A good number of predictions have the Cubs going out into free agency and trying to buy their way into a title, as they did after the abysmal 2006. There are a lot of similarities: managerial vacancy, terrible record, and obvious holes to be filled.

However, one obvious thing is different from now and then: prospects. Lots and lots of prospects. The Cubs can reasonably fill all the holes they have now with up-and-coming players, rather than spending themselves into a budget nightmare (see: Soriano, Alfonso).

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The Cubs are benefiting from the versatility of several of their young players. It’s a good thing for them, too, since some veterans are banged-up and the Cubs won’t be calling up many minor-leaguers until their postseasons are done.

Outfielder Tyler Colvin has played all three outfield spots. He started in center field Wednesday in place of Marlon Byrd, who is nursing a sore right leg.

“Starting in the minor leagues, my first year, I was in left field and center field,” Colvin said. “The next year, I was in center and right. They kept moving me around.”

Colvin continues to take pregame grounders at first base, but the Cubs won’t rush him into game action there. He’s says he’s not ready for that yet anyway.

“I’m getting more comfortable,” he said.

Well, let's look at the bright side: If I would have told you that Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts was going…

Inconsistent.

To sum up the Chicago Cubs of 2010 in one word, that word is the clear choice. Until a seven-game skid from late July into early August, the team had not won or lost more than four games in a row all season. They have played 31 games decided by six or more runs, going 11-20. In their 47 one-run games, they are 17-30.

It is somewhat unfair, however, and certainly not constructive, to simply dismiss Chicago as having had a bad team. That is not the case.

In the first half of the season, Chicago could not score enough to win. Third baseman Aramis Ramirez, the team’s offensive superstar, stood at a miserable .178/.243/.296 at the end of play on July 5th.

First baseman Derrek Lee, a former batting champion and the team’s premier slugger in 2009, struggled to a .227/.326/.367 line through the games of that day. Despite strong (but largely unspectacular) starts by a handful of other position players, Chicago could not put runs on the board with its third and fourth hitters struggling so mightily.

It was a shame, too, because those difficulties held Chicago back during a time when their starting pitching was working wonders. Through July 6th, right-handed hurler Carlos Silva had thrown 100 1/3 innings, allowing just 16 walks against 70 strikeouts and posting a 2.96 ERA.

Yet the Cubs lost five of his 16 starts, scoring two or fewer times in three of those defeats. Ryan Dempster, the team’s co-ace, had fanned 129 batters and walked 46 through July 15th, but the Cubs had lost 11 times in his 19 starts. In nine of those 11 losses, the team scored three runs or fewer.

The team’s other ace, Ted Lilly, suffered a similar fate. Lilly pitched well through July, posting a 3.69 ERA and striking out over three times as many opposing hitters as he walked. Because of lacking run support, however, the team lost 11 times in his 18 starts, as well. Again, nine of the losses saw the team score three runs or fewer.

Suddenly, just shy of the All-Star break, everything changed. Ramirez began a torrid tear that has lasted through the summer. Since July 6th, he has mashed at rates of .315/.358/.612. Lee began bashing on July 10th, after which point he would hit .317/.358/.574 before being traded in mid-August.

Other players, too, stepped up. Outfielder Kosuke Fukudome, a notoriously slow finisher who had lost playing time throughout the middle part of the season, came alive August 3rd, and has hit a preposterous .406/.506/.719 in 21 games since. Xavier Nady, a reserve outfielder who gained regular playing time at first base after Lee’s departure, batted .320/.386/.467 for the month of August.

By that time, however, it was too late. Lilly had been traded to Los Angeles. Silva’s season had come off the tracks with shoulder fatigue and a heart condition contributing to bad starts and a stint on the disabled list. Dempster, to whom the team had constantly looked to rest a tired bullpen, grew weary under the weight of rising pitch counts and poor defense. His ERA since July 15th is 4.05, and he has walked 26 against only 43 strikeouts. In seven of his nine starts, the team has scored at least four times. Still, they have won only five games.

So there we have it. The tale of two seasons. During the first half, the Cubs were not offensively viable. During the second half, a combination of circumstances has depleted their pitching staff beyond repair. Because of a bad defense and a worse bullpen, the team could not overcome either shortcoming. The end result is a team that will feel fortunate if it reaches 70 wins.

How can general manager Jim Hendry avoid this problem next season? In part, that will take care of itself. The team suffered from a lack of organizational depth this season.

Next year, however, a number of strong pitchers will be ready to step up from the Minor Leagues and contribute if the need arises. Outfielder Brett Jackson could be ready for a mid-season call-up, and semi-prospects Marquez Smith and Brandon Guyer look able if the team needs an extra bat or two off the bench.

The entirely unstable managerial situation, which the team will presumably remedy by bringing aboard a new skipper this winter, may also have contributed to the team’s fractured personality, and that, too, will take care of itself.

Still, the Cubs will need outside help to contend in 2011, if indeed that is possible. Free agents Cliff Lee and Adrian Beltre have reputations as consistent, steady contributors. Either would be a sensible addition. Neither would be sufficient alone. At any rate, Hendry and company must find some way to fix the crucial flaw of this 2010 Chicago Cubs team: extraordinarily bad timing.

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CHICAGO – Kosuke Fukudome had three hits, including a go-ahead double, during a perfect day at the plate as the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 on Wednesday.

The Chicago Cubs rededicated a statue of late broadcaster Harry Caray outside Wrigley Field on Wednesday. The ceremony was held before Chicago's home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Caray's wife, Dutchie Caray, was among those on hand. The statue is located outside the entrance to Wrigley Field's bleachers and features the Hall of Fame announcer leading crowds in a rendition of…

The Pittsburgh Pirates have struggled almost everywhere this season — except Wrigley Field. Neil Walker and Garrett Jones each hit a long two-run homer, and Pittsburgh beat the Chicago Cubs 14-7 on Tuesday night for a rare road victory. Walker went 4 for 5 with four RBIs and three runs scored for the Pirates, who won for only the fifth time in 43 road games and ended a 14-game losing streak away…

With just one month remaining of the misery that has been the 2010 season in Lakeview, the Chicago Cubs are 20 games below .500. On Monday night, despite holding a special ceremony to honor newly-inducted Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson, the team played to the emptiest Wrigley Field in nearly three years: A crowd of less than 30,000 fans.

In truth, it is not only the losing that has driven the fans away, but the fact that the team plays a sloppy, often unwatchable brand of baseball. No team in baseball has committed more errors; no National League team has stolen fewer bases. Cubs hurlers have walked the fourth-most batters in the league, and have allowed the fifth-most home runs on the senior circuit.

For those too dedicated to turn away, however, there is plenty yet to be gleaned from the team’s 30 remaining games. It has often been said that September rarely gives a fair picture of a player’s abilities.

Still, the Cubs will use the last month of the 2010 campaign to find out as much germane information as possible about the best options for 2011. Here are five members of the organization upon whom it would be wise to keep the closest eyes.

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With just one month remaining of the misery that has been the 2010 season in Lakeview, the Chicago Cubs are 20 games below .500. On Monday night, despite holding a special ceremony to honor newly-inducted Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson, the team played to the emptiest Wrigley Field in nearly three years: A crowd of less than 30,000 fans.

In truth, it is not only the losing that has driven the fans away, but the fact that the team plays a sloppy, often unwatchable brand of baseball. No team in baseball has committed more errors; no National League team has stolen fewer bases. Cubs hurlers have walked the fourth-most batters in the league, and have allowed the fifth-most home runs on the senior circuit.

For those too dedicated to turn away, however, there is plenty yet to be gleaned from the team’s 30 remaining games. It has often been said that September rarely gives a fair picture of a player’s abilities.

Still, the Cubs will use the last month of the 2010 campaign to find out as much germane information as possible about the best options for 2011. Here are five members of the organization upon whom it would be wise to keep the closest eyes.

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Lou Piniella is home.

Sweet Lou, the manager of the Chicago Cubs and four other teams since 1986, has called it a career. And what a career it has been.

Piniella ranks 14th on the all-time wins list for managers: he’s been a three-time manager of the year, and he won the World Series as manager of the Cincinnati Reds in 1990.

As a player, he was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1969 and an All-Star in 1972 with the Kansas City Royals. He ended his playing career with the New York Yankees in 1984, but not before winning two World Series championships with the Bronx Bombers in 1977 and 1978.

Piniella has lived in the public’s light for over 40 years. During that time he’s been a winner and an enigmatic personality. He will be remembered for his famous tirades on the field as much as anything else; he’s been known to rip first base right out of the ground and toss it across the field. Not to mention, his post-game press conferences are the stuff of legend.

Yes, Lou Piniella wore his heart on his sleeve, and there was never a moment he couldn’t be called genuine. He loved the game of baseball, and I’m sure, still loves it; but he has to walk away.

In a profession where he only needs to desire a job and it is his, no matter the salary, he left for something more important. Sweet Lou has come home to take care of his mother.

Throughout the history of sport, instances of sickness and death in a family have crippled even the greatest atheltes. Others, like Lou Piniella and his mother, drew fanfare, praise, and predictably, a few tears.

There was Olympic speed skater Dan Jansen, who fell twice in the 1988 Olympics after learning of his sister Jane’s death to leukemia. Jansen ended up winning a gold medal in the 1994 Olympics in a world record-setting time. He dedicated the skate to his departed sister and took a victory lap with his one-year-old daughter, Jane.

For me, the biggest example was Brett Favre’s performance in a Monday Night Football game in December of 2003. The Green Bay Packers were facing the Oakland Raiders. The day before, Favre’s father was taken by a stroke, but taking what he knew of his father, Favre played in that game, knowing his father would have wanted it that way. 

From the start of the game, you could feel something special was happening. Favre was crisp and focused, and even on the plays when he wasn’t, his players seemed to make unbelievable plays for their mourning leader. Packer receivers caught touchdown passes that seemed impossible to grab in what could only be described as divine intervention.

Favre threw four touchdowns in the first half alone in the 41-7 Green Bay victory. Even Raider fans, known for their brashness and hatred of all things not wearing the Raiders’ silver and black, were compelled to cheer for Favre. I would dare say that anyone who witnessed that final tribute from son to father and didn’t get choked up must have an empty space where their heart should be.

It’s been a strange marriage between grief and sports. We see athletes as icons: sometimes infallible models of what can be achieved when a person is truly dedicated. We cheer with them when they succeed, and we weep when they fail.

Sometimes, more often than we would care to admit, tragedy strikes, and we see our heroes as one of us. We feel their pain and in our own way try to lift them up as if they were our own family, because in a way, they are.

67-year-old Lou Piniella has come home to take care of his ailing 90-year-old mother. He did it without fanfare, just a quick press conference to let people know that Sunday, August 22, would be his last game as manager.

A somber Piniella made his announcement, and while he wept at the thought of leaving the game he’s loved for all these years, we wept with him. Not for leaving the game, but for the realization of a fact that we all know to be true…we are all mortal, and we will all suffer sad times. 

Above fame and accolades and money comes family. Many of us have already felt what Piniella is going through, and the rest of us know one day the pain will be ours. We wish him a peaceful and loving resolve to this transitional time in his life.

Sweet Lou is no longer a player in the majors, nor is he a manager in the majors. He’s once again become one of us, a boy from West Tampa who loves his mother.

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