Wake Me Up When September Ends

It's hard to believe that only two months ago I reacted to a Dempsterian meltdown by taking the time to figure out what to look forward to for the rest of the year. And that was after actually watching the game! I experienced this week's back-to-back 11th-inning disasters only via the coments here and ESPNews at the gym, and it was still enough for me to write a sentence that I really never thought I'd write: I'm done with this team for this season. Seriously, what is to be gained by watching this team over the next month? Jerry Seinfeld has a well-known riff about how rooting for a specific team is just rooting for laundry, and I gotta tell ya, this laundry sucks. I'm gonna torture this metaphor for a little while: the ownership needs to sort through the laundry, throw out a bunch of it, and get some new clothes, preferably a nice pair of flat-front slacks that can hit 30 home runs and plays a passable outfield defense. Maybe a snappy blazer that can play second base, too. Oh, and a new manager. Until that happens, I can't follow this team. All of my favorite players are either hurt or traded, with the exception of Derrek Lee, and Lee isn't enough to keep me paying attention. There's just too much negativity, too much suckitude, too much "clog-the-bases" anger-making bullshit for me to deal with on a daily basis. It isn't healthy. I'm working on tabulating the results of the "Wisdom Of Us" contest (remember that?), and I'll be unveiling the results throughout October. Hopefully that month will also bring us a few decent free agent signings and a new manager. For those of you who aren't as completely burned out on this team as I am, there's a little bit of actual content after the jump: Back at the end of June I said there were four things worth paying attention to over the last few months of the season: * Whether Todd Walker, Greg Maddux, Jacque Jones, Phil Nevin, and/or Juan Pierre will be traded, and if so what the Cubs will get in return. The Cubs went 3-for-5 on that list and got themselves Cesar Izturis, a Rookie-league pitcher, and a PTBNL. Woo. * Mike Fontenot, Ryan Theriot, Randy Wells, and Felix Pie at Iowa; Eric Patterson, Sean Gallagher, Carlos Vazquez, and Ed Campusano and J.R. Mathes at West Tenn; Yusuf Carter and Mitch Atkins at Peoria; and Mark Pawelek, Jeff Samardzija, and Josh Lansford at Boise. How'd they do? Fontenot: 296/375/450 -- not bad Theriot: 304/367/379 and a callup -- pretty good, but what did it get him? Wells: 4-5, 5.29, 21 BB/54 K in 63 IP -- not so great Pie: 277/336/436, 13 HR, 16/26 SB -- not Leadoff Man Of The Future numbers Patterson: 263/330/408, 38/50 SB, and a callup to Iowa (347/404/429 in 13 G) -- good speed Gallagher: 7-5, 2.71, 55 BB/91 K in 86 1/3 IP -- nice, but too many walks Vasquez: 3-5, 3.62, 32 BB/58 K in 49 2/3 IP -- ditto Campusano: 2-1, 1.75, 8 BB/34 K in 25 2/3 IP -- good relief numbers Mathes: 9-8, 3.40, 30 BB/110 K in 150 2/3 IP -- nice Carter: 210/271/371, 12 HR -- oof Atkins: 12-4, 2.55, 51 BB/120 K in 130 2/3 IP -- pretty good Pawelek: 3-5, 2.41, 23 BB/47K in 56 IP -- decent Samardzija: 1-2, 2.70, 12 BB/17 K in 30 IP between Boise & Peoria -- should be good for 80 yds receiving against Georgia Tech tomorrow Lansford: 259/340/356 -- not bad There are a few brights spots there -- the Cubs' future at second base looks pretty bright, and the next wave of good minor-league pitchers is rounding into shape -- but any regular reader of Baseball America or Future Shock on Baseball Prospectus would have to notice that Cubs prospects don't get talked about much. * The continued development of Cedeno, Matt Murton, Sean Marshall and Carlos Marmol at the major league level, with the potential arrival of Pie and Wells over the next few months. I think I've seen as much "development" out of Cedeno as I'd like, thankyouverymuch. Murton has put up some nice numbers, and I think is on his way to a productive career, as long as Dusty isn't his manager. Marshall and Marmol are both hurt, so I guess in that respect they've developed into Cubs pitchers extremely well. * The performances of the aforementioned Lee, Prior, and Wood. Pass.