I have been pretty dormant lately and I figured I could offer a few thoughts on the Cubs through the first five games of the season.

We are only 3-2 and the start has not been that impressive

Sure, we could easily be 4-1, but that will be talked about a little later. This Cubs team can look amazing (see the eight run first two innings against the Astros) but they haven’t been able to put together a full game yet.

I am a little scared that we haven’t been able to pull together a dominant performance even with the stout pitching and amazing hitting we have on paper.

Milton Bradley may only have one hit, but he has been impressive

If you look at Bradley’s raw hitting, it isn’t too impressive, but when you take into account each time he has walked to the plate, he still almost always finds a way to get get on base.

Despite being one for 16 at the plate, Bradley has an OBP of .318 thanks to five walks and a hit by pitch. He also has scored three runs thus far this season.

Oh, by the way, his one and only hit was a solo home run.

Besides Lilly, the starting pitching has been fantastic

Cubs starters continue to put up quality start after quality start thus far this season.

Carlos Zambrano has started two games this season, pitching 12 inning, allowing four runs, for a 3.00 ERA. Ryan Dempster’s last outing was strong, with six innings pitched and just two runs scored, he had a very successful showing in his season debut.

Rich Harden was lights out in his debut, allowing just one earned run on three hits in six innings.  Harden even struck out a ton, as usual, fanning 10 in an impressive start.

The only bad outing has been thrown by Ted Lilly, who was backed up by 11 Cubs runs, allowing him to avoid the L despite allowing five runs in five innings.

Kevin Gregg scares me as the closer

Listen, he had a great Spring Training, and I am trying to take nothing away from his ability, I just don’t trust him to hold down the fort in the ninth inning.

He has already blown one save this season as the Brewers were able to tear him apart in the ninth inning two nights ago, and the fact that he led the majors in blown saves last year is a big red flag.

I think that Sweet Lou should start throwing Carlos Marmol in the ninth and moving Gregg into the eight inning, everything would probably go a lot smoother and everybody would pitch better under those circumstances.

Kosuke Fukudome anybody?

The man was looked at as a possible major liability to this team, with a monster contract and seemingly not enough talent, the Asian Sensation was seemingly done in the MLB.

Then, something crazy happened, he had a great spring. Then, unlike Gregg above, he brought that momentum into the regular season.

Fukudome is batting over .400 with two home runs, three RBI’s, and one stolen base. More good news for Fukudome, Piniella just announced that he will no longer be lifting the surprise player for defensive purposes.

-Joe Willett

We Cubs fans often think of ourselves as the best baseball fans in the world, and with good reason.

We stay loyal to our team, despite going 100 years without obtaining the holy grail.

But in recent years, Cubs fans have become much more impatient. The tease of 2003, and the 97 victories last season, have left us salivating like Pavlov’s dog for more.

The fact that we’re 0 for our last nine in postseason play isn’t helping to calm our nerves one bit.

We’ve seen this impatience demonstrated in many different ways. Through talk radio, certainly, but more demonstratively at Wrigley Field, where we’ve booed the likes of Carlos Zambrano for his meltdowns and Derrek Lee for grounding all those double plays.

And it’s with this thought in mind that I ask you, the Cubs fans: Which player will be public enemy No. 1 in 2009?

My money is on Kosuke Fukudome.

We need to see an immediate and noticeable turnaround, or the masses will be vocal in clamoring for the hard working Reed Johnson in center field.

But a close second on the enemy list could be Lee. While still a good hitter for average, and a fine defensive first baseman, we’ve not seen evidence of the power that earned him his $13 million per year.

In 2005, Lee hit 46 home runs in 594 at-bats. Since then, he’s hit 50 homers in 1,365 at-bats.

And his frustrating inability to produce hits when they mean something is part of the problem.

I don’t know about you, but if I see one more double play from Lee in the first couple games of the season, I will scream.

And please don’t bore me with how well he hit in the playoffs. I know he hit three doubles and batted .545, but it was the quietest .545 I’ve ever seen.

He made no impact when it counted. Zero runs batted in.

But back to Fukudome for a minute.

After a hot start last year, which resulted in a starting spot in the All-Star game, to say he cooled off after that would be an understatement.

The pricey Japanese import hit only .217 following the break. And he looked foolish in doing so.

His swings made us cringe. He lunged at the outside fastball, which resulted in such an awkward and off-balanced follow-through, it became a joke.

But the joke is on general manager Jim Hendry. He still owes Kukudome $38 million over the next three years. That is why the Cubs are giving him a second chance to show that he is lineup-worthy, platooning him with Reed Johnson to start the season.

But since Fukudome bats left-handed, he will see the majority of the action while Johnson, a fan favorite and solid hitter, will be spending more time on the bench than a sitting judge.

And that won’t sit well with impatient Cubs fans.

Of course, another Cubs player with a target on his back could be Alfonso Soriano. Many fans would already rather see Ryan Theroit or Mike Fontenot bat leadoff, so there’s one strike against Soriano.

His silly little bunny hop is another strike, especially when he drops a fly ball.

The third strike is that, because of injuries and his lack of discipline at the plate, he just doesn’t produce like you expect from a guy making $18 million a year.

We all remember his pathetic performance against the Dodgers last October.

So, while we love our Cubbies—unlike the White Sox “faithful,” who only come out to the ballpark if their team is winning—our tolerance has been tested in recent years.

The confines of Wrigley Field may not be so friendly this year if we don’t get off to a hot start and certain guys don’t perform well.

Here’s hoping for the best for Fukudome and Lee. But if they falter again, hide the children.

They just shouldn’t hear that kind of language, come to think of it.

-Bob Warja

Just about a day away from pitchers and catchers reporting, it’s time to start looking at the Chicago Cubs and what they are going to be doing next season.

However, to move forward, you have to look backwards as well. The Cubs have had yet another busy offseason as they try to finally avoid a first round sweep (last year by the hand of the Dodgers, you gotta hate Manny being Manny).

First lets start with some of the moves that I disagree with. Just to get this out in the open and out of the way, I have to disagree with Jim Hendry on these few moves.

Letting Kerry Wood go was a big mistake in my opinion. The move hurts the Cubs bullpen which was finally getting strong. They could have kept the shutdown rotation of Jeff Samardzija, Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood, along with another reliever who will be talked about in a better section.

I just hate losing Mark DeRosa this offseason. He was a great player who everybody loved. The middle of DeRosa and Ryan Theriot just made every Cubs fan warm and fuzzy inside, although I don’t hate his replacement, I still love the player.

Now that we got that out of the way, time to look at some of the better moves to help pump up the 2009 Chicago Cubs.

Re-signing Ryan Dempster was ginormous (the only word I can use to describe his impact) in keeping the Cubs a World Series-caliber team. He creates a triple threat almost unrivaled, and he gave them a great third starter without having to give up everything but the kitchen sink (sorry Jake Peavy…I know you’re reading this).

Another pitching move to help the team is the addition of Kevin Gregg. He is going to allow the Cubs to move Carlos Marmol into the closer spot while keeping a good reliever to help as a set-up man. This still allows the Cubs to be set by the seventh inning.

Making up for the loss of Mark DeRosa, Aaron Miles will be a pivotal part in helping the Cubs offensively this season. He is a guy that can get on base consistently, as shown by his .317 batting average last season, higher than any player last season for the Cubs.

Now it’s time to get to the big signing of the offseason. Two years ago it was Alfonso Soriano. Last year it was Kosuke Fukudome. This year it’s Milton Bradley.

Bradley is going to have to keep his temper in check, which is the same for a lot of major parts of the Cubs team this season (I’m looking at you Carlos Zambrano and Lou Piniella). With all of these moving parts, the Cubs could implode at any point in time this season.

However, we could just as easily make it all work and have a dream season. Who knows, if the Red Sox can do it, so can the Cubs…right?

But anyway, the 2009 Chicago Cubs are looking to become the first team to pull it all together. Nobody likes waiting 101 years for a championship, but these new parts could be ready to pull it all together.

At least, lets hope so, I don’t want to jinx anything this early.

Be ready for the new Daily Cub, and hopefully, be ready for the new Chicago Cubs.

Pitchers and catchers report Friday, and I know that we are all excited, are you ready for some baseball?

-Joe Willett