Chicago Cubs

Right after the Wrigley Field Grounds Crew prepared the field after nearly a two-hour rain delay, the Chicago Cubs managed to mess up the field again.

The Cubs were sloppy from the get-go.

And as much as I love the Cubs dearly, I began thinking, 'this is our hometown professional baseball team?'

The Cubs' defense made themselves look anything but a major-league team Tuesday night against the Oakland A's.

Derreck Lee–the least you'd expect to make any errors–committed two that night.

      ( Originally posted on IvyReport.com )

There really is no way to sugar-coat it.

Randy Wells has pitched like absolute garbage over his last eight starts and is on his way to a plainly pathetic sophomore season in the majors. The guy is the not-so-proud owner of a 5.15 ERA on the year.

The Washington Nationals have stepped up a notch in the MLB with their performance this year after their horrible 103-loss season in 2009.

The Nats did make quite a few moves for Adam Dunn and Josh Willingham before the 2009 season, and they are now the core guys, along with Zimmerman in the lineup. They also traded for the speedster Nyjer Morgan.

With Washington making plenty of wise moves this offseason, they are off to an average start, with a 31-33 record. They are just 6 games back in the National League East. 

Thin-skinned Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella took exception to criticism about his use of rookie outfielder Tyler Colvin and went on a tirade before yesterday's contest against crosstown rivals the Chicago White Sox.

Perhaps he should be worrying about the way his team is playing instead of the outside criticism about his decision.

Part of the description of your job as a manager is that people will criticize you. Until Piniella went off yesterday I didn't know you had to have certain credentials before you were allowed to express your opinion.

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The Chicago Cubs may have made one of the more lopsided trades in recent memory when they shipped troubled player Milton Bradley for supposedly over-paid under-performing Carlos Silva.

Well, he was under-performing.

With such a rich and lengthy history, the Cubs have seen roughly 2,000 players don the Cubbie blue over the years.

Because of that, I thought it would be fun to name who I feel are the top five players for all 26 letters of the alphabet, going by last name.

To qualify, the player needs only to have played at least one game for the Cubs.

A long time ago, Jim Hendry, knowing that the World Series window for a team that had not represented the National League in the Series since 1945 was very short, went on a spending spree. Among other signings, he gave Kosuke Fukudome a big deal, (4-years, $48 million) locked up Carlos Zambrano (5 years, $91 million) and Aramis Ramirez (5 years, $75 million) and, of course, the most reviled contract in Cubs history, the 8-year, $136 million dollar behemoth handed out to streak hitter and strikeout machine Alfonso Soriano.

In his 11 seasons prior to the 2009 season, Chicago Cubs’ 3B Aramis Ramirez made just two trips to the disabled list. Now, over the last two years, Ramirez has made two trips to the DL.

Last year, Ramirez missed 58 games because of separated shoulder and now in 2010, he has landed on the DL again. The Cubs placed Ramirez on the 15-day DL yesterday because of a bruised left thumb.

At 26-31 and 6.5 games out of first place in the NL Central, the Chicago Cubs are certainly still in the race for the playoffs—after all, it's only June.

But this team does not have the feel of a playoff team, and I know I'm not alone in thinking that.

The Cubs rank No. 7 in the National League in team hitting and No. 9 in team pitching, respectively, but it seems like they should be in the bottom-third with the way they've played at times this season.

2010 has not been kind to the Chicago Cubs, and the 25 men on the roster will help explain why:

Day one of the MLB First-Year Players Draft began with the most predictable draft pick in baseball history, when the Washington Nationals selected 17-year-old phenom Bryce Harper.