Finally we come to the end of the decade, and what a fitting end it was. After suffering a horribly embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Dodgers to end the 2008 season the decided to make some changes. The memo was to get more left handed to help balance out a lineup that was mostly made up of righties.

So that meant that popular utility man Mark DeRosa was moved to Cleveland for three prospects, and Mike Fontenot was given the second base job. Switch hitter Aaron Miles was signed to "replace DeRosa" and controversial right fielder Milton Bradley was given a three year deal. The pitching staff was given a bit of a facelift too, Kerry Wood was let go in free agency. Florida closer Kevin Gregg was traded for and Jason Marquis was sent to Colorado in a salary dump.

The Cubs got off to a solid start to the season thanks to Alfonso Soriano having his best opening month as a Cub. He was hitting homers all over the place and combined with Aramis to beat up some NL pitchers. There were some warning signs though- Derrek Lee was struggling and so was Bradley. Geovany Soto didn't seem right, and the bullpen was shaky. They finished 10-11 thanks to some really bad offense and Ryan Dempster's rough start.

May brought even worse news despite a 15-13 record. On May 5th Aramis Ramirez dove for a ball down the line and his shoulder popped out putting him out for two months. Alfonso Soriano wasn't very good anymore, a result of banging his knee into a wall, yet the pitching really came around. Randy Wells was brought up from AAA to fill in for Carlos Zambrano and never looked back becoming a mainstay in the rotation all season.

June would be one of the more miserable months ever for Cubs fans. The offense couldn't score to save its life and the pitching staff was still dominating games, just not winning. One interesting development was Derrek Lee turning back into a superstar. Lee recovered from a bad April to produce at his 2005 level of awesomeness. The Cubs went 11-14, which might not seem that bad, but watching those games was flat out painful.

July would prove to be much more fun. Aramis Ramirez returned, the pitching staff was humming and after the All-Star game the Cubs clicked for two weeks. Soriano killed the ball again, Aramis and Lee were hitting. Everybody was having a good time and the Cubs ended up being back in first place. Then at the end of the month a trade for relievers Tom Gorzelanny and John Grabow seemed to put the Cubs in position to take the Central.

August would provide the Cubs with a collapse worthy of 2001, they went 11-17 and fell out of contention. The Cardinals went on a great run and had the division wrapped up with a month to go. A 18-14 finish was hardly enough to salvage what would ultimately be a lost season full of under-performance and bad baseball.

The Cubs final season of the decade was a fitting finish. The Cubs never could get over the hump in 2009 or the last 10 years, sometimes there were flashes of brilliance, but in the end they were just flashes.

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