As the de facto baseball writer on staff here at FromThe3s (due to no one else caring about baseball), I was geared up for a nice spring training article with a preview for the 2010 season. The promise of spring is a beautiful thing for all baseball fans, especially for Cub fans such as me. Unfortunately, the timing conflicted with my acceptance of old age and a move from the city to the suburbs, compounded of course by laziness playing its usual role.

So now I sit here, two weeks into the season and already past the point of optimism, wondering what happened in Chicago. I’m only a day removed from learning that Carlos Zambrano, the Cubs $90M prize ace, has been moved to the bullpen. Has any other opening day starter in the history of the game been demoted to the bullpen before the end of April? The offense has managed to produce the lowest runs per dollar spent of any team in the majors. I didn’t actually calculate this stat, but you don’t have to watch many Cub games to realize that production isn’t matching paychecks. As I write this, we have made it to the 7th inning without scoring a run, well on the way to the second shutout in the last three games. Terrible. And yet here I am, listening to Pat Hughes over the airwaves and praying for a turnaround. It seems as though I’ve been here before.

To make matters worse, I live in St. Louis. I have no problem with this town. Unfortunately, the Cardinals make their home here. Not only are they our arch rival, they are the exact opposite of the Cubs in terms of team history. The Cardinals have won ten World Series title, only four years removed from the most recent. I don’t think I need to get into the Cubs history in the World Series. It’s hard enough to ignore your team’s historic ineptitude. Living in the shadow of Busch Stadium makes matters that much worse.

This year is of no help. The best player in baseball for nearly ten years running calls St. Louis home, and judging by how old he may or may not be, could continue to be for another five years or more. They’ve broken out of their “small market” mindset and signed Holliday to the richest contract of this past offseason. And the starting rotation is quite possibly the best in baseball, especially at the top with Carpenter and Wainwright. In short, it is shaping up to be a long year. Four games out might as well be forty the way the two teams are playing. Two weeks ago I scoffed at a few ESPN commentators who predicted the Cubs would finish fifth in the NL Central. Now it seems they may have somehow overestimated this squad.

The $100M line-up hasn’t hit since 2008. Our $19M leftfielder has set the bar so low that if he hit 20 home runs and had a .250 average we’d somehow deem that a success. The bullpen is atrocious. And now our manager, one of the best the game has ever seen, has apparently lost it. Not only have we panicked and mailed in the season by moving Big Z to the bullpen, we’ve risked a complete implosion from a player that has never been the picture of emotional maturity. A player we still owe more than just a few million over the next few years. Seems like a poorly thought out risk of a team that has panicked. And of a team that is screwed. I certainly hope I’m wrong. I hope that come July there is still a playoff race to discuss and I can look back at this and laugh. I hope.

At least my childhood hero, Andre Dawson, will be headed for his long-awaited, rightful place in Cooperstown this summer. That will take some of the sting out of another disappointing season. I can remember the glory of the summer of ’87 when Dawson arrived and had one of the most amazing pre-steroids season of any Cub ever. A season we finished in last place.

If you were one of the three people who have read this far waiting for a prediction on the season, here it is. The Cardinals will win the NL Central (before losing to the Phillies who will in turn lose to the Rays in a rematch of the 2007 series), the Cubs will finish last, and I will seriously ponder becoming a Royals fan. If you need me I will be drinking.

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