Jim Hendry

Carlos Zambrano has been to the mountaintop and back.

He has braved the treacherous climb, studied with the celebrated Dharma bums in the Himalayas, found inner peace with the spirit of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and even spent a few months in the swamps of Dagobah under Jedi master Yoda.

He is ready.

Boston Red Sox GM Theo Epstein made a remark late last week that likely drew less attention than it deserved, especially as the world gears up for Albert Pujols to hit free agency after the 2011 season. 

In discussing the tactics that helped Boston sign free-agent Carl Crawford in December—despite rumors that Crawford would go to the Angels—Epstein mentioned that Boston scouted Crawford exhaustively throughout "the last three, four months of the season at the ballpark, away from the ballpark."

Besides the relatively rosy picture Cubs management paints, described in Part I, there is another view as to why the Cubs lost last year. The bottom line is that one really doesn’t have to buy into the bad luck or underachievement excuses.  There are legitimate doubts about the steps that have been taken to improve the team.

After 103 years of failure and disappointment, there have to be some excuses as to why the Chicago Cubs cannot win a World Series, let alone make it to one. Cubs fans have suffered, but remained loyal for inexplicable circumstances, including injuries and blunders. It has been a highlight reel of misfortune. This will discuss the top five reasons as to why the Cubs cannot win.

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Another way of asking this question is have the moves Jim Hendry made in the offseason improved the team and have the moves their division rivals made improved those teams more?

On the latter score, though the Brewers have improved their pitching, they have done so at the expense of their rather suspect defense. On balance, they remain a very flawed team. Let's remember they had CC Sabathia for the better part of a year and they lost.

With the announcement of Mike Quade as the new manager of the Chicago Cubs, the organization has finally done the impossible. They have taken away all hope from fans of the team and the promise of "Wait Until Next Year."

Most of us already assumed it would never happen in our lifetimes, but they just hammered the final nail in the coffin for fans of the North Side ballclub.

This is part two of a series of articles outlining the decisions that the Cubs will need to make this offseason. You can read part one and introduce yourself to their current situation by following this link.

There has been a lot of traffic over the question of what exactly the Cubs are going to do at the first base position since Derrek Lee left the team.  There has been a lot of fanfare regarding Tyler Colvin’s move to first, but Mike Quade seems to have squelched that idea. So what are the Cubs to do? Well there are many options, some more possible than others.

I can safely say that I am a gigantic fan of Adam Dunn. Consistency is one of the main benchmarks for picking my favorite players, and he very simply gets the job done. He is a freak of patience and power, but the consistent production is what draws me to him.

For instance, his production from 2007 to 2009 looks a little something like this:

2007   .264 AVG/.386 OBP (101 walks)/40 home runs

2008   .236 AVG/.386 OBP (122 walks)/40 home runs

Yesterday afternoon, Lou Piniella managed his final game with the Chicago Cubs. 

And in typical Cubs fashion, they lost, bad, 16-5.

Its hard to believe that, save for a few players, this is the same Cubs team that posted the best record in the National League in 2008. Now the Cubs are in 5th place, with only the bargain basement Pirates keeping them from last in the NL Central (but only by 9.5 games mind you).

In the past month, we've seen half of our infield and a starting pitcher traded away, as well as  Piniella's recent retirement.