The Growing Cloud of Pessimism

Josh Geer. Nobody knows who Josh Geer is. Josh Geer's parents are probably hard pressed to pick him out of a crowd. But whoever the hell he is, he sure did know how to get the Cubs lineup out.

I'm pretty sure I could head to the mound and get through the Cubs order a couple of times without too much damage right now and my "fast"ball topped out at about 72 last time I was clocked.

I remember last year and how happy I was to be confident that the Cubs would score a baserunner from third with less than two outs. This year, I'm not sure I will ever see a Cub runner get as far as third base, and if he does get there, he'll just be picked off.

What is most bothersome about this hitting funk they are in is the consistency in which they manage to find their bats in the 9th inning of their games. Except for the first game in St. Louis, each game of the six game losing streak has involved Cubs runners on base, and usually the tying run at least coming to the plate.

I don't know what is more frustrating, the fact that they manage to tease us in the ninth inning every damn night without finishing the job, or that they can't manage to have any sort of threat offensively until 24 outs have been made in the ballgame already. I'm not a strategic expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems to me that more runs could theoretically be scored if a team started getting men on base in any of the earlier innings.

All I know for sure is that I should have held onto Chris Young on my fantasy baseball team for one start longer. At least then the Cubs getting shut out would benefit me a little bit instead of just pissing me off and ruining my holiday weekend.