I came across this nice little rant about the Cubs and their inept manager, Dusty Baker by Tim Marchmant of the New York Sun. Thank God I'm a Brew Crew fan! The last sentence made my day.

There isn't much to like about blowhard Cubs manager Dusty Baker; when not waxing racist, overusing his pitchers, running good players and great broadcast teams out of town, or starring in obnoxious television ads, Baker is busy ruining young players' careers.

Witness the left-field situation for the Cubs. With incumbent Moises Alou gone, Baker must choose between starting pinch-hitter Todd Hollandsworth, second baseman Jerry Hairston, or Jason Dubois, who smacked 57 extra-base hits in Triple-A last year in only 386 at bats. Given that in a month on the big-league roster last year, Dubois was given only 23 at-bats (in which he hit .217), and that Baker has gone on at length about how "Holly" will be given every chance to win the job, it's clear that the manager's veteran fetish will prevail over the needs of his team.

Even more hilariously, Baker, who lacks an established closer, is using the spring to choose between LaTroy Hawkins, who blew the team's playoff chances with his inability to close out games, and Joe Borowski, who sported an 8.02 ERA last year. Veteran starter Ryan Dempster, who showed promise in a relief role last year, will be kept in the back of the skipper's mind despite the stated preference of GM Jim Hendry that Dempster be given a clear shot to try out his electric stuff in the ninth inning. Anyone who wants to watch a multiple-time Manager of the Year do a worse job of running a team than a random Azerbaijani should pay close attention to the words and wisdom of Dusty.