It's been 5 days since the Cubs decided that sanity was no longer a goal to pursue and decided to send the best SP in Cub history (and still a productive one) to the bullpen because our GM somehow forgot to adequately stock it and because our manager is incapable of managing it. In those 5 days I have tried to reflect on the move and see if my inital ANGER was just a heat of the moment thing.

Upon further review let me state clearly: it is not.

Last night for the first time since the move I tried to actually sit down and watch part of a Cub game. I made it 2 innings until I saw Zambrano start to warm up and then the true horror of the situation dawned on me and I got pissed and did something else.

The reason I could no longer watch was crystallized, the team I invest too much time & energy into was willingly and consciously sending a guy 1 year removed from a 3.61 FIP season to the fucking bullpen while at least 3 lesser pitchers remained in the rotation. Sorry folks but I can't get behind that. I am not a fairweather fan. I have been following this team by a damn near game by game basis since 04. I watched 90 % of the games during the 2006 season. I remember lineups with Jose Macias and Neifi AND Jason Dubois in them. Every year I pay for MLB.tv and tickets to at least one series, and that includes when I was in college and broke as fuck. In short, I am the exact kind of die hard fan that fills Tom Ricketts coffers and helps keep Alfonso Soriano clothed in rare animal skins. And I can honestly say for the first time in years that I don't give a flying fuck what happens to the 2010 northside ballclub. I could not care less.

I can't summon the energy to follow a team so hell bent on mediocrity that they hit the PANIC!! button after 14 games instead of realizing that its been 14 fucking games. I can't pretend that the Cubs organization has even the slightest clue as to what the fuck they are doing or are trying anything other than cover-your-ass management. I can't sit by and watch a player who has given his all to the organization since he was a teenager treated like a piece of shit just because our GM was so incredibly shortsighted in his bullpen construction and because our manager seems to have the patience of a 4 year old child hopped up on goofballs. In short, I just can't rationalize spending any time or money on a team that clearly has no defined plan in place and one that thinks I am stupid enough to believe that giving one of your best pitchers less innings is somehow doing something positive.

So consider this my swan song until the offseason, where I will decide to either stay on board the roller coaster that is all things Cubs or look for an organization to follow that makes an honest effort to compete & reward my investment in them. Which way I go will be totally dependent on what Tom Ricketts does. If he continues to spend and invests in young talent, if he shows Jim Hendry the fucking door and Lou as well and if he punches Paul Sullivan in the fucking gonads while screaming "YOU'RE THE REASON PRINT IS DYING!" then count me in for more snark and pessimism in 2011.

However, before I leave I wanted to go over an article I read today from a writer I really do respect, Bruce Miles. Bruce is the only beat writer this team has that doesn't insert himself into every single paragraph or start bullshit passive-aggressive feuds with members of the team. He is accessible to fans and generally a good guy, but I disagree with this about as strongly as a guy can. For starters applauding Lou for "thinking outside the box" rings hollow when Lou's entire idea demonstrably weakens the team. How about this for thinking outside the box: instead of sending your 2nd best pitcher to the bullpen to replace guys who can't get the job done, why not start a shuttle between AA, AAA and the Cubs and bring up the young arms that are MLB ready? Guys like Thomas Diamond, John Gaub, Jeff Stevens, Mitch Atkins, Marcos Mateo, Rafael Dolis or Andrew Cashner could get a chance to pitch. Some of them won't work out and when they don't, SEND THEM BACK DOWN.

That's the advantage of having guys with options vs. having unmovable pieces of garbage like John Grabow. RP are notoriously hard to predict, so unless you pay good $ to secure a proven reliever then throw a bunch of shit at the wall and use what sticks. But that can't happen because Lou struggles to properly manage  young players (see Pie, Felix) and bullpen arms (see Wuertz, Mike or Eyre, Stevie). This isn't anything new, he had that rep when he came over from Tampa and it holds true now.

The term "thinking outside the box" usually is associated with doing something not expected but that doesn't give you carte blanche to do whatever batshit insane thing that pops up in your head. Let's be clear: Even if this pays off in the short term and the Cubs go on a magic run to 14-12, this is a stupid fucking move. You know what proves it's stupid? Math. Or just plain common sense.

Either way, you can counter Lou's entire argument with this timeless piece of wisdom we all heard growing up: you can make a stupid mistake and sometimes it will pay off, but that outcome doesn't make it a good decision. When that scenario is the best case, you know you're fucked.

And that's exactly where Hendry & Co have left us.

Hoping that something we all know is dumber than Sarah Palin beats the odds. I can see the 2011 season slogan now- Chicago Cub Baseball: Put It All On Black! (It's a way of life) This idea can't work because its a mistake to do it in the first place. If I set all my money ablaze tonight and in doing so caused it to rain leading me to a pot of gold & making me insanely wealthy you still wouldn't call my descison a good, would you? You can't win when the original premise is so goddamned flawed that a nerd like me with internet access and half a brain can see through it.

Maybe Lou doesn't deserve all my rage. After all he has to work with what he has and to that I say this:

FUCK YOU,  JIM HENDRY.

If you weren't going to wait more than 14 games with the young bullpen YOU chose before panicking, then you deserve to be fired publicly. Tom Ricketts should burn your fucking clothes at 1060 W. Addison in front of everyone and their dog. The way you have mismanaged this 146 million dollar payroll is fucking stunning. Years from now people will still laugh about the team with a 18 million dollar DH in LF and a 18.3 million dollar set-up man because you were too fucking cheap to sign a good veteran, too fucking impatient to let things sort themselves out and so fucking stupid that you gave John Grabow 7.5 million dollars. Fuck you & good luck with your future job as the advance scout for the Schamburg Fliers you ungrateful POS.

Carlos Zambrano should have beat your ass when you told him you wanted him to go the pen because you couldn't do your fucking job. That guy gave you 200 IP and a + performance every year since 2003, and at times was the only interesting player on the rosters you assembled. He saved your ass when Wood and Prior couldn't pitch, he was the only reason to watch in 2006 and he carried the best winning percentage of any Cubs pitcher ever and this is how you repay him. Pathetic! You deserve all the scorn you will get when this expensive train wreck of a team finally implodes under your collective failures and Ricketts is forced to get rid of you once and for all. So, no, Bruce, this is not going to work and it would have been much more rewarding to see you grill those motherfuckers until they were exposed for the desperate dolts they are, but I suppose having tact and people skills is why you have such a choice job and I sell wind turbines.

Well,(deep breath) now that I got that out of my system its off to see what other normal non-baseball fanatic people do with their time. I'm still going to post here, ST-style, but like him I am going to skip the Cubs and focus on the things that matter. Like dick and fart jokes and making fun of Al Yellon.

Peace.