In the wake of the Mark Buehrle fiasco, Cubs GM Jim Hendry really should consider making all the trades with White Sox GM Kenny Williams that he can. Williams showed, one again, that he has problems making difficult decisions.

You know that the silly season is upon us when you start seeing fans proposing all sorts of preposterous trades. Typically, these ideas consist of their favorite team giving up very little and get in return an awful lot.

One recent example of a silly season trade idea comes from the pen of none other than veteran Cubs blogger Al Yellon
over at Bleed Cubbie Blue:

One thing that has been consistent of the Cubs during the Hendry years is the Cubs near total failure to pick up talent from the independent leagues. This has been a factor in the decline of the Cubs under the Hendry regime.

One pitcher who has done well at the independent league level is Jonathan Krysa, the 2006 Northern League Pitcher of the Year who will soon be starting his 5th consecutive year with the Kansas City T-Bones . In 2006, Krysa finished first in wins (13) second in strikeouts (129) and innings pitched (161.1).

http://mvn.com/mlb-cubs/2007/03/21/cedeno-makes-teami-jump-off-a-cliff/

Earlier this month, The Cub Reporter's Rob G. stated, in a headline, that if Ronny Cedeno made the Cubs team, then Rob G. would "jump off a cliff." The implication was that Cedeno was not deserving of a roster spot and that by adding Cedeno to the team, then the Cubs were worsening their chances for success in 2007. Well, according to The Score AM 670, Cedeno has been added to the Cubs roster and Felix Pie has been sent down, yet again, to AAA. Will Rob G. keep his word?

In any event, let's check out young Cedeno's ST stats at:

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/stats/sortable_player_stats.jsp?c_id=chc

After too long of an absence, I'm back to active Cubs-Blogging. Then again, according to this link http://www.cubsnet.com/node/77 , I'm still an active CubsNet.com blogger despite not blogging since August 30th of last year.

Hopefully, the huge sums spent on this year's team will prove to be well spent instead of just wasted.

Dan Bernstein of WSCR AM 670 has gone on a limb in recent days saying that he has been told by a "source close to Jim Hendry" that Baker will be fired on Thursday on the eve of a series with Baker's old team, the SF Giants.

Bernstein is an old enemy of Baker's and has claimed in the past that Baker has made Hendry a scapegoat, that Baker has engaged in "race-baiting," that Baker invented the idea that he was getting racist hate mail and that it was a long time Baker buddy who wrote the hate mail story. All these claims have been just plain assertions by Bernstein without any evidence to back them up. So, this could be just another claim of Bernstein's.

Then again, due to the poor showing on the recent road trip, perhaps there could be some real merit to the idea. Just who would be willing to be an interim manager under these circumstances is unclear.

The Cubs always seem to have worse injury/medical problems than other teams. This year, the situation seems worse than normal. In addition to Derrek Lee, the likes of Freddie Bynum and Sean Marshall are still down for the count. Wade Miller still has not joined the main squad at Wrigley despite all the pre-season hype about how he was going to be a valued member of the pitching staff.

After this season ends, not only does there need to be a revamping of the coaching staff, but the medical staff needs attention as well.

Ever since he secured his release from the Cubs farm system, Adam Greenberg has been tearing things up in the Dodgers system as a member of the Jacksonville Suns of the AA Southern League. As his statistics show Chicago's loss is Los Angeles's gain.

Recently, in the Jason Grimsley case, the Fed. Govt. made public court documents with names of baseball personnel blocked out. However, there has been rampant speculation about just who these folks are. There have been websites naming names. Here is one example. This place shows what is alleged to be a page from the actual court documents that names D. Lee of the Cubs in addition to other baseball luminaries as Derek Jeter, Brad Lidge, Albert Pujols, Jim Thome as well as former KC Royals Manager Tony Pena. The latter is significant since the Deadspin website had earlier named not only Albert Pujols but former KC Royals General Manager Allard Baird and former KC Royals Strength & Conditioning Coach Chris Mihfeld as well as Sammy Sosa as being complicit in the steroids/HGH racket. Compare the above page with the relevant blanked page from The Smoking Gun.

Source:

West Tenn 6, Birmingham 4:

Tonight, Mark Prior scored his first win this year at the AA level, but it was not a pretty sight. Prior gave up 3 earned runs on 5 hits and 2 walks while registering 4 strikeouts in 5 innings. In terms of ERA, that translates to 5.40 or what Glendon Rusch probably would have done if he started the game.

Basically, it looks like Prior is going to have to stay in the minors a bit longer than expected. With the troubles of Wood & Rusch and the suddenly anemic hitting, it looks even less likely that the team will be at the .500 mark come the All-Star Break.

Source.

Bad News: Mark Prior lost his 2nd start and now has a 2006 Midwest League record of 0-2.

Good News: This time around, Prior lasted 5 full innings and gave up only 3 hits and 0 walks resulting in only 1 ER. Prior also recorded 5 strikeouts.

Source:

Cubs.com News

The Cubs have just traded Jerry Hairston, Jr., aka One Of Dusty Baker's Least Favorite Players, to the Texas Rangers for Phil Nevin. Nevin is currently batting .216/.307/.415 with 9 HR & 31 RBI.

In yesterday's game aka meltdown, the total number of pitches thrown by Atlanta's guys was 129 while Carlos Zambrano threw 124 all by himself. Add in the 60 pitches made by other Cub hurlers, the Cubs total is 184. This is not good since too many pitches could lead to bullpen burnout. Zambrano himself could wind up injured if he continues to throw that many pitches.

It is also an indictment of the idiotic position on walks taken by the Cubs organization in that Atlanta pitchers only gave up 1 walk (an intentional walk no less) as compared to 9 given up by the Cubs. Of these, 2 were given up by Dempster in the 9th Inning alone.

The Cubs outhit the Braves 12-5, but the Braves walk superiority enabled them to score more runs than they had hits. This flies in the face of long-established Cubs orthodoxy on walks being a bad thing. Dusty Baker is only the most outspoken manager on the subject. Unless the Cubs adopt patience over aggressiveness aka swinging at the first pitch and the like, this season could wind up with the Cubs in last place.

Cubs Team President Andy MacPhail was on WGN AM 720 Last Night and he basically did what he always did: told Cub fans to don't worry and be happy.

Here's a bulleted summary of what MacPhail said with comments by this writer in bold:

MacPhail: "It was a bad week."

Seems more like a bad month with yet more ickiness on the way with the fact that of the next 42 games, 39 are against teams with records of .500 and higher.

MacPhail would not answer any questions about Baker. Said that it was up to GM Hendry. Said that Hendry has no intentions of firing Baker at this point in time.

Said that the Cubs need to do better in driving runs in from 3B.

Said that the Cubs understand the need for patience and are trying to teach Murton that.

Why only Murton? Why not the other hackers? Is Murton a scapegoat here?

Steve Stone was on WSCR earlier today and observed that while the Cubs are spending $95 Mil. on payroll this year, the St. Louis Cardinals are only spending $78 Mil. Stone further pointed out that the Cubs the past few years have consistently outspent the Cardinals, yet the Cardinals have just as consistently outpaced the Cubs in the Wins column.

Stone also pointed out that despite this, the big shots at the Tribune Corp. seem mighty satisfied with how they have run things with the Cubs so much so that everyone in team mgmt. & coaching staff who want to stay on has already been re-upped or is in the process of being re-upped.