Wait 'til Next Year

Chicago Cubs fans, time to say our favorite slogan, "Wait 'til next year".

From this 2009 season standpoint, it would take a miracle for Chicago Cubs to enter the postseason.

With 5 weeks remaining in the regular season, the NL Central favorite have found themselves in a deep hole, falling 8 games behind St. Louis Cardinals in NL Central race. To make things even worst for them is that they fell 7.5 games behind Colorado Rockies in their wildcard chase. Injuries have been the main issue for this season, including their pitching staff ace, Carlos Zambrano miss almost 3 weeks. Top clutch hitter in Aramis Ramirez dislocated his left shoulder and has not regain his power stroke since his return from the DL. Cubs also missed Ryan Dempster and Ted Lilly, two of the most dominating pitchers in NL if healthy. Regular catcher Geovany Soto missed a huge amount of playing time due to injury including outfielder Milton Bradley. Reed Johnson, the versatile outfielder who has been contributing nicely before fracturing his foot, hasn't returned and Aaron Miles, the said replacement of a productive Mark DeRosa during the off-season, also had several stint in the DL and has been disappointment for the entire season. It's like the entire roster of Cubs have suffered injuries and have been struggling to stay healthy for the course of the season.

Despite having those injuries, several key players from their farm system have stepped up nicely. We saw Kevin Hart and Randy Wells pitched very well in the absence of Dempster and Lilly. Eventually, Hart was traded to Pittsburgh for Tom Gorzellany and John Grabow. We saw the emergence of Jake Fox and Micah Hoffpauir as hitters when Ramirez went down and Angel Guzman has developed into one of the reliable pitchers in Cubs bullpen after 3 years of injuries.

But the story of the season for Cubs is their lack of potent offense. Tabbed as the team to beat this offseason due to its potent offensive firepower, this has no where to be seen. Where is last year's rookie of the year Geovany Soto. You see his production, 9 HRs and 29 RBIs, batting .217 compared to his stellar rookie season with 23 HRs and 86 RBIs and batting .285. How about the overpriced Alfonso Soriano, who is being given ample time to rest due to his "soreness in left knee". Soriano has been missing the entire season, batting just .240 with 19HRs and 52RBIs. Milton Bradley, whom the Cubs tabbed to add to their potent offense, has been a big bust for them. Given a 30M contract for 3 years, is batting just .250 with 9 HRs and 34RBIs and has been outplayed by the rookie Jake Fox. Pitching in late games has been the culprit as closer Kevin Gregg just lost his job after blowing 3 of 4 save opportunities. Aaron Heilman has been ineffective the entire season, just like the way he did last year with the NY Mets.

This season has been a disappointment. Their lineup in the paper looks very solid but when it comes to the field, they simply sucked. They traded Mark DeRosa to Cleveland, hoping that the guy would not haunt them in their pennant race. But their arch-rivals made a trade for him, knowing that this guy can contribute and now, he's haunting his former team. Jason Marquis, the pitcher who was subject of criticism last year, is having the last laugh after he is leading the Wild-Card leading Colorado Rockies in wins with 14. Look at the pitching staff of Cubs, do they have a 14 game winner? The only good thing they did this season is they traded the inefficient Felix Pie and Rich Hill to Baltimore.

It's time to look at next season. 2009 season has been a disastrous season, which exposes all Jim Hendry's decision as busts. From Milton Bradley to Aaron Miles to Aaron Heilman and Kevin Gregg. It's been a weird speculation on why does the guy overhauled his bullpen when the team won 97 games last year? Bob Howry,Kerry Wood, Scott Eyre were not retained in favor of collapse-king Aaron Heilman and opponents's favorite pitcher in closing games in Kevin Gregg. Replacing Mark DeRosa for Aaron Miles has been the most ridiculous thing that a GM would ever do. Not only that, giving the second base job to Mike Fontenot, who in reality must stay in Minor League and never should have been called up.

So, to end this blog. I've made a list of accolades for the Cubs. As a Cub fan, all i have to say is "Wait 'til next year".

MVP- Derrek Lee
CY Young - Randy Wells
Biggest Bust- Milton Bradley
Most Improved - Jake Fox
Disappointment One- Alfonso Soriano
Worst Pitcher- Aaron Heilman / Kevin Gregg
Worst Hitter- Mike Fontenot / Aaron Miles
Trading Block- Carlos Zambrano / Aaron Heilman / Kevin Gregg / Milton Bradley
Needs to be in Minor- Mike Fontenot / Geovany Soto