Well, that didn't take long.

According to Rick Morrissey at the Chicago Tribune, the Post-LaTroy Era is over in Wrigley. Carrie Muskat at Cubs.com comes up with, more or less, the same conclusion. That's right, Cubs fans... Hawk will probably be "protecting" the Cubs' next 9th-inning lead, and you can bet that the booing that he'll receive will be something to behold.... worse than anything that Wrigley has heard since the Pulpo days.

Just three days ago, Dusty indicated that he was going "back to the drawing board", and that going forward, he would be using a "closer-by-situation" system. Apparently, that actually meant "I'll be completely dependent upon Chad Fox in every possible situation, unless his arm explodes, in which case we're going back to LaTroy."

After Fox went down, Dusty said that his new closer may be someone already in his bullpen - "Somebody we already have, somebody you either aren't counting on or somebody that the public already don't like." You get one guess as to who he may be referring to. When pressed, Dusty admitted that "we're probably in the same boat as we were". Apparently, there was no Plan B after Chad Fox.

Obviously, this is all still speculation at this point. Moreover, there's a chance that Joe Borowski could put this whole sad saga to rest in just a few days. But last night, in a close game that saw Dusty call for 6 relievers, he never even warmed LaTroy up. (Mike Wuertz, for what it's worth, started the 7th, and gave up 2 earned runs, while his defense committed 2 errors.) The only possible implication is that Dusty was holding LaTroy back for a potential save situation.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Dusty Baker has no plan for his bullpen, and that he's simply making this up as he goes along. For now, I fully expect LaTroy Hawkins to be handed the next Cubs' save opportunity, and we can fully expect him to keep on blowing about 30% of those saves, and about 66% of 1-run saves.

In happier news for Cubs fans, Joe Borowski will throw a simulated game today. Cubs fans everywhere wish him an incredibly speedy recovery.