Ever since yesterdays 10-0 loss to the Diamondbacks I've been thinking, and thinking what needs to happen for the Cubs to wake up and actually play some baseball. Well I've came up with the perfect solution.

You see it goes back to the playoffs of 2007, a sweep by the D-Backs, and goes back to the playoffs of 2008, another sweep this time by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Before I get into the perfect solution to the answer to the Cubs problems I'll spit out some of the team stats from both leagues:

            -19^th in run scored with only 95 runs on the season

            -23^rd in batting average with only .251

            -16^th in on base percentage .339

            -22^nd in slugging percentage at .401

So where am I going with these poor offensive numbers?

The Cubs hitting coach Gerald Perry needs to be FIRED. And I mean fired, now, this very moment he needs to be gone.

With the potent Cubs lineup there is no excuse for them not to be scoring runs and scraping a few base hits. The firing of Perry should wake the team up.

Hopefully they get back to winning ways today as they play the Florida Marlins tonight.

I wish I had my dedication to my blog like others who have them. Work is starting to get busy; I guess that's a good sign considering the economy. I guess I'll do a week in review.

The Cubs have been sucking, that basically sums it up. 10-9 is intolerable.

I'll start with the Cardinals series at St. Louis this past weekend. The Cards destroyed us, and proved that they are the better team so far this season. If they keep it up they'll steal the division from the Cubs. It's kind of pointless to say what happened in each game since anybody could easily look up box scores; however I have great thoughts of the game. As a Cub fan I'll tend to use words like "great" "excellent"  "outstanding" for stuff that really isn't so "great" "excellent" "outstanding" but just good.

So, on Saturday's game Sean Marshall curveball looked great, excellent, and outstanding. No, really it had some drop. What bothered me was I think he could have been more dominant. Here is an example:

Marshall had a 0-2 count on Pujols. Now instead of using the third pitch as a set up pitch, he started to work off the plate. Back the piece off. What Marshall should have done was throw some heat up and in, he crowds the plate, which is one of the many reasons why Pujols is so dominant. So Marshall should have thrown up and in, and then his curveball that was working effectively should have been his fourth pitch. Marshall ended up getting him out, but still, it showed me that Marshall has fear.

What else, what else. Fukodome is still being dominant, had an awesome game on Sunday helping us pick up the victory in St. Louis, unfortunately the Cardinals took the series. He went 3-5 with 5 rbi.

Oh, on Sunday the Cardinals drilled Soriano in the head, so obviously it was Pujols turn to take one, and he did take one. It was a perfect way to handle the situation without the umpires getting involved and issuing warnings after Soriano was intentionally drilled. Let the players handle the situations themselves.

Currently the Cubs are in the rubber match today with the Diamondbacks. Fell asleep in like the sixth inning during Monday night's game, oops, damn west coast games. Chicago wound up losing that one anyway.

I caught last night's game at the bar with some buddies. Zambrano almost hit a cycle! Big Z is the definition of helping his own cause when he pitches. I don't know why Lou doesn't move him up in the batting order when he pitches. Come on, the Cubs could sure use his bat.

A funny note about Zambrano:

He was taking some groundballs to shortstop the other day. With the Cubs as banged up as they are and their lack of depth on the bench it's sad to see the ace of your staff get some fielding practice in at shortstop.

Look at that, a perfect way into a rant about the Cubs injuries.

Marmol, Ramirez, Bradley, Lee, what do all these names have in common?

ALL OUR INJURED.

Is this a reflection of the athletic trainer? If so, maybe its time to be finding a new trainer. These players are all vital to the Cubs success this year. Well, all except for Lee. Bradley actually came back last night and managed to scrape together two hits, leaving him a ******** three on the season, woo hoo. But in all seriousness the Cubs have to take a look on why these key players are hurt, excluding Bradley from his injury plagued career.

Oh by the way, Rookie of the Year, Geovany Soto his having an awful season. Somebody has to get this kid going. I wonder if the World Baseball Classic has anything to do with this. I heard this scouting report says to run all day on him.

In today's Chicago Sun-Times a usually quiet Soriano actually called out his team. Heres the link: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1549148,CST-SPT-cub29.article

Some key quotes that I liked from Soriano:

"We've got to go out and fight. We've been giving the 'W' to the other teams, because from what I see we're not fighting to win. We just play nine innings, and what happens, happens. We don't play nine innings and try to get wins. The last two years, I saw more hunger to win."

It's great to see a star and key player who is having a hell of a season to call out his team. I'm glad he sees a sense of urgency to this horrible start by Chicago.

Well this went longer than expected; hopefully Dempster comes through today and get the Cubs back on roll with a series victory. Sad thing is I could keep going on, looks like I wont miss nearly a week again!

Neil Cotts Watch:

Still on the team. :/

Well once again the Cubs looked like crap as they fell to the Reds 7-1. The Cubs managed to leave 16 runners on base, which is awful. So 16 runners on base and just earning one run...theres a playoff team. They proved that they are undeserving of winning the division this year.

One of the reasons the Cubs lost yesterday was because of outfielder Micah Hoffpauir. Because of him the Reds scored three runs. Two runs came off an error and another one came off of a catch he should have made.

Hoffpauir, Aramis Ramirez, and Geovany Soto all sucked. Ten of the 16 runners came from them. In one inning the Cubs had a runner on second and all three freakin popped out in the infield!

Oh by the way, there's a reason why Hoffpauir is almost 30 years old. He's a freakin career minor leaguer. You don't belong in the big leagues old man. Congrats Micah, you just made my sh*t list along with Neil Cotts and Derrek Lee

I don't even know the reason the Cubs called up Jeff Samardija, he came in yesterdays game and got shelled giving up 4 hits and 2 runs in the ninth.

Looking towards to tonight's game against the St. Louis Cardinals I'm looking for Hoffpauir to ride the bench, hopefully for the rest of the season until Milton Bradley is healthy enough to start.

I'm looking for Kosuke Fukodome to start in Right Field and Reed Johnson to get the start in Center.

Cotts Watch: Day Three

Gave up a homerun in the eighth inning to Reds First Basemen Joey Votto.

Still on the Cubs payroll.

Short and sweet before I head to the ballgame today.

Pathetic, horrible, sad, and dismal are just some words to describe the Chicago Cubs offense last night. 14 runners were left on base! How do you manage to do that?!?! Let alone to the Cincinnati Reds, Jesus. The Reds shut the Cubs out 3-0.

Chicago left their Starting Pitcher Ted Lilly down last night; he pitched a gem only giving up one run.

It's obvious that Milton Bradley shouldn't have been in the starting lineup going 0-4 with three strikeouts. WTF, is this the balance in the lineup that the Cubs organization promised us? Not to mention him gimping around Right Field throughout the night. There were at least two outs he should have made, and didn't manage to do so. It's because he can't freakin run!

LOU BRADLEY IS HURT, PUT IN HOFFPAUIR TODAY.

Oh, I'll make sure Lou hears me before the game starts, luckily I sit close enough. By the way Neil Cotts will hear me before the game too. Same goes for Bradley.

Oh, Bradley is 1-23 on the season.

Cotts Watch: Day two

He's still on the payroll

Well I was right in my previous entry from today; Tripe A Starting Pitcher Jeff Samardzija is called up. Unfortunately, lefty releiver Neil Cotts isn't released or demoted, but Luis Vizcaino will get sent down or cut.

I guess Samardzija has been tearing up Triple A, but its rumored that Samardzija will be coming out of the bullpen. I rather have Sean Marshall go to the bullpen, and have Samardzija be a starter.

I was also right about Milton Bradley being back in the lineup tonight.

Finally baseball was back on last night as the Cubs pounded the Reds 7-2. They haven't played since Saturday, I was having serious withdraws.

Looks like Rich Harden maybe falling back into form, much better, and luckily deeper outing then his previous start. Only gave up three hits and two runs. Good strike out to walk ratio at 8:2, man I love his changeup, so deceptive.

I've been taking a liking to Micah Hoffpauir at Right Field; he could also play First Base. I have a feeling Milton Bradley will be back in the starting lineup tonight, so it moves Hoffpauirs hitting capabilities back to the bench. At least we know if Milton Bradley isn't able to play Right or Derrek Lee goes down at First Base, we could count on Hoffpauir to filling in at either position and do a decent job.

I really would like to know if Kosuke Fukodome will continue to his early season dominance. Last year he started off like this, but after each month passed his batting average kept on falling by an average of 30 points. But anyway he didn't have any hits last night, but walked twice and scored two runs.

Theriot is a pretty good offensive player; I love him batting in the eighth hole. But, I have a bone to pick with him. His defense is atrocious at shortstop. Last night Lee saved Theriot twice and two balls horribly thrown to him. The coaches should really work with him on his defense, if they already aren't.

Speaking of horrible moments like Theriots throws to first, did anybody catch the cat running onto the field? Shades of '69. Then immediately following the stupid cat there was foul ball to hit where the Bartman play happened, shades of '03. I had to leave the room after those back to back incidents.

I'm gonna start a fun segment on my blog called The Neil Cotts Watch. I'm sure my readers know how much I hate this guy. So let's get it started.

Cotts Watch, Day 1:

Pinella put Cotts in the eighth inning last night, with a very comfortable lead. He basically just had one job to do and that's get the ball over the plate, something he doesn't know how to do. In just 0.1 innings last night he struck out one, gave up a base hit, and gave up a walk. Way to get runners on base with a good lead going!

Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry has been at the Cubs Triple A Iowa affiliate, the Iowa Cubs.

Heres what I think will go down:

The Cubs will call up Starting Pitcher Jeff Samardzija, move current Starting Pitcher Sean Marshall to the bullpen to be our left handed specialist, and fade out Cotts by cutting him off the team.

I'm not one to complain about umps, they have a pretty hard job to do. Well in today's loss to the St. Louis Cardinals Home Plate Umpire Larry Vanover really screwed up. But umps get paid for being right, well at least they're supposed to be right, right?

Not in this case: Bases loaded, full count, Bradley at the Plate, and Soriano on deck. 3-2 curve ball, waaaaay inside. Apparently it was a strike, at least to Vanover. Major League Baseball needs to review his call and suspend him after they see that he made the wrong call. Vanovers call went on to cost the Cubs the game.

Here is how we lost to bad decision making by Vanover:

-          Obviously the bad call he made, could have walked in a run to give us a run one lead, but instead called Bradley out to give us two outs in the inning with the bases juiced.

-          The next at bat Soriano popped out to deep left, could have been a two run lead with two outs.

-          Fukodome would have been at the plate, his bat has been hot. Fukodome could have either struck out, popped out or hit in a fielders choice to make the third out, or he could have really broke loose and give us at least a three run lead, we lost by three runs.

You suck Vanover, you suck.

So I was at my first Cubs game of the season yesterday, talk about cold. On the way to the game one of the news radios stations said it was going to rain. Luckily it didn't. On top of that I wasn't feeling very well, the seat next to me ended up having chunks of hot dogs on it, if you know what I'm saying. Had to get the usher to come and wipe it off. People probably were thinking "typical drunk Cub fan" but I wasn't drinking.

The Cubs were horrible yesterday. The 5-2 loss to the Rockies is an embarrassment. If the Cubs sucking means that Derrick Lee actually plays well, than I rather have Lee play like crap all season if it means the Cubs play well. Good old logic and reasoning class right there.

I thought Rich Harden was going to have at least 20 K's yesterday. That first inning he was dirty with striking out the side. I really thought I would finally witness history after all the ball games I go to. Low and behold he ended up having his pitch total jacked by the third inning. I remember I saw he had about 70 pitches during the third. While I was at the game I told my dad that it looked like Harden was tipping his pitches, the batters looked like they all knew what was coming off of him. When I got home I told my friend and she said that Len and Bob (Cubs play by play and analysis) said the same thing about him maybe tipping his pitches. At least I know that I'm not that much of a baseball idiot if the 2001 Diamondback World Series Champion manager thought the same thing.

According to a Cub blog I frequent Aramis Ramirez apparently was supposed to be in the lineup yesterday but I guess his back is "still stiff". Ummm, how long does it take for a stiff back to heal? I suggest Ramirez better step up and play today's game against the Cardinals, or he'll be on my sh*t list.

Speaking of that Hillbilly team from St. Louis, we better sweep that four game series against them. As of late this rivalry hasn't really lived up to expectations. When the Cubs are bad, the Cardinals are good, and so on. Actually in fact, I can't really remember if this has ever been a heated rivalry like the Yanks/Sox or Giants/Dodgers. Its pretty much a friendly rivalry, Cardinal fans are knowledgeable about their team, unlike other teams fan bases.

Here's to four "W" flags flying high against the Cardinals the next four games.

Not a horrible start to the season, pretty much what I expected. Well actually I expected 7-0. I think we could blame Neil Cotts for the Cubs two losses. I'll boo the hell out of him tomorrow.

Soriano has been on fire, four homeruns this season in 32 at bats. Ramirez has been pretty solid as well. However the most surprising player in the first week of the season has been Fukodome, where the hell did he come from? Honestly going into the season I expected him to lose his starting job to Reed Johnson. By the way, did anybody see Johnson's game saving grand slam catch over the center field wall in Miller Park? Wow.

Speaking of "wow" moments Ted Lilly almost threw that no hitter yesterday against the Colorado Rockies. I think I may have jinxed it. I texted my buddy letting him know it was the seventh inning and Lilly was throwing the no-no. Yep, then he gave up a base hit. It ok Lilly, I'll blame that one on myself.

Hmmm..what else.

Oh yea, did I say that Cott sucks? Nope, I didn't so I'll say it. YOU SUCK COTTS.

Good news is that Soto will be back in the starting behind the plate tomorrow. Hill did a pretty good job backing up the All Star, Rookie of the Year catcher. Surprising Hill batted .300 in Sotos absence.

Almost forgot. YOU SUCK TOO LEE.

Bradley will probably be out of the game tomorrow, strained groin or something like that.

Once again Marmol SHOULD be closer. I know in earlier entries I wanted Gregg, but I didn't realize how crappy he is.

I won't be sitting in my regular seats for tomorrows game, my uncle has those. I was able to pick up some upper deck tickets though, should be a good one.

*Side note, I read that a cat apparently walked into the Mets new ball park, Citi Field. If anybody knows the history of the '69 Cubs, a black cat walked past Ron Santo. The Cubs had a huge lead in the Eastern division that year, and from then on out the Cubs slumped and the Mets went on to win the World Series. I don't believe in curses and all, but hmmm, maybe karma will work things out.