I really find it hard to dislike Corey. On the other hand, Corey is making it very hard for me to not dislike him. He has a sweet swing...on the rare occasion that he doesn't drop his shoulder and pop the ball up to the second baseman in a vain attempt to hit the ball out of the park. He's fast. very fast. And his defense is generally pretty tremendous.

Corey has a little bit of a special place in my heart. I always get very attached to players that develope through the Cubs' system, probably because this is such a rare occurance. It almost killed me when they traded Hee Sop (although I've gotten over that. A triple crown leader will do that for you). And what's more, Corey is the first player I can remember on the Cubs who was actually younger than me (at that time it seemed impossible to me that a baseball player could be younger than me). Not only that, but his birthday is pretty close to mine, so I've always felt a certain kinship with Corey. I'm starting to regret that association.

This season, Corey has quite rightly earned the nickname Korey in most Cubs' circles. His strikeouts are not really such a big deal; many good players strikeout at a very high rate. The problem is his unwillingness (or maybe inability) to work the count. I really doubt the inability part, not that he could become patient, but that lack of ability is not the source of the problem. Unless he has been hypnotized by some sort of sinister Cardinals' fan to swing at the first pitch every time, his issues are partly in his control. So I say to Corey, just don't swing at the first pitch. Repeat after me: You are not Nomar. Even Nomar doesn't swing at every first pitch. I think every Cubs fan can agree with me that it has begun to border on the absurd.

Many people are calling for Corey to be traded. Al Yellon suggests trading him for Ken Griffey, Jr. (which I don't agree with at all). Personally, I'm not sure I'm quite ready to trade him.

I have a feeling that he will hit a hot streak at some point and all of a sudden people will start to forgive his flaws. Corey, despite his obvious failings, holds enough defensive value that he isn't hurting the team, even if he isn't really helping. I'd really like to wait him out a little longer and see if Dusty/Clines.Matthews can't get him to take at least one pitch, and then we can go from there. After all, he's one of our own.