After going 13-11 in April, this 5-21 May (so far) was far from expected, even by those that loathe the Cubs. Born from this stretch of awful baseball are calls for Dusty Baker's job. I disagree. The best thing to get the Cubs' woes turned-around is to get healthy and to get hot bats. I actually focus most of my ire at Mark O'Neal, the trainer, and the hitting coach, Gene Clines, although that's not even fair.

The truth is that the players are to blame. Each of them is in a month-long slump. I don't know how else to explain it. They're terrible. Clubs always have to deal with slumps, but you hope that they're isolated and brief enough that you can cope. But, you can't fire a whole roster of guys that are not typically this bad, so fans turn their frustration on Dusty Baker.

The following article written by MLB.com's Mike Bauman explains, better than I can, precisely why I think firing him is a terrible idea.

New manager not the answer for Cubs
By Mike Bauman

CHICAGO -- One of the easiest baseball-related activities is shouting, "Fire the manager!" in the general direction of a struggling ballclub.

In the case at hand, the full-fledged struggles of the Chicago Cubs, this cry has been taken up in some quarters. It is audible, but it is not logical.

The current Cubs have, to put it gently, a surplus of problems. These are not primarily the fault of the manager, Dusty Baker. This is a team that, as we speak, requires a mass healing much more than it needs a new manager.

Is it Baker's fault that the Cubs' best and most productive hitter, Derrek Lee, has spent the last five weeks on the disabled list?

Is it Baker's fault that Kerry Wood has made all of two starts this season and Mark Prior has made none?

Is it Baker's fault that such alleged mainstays of the lineup as Juan Pierre and Aramis Ramirez are performing so far beneath their expected levels that they can barely be recognized?

Is it Baker's fault that the Cubs have been forced to use three starting pitchers making their first Major League starts? Was it Baker's fault Sunday that the latest of these rookie starters, Jae Kuk Ryu, gave up four home runs in 1 1/3 innings to the Atlanta Braves?

(By way of a slight defense of Ryu, the wind was blowing out at Wrigley Field. Maybe that was Dusty's fault, too. The Cubs allowed eight home runs overall. Apparently, the wind was only blowing out during the top halves of the innings, because the Cubs didn't hit any homers.)

The Cubs did show some heart, coming back from a four-run ninth-inning deficit Sunday, but they still didn't win. They lost, 13-12, in 11 innings, after Ramirez played a popup off his noggin for a two-base error.

So, the Cubs were swept by the Braves this weekend. The central fact of the Cubs' season to date is that they were 9-5 before Lee went on the DL and are 9-26 since. There may be teams that could withstand the loss of a player of Lee's stature, but the Cubs don't seem to be one of them.

Baker has been National League Manager of the Year three times, has managed a World Series team and, in fact, managed the 2003 Cubs to the brink of the World Series. He has not become somebody less since then.

The woes that beset the current Cubs would not be immediately solved by bringing in a new manager. A healthy and effective starting rotation, a healthy Derrek Lee, players producing up to their reputations across the board; all would be required for that solution. This is a matter much more difficult and complex than simply changing the identity of the fellow making out the lineup.

Despite the usual howls for the manager's job, the one individual whose opinion counts for the most on this topic remains in Baker's corner. That would be general manager Jim Hendry, who this weekend issued his strongest defense of Baker's job status to date.

"I'm hearing every time we lose a ballgame, that Dusty is going to get fired," Hendry said. "People were reporting the other day that Dusty was going to get fired after we lost the last Marlins game [on Wednesday]. That's not going to happen.

"Dusty is going to get every opportunity to manage the club and get us out of this hole, and he'll get the opportunity to manage the club when we get healthy the next couple weeks. I'd like to put that speculation that every time we lose a ballgame [Baker will be fired] and we stop putting that for public discussion every single day."

Criticism of the manager is normal when a club is performing in the manner of the 2006 Cubs. But the one time during his tenure with the Cubs when Baker may have been most vulnerable to criticism was in the declining days of the 2004 season. The NL Wild Card berth slipped away from the Cubs as the whole operation seemed to become consumed with a discussion of critical, but certainly not inaccurate, statements made by broadcaster Steve Stone. There was plenty of blame to go around, but neither Baker nor anyone else did enough to take the focus off the airwaves and keep the focus on the field.

Now, in the midst of all the losing and the gnashing of teeth on the North Side this season, in the midst of the media musings about how terrific some other manager would be, Cubs fans are not exactly staying away from the Friendly Confines.

Saturday was instructive in this regard. A fan protest of the Cubs' performance drew a grand total of six persons to the front entrance of the park. The game itself drew 41,526, the largest crowd at Wrigley in 28 years.

Sunday's audience was larger still, at 41,698. The weekend attendance -- 124,089 -- was a franchise record for a three-game series. There may be a lot of discontent, there may be 98 years worth of frustration built up among the Cubs faithful, but this does not exactly add up to a fan revolt.

"All in all, they've been very supportive," Baker said Sunday of Cubs fans. "I don't blame them for being upset and disgruntled, because I probably would be if I was a fan, too. We really appreciate their belief and support.

"People tell me we still have a chance. This is what I believe. I always believe that. I believe that in the bottom of my heart. I'd love to come back, all the way back, and give the whole town and world an injection of faith."

The possibility that the Cubs can come all the way back this season appears to be largely a work of imagination. But this should be a substantially better club in the foreseeable future when some of its most prominent individuals return to active duty.

If those returns occur and this season maintains its train-wreck status, then it would be difficult to bring back a lot of the people involved, including the manager. But that's rhetorical at this point. The Cubs aren't firing Dusty Baker now, nor should they.