Anything's possible if you just make shit up

Say you're Phil Rogers and you need some grist for the rumor mill to fill out your "Whispers" column. Hey, how about saying something totally unsourced about the Jake Peavy "deal"?

The Cubs are on the list of teams for which Jake Peavy will waive his no-trade clause. This doesn't look like a fit, but don't be surprised if Jim Hendry tries to put together a package that would include a swap of first basemen, Derrek Lee and Adrian Gonzalez, who is supposedly untouchable.

Uh, what? Let's break down this nonsense.

Okay, the first sentence is true; the Cubs are on that list. Doesn't really mean much.

The second sentence starts with "This doesn't look like a fit." True enough. It seems doubtful that the Cubs have the prospects to beat out teams like Atlanta.

Then: "Don't be surprised if Jim Hendry tries to put together a package." Yup, that's fine. I mean, I want him to try.

Then we head to Crazy Town: "...that includes a swap of first baseman, Derrek Lee and Adrian Gonzalez, who is supposedly untouchable."

Whaaaaaat? Phil, did you forget to take your non-crazy pills this morning? Think about this for a second. The Cubs don't have the prospects to put together a deal... so they're going to juice it up by asking the Padres to trade their untouchable first baseman for the Cubs' first baseman? I can just imagine how this conversation would go:

Kevin Towers: Hello?
Jim Hendry: Hey, Kevin, Jim Hendry here.
Towers: Hi, Jim, how are you?
Hendry: Oh, fine, thanks. Listen, since you guys have Jake Peavy on the market and he's willing to come to us, I wanted to pitch a trade to you.
Towers: Shoot.
Hendry: All right, Felix Pie, Kevin Hart and Jeff Samardzija. And we'll eat some of Samardzija's contract.
Towers: I don't know, Jim. I really need some guys who are major-league ready right now. Pie hasn't exactly done much for your team, and Hart and Samardzija haven't proven they can start in the bigs. I've got the Braves ready to offer me either Jair Jurrjens or Charlie Morton as a centerpiece of a deal.
Hendry: Well, I could send you Jason Marquis...
Towers: Ha ha! You old jokester.
Hendry: Um, yes. I'm a jokester. Anyway, I thought you might find that a little light, so I'm willing to sweeten the pot.
Towers: Go for it.
Hendry: What would you say to the triumphant return of Derrek Lee to San Diego?
Towers: Well, we've already got a first baseman, Jim, and he's younger and more powerful than Lee.
Hendry: Here's how you resolve that problem - you trade him to us in return! So, what do you say?
[faint clicking sound]
Hendry: Kevin?
[dial tone]

Does Phil Rogers honestly believe that the Padres would trade the Cubs arguably their pitcher and best hitter for a grab bag of prospects and Derrek Lee? Just for fun, here's how Adrian Gonzalez stacks up with Derrek Lee:

Lee, 2008: .291/.361/.462, 41 2B, 20 HR, 90 RBI; age for bulk of 2009 season: 33
Gonzalez, 2008: .279/.361/.510, 32 2B, 36 HR, 119 RBI; age for bulk of 2009 season: 27

So Gonzalez is six years younger than Lee, has more power despite playing in Petco (on the road he hit .308/.368/.578), and makes $3 million in 2009 to Lee's $13 million. Who wouldn't do that???

I don't believe for a second that Phil Rogers even had a source on this. I think he just made it up. Either that or it was some tossed-off thing that the source wasn't being serious about.

Randy Bush: So that about wraps up the interview, I guess, Phil. Anything else you wanted to ask me?
Phil Rogers: Yeah, any chance that Jake Peavy deal happens?
Bush: Heh, well, we'd all like it to, Phil. In fact, we'd love to be able to get Adrian Gonzalez from them too!
Rogers: Really? Wow. What about Derrek Lee?
Bush: I suppose we'd have to ship him out there, then.
Rogers: Wow, I can't wait to break this story!
Bush: Phil, I was clearly kidding.
Rogers: Can't hear you! On a deadline!

Pet Peavy

Good news, everyone! Jake Peavy is probably going to be traded by the Padres any day now, and he's listed five teams he'd be willing to accept a trade to. Those five? The Braves, the Dodgers, the Cardinals, the Astros, and your Chicago Cubs.

Now the bad news: there is no way the Cubs can put together a package capable of getting Peavy.

Consider what the Cubs gave up for Rich Harden: essentially, it was the prospect pu-pu platter. Two guys in Murton and Patterson who had proven themselves as great AAA players but average major leaguers; an A-ball catcher (Josh Donaldson) who was highly rated but struggling (though he's improved substantially since joining the A's system); and a young pitcher (Sean Gallagher) whose ceiling is considered by most to be "third starter." And if Harden didn't have a history of injury, it doesn't seem likely that would have been enough to get the job done.

But that deal exposed the barrenness of the Cubs' farm system. What top prospects do we have to swing a deal for a Cy Young winner in his prime? The Padres are said to want a center fielder, and surely they'll want either a very good young starter or maybe two good-to-decent ones. From the Cubs' standpoint, the obvious name for the first part is Felix Pie, but does anyone really think that's getting the job done? He still seems to be considered a decent prospect, but he doesn't seem to have the "future star" tag on him that he used to. Is he really still thought of highly enough to be the centerpiece of such a deal?

And what pitchers do the Cubs have to give up? Once upon a time, that was the strength of the farm system, but many of the callups of the early 2000s flamed out. Now, who's left? Samardzija? Hart? Even if a package of Pie, Samardzija and Hart could get it done for Peavy in a vacuum, what are the odds that that's the best offer?

I hope Peavy goes to Atlanta, because I sure don't want to see him in the division, and fuck the Dodgers. But even though he'd be willing to waive his no-trade to come to the Cubs, I just don't think we've got the pieces necessary to do it.

AC 00 63 100

There's not much more to say about the baseball itself. For the second year in a row, the opposing team got all the breaks, and the Cubs compounded their own misery by looking like a wreck on offense. The team that scored 855 runs in 161 games in the regular season scored six in three in the playoffs; the team that was second in the league in ERA allowed almost seven runs per.

During Game One, I was angry. During Game Two, which I didn't get to watching until it was already 5-0, I was pretty much just numb. During Game Three, which I attempted to watch from the beginning but gave up on watching consistently once the Cubs went behind, I was angry again. But I already feel numb to the whole thing the day after, although I was in Borders today and saw a raft of Cubs-related merchandise, including caps reading "1908-2008: Team of Destiny" and various magazine covers, and it just felt like a punch to the gut.

What upsets me isn't so much how badly they played, although that's certainly appalling. It's how quickly the whole thing was over, after 161 games that started on March 31, ran throughout the spring and summer and ended with the Cubs running away with a second straight Central Division title and 97 wins, the most since 1945. I threw myself into the team as much as I could this year, going to a road game for the first time in more than a decade, listening to day games on internet radio at work, keeping a printout of the schedule in my cubicle, on which I would write "W" and "L" as appropriate. I'm not going to claim I was the most rabid fan there was - I only went to three games, and just one of those was at Wrigley - but given my other commitments I think I did pretty well, trying to make time to watch the games whenever I could or at least following them online. And I loved this team. Every night someone else was the hero; Soto or DeRosa or Fukudome or Lee or Ramirez or Soriano or Edmonds or Johnson or Theriot or Marmol or Wood or Zambrano or Dempster or Harden or Lilly or even Marquis. Yeah, they had a few bad stretches, but what team doesn't? This was the team that was supposed to have the talent to go all the way.

And then it was just over. We barely even had time to soak up the playoff excitement of DeRosa's home run in Game One when Dempster self-destructed, and the Cubs never led in the series again, rarely even looking competitive. The best post-HR moment was scoring two runs and looking briefly competent against Takashi Saito in the bottom of the ninth in Game Two; of course, the score was already 10-1 when the "rally" started. The Cubs, best team in the National League and arguably the best team in baseball, were the first team to be officially eliminated from the playoffs, falling to the mighty 84-win Dodgers. Even Milwaukee, overmatched by the Phillies and unable to get a win out of CC Sabathia in their Game Two, was able to take a game before falling. The NL Central, which had a claim to having the three best teams in the NL as late as August, winds up with no teams in the NLCS.

Every Opening Day with the Cubs is like a first date with that year's team. And this year's first date, with Fukudome's tying home run in the bottom of the ninth, was pretty special, even if the Cubs didn't end up winning. As the season went on, every Cubs fan was drawn into the relationship as far as they could go. Ask just about any Cubs fan, certainly any Cubs fan under the age of 40, and they'd tell you this was the best team of their lifetime. This team was doing things no team in decades had done. It was the 100-year anniversary. This was the team that was going to go all the way. And then, before we knew it, we'd been dumped, sitting heartbroken in front of the television, wondering how six wonderful months could have evaporated into disaster so quickly. Just as with a particularly devastating breakup, it's enough to make you tell yourself that you're going to swear off baseball forever - all it does is break your heart, and you can't take it anymore.

But just as with that next person we can't stop thinking about, we're all going to be back eventually. It may not be next Opening Day, but every one of us is going to allow ourselves to love the Cubs again as long as they give us a reason to do so. The bulk of this team isn't going anywhere - aside from Jim Edmonds, not one of the key players from this year's team will be older than 34 next year. And consider this - aside from Mark DeRosa (and, you might possibly argue, Theriot), not one of the Cubs' position players had what you would call a career year. Five guys hit 20 home runs, but no one hit 30, even though at least four guys on the team probably have that capability. And while Dempster might have had his career year on the mound, just about everyone else on the pitching staff can be better. And who knows what Hendry might do to reshape the roster a bit in the offseason, maybe trying to bring in another frontline starter or a little relief help, or another outfield bat. This team will be back. It may not win 97 games again, but it's going to contend. And when you consider how long it's been since the Cubs even contended in three straight years, that in itself is a small victory.

It hurts now. I know it does. But you haven't heard the last of the Cubs just yet. And if we've waited decades to get to this point, and survived the agonies and indignities of 1969, and 1984, and 2003, always coming back eventually, always believing that one day things finally would go our way... well, there's a reason they call it "eternal optimism." We're Cubs fans. Giving up hope just isn't an option.

Wait till next year.

Bulletin from a parallel universe in which things are awesome.

Rich Harden throws eight innings of two-hit ball, striking out 13 Dodgers, and the Cubs get to Hiroki Kuroda in the fifth, taking Game Three of the series by a 4-1 score. The next day, a short-rested Derek Lowe struggles with his command, and the Cubs win 6-3; Manny Ramirez hits two solo homers off Ted Lilly, but separates his shoulder diving for a ball in the sixth inning. The series returns to Chicago for Game Five and Chad Billingsley holds the Cubs again, but this time Ryan Dempster is almost equal to the task (it helps that the Dodgers are forced to play Juan Pierre in left), and the Cubs enter the bottom of the ninth trailing 1-0. Takashi Saito walks Derrek Lee to start the inning, and his first pitch to Aramis Ramirez is ripped deep into the night for a walk-off home run, sending the Cubs into the NLCS, where the Phillies await.

Game 2: There are no words

I really don't even have the energy for this one. How do you give up 17 runs in two games to the Dodgers? (Well, seven walks in one game and four errors in the other, but even so.) The offensive part doesn't necessarily surprise me - though it sucks - but to have the pitching and defense be so lousy (though Zambrano was better than you'd think looking at the score)...

Honestly, yesterday I was really angry. Today I'm just numb. It's like it's happening to someone else's team.

Game 1: Dempster Diving

Honestly, is there any way that could have gone worse? I suppose Aramis could have blown out his knee rounding first on his double, but that's about it. Here, in no particular order, are the five worst things about this game, and then I'm not talking about it anymore.

1. There goes the home field advantage.
We heard that the Dodgers were better than they had been when the Cubs last played them, but consoled ourselves with two facts: (1) the Cubs are still better and (2) the Dodgers were lousy on the road all year, so having the home field should be enough of an edge. Well, now what? The Cubs have to win at least one in Los Angeles to have any hope. It's not like that's an impossible task, but so much for not having to do it.

2. Can we trust any of the starting pitchers?
Whether Dempster was anxious or what, it doesn't matter - he blew it big-time, utterly failing to vindicate Piniella's faith in him. Let's say the series does come back to a fifth game at Wrigley - are you feeling that confident seeing Dempster stride out there again?

3. In Carlos we trust.
Yeah, Mr. 7.28 ERA Since August 1 now has to win Game Two to save the Cubs' season. (At the very least, the Cubs have to win, but Zambrano simply can't pitch poorly.)

4. Hi there, 2007 NLDS offense.
Only twice in the game did the Cubs put more than one runner on base in an inning. Once was DeRosa's two-run homer in the second, and the other was when DeRosa and Theriot had consecutive two-out singles in the fourth. Everyone else who got on - and the Cubs had a man on base in every single inning - just died there, most annoyingly Ramirez's leadoff double in the sixth.

5. Derek Lowe.
I hate you, I hate your stupid face, and I hate that the umpires call your stupid pitches at the ankles a foot off the plate for strikes.

My dad wanted to spin this by saying that "you have to overcome some adversity to break a curse," pointing to the '04 Red Sox. Of course, the Red Sox won their first-round series 3-0. Also, the '05 White Sox overcame adversity to the tune of losing one game the entire postseason. Whatever. It comes down to this: the Cubs win tomorrow, or the Cubs lose this series. Here we go.