Ryan Theriot is sounding more like Dusty Baker, who managed Theriot in 2006, every day. Lou Piniella has recently been calling him out on his lack of walks this year. Theriot has just 8 walks in 228 plate appearances heading into play June 6, and had none from May 2 through June 4. His OBA is .305. For a guy that lacks power—save a strange May 2009 when he had 8 doubles and 5 homers—and plays slightly above-average defense at best,that OBA is too low.

In response to the exhortation of his present manager, Theriot has responded that “looking” for a walk is a “defensive” mindset that he just does not have (link via VFTB tweet).

But there are plenty of hitters who do not “look” for a walk and yet still draw them by being willing to take pitches that are not in a good hitting zone. Theriot must know this, for his performance this year is an anomaly.

Reliving the high- and low-lights of yesterday’s disastrous, embarrassing, hope-deflating, and hopefully forgettable opening day 16-5 loss to the Atlanta Braves, in video:

It started off nicely, with Marlon Byrd hitting a three-run homer in his debut at-bat for the Cubs in the top of the first:

The MLB Network has a fun video of what it labels “the top moments in Cubs’ history.”

As I said, it is fun. But as far as top all-time franchise moments, it’s kind of lame. Typical is Milt Pappas’s almost perfect game. LaTroy Hawkins shows up as getting the final out in Greg Maddux’s 300th win.

The Cubs do have the coolest nickname for a game-winning home run: Gabby Hartnett’s “homer in the gloamin’.”

Of the nine, I’d say the most amazing thing I have ever seen during my life was Kerry Wood’s 20K game in 1998.

According to the Sun-Times’ Gordon Wittenmyer, Lou Piniella said he expects Andres Blanco and Sam Fuld to make the opening day roster. They would fill the 12th and 13th position player spots.

That would mean no Micah Hoffpauir or Kevin Millar or Chad Tracy. (Which is fine.)

Randy Wells has not gotten enough credit for how good his 2009 season was. He did not start the year in the rotation, but due to injuries and the desire to keep Sean Marshall in the bullpen, the Cubs called on him on May 8. He never let go of the spot. Despite the late start, Wells finished 4th among Cubs starters in innings pitched and led all Cubs starters in ERA and ERA+. His 147 ERA+ was 9th in the majors.

Wells was not only good compared to other Cubs 2009 starters, though, he was good -- very good -- when viewed historically among Cubs rookie pitchers.

As Mike Emeigh at Baseball Think Factory writes, "You have to take some not-so-good with the good, I suppose."

Jim Hendry was able to rid the Cubs of another of his multi-million dollar, light-hitting, veteran middle infielder mistakes (see Neifi Perez) by trading him to his favorite trading partner, the Oakland A's, apparently part of the price for the A's receipt of Jake Fox. The Cubs will contribute $1M toward Miles' $2.7M salary in 2010.

Chip Caray's decision to leave his position as Chicago Cubs play-by-play broadcaster following the bitter 2004 season, which also saw Steve Stone leave, has taken a turn for the worse: he and TBS have parted ways. The decision follows significant criticism of Caray's performance during TBS's 2009 playoff broadcasts, which certainly isn't the first time Caray has been criticized for his broadcasting (see here, e.g.).

This call, in particular, may have led TBS to seek to part ways:

The Hardball Times is running excerpts from Chris Jaffe's new book Evaluating Baseball Managers. Today's installment discusses Dusty Baker. It's an excellent recap of Baker's managerial career and offers some explanations for Baker's success in San Francisco and relative failure in Chicago.

Among other things, Jaffe discusses the difficulty Baker had in playing younger players in Chicago, something I reviewed in May 2006 here.

In a follow up post on the Milton Bradley suspension, Bruce Miles states that the Cubs plan to call up outfielder Tyler Colvin for the Milwaukee series beginning Monday, which also means adding him to the 40-man roster.

Colvin was a surprise 1st round draft pick (13th overall) by the Cubs in 2006. A year later, Jim Hendry called him “untouchable” at the 2007 winter meetings.

Three months ago, it became apparent that if Milton Bradley did something to trigger the wrath of management, the players would not be there to stand behind him.

Yesterday came the something, which had obviously built up, in the form of comments from Bradley published by the Daily Herald (see also the follow up post by Bruce Miles).

“It's just not a positive environment. … It's just negativity.”

"And you understand why they haven't won in 100 years here, because it's negative."