While the Cubs continue to plummet in the standings, Dusty Baker?s hot seat has now reached the ?scorching? level. The Cubs are 2-12 in May thus far and have been outscored by their opponents 76-30. They have been shut out 4 times this month. The Cubs' rivals, the Cardinals and White Sox, are red hot. Obviously, Cubs fans are at the end of their rope and are demanding answers and actions from the front office. With this in mind, I have outlined 13 answers of my own for the Cubs demise this season. 1). The Cubs? ?Aces? on the shelf again: Apparently, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior have a clause in their contracts which rewards them for strikeouts in simulated games. 2). The broken wrist of Derrek Lee: Ironically, just prior to Lee?s injury, I wrote an article about Lee being more valuable to the Cubs than Pujols is to the Cardinals. Talk about a jinx. All hate mail can be addressed to [email protected]. 3). Carlos Zambrano winless in April: Thanks for picking up the slack, Carlos. 4). Aramis Ramirez not hitting his weight: Going into tonight?s game, he is batting a robust .214. Thanks for picking up the slack, Aramis. 5). Dusty Baker?s ?philosophy? on winning baseball, which reads something like this: ?Make sure you swing at the first pitch. Does it matter if it?s a breaking ball in the dirt? I say no. You can?t hit it if you don?t swing at it, right? Walks are for the weak. Moving runners over is boring. I?m looking for homeruns here. Forget about putting 4 or 5 hits together. Isn?t a homerun much more efficient?? 6). Juan Pierre forgetting how to bat lead-off: JP is hitting a whopping .225 as of today. How does one of the top lead-off hitters in baseball suddenly forget how to bat lead-off. See #5. 7). Denial: Read this beauty from reliever Scott Williamson, ?It's not his leadership, it's not the way he manages the game," Williamson said. "You can't always blame the manager. When you're getting checked-swing base hits and balls going into the basket for a home run, how is that his fault?" Um, Scott, you have lost 8 games in May alone by 4 or more runs. That is not because of check-swing hits, and cheap homeruns. 8). Jim Hendry?s ?insane? general management: Direct from Webster?s, here is the definition of insanity: ?Expecting a different result after continually using the same methods.? In other words, continually banging your head against a wall. 9). Glendon Rusch?s gravity defying ERA: Apparently, it?s not very difficult for big leaguers to hit 89 MPH fastballs down the heart of the plate. Who knew? Answer: Not Dusty and not Jim. 10). The baseball gods: Seriously though, has there been another team in any sport that has had more debilitating injuries than the Cubs? The baseball gods just flat out hate the Cubs. 11). The Cubs beat writers and TV analysts: Unbelievably, they still continue to feed us ?positive spin? on the Cubs season so far. They could find something positive about the Chernobyl nuclear blast if you asked them to. The Cubs need a kick in the rear end, not a pat on the back. 12). The Tribune Company: I don?t know if you knew this or not, but Chicago happens to be a rather large city. The Tribune company happens to do $5.5 BILLION in sales per year. The Cubs don?t crack the top 5 in payroll. Does this make any sense? 13). The sun, the wind, the rain, the dog eating the homework, the alarm not being set right etc: Basically, every excuse Dusty and the guys can come up with falls into the last reason. Because, it can?t be that they are playing lousy baseball, can it? Perhaps the saddest thing about this list is just how easy it was to come up with 13 reasons for the Cubs demise. It?s only mid-May, and it?s been an incredibly long season. When does Bears training camp start? Dennis Hobein can be reached at [email protected]