Michael Barrett seems like a nice enough guy. Hehelps out in the community,he donates to Derrek Lee's charity,he works out hard in the offseason.......he is a player who most fans want to see do well. I'm ready for him to leave town. Let's get him out of Chicago.

For all of his finer points in life, Barrett has become a horrendous catcher. I would almost go so far as to say that he has regressed since he came to the Cubs. Barrett came to the Cubs as a catcher, turned third baseman, turned catcher. He was a player who's offense was supposed to make up for his defense. When he was with his original team,Les Expos, he was in a dogfight with Brian Schnieder to see who would play catcher and who would try to field ground balls in the concrete playground known as Olympic Stadium. Barrett lost that battle and then lost his spot on the Expos. He eventually hit his way back into the Majors before he was traded to the A's, for a day, and then traded to the Cubs. He was fairly young, 27, when the Cubs traded for him and it was thought that they very well could turn him into a decent catcher. Four years later....uh huh. Not going to happen. It's time for him to leave town.

Like I said before, Barrett seems like a very nice guy and a guy you'd probably want as a friend. Unfortunately, he's a shitty catcher. Over the past two seasons I've seen him throw balls down to second that would even make Jacque Jones laugh. I've seen balls get by him that a non-cup wearing Bengie Molina could stop. I've seen him lose numerous games for the Cubs and I've had enough of it. How many times can a guy set up on the outside corner waiting for a backdoor curve and watch a fastball sail over his shoulder? It has to be scary to be the home plate umpire at times when Barrett catches. I firmly believe that Jose Reyes could steal second and third base by the time Barrett made a throw down to second. At times, Barrett doesn't even make the throw to the base!

This train of thought didn't come on to me over the last month, it's slowly been brewing for quite some time now. I mean, besides the fights with Carlos Zambrano and Rich Hill, the plummeting batting average, being benched and the woeful defense over the last month everything has been perfect. I think we all hoped that someday he would understand how to properly call a game or maybe block a ball in the dirt...but that day never came. Do you realize that at least 40% of the Cubs pitching staff doesn't want to throw to Barrett anymore? Now we have fans calling for a guy named Henry Blanco and another guy named Koyie Hill. See where I'm going with this? When the Cubs traded for Barrett, it brought some hope that the days of Jody Davis, or even Damon Berryhill, would be returning. While Barrett hasn't exactly been Todd Hundley, he hasn't done enough to save his job.

Michael Barrett is in the last season of his contract with the Cubs and they are more than likely not going to resign him. At this time the trade market for catchers is very low and because of his on, and off, the field actions....Barrett's trade value is possibly even lower . He's put the Cubs in a very difficult position because, even though he seems like a good guy, he has to go.

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