It’s been a tough year to be a baseball fan in Chicago. The White Sox, the consensus pick to win the AL Central, have spent the full season in a coma while hovering around .500. Adam Dunn, the big free agent slugger signed in the off-season, will be lucky to hit over .200 and Ozzie Guillen can’t wait to make the move down South Florida where the Marlins job awaits him. All this, and the team is drawing so bad it couldn’t sell out a parking lot.

On the North-side of town, expectations were understandably lower. The Cubs are rebuilding and are coming off one of their worst years of this century. A .500 record, while developing some of the young guys (Castro, Barney, Colvin, & Cashner) would represent a rousing success.

Yet, somehow, even with these low expectations, the Cubbies have managed to disappoint. How bad? Consider that at 46-95, the Cubbies are actually riding a season high 4 game winning streak.

When it’s been bad, it’s been real bad. The albatross contracts of Soriano and Zambrano remain with the club. Realistically,though, no one expected any team to trade for either. Jeff Smardzja is still in ‘pen, doing his best impersonation of a (really bad) major league pitcher. Carlos Pena, a nice enough guy, is still here and is having a good year. Unfortunately a good year means hitting .220 with a ton of power. First time manager Mike Quade looks to be trying to set a record for both ejections and player nicknames (25 players, 25 nicknames…who can keep track??), but some of his bonehead moves have cost the team games. To be fair, Quade is a quick learner and has rarely made the same mistake twice. Unfortunately, he is not having any trouble finding ways to screw things innovative ways to screw things up.

There have been some positives. Kosuke Fukudome was traded away, opening up everyday playing time for Tyler Colvin in RF. Darwin Barney and Starlin Castro look to be the team’s middle infield for years to come. Geovany Soto has started to hit again and some of the young pitching is coming around. Things are looking up.

18 games under .500, here we come!!!