The H&K Report

A month ago, Mike and company promised a new contributor to Zisk. Well, there were some delays. First, getting the MLB.com webcasts to work because while I do get some games on ESPN in Hong Kong here, they're rarely live, usually from 3 days ago, and usually Yankees home broadcasts. Add it up, and it's my baseball version of MC Escher.

That, and I just got back from the states, partly to see my beloved Cubs before I would post. And wow. Are they bad. As I blog, they're slowly giving away the lead to the Marlins. The Marlins, who barely have a major-league roster. How bad are they? Their pitcher has a 1-2 count on underrated Cubs catcher Michael Barrett, and manager Joe Girardi has to come out to the mound to tell him what to do. How clueless do you have to be to be told what to do on a 1-2 count?

Think V. Zambrano is bad? Try watching Kerry Wood without banging your head against a wall. His first start last week? A devastating slider, a nearly 12 to 6 curve and a fastball with absolutely no location that came in fast and went out faster. And it's the same thing tonight. He so far has pitched 10 innings in the majors this year as I write and has given up 5 homers. This man is in his 9th year in the bigs and people are still talking about potential, about what he did as a rookie. To me, it stinks an awful lot of when the Cubs signed the perpetually sweaty Todd Hundley in 2001 and raved he would repeat his 1996 season. That's the Cubs and Kerry Wood, hoping he will repeat his 1998 rookie year.

And this Cubs team started an infield last week with four second basemen - Neifi Perez at third, Ronnie Cedeno at short (who would have played second if Rafael Furcal had signed with the Cubs), Jerry Hairston at second and Todd Walker at first.

My friends, you cannot win in the majors with four second basemen in your lineup, unless Rogers Hornsby has been reanimated and cloned to fill out the lineup.

More to Cubs reports to come. And a hint for the Mets this weekend: Walk Miguel Cabrera. Really, this Marlins team has no one else to hit.