Sure, it’s always nice to beat the Cardinals, and any win is a good win when you’re a long-suffering Cubs fan as I am. That said, it may surprise you that I am not happy about the Cubs recent “surge”, for lack of a better term.
By starting to win now, it may lead Jim Hendry and the Cubs brass into the false assumption that they actually are a contender.
That would also mean that they would hold off on trying to trade their movable pieces — a mistake that could prove costly for the Cubs in the long run.
Look, the Cubs are playing well, but to think they have a chance is simply fool’s gold.
They sit 9.5 games behind division-leading Cincinnati, and would have to climb over two teams to overtake the NL Central.
Meanwhile, the ugly truth is that the Cubs are still eight games under the .500 mark. Now, before you bring up the White Sox as an example, that kind of impressive turnaround just doesn’t happen that often.
I still insist the Cubs should be sellers. But I’m concerned that the Cubs will decide not to sell, which is the danger of winning now, along with keeping Lou Piniella on as manager.
Lou wants to win games, plain and simple. Despite words to the contrary, he doesn’t care about the long-term future of the team and will do whatever he needs to do to win as many games as possible.
He won’t take kindly to any perceived fire sale, and he seems to still have the ear of Hendry for some reason.
But the Cubs can’t have a true fire sale anyway, since too many of their players have exhorbitant contracts that can’t be moved without eating the money.
Yet they could, at least, move Kosuke Fukudome, Ted Lilly and perhaps Derrek Lee, despite his no-trade clause.
And if they can get someone to eat even half of the remaining contract owed to Carlos Zambrano, they should jump at the chance.
I’m not saying to completely rebuild. Again, that isn’t even possible given the team’s payroll obligations.
No, I’m just hoping the Cubs will get something in return for guys like Lee and Lilly who are both likely to leave as free agents following the season.
Plus, I’m hoping the Cubs get some payroll relief, which they can use to help fill in the obvious holes that this club has.
So yes, it’s a much better team we’ve been watching lately and perhaps the kind of team the Cubs should have been all along. But you can’t turn back the hands of time, so here’s hoping that Hendry and the Cubs won’t buy the fool’s gold.
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