Where’s the Orange Guy?

No, not that orange guy. That’s Franklin the Cat.

We’re talking about you-know-who – our favorite, Matt Murton. A leftfielding spray-hitting victim of the Cubs’ latest attempt to shoehorn square left-handed speedy pegs into round, rational holes.

But I digress. Sigh. It’s been an eventful week for our Chicago Cubs; first the dunderheaded Chicago media predictably swirled around Dusty Baker‘s return, with piles upon piles of articles sugarcoating Baker’s excuse-riddled tenure. Maybe murderous scorn is too harsh. But it certainly wasn’t a favorite son’s homecoming, either.

Here at Mister Faded Glory, we’re simply happy the Cubs actually defeated the Reds twice, rather than strangely losing to David Weathers repeatedly on clutch Jeff Keppinger knocks or massive blown leads. As we know, the Reds have been the Cubs’ bugaboo for, oh, about seven hundred years.

Back to our point, as you know, during the Cubs’ midweek tussle with the Reds, Alfonso Soriano injured his foot on a hop-and-catch, predictably landing on the DL. That’s unfortunate, of course, but we’re certainly not bloviating and infuriated that Chicago shelled out tons of dollars to the struggling Soriano. Rather, we were a little frustrated with Soriano’s early-season struggles, and with his injury, ’twas the perfect time for the Cubs to recall their only OBP machine from anywhere in the organization, without a noticeable dropoff.

You know him. The supposedly major-league-ready left fielder who the Cubs held onto rather than shop around. The hard-worker and invaluable fourth outfielder. Matt Murton, he of the .290-plus batting average and .350-plus OBP. He who actually demonstrates an ability to take a walk. He who refutes the Cubs’ long-standing “Swing Harder” philosophy. He who the Cubs kept around, in case, you know, the only position Lou Piniella or Jim Hendry felt he could play opened up because of injury.

And now, the position is opened up, for a short time, and the Cubs had a chance to minimize any loss of production – or, perhaps increase production – or maximize trade value for Murton, or revamp their batting order, or whatever. In fact, we would have advocated leading him off, as usual. Instead, the Cubs called up yet another second baseman, to a roster already carrying three while attempting to trade for another. Boggles the mind.

But quite honestly, what does Murton have to do to earn playing time with the big club? And, quite honestly, if Piniella or Hendry are so certain Murton doesn’t fit their plans (which are often way too narrow, mind you, always searching for a lefty hitter rather than actual productivity.), then why not trade him? His value now diminishes by the day, and he’s destined to join the list of viable Cub prospects the team gave up on quickly and stockpiled for no good reason.

It’s a head-scratcher. We maintain that Matt Murton is the perfect leadoff hitter for this team. (Murt, Kosuke, Lee, Ramirez, DeRosa, Soto, Johnson, Theriot, pitcher). Or if not perfect for the Cubs, then at least for the A’s, Blue Jays, Twins or someone else. Maybe they can find him a home. Maybe in the process, they could conceivably replace a No. 2 starter…