Enough With The Injuries Already

It feels like we whine about this every week. Scratch that. Every day. And for that, to you dear reader, we apologize. We can't shake the notion that no matter what, the Chicago Cubs are doomed to spend the majority of 2009 grimacing, hobbling, or worse.

The latest in the ongoing Cubs injury saga is Derrek Lee. More specifically, it's Derrek Lee's neck. Apparently, Lee's neck has been sore off and on for the past three years, but this year, the soreness is especially bad. Lee says there's no way it could land him on the DL, but he took off the Cubs' game on Wednesday and is listed as day-to-day. Tonight's lineup isn't posted yet, but it seems unlikely Lee would make so quickly a recovery from something that possibly warrants a trip to the disabled list.

But that almost feels beside the point. If Lee were to play tonight, he wouldn't be at full strength. That's what's hurting the Cubs. So many have been injured at such a consistent and overlapping rate, the team has yet to put a full, uninjured roster on the field yet this year. Even when the Cubs' players have been in the lineup, they've been hobbled by nagging injuries: Aramis Ramirez's leg, Geovany Soto's knee, Carlos Zambrano's hamstring, Rich Harden's apparent fatigue, Milton Bradley's entire body ... and so on. Down the line it goes. You don't need us to recount them all.

The question is whether the Cubs will ever get healthy. Is this a temporary series of unlucky, ill-timed setbacks? Or are the Cubs, dare we say, too old? Out of shape? Unfit, as the British would say? Here's hoping its the former, and not the latter. The longer this goes on -- it's now May 7, for those counting at home -- that outcome seems less and less likely.

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.