Two years ago (two short, short, years ago) when the Cubs were the best team in the National League (regular season only, we found out) who would have thought that by 2010 the team would be afraid of the heights that come with a .500 record?

I guess, given that these are the Cubs, all of us should have thought that.

And so that’s where we are.  We’re watching (or ignoring on some nights) a team with a .300 hitter in left, center, right, second and short (and with a catcher who gets on base almost half the time)–a team with five pretty solid starting pitchers and a dominant closer.  And that team is 18-23.

They hit, but they can’t score.  They pitch, but they have a knack for giving up one more run than the other team.

So what are they, efficient losers?  Any team can get beat 11-2, it takes a different kind of brilliance to lose 3-2…all the time.

Ironically, they are playing their best baseball (a modest quality, however) of the season right now.  They have won four of five, they’ve stopped throwing the ball into the stands, and once they told Carlos Zambrano he can leave the bullpen he’s finally figured out how to pitch there.

This is all just so typical.

The good news, is, to put it mildly, that the National League Central sucks ass this year.

The Cardinals have finally figured out that they have three good players on a 25 man roster.  The Reds are doing what Dusty Baker teams do.  They play well until the pitcher’s arms start flying off into the stands.  The Brewers have a closer (a Hall of Fame closer) with a 13.15 ERA.  The Astros are beyond terrible.  And Pissburgh is lousy, except they seem to enjoy kicking the Cubs right in the balls.

In some divisions, 18-23 after 41 games would bury you.  Not in the NL Central.  So the Cubs, who arguably have the best 1-25 roster in the division, still have plenty of time to figure this out.  Not that any of us actually expect they’ll do that.

As I write this, the Cubs are negotiating with Bob Howry, who was recently released by the D’backs, and who cleared waivers.  So he comes cheap.  He also comes with a 10 ERA this year.

Yay?

Anyway, let’s do our thing and take a tour of the roster and see if we can figure out just what the hell is going on here.

Derrek Lee – On May 20 last year, Lee was hitting .230 with a .689 OPS, and both of those were awful.  This year, on May 20 he’s hitting .226 with a .673 OPS and both of those are awfuler.  That said, he finished last season with a .306 average 35 homers, 111 RBI and a .972 OPS.  So…great?  He’s a notoriously slow starter.  Remember when I suggested somebody give him a calendar that went January, February, March, June, June, June, July…  Oh, I was young and witty, then.

The problem, of course in waiting for Lee to finally start to hit is that you tend to lose lots of games in April and May when one of your best hitters isn’t doing…anything.  Not to mention that Lee is now 34 years old, and his best seasons are more than likely all behind him.  That doesn’t mean he’s still not a good player, what it means is that one of these years April and May aren’t going to turn into a hot June, it’s just going to be a third month of crappy hitting, followed by a fourth and so on.

That season’s probably not this one, and since this is his last year on this contract, and the Cubs would be wise to find a lefthanded first baseman in the offseason to help balance out the lineup, he can have his first bad June in San Francisco–where old players go to play, and play and then finally die.

E-ramis Ramirez – Compounding the expected terrible start of Lee is the inexplicable start of E-ramis.  If there’s one guy the Cubs can count on, it’s supposed to be E-ramis.  He’s healthy (we assume), so what’s the deal?  He’s hitting .150 worse than he did last year.  He’s already struck out 35 times in 167 at bats (to compare, in 2006 he struck out 63 times in 594 at bats).  He’s a mess.  On Monday night he won a game with a walk-off homer against Colorado in the 11th.  That was awesome.  It’s the fifth straight season he’s had at least one walkoff homer in.  But it was his ninth inning at bat that stuck with me.  With two outs, Starlin Castro was at first and took off to steal second, the throw went into center and Starlin went to third.  So there’s E-ramis with a 1-1 count and all he needs is a single to win the game.  So what did he do?  He took mighty hacks at the next two pitches–the kind of swing from your ass maneuver that late-career Sammy Sosa was so fond of–and flew out to center to end the inning.  See, that’s the Alfonso Soriano method of hitting, not the E-ramis Ramirez method.  So if E-ramis really doesn’t want to work with Rudy Jaramillo because like Lee he says he “knows his swing, and doesn’t need a hitting coach”–maybe hitting .167 two months into the season is enough to change that stance?  Ya think?

Alfonso Soriano – Speaking of Alfonso, for three weeks, he couldn’t do anything right.  He couldn’t catch a flyball, he couldn’t buy a hit, and when he did on rare occasion hit the ball fair, he didn’t run.  Now, four weeks later, his season statline is: .320/.376/.609/.985 with seven homers and 23 RBI.  That OPS is .001 higher than some shmuck named Albert Pujols.  If you are going to pay Alfonso 16 million bucks a year for five more years, it looks like the $1 million per year investment into Rudy has been worth it on him alone.  He’s still a disaster in the outfield, and there’s a legitimate worry that letting Castro live with Soriano is going to cause too much of the bad parts of Soriano (the lack of hustle, the complete ignorance of the strike zone) and some of the fun–but less productive parts of Soriano (namely, the whoring and the drinking) rub off on the youngest player in the Major Leagues.  Some people have said that it was Soriano’s influence on Felix Pie that caused Felix to flame out as a Cubs’ prospect.  But then again, people who knew Felix as he came up through the system are of the mind that Felix was going to do all of that off-field stuff regardless.  So really, who knows?

Marlon Byrd – In spring training, the best thing Marlon had going for him was that he wasn’t Milton Bradley.  The media and the fans were just glad to be rid of that moody distraction that they didn’t care who took his place.  I was among those more concerned about how the hell a 240 pound man was going to play centerfield, than about what Marlon’s offense was going to be.  And while anecdotally, Marlon doesn’t have the greatest range in the world, he’s a pretty good centerfielder.  He’s also been so far beyond what anybody expected at the plate (.325/.357/.556/.913 with seven homers and 25 RBI that there’s not a whole lot not to like.  It’s also fun to watch a guy play as hard as Marlon does.  He runs everything out.  He even sprints on his home runs.  He never met a middle infielder or a catcher he couldn’t crush on a slide.  Really, the only red flag (and it’s pretty big, and pretty flappy) is that he’s got a .357 on base average, but it’s propped up with only four walks in 171 plate appearances.  In other words, in order to have an acceptable on base average he’s going to have to keep getting a shit-ton of hits.  Since he’s a career .282 hitter, that’s probably not going to happen.  But even if he regresses closer to .282 he’s a pretty valuable player–and you’d like to think that when he starts to regress, that Lee and E-ramis will be ready to pick it up.  Right?  Right?

Kosuke Fukudome – Speaking of regression to the mean, it’s Mr. April himself, Kosuke!  If baseball were only played in April (or even April and May), Kosuke would be a legend.  The man knows how to start a baseball season.  His career April numbers are .335/.446/.558/1.004.  May drops to .282/.389/.417/.806 (not terrible) and June is awful at .218/.330/.324/.654.

How’s he doing this year?  .344/.433/.641/1.084 in April, and so far in May: .269/.356/.442/.798.  Uh oh.  And you wonder why Lou got so testy when he was asked about not getting enough playing time for Tyler Colvin?  It’s coming Tyler.  We hope you like hitting in June.

Ryan Theriot – As you know, I seem to enjoy bashing Ryan Theriot, and I’d like to say that’s not the case.  But it is the case.  I do enjoy it.  So I’m going to start with a compliment for Ryan.  I’m impressed with how he’s handled moving from shortstop to second base, both personally and defensively.  He didn’t bitch, he didn’t whine.  He just scooted over to second and started playing.  He’s played 11 errorless games there, too.  For the most part he can make all of the throws–which is nice, because he couldn’t make hardly any of them at second.

OK, so there’s that.  Now let’s get to his offense.

I know he’s hitting .310 and I know he’s been leading the National League in hits most of the year.  But of the 52 hits he has so far this year, only five have anything but a single.  And he’s only walked seven times.  That gives him an on base average of .339.  That’s bad.  And when you include the woeful .345 slugging average into it…that’s not a starting second baseman’s production.  Maybe it was in the ’70s, but 40 years later you need to get some real offense out of that spot.  Blame it on Ryne Sandberg if you want, but a sub .700 OPS at second base is horrible.  And it’s certainly made worse when you’re paying $2.6 million for it now.  The Cubs offense would be better off to go with a platoon at second, and give the other dwarf most of at bats.  Oh, but Mike Fontenot shouldn’t be platooning with Theriot, he should be platooning with Jeff Baker.

Geovany Soto – Welcome back. Kind of makes you wonder how different last year might have been had Soto shown up in shape, doesn’t it?  But anyway, let’s just worry about this year.  After a rough start to the season, Soto has turned it on and while his batting average has bounced back (to .289 from an embarrassing .218 last year) the impressive change has been in his on base average.  Soto leads the NL in walks with 29, and has actually walked more times than he’s struck out (23).  So that’s all good.  Part of it comes from batting eighth much of the year and not trying to hit pitches you can’t hit when a pitcher is pitching around you.  But that doesn’t mean everything’s great for Soto.  He only has four homers and 10 RBI.  And with no triples and four doubles, he’s only got eight extra base hits all season.  His on base average is great at .449, but it’s the same as his slugging.

Given the team’s overall lack of speed, and the fact that of their eight every day hitters two aren’t hitting at all (Lee and E-ramis) and two never get past first base (Theriot and Soto) it’s starting to be pretty clear why this team can boast a nice batting average and not score very many runs.  Somebody get Dusty on the phone, because Theriot and Soto are clogging the damned bases!

Starlin Castro – I just spent ten minutes looking for a font that was full of hearts, teddy bears and unicorns (there is one, it’s called the TaylorSwift, but never mind that.)  I’m in the minority who think that Cubs actually handled Starlin pretty well this season.  He was tremendous in spring training, hitting over .400 and showing the kind of range and arm that no Cubs shortstop has had since my childhood crush–Shawon Dunston.  But the fact was, Castro had only played 31 games above class A, ever.  He needed to go back to Tennessee and prove he was really ready.  And that’s exactly what he did.  In a month there he hit .376 with a .990 OPS and drove in 20 runs in 26 games.

The assumption was that the Cubs had only sent him to the minors to keep his arbitration clock from starting.  But when they called him up on May 7, they basically guaranteed that he’d lose that year of arbitration eligibility.  It’s the sole reason that Stephen Strasburg is tearing a hole in AAA right now.  But the reality is that if a player is as good as the Cubs hope Castro is (and that Strasburg almost certainly is), it doesn’t really matter.  He’s going to earn a multi-year deal that will buy out that year of arbitration anyway.  So the Cubs decided they needed a real shortstop and they brought him up.

And we all know that all he did in his debut was set a big league record for most runs driven in (six) in a debut.  Oh ,and he homered in his first at bat.

He’s been shaky at times in the field (though not lately), but he’s got two really important things going for him:

1. He’s fearless.  He knows he belongs in the big leagues.
2. He’s so talented that you can’t believe he’s actually a Cub.

He’s the youngest player in the league, and the first player born in ’90s to play a game in the big leagues.  He’s hitting .375 with a .434 on base average and a .500 slugging average.  He’s walked five times in in 53 plate appearances (OK), but only struck out five times (impressive.)  He has hits to all fields.  In his first at bat, Bob Brenly cautioned that because of his swing teams were going to pitch him away and prove he could handle that.  So he homered into the right field stands.  In his next at bat he rifled one up the middle that Drew Stubbs had to make a diving catch on, and in his third at bat he ripped a triple to left.  If there was a fourth field to hit it to, I’m sure Starlin could do that, too.

Fact is, the Cubs didn’t call him up to save the season, and they didn’t call him up as a signal they were starting to rebuild.  They called him up because he’s the best shortstop in the organization and they thought he was ready.  So far he’s done very little to prove them wrong.

He’s played 13 games in the big leagues and he’s reached base in every single one of them.

He hadn’t driven in a run in nine games since his debut, but now he’s driven in four in the last three games.

Granted, he’s a rookie, and he’s going to go into a slump, and he’s going to have some games where he throws the ball into the stands.  It’s just going to happen.  But isn’t it nice to actually have a shortstop…who can play shortstop?

That was never more apparent than the other night against Colorado when he went deep in the hole to field a grounder, lost his footing on a long throw across the diamond and still nailed the runner to thwart a Rockies rally.  Can you tell I’m in the tank for him?  Unabashedly.

Tyler Colvin – Here’s a guy I was totally wrong about.  Given that he didn’t walk a single time in spring training–not once–and given that his career on base average in the minors was shitty, I figured Colvin wasn’t ready to contribute in the big leagues.  Then when you factor in that he was going to be a fourth (or fifth) outfielder, and that young players don’t do well on the bench, it just seemed foolish to not send him to Iowa.  And all he’s done is post a: .295/.357/.574/.991 in his first 35 games of the year.  Oh, and he plays all three outfield spots well.  And like I said before, when Kosuke’s translator finally tells him the calendar says June, there should be playing time aplenty for him.  He’d be playing more now, except Soriano is inexplicably good again, which is not really a problem the team needs to deal with.

What Colvin isn’t, is what most young players aren’t.  He’s not good off the bench.  As a starter he hits .370/.423/.739/1.162.  Off the bench he’s an abysmal .067/.167/.067/.233.  So if you wonder why Lou has basically made his role on days he doesn’t start to go play Gary Woods to Soriano’s Gary Matthews Sr., you know why.

Xavier Nady – I’m going out on a limb to predict that Nady will hit this year.  What’s scary is that I think his elbow is actually worse than the Cubs thought it would be.  It’s the end of May now and he was supposed to be ready to start throwing like a grown up again, and he’s clearly not.  He caught a flyball in medium deep right the other day with a runner tagging at third and he threw it to Theriot instead of Soto.  I assume that was on purpose.

Offensively, Nady was bad in April, and has been pretty “meh” in May, but he’s gotten two big hits this past week, one to win a game against Pissburgh and one Wednesday night to put away the Phillies.  Over his last seven games he’s hitting .429, and he has as many RBI as Soto.  He’s a far better reserve outfielder than the Cubs have had in the past, and assuming his elbow finally does heal, I’m sure the Cubs hope is that he’s ready to pick up a lot of slack in right during Kosuke’s wilty summer months.

Mike Fontenot – Little Fonty has enjoyed a bounce back season from his abysmal 2009, but he shouldn’t be too excited yet.  His .304/.350/.391 isn’t bad for what is now a backup second baseman role, but two years ago he slugged .591.  If the power returns, I don’t think my idea that he should get the bulk of the starts at second becomes all that unlikely.  Then again, what are the odds that a 5’2 guy is ever going to slug .591 in the big leagues again?  Defensively he’s no great shakes at second, but neither is his Cajun soul-mate.

Jeff Baker – Whether he lit his ass on fire or not, probably isn’t all that important.  Funny?  Yes.  Stupid?  Of course.  Important?  With Castro’s arrival, Baker is now officially a utility player.  Lou is even playing in the outfield now (he started Wednesday night in Philly in right, and probably will start one of the games in Texas out there, too) to try to get him more playing time.  If he ever wants to embrace his future as the next Mark DeRosa he’s got to learn to grow a beard during the game.  Singe-ing off his butt hair is probably not a good start.

Koyie Dolan Hill – Look, what am I supposed to say?  Koyie can’t hit.  He’s never been able to hit.  But he can catch, and he apparently calls a good game, and he doesn’t annoy his teammates.  That makes him a solid backup catcher.  He’ll never be Hank White, but supernova’s like Hank only come around once and a while, and when they do they burn bright and then fade away, to San Diego, and the Mets.

Chad Tracy – He was fine in his pinch hitting role-backup third baseman, thing.  And the reason he’s in Iowa now has more to do with the fact that he had an option left, than anything else. He’ll be back at some point.  But if you want to see why teams don’t bother sending their best prospects to AAA, here’s another reminder.  Check out Chad’s line at Iowa.  He’s played nine games.  He’s hitting .563 with a .600 on base average, .781 slugging, 1.318 OPS, a homer and nine RBI.  I’m positive that if the Cardinals sent Albert Pujols to AAA he would somehow hit 1.200 with a 1.400 on base average and a 7.324 OPS.

(Bonus mention) Josh Vitters – For those people with the absurd notion that Vitters had fallen behind because he was sent to repeat high-A to start the season (he’s only 20 for chrissakes), he’s in AA now, and he’s hitting .361 with a .917 OPS.  Granted, he has yet to walk in 37 at bats, but he’s only struck out four times, and given how the apparent lack of plate discipline that Castro and Colvin showed in the minors has not turned into them just hacking their way through the big leagues, I’m going to stop worrying about that.  Unless a guy strikes out a lot, maybe it just doesn’t matter?

Carlos Zambrano – Carlos has had quite a season so far, hasn’t he?  The Cubs told him to lose some weight and strengthen his core in the offseason, and he did.  Even though he’s traditionally been a disaster in openers he was named the opening day starter and…he got lit up.  But then he had three good starts in a row after that, and then they sent him to the bullpen.  He was pretty uneven in that role, so they announced he was going to go back to the rotation, and in his two relief appearances since then he’s been awesome.  But now they have to put him in the rotation, right?

The move of him to the bullpen never made any damned sense.  If only because he’s one of their best pitchers, and he was a proven success as a starter.  So why would you want 70 innings of a good pitcher instead of 180?

And as for Lou Piniella hoping that moving Carlos to the bullpen would increase his velocity, who cares?  He throws 93 in the bullpen, and 93 when he starts.  That’s fast enough.  Hell, we’ve seen for years that when Carlos tries to throw harder he’s less effective.  His sinking fastball is almost always much more effective when he’s not throwing it as hard.

I’m blaming this on Miller Park.

When Carlos threw his n0-hitter there in 2008, his fastball was reading 97 and 98 all night.  But even right after the game, the Cubs dismissed it as just being wrong.  So why now do they give credence to the idea that he can still throw 97 or 98?  And why would he need to?

Guh.

Ryan Dempster – The day Zambrano was moved to the bullpen, SI.com’s Jon Heyman twatted that the Cubs were going to put Dempster in the bullpen.  I then twatted how ludicrous that would be.  And it would be.  So guess who advocated just such a move yesterday?

Our old pal Maude.

At the time Zambrano was put into the bullpen — immediately after he had held the Mets to two runs in six innings at Citi Field — it was suggested here that Ryan Dempster would have been a better choice, as he had enjoyed success in both roles as a big-leaguer. It still seems he would make more sense in that role, especially since he offers leadership that could impact the relievers around him.

Dempster might have more impact on his team working in the bullpen. He’s tied with Carlos Silva for the team lead in quality starts (six), but the Cubs are 2-6 behind him, thanks to a lack of run support and the faulty bullpen. But speculation about a role change for him is premature.

So what will the Cubs do with six starters? That becomes the pressing question, and there’s no clear solution.

So let’s get this straight.  Dempster and Silva have been the Cubs two most consistently good starters, but Dempster should go to the bullpen because the Cubs don’t score when he pitches?  It was bad enough when these chuckleheads put Zambrano in the bullpen, and as much as I don’t like Dempster, he is the best starting pitcher the Cubs have right now.  It’s almost like Phil worries people might forget how much he doesn’t know about baseball, and that he has to remind us constantly.

And there are a few possible solutions for having six starters:

1. Trade one.
2. Wait for Carlos Silva’s arm to fall off and then you only have five again.
3. Use all six of them.  Hell, if you want to revolutionize baseball, don’t put a starter in the bullpen, go to a six man rotation and let them all throw more pitches because they’ll always be pitching on an extra day of rest.  Hey, I didn’t say all of the possible solutions would be smart.
4. Wait for Tom Gorzelanny to break his neck falling off the mound trying to field a bunt like he did yesterday in Pissburgh.
5. Wait for Tom Gorzelanny to break a finger trying to catch a line drive like he did yesterday in Philadelphia.

Having too much starting pitching isn’t a problem.  It’s an asset.  Good franchises know what to do with assets.  The Cubs?  Not so much.

So anyway, Dempster’s been fine.  He’s only 2-4, but his ERA is 3.73 and his ERA+ is 121.  Let’s not banish him to the bullpen.

As much as Bob Howry has sucked this year, and sucked in 2008, he was really pretty good in San Francisco last year, and he was the balls in 2006 and 2007 for the Cubs.  He’s a relief pitcher, you never know what you’re going to get.  Remember how terrible Scott Eyre was in 2008 for the Cubs?  They dumped him off on the Phillies and he had a 1.88 ERA in 19 games for them down the stretch, and in two seasons with the Phillies gave up two runs total in six playoff series.  So nobody knows.

But what you do know is you try guys like Howry from the scrapheap, before you take an actual successful starter and cram him in the bullpen.

Carlos Silva – He’s the first Cubs pitcher since Greg Maddux in 2006 to start a season 5-0.  In eight starts he’s had an ERA plus of 135.  He averages six innings a start.  He’s got a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio.  And the fact that he’s a Cub means that Milton Bradley isn’t.  Who knew?

The problem, is that Silva has complained of a sore shoulder all year.  Couple that with the way the Cubs “fixed” him was to get him to throw across his body to create more downward movement on his sinker–which might be what’s causing his sore shoulder, and you just know this can’t last.  But if I’m the Cubs, I just keep him throwing the way he is, and if he breaks down, he breaks down.  Because the way he pitched in Seattke might have been better for his shoulder, but it was shit for his production.

Ted Lilly – Ted’s made five starts since coming back from shoulder injury.  One was really good, one was really bad and three have been OK.  He hasn’t been striking guys out, not that K’s are a huge part of the Lilly arsenal, but four is the most he’s had in any of those starts.  He’s just not right yet.  Hopefully “yet” is the operative word.  I’m not saying he’s been bad, but, well maybe I am saying that.  He’s 1-3 with a 4.65 ERA and an ERA plus of 97.  He’s a huge part of any run the Cubs might be able to make.

Tom Gorzelanny – Statistically, this weird looking mope has been the best Cubs starter.  He’s only 2-4, but he has a 3.09 ERA, an ERA plus of 148 and he’s struck out 48 guys in 46 innings against only 17 walks.  He’s not exactly graceful, and he always looks about one step away from breaking his neck or both arms, and that probably contributes to the low regard Cubs fans have for him.  He’s earned a spot in the rotation, and he probably can’t go to the bullpen since the Cubs already have three lefties down there (two good ones–James Russell and Sean Marshall, and one expensive one–John Grabow), so it doesn’t matter anyway.

Let’s hope the finger injury he suffered yesterday isn’t serious.  The Cubs already know it’s not broken.  And he’s not going to be in Texas this weekend because his wife is having a baby.  So let’s all pray to God that the baby looks like her, because the world doesn’t need another human who looks like him.

Randy Wells – Wells has pitched better than it has seemed.  Getting lit up for six earned runs two innings against Pissburgh is always a bad thing, and that’s what he did on May 6.  But he seems to have bounced back from that with two good starts since.  He’s just a good, steady starter.  One with a career ERA of 3.21, and it’s easy to take him for granted.  You can’t win with five Randy Wells’ in your rotation, but you probably can’t win without one.  Huh?  Does that make any sense?  I’ve been reading too much Phil Rogers.

Carlos Marmol – Here’s the most ridiculous stat of the season.  In 20.2 innings this year, Carlos Marmol has struck out FORTY men.  FORTY!  Two an inning.  Holy crap.  He’s always going to make things interesting, but he’s been really good so far this year.  His walks are down, and while 12 in 20.2 innings is a lot for mortal men, it’s not that bad for Carlos.  Especially when you consider he’s only allowed 12 hits.  His ERA is 1.13 and his ERA plus is … (I’ll remind you that 100 is average)…348.

When you laugh and say he can’t keep that up for an entire season, consider that in 2007, his ERA plus was 325.  Holy shit.

Sean Marshall – When you consider that he’d be a pretty good starting pitcher if the Cubs needed him to be, and then you consider they are pairing him with Carlos Marmol in the bullpen, you have to wonder just how terrible some of the other guys must be for the bullpen to be a Cubs’ weakness?  Marshall has been great this year with 27 strikeouts and only five walks in 21 innings.  His ERA plus is impressive (as long as he doesn’t whip it out next to Marmol’s) at 216.  With two of the best relievers in the league at the end of the game, just why doesn’t this work?

John Grabow – Oh, here’s why.  Grabow has an 8.44 ERA and has walked 10 guys in 16 innings.  To be fair, he’d been bothered by a sore knee and after he had a shot in that knee he did pitch better…until yesterday when he shat all over himself again.  Just because he’s the most expensive bullpen arm doesn’t mean he should be getting more important innings than…

James Russell – He’s pitched 13 innings, struck out 12 and walked two.  His ERA is 2.70.  I can live with this, a lot more than any of Grabow’s awfulness.  Granted, he’s a rookie and he probably needed to get his feet under him.  But it’s time to make him prove he isn’t ready, because he’s proven all he can in his current role.

Esmailin Caridad – He’s been terrible and hurt.  Never a good combination.  It was folly to think 19  innings in 2010 were enough to prepare him to be the primary set up man, and then his sore arm just piled on to that failure.

Justin Berg – He’s been good for 14 innings of mediocre (or worse) relief.  Yay?

Jeff Gray – Did anybody really think this guy was going to be that good?  They got him for Jake Fox.  I know that many Cubs fans thought that Jake Fox was superawesome, but he really wasn’t, and he’s been pretty terrible in Oakland. So looks like this was an equal value trade.  Squat for squat.

Jeff Samardzjia – The simple fact about Samardzjia is that he won’t be a good pitcher until he learns to throw strikes, and that once he learns to do it, he’ll be a good pitcher.  He’s got everything else.  He’s got good stuff, he’s got the stones to do the job.  But in 11 innings at Iowa he’s struck out 11 and walked nine.  Maybe run a few post patterns in pre-games Jeff, just to keep your options open.

Jeff Stevens – He’s up for a day or two until the ill-fated Howry experiment starts.  He pitched one perfect inning in Philadelphia.  Otherwise he’s similar to Samardzjia.  Stevens has good stuff and if he throws strikes he’ll be pretty good.  That’s a pretty big “if” though.

So there we are.  This is a team with far more talent than its record has shown.  But then again, that talent only matters if it fits together.  Right now, it simply doesn’t fit.

The simplistic observation is that if Derrek Lee and E-ramis Ramirez start to hit, there’s no reason this team can’t win.  It’s simplistic, but it’s true.  But every day that passes where these two don’t hit, you start to wonder if they ever really will.  Sad fact is that if they don’t.  Or maybe even if E-ramis doesn’t, then they can’t–and won’t win.

The good news is that the NL Central is waiting around for them to get it together.  So let’s see what happens.

As painful as that is, most games.