More Inane Ramblings From Andy MacPhail

Cubs President Andy MacPhail sat down for a hard hitting interview on Thursday with his fellow Chicago Tribune employee Fred Mitchell. The interview appeared in the Friday, May 26 issue of the Chicago Tribune.

After delving deep into such things as MacPhail's favorite foods and what colors he likes best, the interview turned to Cubs baseball. According to MacPhail, the Cubs are planning to attack their ineptitude by throwing money at their problems. GM Jim Hendry did such a good job with the first $95 million the Cubs gave him this year, I guess they think he can do even better with another $5 or $10 million.

Seriously, I have expressed the opinion in the past that the Cubs are not spending more, but the overriding concern is how the Cubs spend money, not just on how much they spend.

MacPhail went on to say that the main problem with the '06 Cubs is their inability to hit with runners in scoring position. He pointed to the fact that the Cubs are hitting .150 as a team with runners in scoring position.

If MacPhail was a doctor, he would examine a cancer patient and claim that their problem was that they were losing too much weight. Not hitting with runners in scoring position, like the cancer patient's weight loss, is a symptom of the larger problem. The Cubs were built to lose in '06. Their roster construction is horrible. Jim Hendry spent a lot of money on mediocre players. That is the problem. And the problem, not the symptoms of the problem, need to be addressed.