What's wrong with the 2009 Chicago Cubs?

It's June 18th, and the 2009 Chicago Cubs are currently 30-31 and 4 1/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers and in 4th place behind the Brewers, Cardinals, and Reds. The Cubs are closer to last place (Astros 2 games behind Cubs) than they are closer to first place.

On Sunday, the Cubs fired their hitting coach Gerald Perry in favor of Von Joshua who spent 4 years as hitting coach with the Iowa Cubs and worked with Ryan Theriot, Geovany Soto, Mike Fontenot, and others done there.

Alfonso Soriano's contract is looking worse and worse as the days go by as he is only in his 3rd year of an 8 year contract. Soriano is quickly approaching the Mendoza Line and he has just looked lost at the plate these past two months after his quick start.

Speaking of Mendoza Line, Aaron Miles is hovering around it and his OPS has dropped below 500. I think it's time to end this ill-faded Aaron Miles experiment and just let him go. Either play Jake Fox at 3rd base and move Fontenot to 2nd (he's been awful as well) or just put Blanco back at 2nd. While he can't hit (although he is on par with Aaron Miles in terms of offense and may be a little better) he's a much better fielder than Miles. The only two guys that have impressed me in this lineup over the past week or two is Derrek Lee and Milton Bradley. Lee has been fantastic the past month after his career looked like it was heading down the toilet in April. And Milton Bradley is finally starting to hit the ball with some consistency although his fielding has been shotty to say the least.

It's hard to believe Alfonso Soriano is the Cubs RBI leader with just 28 RBI's. In fact, Northsidebaseball.com poster UMFan83 has this fun (or not so fun) fact:

(The first number is how many hitters have more than 28 RBIs, the second number is how many RBIs the leader has)

ARI - 2, 45
ATL - 3, 35
BAL - 4, 44
BOS - 4, 63
CHW - 3, 41
CIN - 3, 43
CLE - 4, 49
COL - 4, 47
DET - 3, 42
FLA - 5, 43
HOU - 3, 40
KAN - 2, 30
LAA - 4, 51
LAD - 5, 44
MIL - 4, 63
MIN - 5, 55
NYY - 5, 55
NYM - 2, 39
OAK - 3, 38
PHI - 6, 59
PIT - 3, 34
SDG - 2, 43
SFO - 3, 39
SEA - 3, 40
STL - 3, 58
TAM - 5, 59
TEX - 4, 46
TOR - 6, 47
WAS - 4, 46

Some interesting things pulled from that
- Every team has at least 2 guys with more RBIs than the Cubs best RBI guy
- The Phillies and Blue Jays each have 6 GUYS with more RBIs than the Cubs leader. The Jays actually have a 7th hitter, who is tied with Soriano with 28 RBIs. 7/9 hitters have as many or more RBIs than the Cubs best guy
- Every team but 3 in the league has at least one guy with 10 more RBIs than Soriano
- All in all, 107 different players have more RBIs than Soriano's 28. Unbelievable

And remember that horrible 2006 Chicago Cubs team? While the 2009 Chicago Cubs have much better pitching than that horrid team, the 2009 Chicago Cubs are on pace to score less runs over the course of the season than that 2006 Chicago Cubs team did.

Is it time to fire Lou? Not sure if we're at that point yet but I think we're getting very close. Lou just doesn't seem like he has that passion he had in his first two years here. The Colorado Rockies recently went on an 11 game win streak after firing their manager Clint Hurdle replacing him with former Red Sox and Dodgers manager Jim Tracy. The 2003 Florida Marlins fired their manager, Jeff Torborg after 38 games and replaced him with Jack McKeon and they went on to win the World Series. I would not be surprised if Lou retired after this season especially if the Cubs miss the playoffs. Again, I'm not saying the Cubs should fire Lou right this minute but if this team continues to struggle like they are, it's an option worth looking at.

In other Cubs news, the Cubs are apparently scouting Pedro Martinez down in the Dominican Republic and may end up signing him in the next coming weeks. While I would like the Cubs to focus on getting a capable hitter in this lineup, this could mean the Cubs are looking to deal someone currently in the rotation for a position player. Say a Ted Lilly or a Rich Harden. There are a few good options out on the trade market such as Miguel Tejada, Matt Holliday, and Mark DeRosa that the Cubs could be looking at.

And yes, I'm back and blogging hopefully for the rest of the season. Although if this team continues to play like they have, I'll probably have less and less to say each day. This team is that frustrating. I'd argue that this Cubs team is more frustrating than the horrible 2006 Cubs team and more than half of Cubs fans would probably agree with me based on the expectations. Hopefully the Cubs can turn this season around for the better though.