A day after basically admitting that the Cubs aren’t going to retain Rich Harden, Lou Piniella also indicated – again without saying anything definitive – that Milton Bradley has played his last game for the North Siders.
“Our general manager Jim Hendry had to do a tough task of sending [Milton] home [on Sept. 20], and I’m sure it wasn’t very pleasant for him,” the Cubs skipper said in a radio interview, referring to Hendry’s decision to suspend Bradley for the season after his controversial remarks about the fans and team.
Piniella then went on to outline exactly how disappointing Milton was [...]

Manager banter is normally pretty innocuous, but on Sunday Lou Piniella actually spoke words that imparted useful information, though it was probably by accident.
“You look at our starting pitching here for next year,” Piniella said. “You’ve got (Carlos) Zambrano, you’ve got (Ryan) Dempster, you’ve got (Randy) Wells, you’ve got (Ted) Lilly, you’ve got (Tom) Gorzelanny, and you’ve got (Jeff) Samardzija, who is going to go to winter ball. And if this kid keeps improving, he’ll be right in the mix. So we’ve got six nice arms.”
Conspicuous by his absence from that rundown is Rich Harden, who has been shut down [...]

Congratulations to the St. Louis Cardinals,  your 2009 National League Central Division champions.
This has been a foregone conclusion for weeks – hell, months – but that doesn’t make it feel any better.
Here’s hoping the Red Birds make a quick exit.  And here’s hoping that next year the tables will be turned.

The Cardinals are in no particular hurry to clinch the NL Central.  Their magic number was 1 going into Friday night, but they lost to Colorado while the Cubs beat San Francisco, leaving the magic number right there.
If I didn’t know any better, I might think the Cardinals were just taunting their Chicago rivals.
But of course we know this isn’t the case.  The Cards want to get this over with as much as weary Cubs fans want it to be over with.  The division race has been on life support for weeks – all that remains is to pull the [...]

The Cubs were supposed to be making a playoff push right about now, but you know what they say about the best laid plans.
That’s right:  they often get VD.  Which is why they should always use protection.
I use humor to distract myself from the disappointment of knowing that all this season’s hopes were futile, that the Cubs have once again fallen short.
There is nothing left now for the Cubs but to play spoiler.  That’s something they are fairly good at, if Thursday night’s victory over the Giants was any indication.
The Giants went into the game needing a win to keep [...]

Someone in Milton Bradley’s support group – and you thought “Kentucky census worker” was a bad job – has decided that Milton should express remorse over the way he blew up his Cubs career by lashing out against the media, fans and organization in a newspaper interview.
“I chose Chicago as a free agent,” reads the statement drafted on Bradley’s behalf, “because I wanted to be part of finally bringing a championship to Cubs fans. I expected to have a great season and I am deeply disappointed by my performance and the team’s struggles. I played every game with everything that [...]

At last, the Chicago Cubs have found a recipe for consistently winning games.
Start with a big slab of Milwaukee Brewers, the other team in the NL Central that has had a woefully disappointing season, then slather on a thick layer of post-Milton Bradley clubhouse looseness, sprinkle in a dash of Tyler Colvin, cook with the heat from Derrek Lee’s bat, add garnish and serve.
It’s a very tasty dish, but unfortunately, it won’t do anything to fatten your playoff hopes.
Rational Cubs Fan replies, “What playoff hopes would those be?  The ones I gave up a month ago?”
Maniac Cubs Fan says, “We’re [...]

Lou Piniella has been in baseball a long time, in big markets like New York and Chicago, so he knows how to handle the media. Those media-handling  skills are coming in very handy in the wake of Jim Hendry’s decision to suspend pain-in-the-ass outfielder Milton Bradley, a guy Piniella openly clashed with earlier in the season, and often seems to have tired of talking about.
“I support Jim’s decision entirely,” Piniella said. “I read some of [Bradley's] comments [about the negativity in Chicago]. I can tell you this, I’ve been here three years and I feel blessed that I’ve been able [...]

Milton Bradley is still technically employed by the Chicago Cubs, but as of right now, he is no longer a member of the Cubs baseball team.  This after Jim Hendry announced that the fiery and controversial outfielder has been suspended for the remainder of the season for derogatory remarks he made about the organization to the media.
“The last few days became too much for me to tolerate,” Hendry said in explaining the move.
Bradley, who had been simmering for most of the season, finally exploded in an interview with the Chicago Daily Herald, saying he had not enjoyed his first season [...]

The last two games against the Cardinals have demonstrated why it was silly for anyone to still hold out hope that the Cubs could stage a miracle turnaround and make the postseason.
It’s not just that they the lost the games, it’s the way they lost:  by once again not being able to mount any offense.
They managed 10 hits on Saturday afternoon against Chris Carpenter and Ryan Franklin, but scored 1 run.  On Friday, they mustered only 2 runs against elderly John Smoltz and two relievers.
Miracle late season comebacks don’t happen if you can’t crack that magical 2 run barrier.
A few [...]