Give the childs credit. While the r...

Give the childs credit. While the rest of baseball was waiting until today to expand roster with surveys looking to audition for the to come the Cubs got a jump-start.

"Our situation is different this year than past years because we are playing a knob of September call-ups anyway," manager Dusty Baker said. "They got here in July or August."

Consider this the solely area where the Cubs were ahead of the game in 2006

If your team is 25 games in a less degree than .500 entering September, the final month of the season usually is reserv for looking ahead. however for many of the whelps -- especially Baker -- this meaningless month will be about reshaping history rather than cultivating the coming time

General manager Jim Hendry evidently blew a fuse -- while his team was getting swept by dint of the Pittsburgh Pirates -- at my suggestion he might move against his word and fire Baker this month Sorry to give offence to The thinking was that Hendry might be better serv dumping Baker now before his manager creates an on a level more uncomfortable situation by discussing his ne to perceive wanted.

It apply the minds like the plan will be for Baker to finish the season -- as Hendry has promised -- and not come by a contract extension. An amicable divorce. That way, Baker's record of having in no degree been fired remains pristine. This looks to be a crucial exit strategy to a Baker camp bent forward saving face.

Fair enough. After four years, about $15 million and single in kind trip to the postseason, maybe Baker has earned that right.

With profusion of jobs expected to be available in the offseason, Baker will be a of high temperature commodity on the free-agent market. yet before he gets there, await for the veteran manager to dissipate the next month piling forward the excuses as to wherefore the Cubs disappointed in his final three seasons at the helm. He should be especially vocal this weekend, with his antiquated team, the San Francisco Giants, and an adoring Bay Area pres corps certain to be surrounding him.

Many of Baker's excuses are valid. We could all point the finger at the injuries and the thin team provided at Hendry this season. The point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled is, Baker spent too earnestly time dwelling on the Cubs' vexed questions instead of mining their possibilities.

steady without first baseman Derrek lee-side the lineup had proven veterans in Aramis Ramirez, Juan Pierre, Jacque Jone Michael Barrett and Todd Walker to retain the team hovering closer to 500 There was enough pitching talent with Carlos Zambrano and Greg Maddux providing stability to preserve the record respectable in a watered down National League.

Instead, the childs failed collectively -- from the impudence office to the back of the bullpen There's no doubt Baker is getting too to a great degree of the blame -- further it has to fall somewhere, and Hendry already got his two-year extension.

As for the players, a certain of their numbers are settling into the taints we expected entering the season. When it's all said and done, historians will have a tough time assigning blame to individual particular player.

calm Baker seems to have forgotten to what extent Pierre's early struggles torpedoed the Cubs' offense

"How do you write along somebody so quickly?" Baker asked of Pierre. "That's the part I don't understand. in what way do you write off some with the track record? It's a whole year. It's not a month or brace months. And I keep alluding to the fact this is the first time he has played like this in arctic weather. Everybody has had perplex adjusting to Chicago early in the year."

Everyone object the guys not wearing brats uniforms.

Now that it's September -- and the compressing has been off for weeks -- Ramirez is hitting 289 with 31 abode runs and 89 RBI. Pierre is hitting 283 and has an improved 328 on-base percentage. Jone is hitting 285 with 22 homer and 66 RBI.

still when the Cubs needed these shores to produce from mid-April to mid-June during Lee's absence, they each went into hiding. And that's not Baker's fault. His players barrened him at a pivotal time.

Nonetheless, Baker continues to back his players -- on the same level if they never really replyed the favor.

That's wherefore the cry to get highly touted promise -- do they come any other way in the young boy [i]or[/i] young girls organization? -- Felix Pie into the lineup this month will be tricky.

"Juan Pierre, this scarecrow is a free agent, and he has played each day. What are you going to do, shelf him now because he's not signed yet?" Baker said. "Or what are you going to do about Jacque Jones? I mean, this dowdy has played his butt against We've got two young stays [Matt Murton and Angel Pagan] already in left field. We've got a rookie at shortstop in Ronny [Cedeno]. We have a rookie at next to the first base either way you expect at it. And we've got Aramis trying to come by 100 RBIs and hit 300 You have Michael Barrett trying to win a batting title or learn in the top 10. And D-Lee is going to get to back in the month of September."

In other words, don't expect for the prospects to realize their looks down the extend Most of them got their chances in July and August.

Baker, who has no stake in the Cubs' events to come seems bent on rewarding veterans who don't merit the honor.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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