Since being called up on May 8, Ryan Theriot has been with the big league club for 6 games and has seen 2 plate appearances. Dusty Baker appears to not have a plan for utilizing Theriot. Or, rather, Baker does have a plan and that plan is to not utilize him. This is not the first time during the Jim Hendry / Dusty Baker era that the Cubs have called up a young player without a plan to incorporate him into the team and thus have had him do little more than sit on the bench for awhile before sending him back down. A review:

On June 7, 2003, Hee Seop Choi suffered a concussion and went on the disabled list after colliding with Kerry Wood on an infield popup. The Cubs called up David Kelton to replace Choi on the big league roster. They had Eric Karros to man first base, so they were set there. But the Cubs were struggling to find a third baseman that year, with Mark Bellhorn, Lenny Harris, and Ramon Martinez all providing poor offense. Kelton was a corner infielder at the time (though had just started playing some outfield), but was struggling in the field at third base, so it was understandable that Baker did not start him at third. But the Cubs had six games coming up in American League parks beginning June 10. Outside of Troy O'Leary, who was in the middle of a disappointing year (his last), with Choi on the DL and Karros at first, the Cubs did not have a good DH option. Except for Kelton, who was hitting .299/.382/.465 at Iowa that year. The Cubs indicated that Kelton would, indeed, play. Instead, Kelton ended up starting just two of the six games (in LF, with Moises Alou the DH). Kelton went 2-for-7 with a double in those two starts. He was then sent back to Iowa before the June 15 game, the final game in Toronto. Shawn Estes was starting that day, and the Cubs called up reliever Francis Beltran in the event Estes got blown out again.

On June 16, 2003, the Cubs called up Bobby Hill to take the place of reliever Francis Beltran (only in town for one day). Mark Grudzielanek had beat Hill out for the second base job in spring training (mostly because Hill stunk that spring), and was having a good season, so Hill was not called up to play second. The only reason to call him up instead of playing him everyday at Iowa would be to enter him into what had been a disastrous third base mix. Instead, it appeared that Hendry and Baker didn't even talk about Hill. In the June 19 Chicago Tribune, Baker was quoted as saying, "He hasn't played enough third for us to feel comfortable. Plus, Ramon [Martinez] is playing third [Thursday] and Ramon has done a good job. You just don't force guys in the lineup because of whatever their name is." Hill was sent back down on June 26, having been with the team for ten games and having seen the batter's box five times.

On April 10, 2005, Todd Walker suffered a partially torn MCL and the Cubs called up Mike Fontenot to replace him. Jerry Hairston would take over as the starting second baseman, but Fontenot presented a backup with a history of a good OBA. However, in 11 games on the big league roster before being sent back down on April 23, Fontenot had just three plate appearances. Fontentot was called back up on May 13 and had 1 more plate appearance over six games before being sent down again.

On April 21, 2005, the Cubs called up Ronny Cedeno after Nomar Garciaparra's groin injury. Cedeno was with the team for a month, but started just three games, and had just 16 at-bats. He was sent back down when the Cubs signed Enrique Wilson to sit on the bench.

On April 21, 2006, the Cubs promoted Michael Restovich to take Derrek Lee's place on the roster. Restovich, as righthanded corner outfielder with a little bit of pop, at least gave Baker a platoon partner for Jacque Jones. But we knew that wasn't going to happen when the Brewers started back-to-back lefties on April 29 and 30, and Restovich was on the bench to begin both games. Restovich is hitting .339/.403/.589 at Iowa this season.

And now Theriot. Theriot is not good enough to make much of a difference for the Cubs and his likely future is as, at best, a 25th man. But the Cubs already have 25th man caliber players on the roster in Freddy Bynum and Neifi Perez. Theriot is unlikely to do any worse as a part-time option at second base. Instead, he sits, not given a chance to offer a little life to a team that has lost 11 of 12.