The good news is that the Cubs beat the Pirates yesterday 4-3.  In order to do that, they had to come back from a 3-0 deficit.  The winning run came in the 8th inning when pinch-hitter Xavier Nady hit an RBI single to drive home Alfonso Soriano.  Soriano was the hitting star of the game by going 2-3 with a double and an RBI.  The hits raised Soriano’s batting average to .331.

The bad news will take a little longer to explain.  Let’s start by pointing out that the Pittsburgh Pirates have not had a winning season in their last 18 seasons.  They are one of the most poorly run franchises in all of baseball.  And despite the fact that they say they have a plan for the future, the truth is that they don’t have a plan.  Or more accurately, they do have a plan, but it’s not the plan they say they have.  Let me explain.

Pittsburgh claims that they can not compete by spending money on their big league team.  So they spend less on their big league payroll than they receive in revenue sharing money.  They also routinely trade away their most promising players because they claim they can’t afford them after a few years.  The Pirates claim that their plan is to trade their best players for prospects, and they will build their franchise on less expensive prospects.  However, this plan doesn’t make sense.  As prospects develop, they become more expensive.  They get paid more through arbitration the better they play.  And when they get better, the Pirates trade away these players for prospects, and the wheel continues to turn.  That is the real plan the Pirates are following.  Their plan is to keep their payroll low, keep losing, and continue to pocket the money the team receives in revenue sharing.  It wouldn’t be a popular plan if they were honest about it, so they claim they have a completely different plan. 

So, the Pirates are poorly run, perpetual losers, and they routinely are among the teams with the lowest payroll.  In 2010, they have the league’s absolute lowest payroll.  To give you an idea of how low Pittsburgh’s payroll is, let’s compare it to the Cubs payroll.  Both teams are in the NL Central, yet the Cubs out spend the Pirates by more than $100 million.  The Cubs 2010 payroll is $146 million.  The Pirates spend a cool $35 million.

Despite the difference in their payrolls, yesterday’s victory by the Cubs was just the first win the Cubs have earned in six tries this year against the Pirates.  In fact, with a record of 16-22 on the season, the Cubs find themselves in 4th place in the NL Central behind the Reds, Cardinals, and the pathetic Pittsburgh Pirates.

I find this fact absolutely amazing.  How is it possible that entering yesterday’s game, the Pirates had beaten the Cubs in five straight games?  How is it possible that midway through May, the Cubs are trailing the hapless Pirates in the standings?  How is it that a team like the Pirates that spend less than 25% as much on payroll as the Cubs do can so thoroughly outplay them?

I don’t have answers to any of these questions.  I am just stunned by the fact that, despite how poorly the Pirates are run and how little they spend on player payroll, they have made the Cubs look sick all season.

Maybe we’re getting to the point where we have to accept that the Cubs are just not a good baseball team.  While the Cubs have five everyday players who are hitting over .300 (plus Starlin Castro who is hitting .323), they still have trouble scoring runs.  This is due in large part to the fact that Derrek Lee just raised his batting average to .238 and Aramis Ramirez is stuck below the Mendoza line at .167.  Despite these anemic numbers, Lee and Ramirez continue to bat third and fourth respectively in the lineup.

Rob G. at The Cubs Reporter did an interesting study in which he found that as of this past Thursday, Ramirez and Lee lead the Cubs in runners left on base this season.  In 141 plate appearances, Ramirez has left 104 runners on base.  Lee has come to the plate 154 times and has left 103 runners on base. 

How long should Lou Piniella allow Lee and Ramirez to continue to bat in the middle of the lineup?  I understand allowing a guy to try to work his way out of a slump, but how long can the Cubs afford to wait?  Perhaps Lee has turned a corner.  He is hitting a bit better as of late.  However, Ramirez has just been horrible.  He claims that he is healthy, but he does not look good at the plate.

We’re only a month-and-a-half into the season, but it’s already been a long year for the Cubs.  Losing five-out-of-six so far to the Pirates this year is just one symptom of the problem, albeit a horribly embarrassing symptom.  Trailing the Pirates in the standings should be enough to light a fire under the Cubs.  Unfortunately, nothing has been able to light that fire so far this year.  And that really is bad news.