Face It, This Baseball Team Needs To Be Broken Up

The last thing I thought I'd be doing is sitting at the computer on Oct. 3 and writing that it's time to break up the Chicago Cubs.

Not because they're so good, but because they're so bad.

Give us a new look. Please.

I mean, trade away guys like Derrek Lee, Alfonso Soriano, Ronny Cedeno and maybe even boyish-looking, but weak-armed shortstop Ryan Theriot. Get some 20- and 22-year-old kids who can run, hit and throw. The front office will immediately save millions of dollars. Dump pitching coach Larry Rothschild and reliever Bob Howry. Certainly don't sign Jim Edmonds again. Find a way to get out of the contract with Kosuke Fukudome. Make Carlos Marmol the closer. Send Carlos Zambrano to a shrink and find out if he's worth saving. If he isn't, trade him for two or three young arms this winter. Release Daryle Ward. Send Jason Marquis packing -- and try to get a class AA pitcher in return. OK, I guess a class A pitcher would do. Maybe even a batboy.

You don't need me to tell this is a horrible ending to a 2008 baseball season that should be seeing the Cubs not just advancing to the World Series, but winning it.

But after 7-2 and 10-3 losses to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first two games of the National League playoffs, it's ugly at Wrigley. Thank goodness there won't be any more games there this year. The fans have booed the team out of town, and the players deserve it.

All of us can finally pull the plug on the Cubs' season when they lose Saturday's game at Dodger Stadium.

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Frankly, I don't see how the Cubs' management can afford to keep this team intact.

The ballclub couldn't hit while being swept by Arizona in three games last year, and it hasn't hit in two lopsided losses to the Dodgers this year.

This is a total embarrassment.

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Third baseman Aramis Ramirez is one of the few guys I'd insist on keeping.

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Lee's nickname should be "4-6-3."

That means he's an expert rally-killer by hitting into a second-baseman-to-shortstop-to-first-baseman double play.

Lee strikes out far too much for me. Far too often he bats like he doesn't have a clue.

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As I wrote on my twitter site 30 seconds after last night's game, the Cubs couldn't catch, run, throw or hit.

Otherwise, they were decent.

Indecent, I mean.

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Management has to find a place for Soriano to go. He's not helping this team one bit.

He's being paid $136 million or $136 billion, I'm not sure. He's booed just as often as Marquis.

The trouble is, a team like the Yankees is the only place that can afford Soriano, and they've already had him.

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I'm wondering if Lou Piniella is the guy I want managing a team in the playoffs.

Sometimes he acts like he belongs in an assisted living facility.

In fact, I wonder if general manager Jim Hendry made the right decision on signing Piniella -- a guy who looks to me like he's ready to start cashing Social Security checks -- through the 2010 season.

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I guess I'm wondering why Piniella would want to manage two more seasons when he could be enjoying life with his family in Florida.

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It's amazing to me that a team can win 97 games, win its National League Central division by 7 1/2 games and play as lousy as it has against the Dodgers.

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The Cubs were so uptight in the second inning against the Dodgers, when they fell behind, 5-0, that you could've cut through the tension at Wrigley Field with a blade of grass.

Every infielder in the Cubs' lineup made an error in the game.

It's beyond me how players who make millions of dollars can't catch ground-balls in a playoff game.

At times, it looked like a Little League game on any Saturday morning in the summer.

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I didn't care much for Ron Darling when he pitched for the New York Mets a number of years ago.

But I like the work he's doing for TBS in the Cubs' playoff games.

But, to show how far behind he is, he called the people who watched the Cubs at Wrigley Field during the time he was in uniform "great fans because they didn't boo their own players."

Now that's changed, of course. Cubs fans boo their own players regularly, and I'm all for it.

Those overpaid players deserve every boo they get.


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I don't know how much longer I can stand Dick Stockton's play-by-play work on TBS.

I'm about ready to mute the sound on the telecast and listen to Pat Hughes on the radio.

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Back to Kosuke Fukudome, the Cubs' rightfielder, for a minute.

I'm surprised Piniella used him in both of the games against the Dodgers at Wrigley Field.

The former standout in Japan has no idea what he's doing at the plate these days.

Pitchers caught up to him very early in the season, and he hasn't figured out the pitchers yet.

I wonder if he'll ever get his act together in this country.

Maybe Hendry should try to swing a deal where the Cubs send him back to Japan with no hard feelings on either side of the ocean.

Obviously, Fukudome is overmatched in the National League. It bothers me a lot that the fans are treating him the way they have in the last couple of months.

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This is difficult for me to say. Dusty Baker's management in a 2003 season that saw the Cubs come within five outs of making to the World Series doesn't look too bad right now.

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Bartman turned out to be pretty smart after all. I'll bet he was laughing the last two nights while drinking heavily as he watched on TV as the Cubs flopped.

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It's not every day that a St. Louis Cardinals fan jumps to the defense of a down-in-the-dumps Cubs follower, but that's exactly what happened later this morning.

Here's Scott Pierce's e-mail:

"A good game by Harden and the Cubs are right back into this.

"I read your stuff today. Want some bad news? There ain't nothin' the Cubs can do about Soriano, Fukudome & Marquis. If they get rid of them, they'll have to eat 50-75 percent of their contracts. No team will assume those deals. Okay, the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Dodgers would. But they already have better players for less money. So, if the Cubs send them to a team in need, and eat a portion of their contracts, it will take them at least five years to recover.

"I think you're a little harsh on Lee and Soriano. I like both of them. Soriano can't find a position to play, but he can hit. The Cubs did a bad deal on Fukudome. He can't hit off speed pitches and pitches away from him. He gives himself up too fast with that left leg lunge. I saw that in June."

Scott

[RON MALY'S COMMENTS: Scott, I'll trade you the Cubs' entire starting lineup for Pujols. I'll fill in the rest of my lineup with players from No-Name Ballteam].

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Phoro of Cub fans booing their own players courtesy of Getty Images.