First time musings

This season is really starting to worry me. It just feels off. First of all, here's a math equation that doesn't add up.

Subtract 70 Homeruns and 160 RBI's (sosa and alou)
Subtract 15+ wins (clement)
Add- Jerry Hairston and Henry Blanco

I know that hindsight is 20/20 but I was never satisfied with nomar as the SS. it just never seemed like a good fit. He was a great aquisition last year to try to get us over the hump, but clearly he didn't give the team that lift either. I wished all winter that they would go after Cabrera or Renteria. Even Eckstein would have fit nicely and wouldn't have cost as much.

I hate being so down on a team that I had such high hopes for, but it says something to me that we have so much more talent than we did even 3 years ago, but something still doesn't feel right. I can only blame this feeling on Dusty and his shaky (at best) decisions. Hendry has surrounded him with such great talent, and he never seems to do the right thing, (or anything for that matter) I've never seen a team with fewer steals, sacrifice bunts, hit and runs, you name it, the cubs don't do it. They don't even take walks. I know dusty is known for letting the guys play, but at some point, you have to move a runner over, even if it would bruise Jeromy Burnitz's ego. And i don't think it would. But Dusty just lets them all just swing away, because I guess technically, anyone can hit a homerun on any given pitch, and runners are constantly stranded at 2nd base. Dusty's favorite saying is "putting the players in the position to succeed". But what about using the players to put the team in a position to win. And at this, he has done a piss poor job.

Well the pirates are in town, maybe we can make some headway and beat up on some of these teams not named The Cardinals.

Here's to keeping the hope alive, no matter how crappy the last game was.