I understand that the Chicago Sun-Times is going the way of the Chicago Daily News and will soon be toes up and out of business, but are they so resigned to that fate that they can’t employ someone with any degree of competence to cover the Cubs in what just might be a historic season?

We’ve put up with a lot of bad writing and insipid comments from Commissioner Gordon Wittenmyer ever since Mike Kiley filed those fudged expense reports a couple years ago. But today’s missive takes the cake.

I freely admit that he’s writing about a Cub who I despised more than any other, and so I’m not going to pretend I don’t have some bias here. But come on, just read this.

It’s insane.

Just asking

Is it too late to bring back Jacque Jones? This time last year, the maligned Jones was the hottest-hitting Cub (.349 in August) on the way to a .332 second half. As opposed to a certain $48 million right fielder who has struggled since May, including a .155 August. Now, who was it again that was getting paid too much?

Huh?  What?  No, seriously, he didn’t just suggest that.

Whether it was tongue-in-cheek or not (I assume it was, but honestly, with this dumbass that’s no guarantee), Jock Jones was an unmitigated disaster for the Cubs.  He played right field like he thought it was covered with land mines.  His biggest defensive asset was his ability to throw the ball straight into the ground from any place on the field.  He ran the bases like he was on The Wipeout obstacle course.

Sure, Jock hit .322 in the second half last year.  He also hit .233 in the first half with a .294 on base average.  He was so good last year that his OPS+ (100 is league average) was an 87.  Despite his second half struggles, Kosuke’s is a 95.

Jock is so good that two teams have unconditionally released him.  He hit .165 in Detroit with an OPS+ of 33, and he hit an astounding .108 in Florida where his OPS+ was a mind-numbing minus-6!  Yes, a negative OPS+  The kind of thing normally reserved for pitchers or Izturises.

Today, the Sun-Times has a news flash update that reads:

Its’ apparently breaking news that the Cubs are starting an all righty lineup (except for the pitcher) against John Lannan, the Nationals’ pitcher who is lefthanded.

Sure, Kosuke’s struggling.  But Gordon couldn’t come up with a better suggestion than Jock?

Someone with access to the Cubs’ clubhouse had this to say today: “Maybe Gordo’s lamenting the loss of his only clubhouse source.”

We know he loved Jock.

Either that, or he finally bought into the Horry Cow t-shirt business and is upset with Kosuke’s struggles cutting into his end.