Here's the problem I have with Scott McClain. While I'm sure he's a great guy, he's 33 years old (he was the third oldest player in the starting lineup today--behind Maddux and Burnitz) and is hardly the future of the organization. His presence simply means that Dusty has one more player who can take the place of a younger player and steal those valuable at-bats from the guys who need experience at the major league level (and also lets Dusty play another over-30 player while arguing that he's playing rookies).

Dusty wants to finish the season at .500. He wants this simply because he wants to appear like he's doing a satisfactory job. I could care less about a .500 record. As far as I'm concerned, if you're out of the playoff hunt (which they are), then the only thing 81-81 gets you is a worse draft pick next April. Play the kids, evaluate your talent, find your holes for next year.

I hear talk about Ronny Cedeno moving to second base to make room for a free agent shortstop. What better time to play him there than now? The games don't count for anything (except Dusty's contract incentives) and you can watch his performance against major league hitters and see if he can make the transition. Jermaine Van Buren is the closer of the future? Let him close some games. Let Rich Hill start some more games (God knows he'd be better than Glendon Rusch in the role) and let him get comfortable in the league. Ditto Matt Murton.

If you aren't preparing for the playoffs, then September is the month where you look toward the future. Show me the future.

He also only plays first and third, which are positions the Cubs don't have young players at, and in fact, have stars under contract to play. They've also not had any useful bench parts, especially who could spell Lee or Ramirez. If McClain shows he might be able to do that next year, I'm all for it, no matter what his age.

As for playing the kids the rest of the way, I'm all for that. I'd love to see what Cedeno and Murton would do, especially, and I think the organization truly needs to. McClain's not part of that problem, though.

"Didn't Henry Blanco and Jody Gerut both wear 9 on their backs this year?"

Hmmm. Maybe. The almanac didn't have numbers for this year yet, and the Cubs' site only has current numbers. Oh. And my memory for those things stinks. I'd need to look up the numbers of most of the Cubs players, even some of the more prominant ones. It's one of my many personal curses.