Chicago Cubs

It's now June and the Cubs sit four games below .500 and six games behind the Cards and Reds.

With 52 games in the books, the season is getting dangerously close to one-third over. So all the cries not to worry because it's early are starting to ring hollow.

Meanwhile, we know that Jim Hendry doesn't have money to work with, and is stuck with expensive, long-term contracts that have no-trade clauses. So any suggestions must work within these limitations.

So while I'd love to suggest we go out and obtain Roy Oswalt, we need to be practical here.

As Chicago Cubs' starter Carlos Silva morphs into a Cy Young candidate so far early in the 2010 season, Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry is getting more than his share of credit for pulling off that trade.

That credit is completely unwarranted.

You don't get credit for signing the worst possible fit for your team in 2009 in Milton Bradley and ruining the season, and then receive accolades because the Seattle Mariners dumped their refuse on you and he turns out much better than expected, at least for now.

The Chicago Cubs currently are 23-26, good for third place in the National League Central Division. They are six games behind the Cincinnati Reds and five behind the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cubs are truly struggling this season. A loss today put's them on pace to lose 88 games. That's right, 88 games. To make matter's worse, in games that have not been started by Carlos Silva, the Cubs are 15-25, a .375 winning percentage!

In November 2009, Tyler Colvin moved to Arizona to train with Cubs strength coach Tim Buss.

The training program add 25 pounds of muscle and Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella was very impressed with him early this spring.

"We noticed right from the start of spring training at Fitch Park that he was taking some really good batting practice and driving the ball to left-center, right-center," Piniella said.

Three players have started a game atop the Cubs batting order this season: Ryan Theriot, Kosuke Fukudome, and Marlon Byrd.

Theriot has led off 38 times, Fukudome 10 times, and Byrd once heading into Saturday's game against the Cardinals.

Among those who follow the Cubs, the choice between Theriot and Fukudome is a contentious one. Neither is the ideal choice for a leadoff hitter, but for a team without any better candidates, they have their own advantages.

The Cubs have an interesting situation on their hands.

Carlos Marmol, Sean Marshall, James Russell, and now Jeff Stevens are all pitching well coming out of the bullpen. In the rotation, each of Ryan Dempster, Randy Wells, Carlos Silva, Tom Gorzelanny, and Ted Lilly's seasons have been solid overall.

At the moment, Dempster and Lilly are coming off of really good outings while Gorzelanny and Wells are coming off pretty bad outings. Silva's due to start on Saturday.

On the one hand, the Cubs have Mr. Gorzelanny to blame for losing the game yesterday, as he allowed seven runs in five innings.

But at least it solves one dilemma; it solidifies the decision as to which starter will be replaced by Carlos Zambrano next week.

While the offense continues to struggle scoring runs (three runs in Tuesday's win, three of their five runs yesterday were scored after the game was 7-2, and only two hits through seven innings today), Gorzy never really gave the Cubs a chance to win.

Pure acts of kindness in this world are hard to believe.

So was it just a friendly gesture by the Chicago Cubs when they agreed to give up their radio slot to air the Chicago Blackhawks’ finals?

The Chicago Tribune reported that the Cubs agreed to let WGN-AM 720 air all of the Hawks’ Stanley Cup finals series . That includes three of the series games that overlap with scheduled Cubs games.

I know that the Cubs' bullpen has struggled.

Through 45 games, they have combined for an ERA of 4.81 and opponent average of .251 in 119.2 innings. In fact, those numbers give the bullpen a little too much credit.

Carlos Marmol, Sean Marshall, and James Russell have carried the group. They've combined for an ERA of 1.97 and an opponent average of .185 in their 59.1 innings of work, good for almost half of the bullpen's total innings.

Without the aforementioned trio, the bullpen has combined for an ERA of 7.61 and an opponent average of .306 in 60.1 innings.

I woke up this morning and decided to make a change. Not the kind of change that would make my parents proud like getting a paying job or removing myself from their payroll, but more of a change that affects only me.

I expect to get a lot of well-deserved criticism from my father and friends for switching my MLB fan allegiance from the Chicago Cubs to the Washington Nationals at this point in my life.