I still remember the day the Cubs traded for Michael Barrett.

After getting him from the Expos via the Athletics straight-up for Damian Miller, the latest in a long list of Cubs catchers who were fine behind the plate but couldn’t hit a drunk on Clark Street, it felt like the Cubs would finally have that offensive force behind the plate fans hoped for.

Initially? It worked out great. Having spent his entire career buried in the baseball purgatory that was Montreal, nobody seemed to appreciate all things Wrigley the way Michael Barrett did. He also displayed a knack for clutch hitting that season, and every time he had a big game at Wrigley, the post-game interview would consist of some stammering version of the phrase “I love this place … this is just awesome.” He was so happy he turned into Chris Farley from “The Chris Farley Show”.

But as we all know, ever since the collapse of 2004 (thanks LaTroy Hawkins), just about everything Cubs-connected has gone steadily down hill.

Despite his Silver Slugger in 2005, that was also the year the whispers started about Barrett’s defense. Not just throwing guys out and blocking balls in the dirt – it was clear that those weren’t his strong suits. His ability to call a game and handle pitchers was being called into question.  Pitchers preferred Henry Blanco. The numbers backed it up.

As soon Carlos Zambrano cold-cocked Barrett this season, I had a feeling his days in Wrigley might be numbered, a feeling which was confirmed this morning with his reported trade to the San Diego Padres for switch-hitting catcher Rob Bowen and a minor leaguer.

It’s a shame it couldn’t have worked out better. Barrett was one of the players who truly seemed to love being a Cub in a day and age when players seldom exhibit any real connection to their teams, even if they might pay lip service to it. When he decked A.J. Pierzynski last season, it was almost as though he was channeling a century of Cub fan angst and projecting it on the perfect target.

I don’t disagree with trading him. Despite the Cubs efforts to state publicly that everything was fine (the clearly pulled one over on the Sun-Times Gordon Wittenmeyer, who wrote this morning that Barrett might be catching Zambrano this week), it was clear that things weren’t quite right between Barrett and the pitching staff.

I still wonder how much of it was Barrett’s fault and how much it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when a guy gets a reputation as a suspect defensive catcher. But either way, when the pitching staff doesn’t have confidence in the guy behind the plate, things probably aren’t going to work out for long.

One thing to watch will be when the Cubs play the Padres again. They’re done for the season unless they meet in the playoffs …

(You can stop laughing now).

But if Barrett is still in San Diego next season and the Cubs decide on a little retaliation for this most recent bench-clearing incident, I wonder if he might take a shot at Zambrano or any of the other pitchers who helped run him out of town.

Hopefully things work out for him in San Diego. In the meantime I’ll be hoping Koyie Hill’s batting average cracks .160.

Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.