Don't Mess With DeJesus

As excited as I was about the prospect of a Cubs coaching staff devoid of ex-Cubs, Uncle Lou went out and hired Ivan DeJesus as a "special assistant". Whatever that means.

I remember DeJesus as the slick-fielding shortstop. His were the moves I tried to imitate as a kid before his departure, the "dance of the middle infielder" I like to call it. Just by watching him on TV I learned how to go to the hole and make a decent throw off the wrong foot. Ironically, my first Cub game was one of the five he missed in 1980. But I digress...

DeJesus came over with Bill Buckner and got us Larry Bowa AND Ryne Sandberg when he left, so there will always be a couple of fond memories there. Without that trade, the Cubs might have gone another 14 years before reaching the postseason. But he's still one of the players associated with some bad Cub ballclubs at the end of the Wrigley era.

Maybe DeJesus will be different. He's yet another new Cub coach with managerial experience, contrary to Clines, Matthews, etc., and he had some success managing on the minor league level with the Astros organization, so maybe he'll be good for the Ronny Cedenos and Ryan Theriots of the Cub system. But it sure would be nice to go in with a clean slate.

Help Put Ronnie in the Hall

If Ron Santo can't get in the Hall through the BBWAA vote or the Veteran's Committee, let's you and me put him there as a broadcaster.

Voting is now open for the Ford C. Frick Award, which you can do through cubs.com. Pat Hughes and Steve Stone are also eligible, and conveniently you can vote for up to three every day.

New Blood

Let’s face it. Joe Girardi was the overwhelming fan favorite in this year’s manager search because Joe’s one of us. One of us. One of us. One of us.

The line that some of you may remember from the Ramones’ classic “Pinhead” came from Tod Browning’s 1932 film Freaks.

But while Cubbie Nation was chanting “one of us”, how many of us stopped to think that the long list of Freaks who were “one of us” never got “us” anywhere? The drought that Sarge, Gene Clines, and Chris Speier were trying to end as coaches, and Fergie and Billy and Zim and Billy Connors and Lee Elia and many others, is the same drought that every one of them tried and failed to end as Cub players. Building a New Tradition it's not.

So in comes Lou Piniella, responsible for seven of the nine .500+ seasons in the Mariners' 30-year history and Cincinnati's only pennant and title in that same span. Ten division titles as a player or manager and three World Series rings. Could have been more if Randy Johnson could win in a Division Series.

His first choice was Alan Trammell, who ranks 6th in Gold Gloves and 3rd in Silver Sluggers among shortstops. Played in a World Series and won it. Inherited almost as big a mess as Girardi's in Miami and turned it into something that was a couple of free-agent starting pitchers away from a pennant.

He brought up Mike Quade, who spent three years as a base coach in Oakland that all resulted in postseason play. He knows the farm system and its recent graduates, as does new bullpen coach Lester Strode, the Cubs' longtime minor league pitching instructor.

Matt Sinatro is the new first-base coach, one of Piniella's guys from Seattle. I've been hoping Vince Coleman would have gotten that job, but if you can't put a base-stealer there, go for a guy who used to try to throw out base-stealers.

The lone holdover is Larry Rothschild. It's tough to say if it's going to be a good call since Dusty Baker never knew how to handle a pitching staff. Lou and Larry did win a ring with the Reds (Rothschild won another with the Marlins in 1997), and Larry got his part of the job done for the Cubs in 2003 and 2004. But while Rothschild managed to put the Cubs atop the history books in strikeouts, it took a lot of pitches on a lot of young arms to get there, and Carlos Zambrano is the last man standing. With all the young pitching on the bubble Rothschild and Strode might be the sanest move, but the acquisition or reacquisition of a couple of reliable starting pitchers will make all the difference. We'll just have to wait and see.

But for the first time in a long time, the Cubs' coaching staff isn't loaded down with guys who have proven they don't know how to win at Wrigley Field.

MacBail and Phaker: So Far, So Good

Heads are rolling in Wrigleyville. All it took was a $95 million payroll and a last-place finish.

With Andy MacPhail stepping down and Dusty Baker not being renewed, the Cubs made more progress in 24 hours than they did in the past two years. Now the marketing guy, John McDonough, takes the title of Interim President. I like the word “Interim” there. It leaves a door open.

We know McDonough is capable as an executive. Needless to say, if there’s one thing the Cubs have been doing right it’s marketing. Three-point-one million tickets sold for the third-worst team in baseball. Does it make him a good club president? Maybe we’ll see, maybe we won’t.

And while I’m not familiar with the working relationship of VP/GM Jim Hendry and MacPhail, Hendry for the interim is no longer a baseball man answering to a baseball man. He won’t have to answer to a Guy Who (once, a long time ago) Won Two World Series.

Hendry’s own job appears safe for now. He’s had a good tenure overall, but failing to cut Baker loose while the ship was sinking in May was a big mistake. The clubhouse needed a new attitude and stronger leadership when the NL was still up for grabs. But that’s mercifully behind us.

So the managerial hunt begins tomorrow, according to the Cubs. Tomorrow... another interesting word choice there. Any coincidence that Joe Girardi is supposedly becoming available tomorrow?

And one would assume that a new managerial regime would also involve replacing members of the coaching staff. Larry Rothschild has to be at least partially to blame for Wood and Prior time-sharing the Disabled List. All Gene Clines accomplished was cutting down the strikeouts, which was as much Hendry's doing. I’ve been saying Vince Coleman belongs in the box at first since long before I started blogging here, at least it would provide a familiar face to all the young Cubs who won’t be forced back to AAA by, ideally, a spending spree worthy of George Steinbrenner this off-season.

McDonough set the bar pretty high by announcing he wanted to win the World Series. It’s time the Cubs walk off with two or three of the pre-eminent free agents. It’s time the Cubs quit shopping in the bargain bins hoping next year’s version of Wade Miller will get into a game before September, or that Jacque Jones is the key to a title, or that the only thing separating the Cubs and a ring is setup relief.

It’s put up or shut up time.

Magic Number

The Cubs' magic number is 238.

That's what you get you take the number of batters walked by Cub pitchers and subtract the number of walks drawn by Cub batters.

Bad and Worse

In losing eight of their last ten games, including today's, the Cubs have kept pace with the Reds and D-Backs, and actually gained ground on the fourth-place Brewers. But at this point, even with a finish like the 1935 squad they'd still wind up below .500. Through Sunday they're still three wins shy of half the total of the last '06 Cubs. The 2006 Cubs' 81 losses matches the total losses in 1906 and 1907 combined (223-81).

I can't even bring myself to write about Michael Barrett's injury. Hurts just reading about it.

The Cubs have now set a team record with 19 DL appearances. Wade Miller was finally activated, those "couple of days behind Prior" totaling over 70, and hasn't yet appeared in a game. Prior is on the DL for the third time this year...

And just a comment on the fans, this thing about throwing back opponents' home run balls is getting old. Some little kid wound up with Barry Bonds' 729th homer today and, after much goading from surrounding bleacherites, threw it back on the field. That peer pressure could have cost the kid a year's college tuition or a shiny red convertible on his 16th birthday. A year from now with Bonds closing in on Bad Henry, it might have even brought more. Nice work, you idiots.

Mayday!

The Cubs have resumed playing like they did in May, finding spectacular ways to lose.

In the last 24 hours, Ryan Dempster has two losses from allowing five 11th-inning runs. In the insult-to-injury department, Dusty Baker let Dempster bat for himself in the top half of the 11th today with two out and two on (he struck out) before giving up three in the bottom half for the L.

Swept by the Pirates... ugh... if there's any consolation, perhaps the worst record in the National League will be sufficient to bring some changes to town for 2007. They still hold a 1-1/2 game advantage over Pittsburgh after the sweep, six ahead of the Royals.

Welcome to the Cubs

After two starts, Ryan O'Malley has received his official initiation to the Cubs.

His first trip to the D.L.

Notes and Such

Any radio listeners out there stick it out through the end of the game last night? I found it amusing that the post-game show after 18 innings was brought to you by Marathon.

I'm surprised this isn't making news anywhere else, but the Cubs-Astros singleheader wasn't even the only 18-inning game in the National League last night. So why was I Gamecasting Arizona and Colorado through 18 innings, after five-plus hours of watching Cub relievers squeak through extra-inning after extra-inning that all seemed to involve Astro hitters getting on base and being stranded there?

'Cause it ain't over yet, folks.

The Cubs are the only NL team that's not leading a division to have won more than half of its last 10 games. They've gained between one and three games on everyone in the NL Wild Card race. Seeing as how 10 teams are within six games of the lead in the NL, they simply can't all win. And if the teams at the top can cool off, the Cubs could slide into that pack in a manner of days. If the Cubs continue this year's domination of the Cardinals, that might come sooner than later.

Here's something to consider: The Cubs now have the NL Central's best inter-divisional record. Yes, they've been pounded by the East, the West and the AL, but they're also seven over .500 against the division they face in most of their remaining games. And there's still a mathematical possibility that a sub-.500 team can walk off with a playoff spot.

Meanwhile the newest of the new kids, Ryan O"Malley, is making his MLB debut this afternoon, scoreless through three innings. He got the call when the Cubs placed Scott Eyre on the 15-day DL. Eyre tweaked a hammie while chasing after a dribbler to the right side. I wish someone had told him at the beginning of the season, "Scottie, any ball hit to the first-base side, don't leave the mound." A strategic nightmare, to be sure, but it would have saved the Cubs a lot of trouble this year.

Drinking the Kool-Aid

The Dodgers caught the Reds last night in the NL Wild Card race.

Let’s all take a look at the Dodgers for a moment. On July 26^th, they were six and a half games back. Ten wins later they’re tied for the top at a mere two over .500, 57-55.

Regardless of how badly a team performs, and LA lost 13 of 14 coming out of the All-Star break, pretty much every team goes into a winning streak of some length, where enough key guys play some of their best ball of the season at the same time, where the bats explode if the starter struggles and you get enough runs to get by when he doesn’t.

While the Dodgers were making headway, the Cubs gained four games themselves at the back end of the race. They closed a 5½-game deficit to two on the next spot up, held then as now by the Nationals, and crept up into single-digits on the top spot. Even on their off-day Monday they picked up ground on four teams, and stand four and a half games from a cluster where whomever has the best September will probably take the Wild Card.

Now look not at my mini-protest, but at the measly five games it stands for. There’s talent here, enough buried under the second base controversy and Wood and Prior and Maddux and Lee and slow starts by off-season acquisitions getting used to Wrigley Field for this ballclub to roll off seven or eight wins in a row at some point over 162 games, whether it starts at game 40 or game 110. Even with the rookies staggering through 2006 like newborn colts, enough of them can stay on their feet for the offensive veterans and as strong a front two pitchers as may exist in the NL to get hot behind them and run off a string.

Forget about playing .667 ball the rest of the way to get to .500, and digest this in small bites. Run off seven or eight in a row and that number starts to shrink. Run off seven or eight in a row, and just from all those teams facing each other, you will make major headway on three or four or five teams in that race.

The Cubs still face seven of the nine teams above them, and only the two at the top are even .500 ballclubs. We’re not exactly talking about Detroit or New York or Boston here. Or even the White Sox, Twins or Blue Jays.

Things may have seemed bleak for the last three months, but the Cubs are one hot streak away from getting right back in the thick of things, and this would be a good time to be in one after taking the last two games against a Pirates team the Cubs face seven more times. Who do the Cubs open with tonight? The Brewers. The Brewers minus Carlos Lee (with replacement Kevin Mench mired in a 1-for-17 slump after changing leagues), minus ¾ of their starting infield and possibly minus Ben Sheets.

Mark Prior’s return to form is like making a major mid-season acquisition without giving anything up. Derrek Lee will do the same in a few weeks. Somewhere out there is Wade Miller, making rehab starts. Rich Hill seems to have regained the form that dominated the PCL this season. And Carlos Zambrano may be the best starting pitcher in the league.

Don’t put away the bicarb and Pepto just yet. This might get interesting.

Tortoises and Hares

Dave van Dyck suggests the White Sox should be more concerned about the AL Wild Card than the Central Division title. D'ya think?

The Sox are only a game closer to the first place Tigers (-9) than the Cubs are to the NL Wild Card-leading Reds (-10). And Ozzie Guillen's still thinking about first place. Good luck with that. Perhaps he should be more concerned that the Twins are right on his tail.

Speaking of the NL Wild Card race, the Dodgers, after losing 13-of-14 coming out of the All-Star break, have won nine straight going back to before the Maddux-for-Izturis trade. They're, surprise, the only team to have gained ground on the Cubs in the last ten games.

The West-leading Padres, meanwhile, have split six games since acquiring Todd Walker (5-of-14, .357, but with only one run scored and no RBIs since the trade). I still contend that the NL West will see several more lead changes before the regular season draws to a close, but if LA can put on a run, that's one less team to worry about in the Wild Card race.

It ain't over, folks, not yet.

Start Me Up

It was nice to see Mark Prior finally get his first win of the season today. It wasn't the dominating Prior who earned no decision despite throwing hitless ball in his second-to-last start going into today's game, but a win is a win is a win.

Matt Murton collected two more hits, including a homer, nudging him closer to a .300 average which seemed out of reach at the end of June. He's batting .533 in August after hitting .360 in July, and has only one hitless game with 3 or more at-bats since the middle of June.

Let's just hope Murton isn't named Player of the Month. Cub hurlers have treated the pitching equivalent of that honor like a curse this year, as Greg Maddux went into a death spiral in May and Carlos Zambrano got hammered in his first August start. Still, one would have trouble finding another fifth-place team in the history books with two Pitchers of the Month through July.

With the Cub win, they remain 11 games behind Cincinnati in the Wild Card race. Stay tuned...

The Audience is Listening?

In my last post, I mentioned that Michael Barrett could potentially give the Cubs back-to-back batting titles. Today, Carrie Muskat, the fine reporter for cubs.com, mentioned the same tidbit on the official website.

So if you're reading, hi, Carrie! If you ever need a research assistant to lighten the load for Ed Hartig...

Cubs Winsome, Lose Some

The Cubs split two against Arizona today, splitting the four-game set to close the season series as Cub rookies started both ends of a doubleheader for the first time since 1978.

The kids were alright, more or less. Juan Mateo won his major league debut in the nightcap. Matt Murton drove in five runs on a MLB-record-tying four doubles to raise his average to .297. Carlos Marmol struggled through the first two innings of game 1, throwing 66 pitches, but only needed 13 to get through the next two. He drops to 4-5, not bad considering the Cubs' overall record. Ryan Theriot collected three hits, including an RBI double in the first game, and Angel Pagan added some excitement by scoring on a squeeze bunt by Henry Blanco, one of three runs he scored in game 2.

There were highlights from the veterans as well, with Michael Barrett going 3-for-4 with a walk in the opener and raising his batting average to .338, still short of the at-bats needed to qualify for second place in the NL, where a strong last two months could give the Cubs back-to-back batting champs for the first time since Bill Madlock did it twice 30 years ago. Phil Nevin went 2-for-2 with a pair of walks in the nightcap and scored twice. Juan Pierre picked up four hits in 10 at-bats on the day. Scott Eyre threw a scoreless inning and a third in game 2 to drop his ERA to a sparkling 2.01.

But there are still some puzzlers in Cubbieland. For example, what better way to help Ronny Cedeno make the announced shift to second base than by starting him at shortstop in game 2, where he made an error today? Even with the team parting ways with Jerry Hairston Jr. and Tony Womack, the Cubs still have a glut of second-basemen as Theriot and Neifi Perez got the starts today.

The return of Mark Grace to Wrigley Field as a Diamondbacks broadcaster makes me hope he returns to the organization someday. Gracie sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the second game, breaking the visiting-team taboo by saying root, root, root for the Cubbies. He always has been, and always will be, one of us.

In the post-sing interview on the TV side, Grace had good things to say about Murton's approach at the plate. Makes sense, as Murton's more of a Grace-style hitter than a basher. With Gene Clines still holding the spot as hitting coach, it's time the Cubs started picking their coaches from the next generation of ex-Cubs, and Mark Grace knows a thing or two about hitting at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs have been abysmal in day games. I'd still like to see Vince Coleman coaching at first base, but my future coaching dream team includes Grace as hitting coach, Greg Maddux as pitching coach and Joe Girardi at the helm.

Meanwhile the guessing game continues. Wild Card leader Cincinnati has lost four straight to drop to three over .500, and only those D-Backs join Cincinnati on the happy side of .500 in the Wild Card race. With the split today, the Cubs climb to 10 1/2 games away from a playoff spot with only 13 games remaining against above-.500 teams in the final third of the season including six versus a Cardinals team that the Cubs have inexplicably dominated this year, versus 13 remaining against current last-place teams Pittsburgh (10) and San Fran (3). With the National League being a world of suck this year, including a Western Division that's hovering around the .500 mark like a swarm of bees, this is like putting a loved one on life-support and having them make brief rallies that you know only stave off the inevitable.

The ultimate truth, however, is that one of those mediocre-to-sucky teams is going to the playoffs, and all bets are off as to guaranteeing what happens from there. We're still not even at the point in the season when the fissure opened for the '69 Cubs, and anyone who makes, say, a 15-of-20 run against those other mediocre-to-sucky teams can make a major statement in the Wild Card race.

The Aftermath

Still less than 24 hours after the Cubs traded two of my favorite roster members, I can’t help but look to 2007. Why? Well, there ain’t much of 2006 left to look forward to.

So… Cesar Izturis. Gold Glove shortstop. Not bad. Mike Downey of the Tribune talked to Tommy Lasorda, who said Izturis was the Dodgers’ best defensive shortstop since Pee Wee Reese. His contract is through 2007 with an option for 2008.

Defensively the Cubs could have their best infield in the quarter-century-plus that I’ve been following them. Derrek Lee has a couple of Gold Gloves, and Aramis Ramirez leads NL third-basemen in fielding percentage. Ronny Cedeno has incredible range and quickness, and maybe a move to second base (a la natural shortstop Ryne Sandberg) is the answer to his youthful exuberance leading to some hastened, ill-advised throws to first since second-sackers have more time to make a play.

It had better be a busy off-season addressing pitching and the outfield, but it looks like the Cubs could have a core infield of young defensive studs (Derrek Lee is the oldest of the four, and he turns 31 in September) with a pair of big bats on the corners.

Not a bad place to start…

Follow-Up

Chalk one up for irony. The moritorium continues for another week.

There's nothing quite like seeing Glendon Rusch get lit up like a pinball machine with nobody even warming up in the bullpen. Unless, of course, it's Will Ohman getting lit up like a pinball machine with nobody warming up in the bullpen later in the same game. D-Backs 15, Cubs 4.

Pbbbbt.

Last-Minute Dealing

Within minutes of the trade deadline, the Cubs announced Todd Walker is bound for San Diego in exchange for a 19-year-old minor league pitcher. It figures. Walker never got the respect he deserved throughout his stay here in Chicago, but at least he's going to a team that might sneak into the playoffs in a division nobody seems to want to win.

In a post-deadline announcement also affecting that NL West race, WGN Radio is announcing the second Greg Maddux era is also at an end. Pending approval, he's off the the Dodgers with a pile of cash for shortstop Cesar Izturis. I try to stay away from emoticons here, but :-(

So here's hoping the Cubs re-sign Maddux when he becomes a free agent at season's end. And in the meantime, I recommend the Cubs make haste in finally retiring number 31. The Dodgers' visit Wrigley September 12-14, which would be a perfect time. Trot Fergie out as well and have a dual ceremony, and then hope for that number to be un-retired in 2007.

Moritorium

The moritorium I started in May could come to an end. The terms were that until the Cubs won five straight, I wouldn't wear any Cubs gear or buy any tickets.

With four straight wins and Mark Prior hungry for his first win after not allowing a hit in his last outing, Brandon Webb and the Diamondbacks stand in his way.

So here's the X factor - a co-worker decided it was too hot to use his tickets tonight, so he gave them to me. The Cubs usually win when I'm there, and I've only witnessed one Cub loss in the last six seasons. I'm bringing along two friends who accompanied me on my first Cub road trip, a Milwaukee game in which Matt Clement chalked up only road win of 2004.

If you believe in good luck charms, bet on the Cubbies. If you read my entry a few months ago about ironic timing, bet on Arizona. But with White Sox fans fidgeting, this would be a good time to trot out the Cubbie blue once again. So in other words, your guess is as good as mine.

Follow-Up

I didn't see the play, but home plate umpire Ed Montague called a strike on a pitch that hit Ronny Cedeno in the forearm today. Montague thought the pitch hit Cedeno's bat, while a bruise on his arm would seem to prove otherwise.

Gotta call those for both sides, Blue...

Why Don't Our Guys Do This?

Check out where David Eckstein sets up on this Rich Hill pitch.

Take a closer look at that left forearm.

So is it any surprise that he was hit by a pitch that was over the plate?

That white blur in front of Michael Barrett's mask is the ball, with Eckstein retracting just far enough to absorb a glancing blow with his forearm for a free trip to first base. It looks like his toes are outside the batter's box as well.

When you need baserunners, does it really matter how they get there? In six-plus seasons, Eckstein is already at 101 hit-by-pitches. A lengthy career could put him near where Craig Biggio will eventually wind up. Biggio trails all-time leader Hughie Jennings (287) by eight.

A-Rod... and A-Reel 'Em In

I wonder what’s in the water over at Tribco…

Today, Trib columnist Phil Rogers suggests that the Cubs could be looking to add Bobby Abreu, Miguel Tejada or, get this, Alex Rodriguez.

While yes, A-Rod’s $27 million-a-year salary for the remaining four years of his Winfieldesque contract is trimmed to a comparable bargain at $14 million after the Rangers dole out their ongoing penance for offering him a quarter-billion dollars over 10 years, and yes, A-Rod is an easy target for Yankee fans to point at when the poor babies complain that it’s been (sniffle) six whole years since their last championship, it’s important to note that just last week Rogers suggested that Dusty Baker should be re-upped after this season.

Rogers’ suggestion is that the Yanks could use both Aramis Ramirez and Jacque Jones, and GM Brian Cashman could do a little one-stop shopping by picking up two of the dwindling number of Cubs who haven’t rolled over and died over the past three months.

Would I object to the Cubs parting ways with Ramirez and Jones? No. Ramirez is a valuable player an a potent threat over the course of 162 games, but his slow starts haven’t exactly helped the Cubs charge to any early divisional leads in three seasons. Offensive explosions like Ramirez put on over the weekend are of little use to a team that can’t see the Wild Card without a telescope, especially when they still can’t keep the Cubs out of the receiving end of a three-game sweep at the hands of last-place Washington. Ditto Jones, whose adjustment to the National League came too late to make an impact, and in my opinion plays a pretty lousy right field, though the Yanks’ recent tradition of favoring big bats over big gloves might make him a natural for the pinstripes.

Grin and Barrett

Time for a little good news.

Finally the Cubs can once again claim a winning record over a 10-game span after Tuesday night's home win against the Astros. In the midst of being trashed in the media, Phil Nevin hit a three-run homer that provided the winning margin, propelling the Cubs to their (gasp!) sixth win in their last nine games. They're not making headway in any sort of race, but at least the powerdive seems to have been righted somewhat with the touch-and-go return (.242, 4 RBIs in 66 ABs and 2 for his last 20) of Derrek Lee.

Here are some recent highlights...

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but Michael Barrett has been on fire over the last month and a half, raising his average 55 points from .277 to .332 and getting him promoted to second in the lineup. He batted .392 in a suspension-shortened June, and is up over .450 through the first two and a half weeks of July. If Barrett had the at-bats, he'd be hovering around the top five in the NL.

Juan Pierre has also picked it up, with nine multi-hit games in his last 17 starts and a .413 average since the second White Sox series. Aramis Ramirez is batting .321 over the same period.

Carlos Zambrano is 9-1 since a winless April, and is no longer just about the last person you'd expect to beat out an infield hit and then steal second. The other Carlos, Marmol, has now put together back-to-back six-inning, one-run wins.

Jacque Jones is batting .317 since the beginning of May, and has had his season slugging average up over .500 since the beginning of June.

Even Henry Blanco is batting .362 since the beginning of June.

But despite the guys the Cubs needed to get hot actually doing so, the progress overall had been slow until the announcement of Jim Hendry's "evaluation" of Dusty Baker. The starting pitching just hasn't been there, and it's not just the rookies, as written about so much. Greg Maddux has won 2 of his last 12 decisions. Prior and Wood are a combined 1-6, and again both on the DL, so three counted-upon veteran starters are 3-16 since the beginning of May. Throw in the rookies, even the better ones, and Zambrano is the only starter keeping the Cubs ahead of Pittsburgh and Kansas City.

So with two weeks to the deadline and apparently no imminent firings, does this recent little hot spell mean there might be something salvageable in a truly weak National League? It would take quite a run to make up the 12 games separating the Cubs and the Wild Card leading Reds, who are only four over .500, but if the Cubs could get on a roll and win, say, 10 out of 12 or 12 out of 15, they could pick up some serious ground on some very mediocre teams in that race.

With the clock still ticking, are trades coming? Will there be a push after all? If the Cubs are, as rumored, looking to move Greg Maddux and once-effective swingman Glendon Rusch before the trading deadline, their oldest starting pitcher might wind up being Rich Hill, who's now at Iowa. Is this where you bring in a veteran arm or two, hope Prior gets on track, try to put a consistent threat on the mound every day and hope you get some breaks?

We'll see.

Ballplayers are 'Surfers Too

Check out this Yankees fan thread and look for screen name gehrig38. That's non-Yankee Curt Schilling. No kidding.

I have to give it up for a player who spends almost two hours giving candid, in-depth replies to people who hate his team, and the Pinstripe fans give him props as well. Insightful reading for a fan of any team. It clicks through for several pages - make sure you get to the part about rookies then and now and Mickey Tettleton.

Mid-Season Report Card

“Two C’s, two D’s and an F.... Congratulations, Mr. Kroger, you’re at the top of the Delta pledge class.”

Perhaps worthy of comparison to the boys of Delta Tau Chi, the Cubs’ 2006 season at the midway point has been the roughest first half in recent memory.

Go ahead and blame it on injuries, that song’s been in payola rotation since Kerry Wood signed his first lease on that DL spot, but it’s worth mentioning that the 1985 Cubs squad, historic in becoming the first major league team to have its entire starting rotation on the disabled list simultaneously, only finished seven games below .500 (77-84-1) under the tutelage of Jim Frey.

Similarities? Chris Speier (.243) and Gary Matthews (.235) were there. There was a rookie starting shortstop and an outfield that missed 137 starts. They went through a slew of young pitchers, including Reggie Patterson, Dave Beard, Derek Botelho, Dave Gumpert, Ron Meredith, Jon Perlman and Jay Baller. They also got off to a quick start, opening 35-19, but going 42-65 the rest of the way doesn't look quite so dismal anymore.

Maybe if you don't want to default back to the injury excuse, you shouldn't keep counting on players with chronic injuries hoping you'll win the lottery.

So on to the report card...

Who gets an A? That's a toughie. I don't think anyone deserves one. Scott Eyre would be close, but it was his ill-advised throw that landed Derrek Lee on the DL. Eyre, Bob Howry, and Carlos Zambrano get A- grades. Zambrano's a gimme, save for his first couple of starts, and Eyre and Howry have more than adequately plugged the gap they were signed to plug. Unfortunately this season that accomplishment is comparable to doctors at Parkland Hospital treating JFK's neck wound.

Todd Walker and Michael Barrett also get A-minuses. If there's a productivity-to-respect ratio, Walker would lead the team. Barrett, at .320, only gets the minus for his 10-game suspension, which forced Henry Blanco to remember how to hit Major League pitching. And they're the only Cubs with more walks than strikeouts, unless you count the pitching of Jerome Williams and Rich Hill.

B's, I've got some B's for the kids. Matt Murton and Ronny Cedeno get B's. Yes, there are kinks to work out, but considering there's about one season of combined ML experience there, they've done well and have a bright future. Murton has a knack for getting timely hits in big spots, Cedeno has the tools to become one of the elite defensive shortstops in the game, and both could easily become regular .300 hitters for years to come. Put Sean Marshall on that list too. His 5-7 record doesn't reflect the promise of a kid who was expected to pitch at AA this year instead of making the parent club out of Spring Training, much less being the Cubs' first non-emergency left-handed starter in years.

I'll also give B's to Ryan Dempster and Derrek Lee. Dempster's B is more understandable after reading Sparky Lyle's The Bronx Zoo, which really helps the reader get into the mindset of the closer, than by watching his performances over the last month or two. The more often you're in the situation, the better you do, and a closer who doesn't face a save situation for three weeks is going to have trouble. Giving him an inning for its own sake when you're down six runs doesn't help when he doesn't have that adrenaline rush of the game being on the line.

Lee, well, that one fateful throw was so awful he should have let it go through to the backup. Furcal would have beat it anyway. Split-second decisions don't allow room for error, though, and the same competitive nature that got his wrist broken is what makes him a great player. I'll make the same argument as when I suggested the Cubs should have re-upped on Nomar Garciaparra: A few months with him beats not having him at all... but always have a backup.

Maddux gets a B as well. Apart from his stellar April, he's a great guy to have around if you wind up with a throng of young pitchers.

That leaves a lot of guys with low grades, borderline pass/fail grades, and that includes the entire coaching staff and front office. Enough frustration that I don't want to think about them, much less write about them.

So I won't.

Not My Joke, but Worth Sharing

A Chicago man dies and goes to hell.

When he gets there, the devil comes over to welcome him. The devil says, "Sometimes it gets pretty uncomfortable down here."

The man says, "No problem. I'm from Chicago."

So the devil turns the temperature up to 100 and the humidity up to 80. He then goes back to the Chicago man to see how he's doing. To the devil's surprise, the man is doing just fine.

"No problem. Just like Chicago in June," the man says.

So the devil turns the temperature up to 150 and the humidity up to 90. He then goes back over to see how the Chicago man is doing. The man is sweating a little, but overall looks comfortable.

"No problem. Just like Chicago in July," the man says.

So now the devil turns the temperature up to 200, and the humidity up to 100. When he goes back to see how the man is doing, the man is sweating profusely and has taken his shirt off. Otherwise, he seems OK.

He says, "No problem. Just like Chicago in August."

Now the devil is really perplexed. So he turns the temperature down to -150 degrees. Immediately, all the humidity in the air freezes up and the whole place becomes a frigid, barren, frozen, deathly cold wasteland.

When he goes back to see how the Chicago man is doing, he is shocked to discover the man is jumping up and down, cheering in obvious delight. The devil asks what's going on, to which the Chicago man replies...

"THE CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES!"

Stereotypes in Mono

Am I the only WGN radio listener who thinks the latest Old Style Cubs campaign with the supposed standup comic was written by a White Sox fan?

One commercial disses Cub fans for doing the wave, something I haven't seen at Wrigley since the '80s, and rarely even then. Another takes pride in losing and insists true Cub fans drink Old Style at the office ("What is that, coffee???"). Another makes fun of people who score the game while watching, as if it's sacrilege to actually follow the game instead of getting loaded on crappy beer at six bucks a cup, or whatever they charge these days.

It's hard to tell which is worse, Old Style for a truly awful campaign or Budweiser for directly padding the coffers of the St. Louis Cardinals.

But then again, perhaps intoxication is the best way to take in the 2006 Cubs without losing a hold of one's sanity.

Mail Call

I get a lot of mail from the folks at Cubs.com. Seems that based on whatever list I signed up for long ago, they need to send me something every single day.

Timely as today's headlines, the one I received this morning was about All-Star jerseys and hats and what-not. Those ugly yellow jerseys that they used for batting practice or something, with a Zambrano 38 on the back.

"Hey, yeah, remember that All-Star game Big Z didn't pitch in? The one when Joey Cora hit him with a fungo bat? I got the jersey, man. Only 120 bucks!"

"Awesome. Zambrano's actual jersey. How cool is--"

"No, man. Not the real jersey. But it looks just like it."

"Um..."

They also have Cubs Futures hats, which are just regular Cubs hats with an extra logo on the side. Which is ironic, because until some serious changes are made, this Cubs team has no future.

The Baddest Part of Town, or Hey Nineteen(th)

For the first time since 1989, Sunday I got to see the Boston Red Sox play. The BoSox became my second-favorite team when the Cubs traded Bill Buckner there for Dennis Eckersley in 1984. I sure can pick 'em, can't I?

My local watering hole had a bus trip and a couple of other Boston fans were going, so I figured I'd head into enemy territory and root, root, root for the road team.

It was my first once-every-few-years trip to the Cell since the renovation. Their sign now looks like it belongs at a strip-mall in Berwyn instead of a ballpark. Corporate sponsors, check, check, check, check and check. Home of the White Sox? Umm... not so much. And no, it's not hidden by the school bus.


As for the inside, I never thought I'd see a ballpark where they made the Uecker seats worse by obstructing views that hadn't previously been obstructed. Even on a hot day, I'd prefer baking in the sun in the "old" new Comiskey to having a giant pillar blocking my view of half of the infield.

Seriously, I don't know what it is with me and bad seats this year. I couldn't even imagine how upset I'd be if I was one of the poor souls laying out serious green to sit in that seat for one of the World Series games last year. Excited as all get-out since the moment you got the ticket. Pins and needles all day long for what might be the game of your life, the World Series. Giddily hopping into the car, heading up the Ryan, more excited. There's the ballpark, more excited. Into the lot, through the gate, up the ramps, through the concourse, there's your section, more excited. Up the steps, counting rows, more excited. There's your row, there's your seat, you turn around and sit down and...


...oh.

You'd think for $67 million they could have thrown a little paint over that spot.

From Section 518, Row 19, Seat 20 it's a little tough to follow a game, so fortunately I was able to move two seats over where I could at least see the pitcher's mound.

This was my view when apparently a Red Sox popup landed fair near home plate. Somebody the size of an ant wound up on first base. Alex Cora, I think.

Before the renovation I sat in nearly the same place for a Cubs-Sox game and my only complaint was the distance from home plate. Sunday, with or without the vendor, I was completely unable to follow the game. I couldn't pick up fly balls once they passed the pillar, couldn't track grounders, couldn't track baserunners, and found it pointless to remain in my seat by the seventh inning.

As long as I had to rely on the Jumbotron for any action I was going to see, I figured I might as well stand around a monitor near a concession stand. While I can't say much for the seats, the concourse looks really nice and is covered with pictures and factoids and blowups of baseball cards from throughout Sox history. I don't, however, recall seeing Bill Veeck's picture anywhere.

So I wandered around for three innings, taking pictures from different vantage points around the upper deck (500-level ticketholders aren't allowed on the lower level), then figured I'd poke my head back in when rookie sensation Jonathan Papelbon came on to nail down the 3-2 lead and then head for the bus. Papelbon's younger brother Jeremy was drafted and signed by the Cubs this year and is 1-0, 0.00 with two saves in four appearances at Class A Boise, so I was excited to see this rookie I'd heard so much about all year.

I was in the left field corner and zooming all the way in with my camera when Jeremy's big brother threw this pitch...


...which wound up landing just on the fair side of the pole below me, blowing the save and tying the game. It was only the third run he'd given up all season, leaving him at 0.59 going into the All-Star break. I'd seen enough.

It's a good thing I had. Instead of "30 minutes after the game", the bus left during the 14th inning and arrived back at our starting point in time to watch the 18th and 19th innings on TV. I could have sat for six-plus hours and ten extra innings in that awful seat just to see my team fail to get the three-game sweep, then taken an angry trek through the parking lot looking for a bus that had long departed, followed by two frustrating El rides and a 10-block walk home.

Here's what the line score looked like:

BOS 100 200 000 020 000 000 0 - 5
CHW 000 101 001 020 000 000 1 - 6

All in all, the highlight of the day ended up being an ice cube fight on and around the bus that lasted six innings. Never underestimate the entertainment value of an ice cube fight on a hot July day, where there's no such thing as an innocent bystander.

Buzz Buzz Buzz

The latest speculation and withdrawal by Jim Hendry... well, I'll believe it when I see it.

This time he's waited far too long to salvage the season. If you're in a 2-14 spell in early May, you can't just sit around and backslide through the standings, putting up the worst record in the majors over the next two months. There's a good reason the first managerial firings around the leagues often come in early May, even if it wasn't the case this year.

If there's such a lack of leadership that the troops can't be rallied after the loss of only one of their big guns, missing the same Two Big Pitchers as when they opened the year 13-8, it's time to look for another field general.

Hendry technically has 22 days to make up his mind if he's going to try to contend, but there's a lot of ground to make up and three teams to leapfrog before even looking to the other divisions in the Wild Card race. I might add, the '14 Braves, '35 Cubs, '51 Giants, '64 Cards, '69 Mets, '78 Yankees, none of them were 20+ below .500 before pulling off their miracle finishes. If it's gonna happen, he'd better get cracking A.S.A.P.

So okay, names were named. Lou Piniella, that's a pretty big name. Big enough a name that he's the only one I consider worth mentioning. He could be this generation's version of what Leo Durocher was supposed to be. Fiery. Passionate. He's not there to be your buddy, he's there to win, dammit. Joe Diehard couldn't give a squat whether or not there's a swell clubhouse atmosphere, especially when White Sox fans have such a new-found smugness that he half wishes he was the one who popped A.J. Pierzynski, and the Cub fans for once are the ones who are too ashamed to wear their jerseys around town.

But then Hendry backed off. Is he backing off the traditional "vote of confidence" speech that often is a manager's harbinger of doom? All we can do is wait until, far as we know, the All-Star break. I could really care less about the game. The AL wins every year anyway; more top-tier free-agents and fewer team-representative spots clogging the roster. And an exhibition game determining the home field advantage for the World Series is so asinine I want as little to do with it as possible.

But back to the Cubs.

If you bring in a new manager, you have to bring in new coaches. I have some wacky and not-so-wacky suggestions.

First, the first-base coach. Bye-bye Sarge, we love ya for '84, but Vince Coleman is long overdue for a promotion. Man stole over 100 bases in his first three seasons and 145 in his last year in the minors, so he knows a thing or two about how to get over and in as often as possible.

Look who the White Sox put next to first base, Tim Raines. Over 800 stolen bases. Coleman had over 700 in a much shorter career. Their main job all their lives was getting from first base to second. And Coleman's even worked with the kids coming up through the Cubs' farm system. This one should hopefully be a no-brainer.

Next, the pitching coach. This is the wacky part. I'd like to see Greg Maddux finish his career with the Cubs, as a playing coach like Warren Spahn and Yogi Berra back in the '60s. The kids look up to Maddux. They go to him for advice when there's a guy a few seats over who gets paid for that sort of thing. They respect him, as well they should. So make him your pitching coach.

Sure, there might be a bit of a learning curve, but he already knows everybody, and look how much higher in the standings his brother Mike is as pitching coach for the Brewers. God forbid he might teach someone how to field a bunt or a ball hit right back through the box after winning 15 Gold Gloves.

As for the hitting coach? Well, if you want someone who knows how to get on base at Wrigley and re-establish a home-field advantage, I can't think of anyone better suited than Mark Grace. He wants to get back in the game as a coach and, well, he's one of us.

With all the scrub ex-Cubs run through coaching positions since time immemorial, Grace has to be a better choice than Gene Clines. Here come the numbers... NL top 10 in most at-bats per strikeout in each of his first 14 seasons, including every year he was a Cub. Frequent top tens in things like bases on balls, times on base, singles, doubles, sac flies and batting average that you have to rely on from two-thirds of your lineup if you don't want to score all your runs on homers. Look how far that got the Cubs last year. The only question is whether he can teach it, and the Cubs owe him that first shot for keeping him around so long until they finally let him go off and get himself a World Series ring before he hung up his spikes.

All of this prospecting of course hinges on Jim Hendry. If Hendry decides to sell the Cubs for scrap, it won't make much difference in the standings if Baker lasts through the season or not.

But when you could be looking at the worst record for a bad franchise in 40 years and you could have the pick of the managerial litter, you have to consider that guys with Piniella's track record don't come up the pike very often. Won a World Series in his first year in Cincinnati. Seven winning seasons, three division titles and a Wild Card in 10 years after joining a tight-fisted Seattle team that had one .500 season and no postseason appearances in its 16-year existence.

Whether or not the Cubs are going anywhere in 2006, Piniella gives you a better shot in 2007. He even got the Devil Rays out of last place for the only time in their history. And who got the D-Rays all comfy in the cellar while their expansion counterpart Diamondbacks were building a championship? Larry Rothschild.

See, it all comes around.

Womack in the Saddle Again

Perez Traded for Cabrera

Unfortunately it's the wrong team, Cleveland, the wrong Perez, Eduardo, and the wrong Cabrera, a 20-year-old minor-leaguer.

But the Cubs did post one bulletin on the transaction wire. I'm sad to report that after having been sent down to AAA, Tony Womack has been designated for assignment, meaning within ten days he'll be an ex-Cub for the second time, via trade or release. He batted .280 in limited time, better than most of the team this year.

Meanwhile, Neifi Perez, who was batting under .210 ten days ago, is getting more playing time and his average is back to within 40 points of Womack's. Minus the base-stealing threat and the 40:3 ratio in career playoff games. In case you haven't inferred by now, I think this move is asinine.

If Dusty Baker had the same kind of patience with Corey Patterson that he inexplicably has for Perez, who handles neither the bat nor the glove like he did a few years ago, I would be at least (pulling a number out of thin air) 20% less adamant about calling for his replacement.

I guess if there's a plus side, they're not making a move with Womack when his value is at its absolute nadir, like too many of the players dealt since 2003.

Doing the Math

The Cubs need to win four of their next six games before the halfway point, against the Brewers and White Sox, to be on pace to lose fewer than 100 games.

And here's another little factoid: Brewers rookie Prince Fielder ranks second in home runs at Wrigley Field (4) this season. Jacque Jones, who actually plays for the Cubs (which is debatable if you've seen him try to handle right field), leads with six.

Home, Sweet... Wait, What?

I've tried not to look at the standings lately. For Cub fans there isn't much point lately.

But over the next few days the Milwaukee Brewers will decide who goes into July with the worst home record in baseball, the Cubs (12-20), the Kansas City Royals (13-20) or the Atlanta Braves (14-20).

Milwaukee opened a three-game series at KC last night with a win, and Monday the Brewers visit Wrigley for four games before the White Sox come to the North Side.

Kansas City and the Braves each have one June home game remaining, while the Cubs finish the month at home following this weekend's series in Minnesota.

Ah, the memories

This part of June always brings back memories of people who are important to me.

Paul McCartney's birthday is the 18th, Brian Wilson's is the 20th, my mom's is the 21st, my great-grandmother passed away on a June 22nd, and then there's June 23rd.

I can't even see today's date on a calendar without thinking of the Sandberg Game, June 23, 1984. There are a couple hundred guys in the Hall of Fame, but try to name another one with a synonymous "Game" with-a-capital-G. Ruth? Cobb? Aaron? Mays? Mantle? Nope. Go down the list and you'll keep getting the same answer. Nor will you find references to the Gaedel Game or the Holloman Game or the Thomson Game or the Mazeroski Game. Or the Gibson Game or the Carter Game or, well, you get the point.

Those two late-inning, game-tying homers off of one of the greatest relievers in history set a lot of things in motion that summer. I'd never heard chants of "M-V-P" before. Rick Sutcliffe was about three starts into going 16-1 stretch as a mid-season acquisition. They even beat the team that the last generation of Cub fans taught me to despise.

But the one thing I'll always take with me from watching the Sandberg Game is that it was the first time I really Believed. Sure, it bit me in the ass more times than I can count. But what a rush...

Moritorium

I actually started doing this over a month ago, I just never mentioned it. But I've had it.

Until the Cubs win five straight games, I refuse to buy, wear or use any Cubs gear.

No hats, no jerseys, no t-shirts, no shorts, no stupid rubberbands that pull the hair off my wrist, no keychains, no lighters, no sunglasses, nothing. No Cubs tickets either.

In the meantime I will continue wearing gear from other teams. I have a Boston hat and a Cleveland shirt that I like, and a White Sox hat. I'm even going to the Cell for a game when Boston comes to town, but I'll probably leave the Boston hat at home. People wearing the opposing team's colors aren't even safe on the field...

But until these numbnuts find a way to win and win with regularity, I'm not doing anything in public that indicates I support any of their actions, unless those actions include firing Dusty Baker and at least Andy MacPhail.

Even if I have bad hair all summer long.

Give up? Not without a fight.

The Pirates today failed to score the winning run after loading the bases with nobody out in the ninth in a tie game with the Diamondbacks today. Arizona went on to score in the 11th and, as of moments ago, walked away with the win. Ex-Cub Jeromy Burnitz, who had tied the score in the 8th, struck out to end it.

The significance? A Pirate win and a Cub loss tonight in Cleveland would have put the two teams in a tie for last place.

In case you were wondering what kind of results from a $95 million roster justify massive changes throughout the organization, well, keep wondering. The third-worst record in baseball apparently isn't enough.

Bailey, Banks and Bidding

Crain's is reporting that Ernie Banks has approached the Cubs about buying the team and has attracted the interest of two groups of backers.

Banks told Crain's that Roy Bailey, a partner of Giuliani Partners LLC, contacted him about participating in a bid. That's as in Rudolph Giuliani, former New York mayor, 9/11 hero and rumored possible presidential candidate. Banks also said he has been approached by Comstock Capital Partners LLC.

Banks reportedly met with Tribune Company CEO Dennis FitzSimons, but the team is not for sale.

Zambrano, As Advertised

I was all set to write about Carlos Zambrano nearly duplicating his one-hit performance, and right after I typed in the headline, Ken Griffey Jr. hit a solo home run to trim the Cubs' lead to 4-1. Still, back-to-back dominant outings is a good sign, and for all the talk about Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, Zambrano keeps proving he's the real horse of the rotation.

Big Z allowed a run and four hits over 7-2/3, with Griffey's homer ending a 15 inning string over two starts allowing no runs and three hits. Still, within moments of his departure the threat of a no-decision loomed as a walk and a wild pitch by Bobby Howry put runners at second and third, but he got David Ross swinging to keep the inherited runner from scoring and end the 8th inning.

Ryan Dempster allowed a run in the ninth, but earned his 11th save in the 4-2 win.

Zambrano has now dropped his ERA to 2.93 with a 5-3 record after ending April at 0-2 and 5.35.

The Grand Slam Game

Good Cub fans will remember the old Grand Slam Game on WGN radio broadcasts. Cub hits a grand slam, you get a thousand bucks. Cub hits one in the 7th inning and you get $7,000.

Only, the Cubs hit so few grand slams that they changed the game a couple of years ago to the Back to Back Jacks contest. Through Friday the Cubs were tied for dead last in the majors in homers, and 45 Jacks in 60 games doesn't make the odds very good for that either.

Michael Barrett hit a grand slam in the seventh inning tonight in Cincinnati off of Esteban Yan, so when Phil Nevin followed Barrett with "only" a single, tonight's lucky caller was left with a consolation prize.

At least Pat Hughes gives you a fighting chance with their attendance game, and they changed that too. Callers don't have to guess on a guess anymore, it's all on Hughes' often uncanny talent at such an odd skill.

Think about it, Cub fans. If you're the kind of fan who calls in for radio contests, would you really want to lose your eligibility for awhile to take a shot on something so few "lucky" callers win?

Update

In light of my last column, I should mention that on Day 2 the Cubs drafted Joshua Lansford, a third baseman like his father, Carney, and pitcher Jeremy Papelbon, little brother of Boston wunderkind closer Jonathan Papelbon.

Draft Picky

The 2006 Amateur Draft began today. You probably won't be hearing any of the names for a while anyway, so I'll wax philosophical on the general topic.

In the big leagues, you can't swing a cat without hitting the son of a former ballplayer. So why not draft as many as you can?

Like in horse racing, pedigree means something. In addition to the DNA, multi-generational ballplayers have the added advantages of learning from a pro (and whoever's on Dad's team) as well as starting from tee-ball with the knowledge that playing ball for you isn't just chasing some unrealistic dream. You've been in the clubhouse, lugged your share of bats, and witnessed first-hand what real ballplayers do to get and stay ready for competition at the highest level, as far back as you can remember.

So it shouldn't be any surprise that just in the last few years you could look around and see Barry Bonds, Derrek Lee, Ken Griffey Jr., Gary Matthews Jr., Scott Hairston and Jerry Hairston Jr., Jose Cruz Jr., Tony Armas Jr., assorted third-generation Bells and Boones, Prince Fielder, Roberto and Sandy Alomar, Moises Alou, Nick Swisher, Josh Barfield, Adam LaRoche, Lance Niekro, Justin Speier, and I'm sure I missed some. All had dads in the big leagues except Lee, whose father played in Japan and uncle played in MLB. Not to be outdone, Corey and Eric Patterson's dad played in the NFL. I think you remember Corey...

So far in this draft, Doug Drabek's son Kyle (Phillies), Don Mattingly's son Preston (Dodgers), Jim Tracy's son Chad (Texas)(not to be confused with the Chad Tracy already playing), Paul Gibson's son Glenn (Washington) and John Shelby's son John (White Sox) have been picked up, and there are more rounds to go.

The worst of the lot will probably get at least a cup of coffee on the major league level, which compares favorably to the odds of your average amateur draftee. And Preston Mattingly is four inches taller than Don.

Roger Clemens's latest un-retirement gave him the opportunity to take the mound for Lexington tonight with his son Koby at third base. Depending on how many more encores the Astros can coax from Clemens and how fast li'l Clemens progresses, they might join the ranks of Tim Raines and Ken Griffey senior and junior.

Then you have the little brothers of big leaguers. Greg Maddux is a little brother. Pedro Martinez is a little brother. Trevor Hoffman is a little brother. Roberto Alomar, Aaron Boone and Alex Cora are little brothers. If Jake gets called up, add Joe Mauer to the list. Not to mention George Brett and Robin Yount a generation ago.

So as long as you're making 50 or 60 picks, why not dip into that DNA as often as you can? Anyone who showed any promise in high school or college, anyone who might be a little small yet, anyone who might be leaning toward another sport, take that shot on as many as you can, toss them in Rookie League and see what happens.

Sure, you'll wind up with your share of Pete Rose Juniors and Ozzie Cansecos, but even a cup of coffee makes it a better pick than some kid who never made it out of A ball. And you never know which of those kids are going to have a major league mindset simply by osmosis the day they walk into their first spring training camps as non-roster invitees.

All's Well That Ends Well

Carlos Zambrano didn't get his no-hitter. Or his shutout.

Zambrano never struck me as the kind of pitcher who ever wants to give up the ball, but Will Ohman came on for a 1-2-3 ninth, his tenth straight scoreless appearance, in a non-save situation. Big Z, who reportedly was okay about coming out of the game after losing the no-hitter, wound up throwing 126 pitches, allowing one hit and two walks and striking out eight over eight innings. Oh, and he hit a three-run homer off the top of the wall in deep right-center and had a total of four RBIs.

And hey hey, Cubs win 8-0.

The other story of the night is eight runs and 13 hits for the Cubs. Since the arrival of Tony Womack, he and four other Cubs are now batting between .301 and .312. Two hits for Todd Walker, .312. A single and the 11th home run for Jacque Jones, .310 (nope, that's not a misprint). Two hits for Cedeno, .307. A home run for Michael Barrett, .301. And despite going 0-for-5, Tony Womack is still at .357 in a Cub uniform and .304 overall.

So it's been a good week. Things are finally looking up. Derrek Lee's cast is off, Mark Prior's making rehab starts... only one little I-told-you-so, my man Corey Patterson is now 25 of 26 and leading the major leagues in stolen bases. I took a lot of flak for backing Corey last year...

Five Outs to Go

Carlos Zambrano batted for himself in the eighth inning. That's always a good sign. Only 99 pitches through seven innings. The fans in Houston are quiet.

Morgan Ensberg, who drew the walk, leads off the bottom of the eighth. Ensberg draws three balls and motions to first on the fourth pitch, which turns out to be a called strike. Then after a second called strike and a foul tip, Zambrano slips a slider past him to finish him off. Five outs to go.

We remember those words.

He goes 3-1 on Mike Lamb and loses him off the outside corner for his second walk of the game. A double play ball would be great right about now.

Preston Wilson takes a monster swing on the first pitch and comes up empty. But with a 2-2 count, Wilson pokes a single between first and second to break up the no-hitter. Zambrano then uncorks a wild pitch and the runners advance.

He gets Brad Ausmus and Eric Bruntlett swinging to end the inning, but the damage is done.

...updates following...

Don't Say It!

I don't know what it is with this generation of Cubs starting pitchers, but they seem to hit better than the old guys. Had Friday's 14-inning game gone on much longer with both benches depleted, Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano both have a little pop in their bats, and Zambrano has power from both sides. Sean Marshall's already had a few hits and Mark Prior's hit a few home runs.

It also seems when they're really on their game on the mound, they're more likely to get those hits. Kerry Wood's home runs are more likely when he strikes out a dozen batters. And Zambrano, well, he's having one of those games tonight in Houston.

Zambrano hit a three-run homer in the second, an RBI sacrifice fly in the fourth, and a one-hop rope to Craig Biggio in the fifth.

Through six innings on the mound with an 8-0 lead, he's struck out four, and given up, as they sidestep the issue once you get into the middle innings, "only" a leadoff walk in the fifth.

Nine outs to go. Nothing I haven't seen before. But still, it's nine outs from something no Cub has done since I was a fetus.

A leadoff line drive draws a gasp before it's stabbed by Aramis Ramirez, five unassisted. And a fly out to center. And a check-swing called third strike to end the seventh. Aaaaand breathe. They go to the Cub half of the eighth in Houston...

...updates following...

The Storie of Morrie, or The Rath of Con

One of the fascinating things about researching baseball is that you can look up one thing, go off on a tangent that leads to another, and just lose yourself in the history of the game.

You won’t find Morris “Morrie” Rath on a plaque in Cooperstown, for example, but I found him while I was trying to find out information on Juan Pierre.

Friday night’s RBI single gives Pierre five RBIs in now 224 at-bats. That’s a lot of at-bats to be in single digits, so I looked up the record for fewest RBIs in a season. You’d be surprised sometimes to find how difficult it can be to track down the opposite end of the record book.

I eventually found a reference to Rath and looked up his stat page. In 157 games (I’m assuming some ties) and 591 at-bats, the leadoff-hitting second-baseman drove in nineteen runs for the 1912 White Sox despite 161 hits and a .272 average.

Ninety-two games and a scant 12 RBIs into the following season with a sluggish .200 average, the Sox cut him loose even though he'd stolen 52 bases in under two seasons and finished 1912 eighth in the A.L. in runs scored and first in games played.

Regardless of his impressive numbers (well, some of them, anyway), it took Rath six years to resurface in the big leagues. He was 32 years old when the Cincinnati Reds sold their second-sacker to Brooklyn and brought in Morrie Rath.

For a guy who played one full season, most of two others and parts of six in total to have a footnote in baseball history isn’t rare, but Rath found himself with two footnotes. Two?

If you did the math, you’d notice this puts us at 1919. Based on some strong pitching – 23 shutouts in a shortened 140-game season – the Reds handily won the pennant by nine games and squared up against Rath’s former team. And if you’ve been paying attention and seen Eight Men Out a million times, you know where I’m headed here.

As the Reds’ leadoff hitter, two pitches into the 1919 World Series Sox pitcher Eddie Cicotte sent a message to Arnold Rothstein that the fix was on. Where perhaps a telegram may have sufficed, Cicotte hit Rath in the back with a pitch and one of the ugliest chapters in baseball history had begun.

Rath’s World Series footnote is cemented in history, but let’s just hope Juan Pierre doesn’t take away the other one.

The way things have been going lately, finishing up this column while Pierre was stepping in to lead off the 14th inning in St. Louis Friday night, I thought he might put an exclamation point on it, and a big Cubs win to put some more ground between the Cubbies and the last-place Pirates.

Instead of a home run, Pierre doubled just shy of the warning track, advanced to third on a sac bunt by Neifi Perez and scored on a grounder to first by Todd Walker. Not the Hollywood ending I wanted, but I’ll take it. RBIs are nice, but breaking 14th inning ties on the road against the Cardinals is impressive no matter how you get the job done.

In any case, Cubs win, Cubs win, 5-4 in 14 innings. And that’s all that’s really important in the end no matter how many runs your leadoff hitter drives in.

Funny You Should Mention II...

Monday I suggest Jerry Hairston's job is on the line, Wednesday he's off to Texas for Phil Nevin.

Sorry for the delay.

Funny You Should Mention...

Chalk it up to timing. I mention Henry Blanco is 0-for-May, and in his next game he bloops an RBI single past shortstop... and proceeds to be almost comically thrown out at second trying, for lack of a better term, to leg out his first extra-base hit. It's something, though. He's going to be getting a lot more at-bats for a couple of weeks.

So hey, two straight. Don't break out the champagne just yet. But the hits are falling in, Maddux had a good outing, the bullpen was airtight tonight, and the defense... well... the defense still needs some work.

Ronny Cedeno is still overanxious at shortstop, and it's really hard to watch Jacque Jones play right field sometimes. As long as he's hitting, why not wheel Jones to first base, Womack to right and Walker to second? You put more speed in the outfield, put Walker back at his natural position and cut down on balls airmailed to the screen. The only questions then would be, can Jones pick 'em when balls are thrown directly to him, and can the left side hit a 5'10" target? Hey, it might make Cedeno a little more careful when he's got time to make a play.

Interesting note: Derrek Lee has six more RBIs and two more walks than Juan Pierre, and still ranks second on the team in stolen bases, tied with Cedeno.

Ex-Cub Watch: Corey Patterson hit two solo homers and made a game-saving catch above the wall in the ninth for Baltimore. He's batting .291 and is 18-of-19 in steals (t2 AL, t3 MLB). No one in baseball with fewer at-bats has more than nine.

Ex-Cub Watch II, III: Nomar Garciaparra is batting .379 in May and overall is at .362 with 35 RBIs playing first base for the Dodgers, where he bats behind ex-Cub Kenny Lofton (.315, 11 steals).

Ex-Cub Watch IV: Moises Alou is batting .378 for the Giants. And I still wouldn't take him back.

Hit By Pitcher

With two hits in two trips today, Kerry Wood now has more hits (3) in five at-bats than Henry Blanco (2) has in 39. Blanco is 0-for-May.

A Thousand Words

I had a big speech planned, but this unaltered image capture from before the final pitch of Sunday's game pretty much sums up how I feel after another increasingly spectacular loss, the Cubs' 23rd in their last 28 games.



(Editor's note: Okay, okay, the kid's index finger merely slipped off the bill of his helmet for a couple of frames, but hey, what's the electronic media without a little creative license being taken?)

What else can you say when you come back from six runs down in the 6th and get four in bottom of the 9th to send it to extra innings, only to have a sky-high popup bonk off of your third-baseman's head and put you on the business end of a fifth series sweep just in the month of May? Incidentally, as the saying goes, one more biscuit for breakfast and Aramis Ramirez' warning track fly out in the tenth reaches the basket and wins the game, and there's no 11th inning for him to Canseco that popup.

Still, there were good signs. First and foremost, the repeated comebacks. They didn't roll over and die this time when they were down several runs. It was unusual to see only two Cubs strike out, including pitcher Jae Kuk Ryu, while 18 Braves failed to make contact. When your team hits eight home runs everyone wants a piece of the action, but at least you can say Cub pitchers kept the ball in the zone, even if they did set a club record for a 130-year-old franchise.

But who knows? Not too long ago we saw a week go by with fewer runs scoring than the Cubs put up Sunday, and making regular contact gets runners on, over and in. Maybe the beginning of air-conditioning season in Chicago has sparked something. It was right about this time in 1998 that the Cubs got hot.

And maybe Tony Womack will be part of that spark. He's made an immediate impact with five singles in seven trips over two games. He's been on five playoff teams in the last seven seasons and in two of the last five World Series, which is the right kind of fresh blood to have in the clubhouse. Think Kenny Lofton.

With Womack playing five positions and adding another stolen base threat, that means there'll be another odd man out when trade season rolls around. Perhaps Neifi Perez's three-run triple and game-tying run scored in the bottom of the ninth is a sign of a man who knows his job is on the line. Are you listening, Jerry Hairston?

So what do we do now? Sit back, have some holiday barbecue and, like the old rallying cry for Ryne Sandberg, pretend it's June a little early.

Tale of the Tape

DING DING DING DING... iiiiin this cornah... in black and white... weighing in at 235 pounds... former TNA wrestlah... A.J. Pierrrrrzynnnnnskiiiii.... Aaaaand in this cornah... in gray, blue and red... weighing in at 210 pounds... the Rantah from Atlantah... Michaelllll Barrrrrett....

It got chaotic in a hurry, but here's a recap of what happened in the square circle around home plate in the second inning Saturday at U.S. Cellular Field. There's always one side's story, the other side's story and the truth, but here's what the video reveals.

Brian Anderson hit a sacrifice fly to left field off of Rich Hill, who had loaded the bases with one out, and A.J. Pierzynski charged in to score from third. With on-deck hitter Scott Podsednik signaling for Pierzynski to slide as Matt Murton's throw came in on line but late, he instead threw a block on Barrett and knocked him six feet away onto his kiester, with Pierzynski's helmet and Barrett's mask flying off in the process. Technically a clean play so far; the collision was unnecessary, but not unexpected between two hardscrabble catchers in a high-profile series.

The throw bounced off Pierzynski, who had already scored but slapped the plate emphatically, and the ball squirted off toward the third-base dugout as both players stumbled to their feet simultaneously and into each other's paths. Pierzynski turned a shoulder into Barrett, who hooked his left arm around Pierzynski as Hill, backing up the play, pounced on the still-live ball. When Pierzynski turned around, Barrett connected on a sharp right hook to the back of his jaw, and by the time he finished throwing the punch, Podsednik had a hand on Barrett's chest protector.

Pierzynski reeled back and Podsednik tackled Barrett as home plate umpire Greg Gibson tried to intercede. Both managers charged toward the home plate area, and Anderson returned to the scene of his sac fly. Cub first-baseman John Mabry tried to intercept him, holding up his palms as Anderson threw a roundhouse that Stevie Wonder could have dodged, and within ten seconds of the collision both benches had their choice of two pile-ons or their own extracurricular activity.

Overall damage, two ejections for each team (Barrett and Mabry for the Cubs, Pierzynski and Anderson for the White Sox). Booting Mabry was a bad call, but suspension is likely for at least Barrett (just what the Cubs need, more at-bats for Henry Blanco, now at .053) and possibly Anderson and Pierzynski as well.

After a 13-minute delay, coming back with runners at second and third, Jerry Hairston playing first base for the first time in his career and Blanco behind the plate, Rich Hill's second pitch to Podsednik was a non-purpose-pitch breaking ball above his head, and you can pretty much guess where things went from there. A walk to load the bases, a belt-high pitch over the plate that became Tadahito Iguchi's first career grand slam, and...

Well, by now it's redundant to report on another blowout loss for the Cubs, but at least now there's a visible indicator that somebody's upset about the skid that has now grown to 3-13.

Dusty Baker spoke with Bob Brenly and Len Kasper between innings, and said his main concern with where the Cubs are headed is getting the starting rotation back. While Hill, Glendon Rusch, Jerome Williams and Angel Guzman are a combined 1-13, there are some bigger issues Baker should be thinking about. You could have the best starting pitching in the world, but you're going to keep losing if you don't score any runs.

The Cubs rank 30th out of 30 in the majors in RBIs, doubles, and by a wide margin, slugging percentage. 29th in runs scored, batting average, home runs, total bases and on-base percentage. 28th in hits. 26th in walks drawn. Dead last in the National League in every single one of those categories, and near the top in double play grounders. You can talk about how much payroll is on the DL until you're blue in the face, but when you're being outperformed in category after category by a Florida Marlins team with a $15 million payroll, you can't keep on beating that drum expecting it to be a viable explanation. And you can't keep attributing loss after loss to starting pitcher injuries when Cub pitchers still have allowed fewer hits than any team in the the NL and rank second in K's. The primary difference in pitching between now and a month ago is that they've plowed into the league lead in walks.

In other news, the Cubs have reacquired outfielder Tony Womack, signing him to a minor-league contract after he was designated for assignment and released by the Reds. Seeing as how there are fewer major league talents than roster spots with the Cubs, moving Womack to the roster to replace Freddie Bynum would give the Cubs more versatility for interleague play, allowing them to slide Jacque Jones into the DH role instead of starting second-baseman (a.k.a. starting first-baseman) Todd Walker to give the Cubs more speed and defense in the outfield. It won't mark the difference between chump and champ, but it would at least appear that the Cubs recognize roster moves are necessary.

Oof.

Kerry Wood's return didn't quite turn out like I'd hoped. He threw strikes, all right. Three of them wound up beyond the left-field wall for four runs over five innings.

After a solo blast two outs into Will Ohman's appearance made it 5-0, I figured the last three innings would be better spent listening to mp3s. I've seen enough scores like that lately to have a pretty good idea of how it's going to turn out anyway.

...later...

Okay, I tuned back in for the bottom ninth after all. Couple questions: If you're two down with two outs and two on, how could you not pinch-hit for someone who's batting under .200? And why on earth would you bunt?

Back on Track?

The Cubs this week have found the best possible cure for a long losing spell: The Washington Nationals.

Carlos Zambrano and Sean Marshall each scored a run themselves while propelling the Cubs to their first two shutouts of the season to open the series, and Kerry Wood finally debuts Thursday as the Cubs hope to ride into Bridgeport Friday on the heels of a three-game sweep.

Like the final spring training start that earned him a spot on the roster, Marshall took a no-hitter through five innings Wednesday night, giving up only a clean single to Alfonso Soriano leading off the sixth inning before giving way to the bullpen for the final three innings. Bobby Howry, Scott Williamson and Scott Eyre were untouched for an inning apiece as the Cubs combined on their first one-hitter since Mark Prior, Jerome Williams and Ryan Dempster shut down the White Sox last June.

And like before Derrek Lee was injured, the Cubs played station-to-station offense, capitalized on errors and manufactured early runs. Juan Pierre's hustle got the Cubs on the board, and Jacque Jones scored on a suicide squeeze. They're good steps to take when your team doesn't have a longball threat, and if Aramis Ramirez's early exit tonight with a lower back strain was a sign of things to come, they'll be even more necessary. Ramirez is listed as day-to-day.

The big question now is Wood. He says his strength is back, and he's been striking out batters left and right in his minor-league rehab starts. If he can stay ahead of Washington hitters early and get on a roll, maybe he throws seven innings; but if he starts walking the big-leaguers and going deep in a lot of counts, that pitch count can sneak up in a hurry and Dusty Baker will have to throw an extra couple of innings at the bullpen before squaring off against the defending champs.

Either way, Wood's a valuable puzzle piece to get into place in order to find out just how good or bad this team's going to be four months from now. Mark Prior and Wade Miller are finally scheduled for rehab starts as well, and if the good Lord's willin' and the crick don't rise, the Cubs pitching staff could finally be set within the next couple of weeks.

Desperation Row

Before I tear into the Cubs, I’d like to say something nice about Jacque Jones. While he got off to an awful start, he’s been one of the few guys who’s stepped it up a notch offensively in the absence of Derrek Lee. In this miserable 15-game span since the Cubs’ last off-day, Jones is 18-for-51 (.353) and raised his average 85 points to a respectable .273. I’m still not crazy about his defense, and I’d still rather have Corey Patterson (17-for-44, .386 in the same span for Baltimore) as my third outfielder, but maybe he belongs ahead of Aramis Ramirez in the lineup for awhile.

So anyway…

There are a couple of metaphors for what the Cubs need to do at this point, and both of them involve trucks.

The first is, throw Dusty Baker under the truck. He said he wanted to manage young players? Well, look how it’s turning out. There’s still trouble with delayed pitching changes, such as leaving Glendon Rusch in long enough to give up six relief runs. Or batting sub-.200 hitters as table-setters. There’s a reason he’s been managing talented squads for 14 years without producing a World Series ring. He’s a good manager if he has a good team, but he’s not a great manager regardless of his roster.

It makes me wonder what Jack McKeon’s been up to lately, having, to mix metaphors, jumped ship before Joe Girardi took the helm of the Titanic down in Florida.

The second metaphor is, back up the truck. Even if everybody comes off the DL in shape and on time, the Cubs still aren’t playoff-worthy. There are too many malleable roster spots that aren’t producing or preventing enough runs, and c’mon, eleven out of twelve? How much longer can you sit and wait? There’s still time to right the ship, but the Cubs need to roll the dice and shake things up.

Start with today’s starting catcher, Henry Blanco. Okay fine, maybe a Bob Uecker gets by for a few years straddling the Mendoza line, but when you go 1-for-18 and your batting average only drops eight points, there’s a problem. There will always be teams needing a veteran backup catcher who can call pitches, and if he doesn’t bring another catcher or catcher/1B, Geovany Soto is batting .292 at Iowa with an OBP of .381 and might deserve a cup of coffee while the Cubs look for someone else to fill that gap.

I’ve also mentioned my preference for Augie Ojeda over Neifi Perez. Ojeda’s still batting .320 at AAA. Regardless of his career stats he’s simply having a better year, and a better year is what the Cubs need out of that roster spot.

Then there’s Freddie Bynum at .188. Bynum could use more seasoning and more at-bats to keep his legs fresh on the basepaths, averaging 40 steals a year in the minors. As long as the final outfield spot’s going to a borderline major-leaguer, outfielder Buck Coats is batting .362 at Iowa and Nic Jackson’s up over .400 at AA West Tennessee. Play the hot hand. Shake things up. See what happens.

In the bullpen, Glendon Rusch is looking more like the guy who’d been bounced from three organizations for pitching like he has this year. The pitching staff will be in flux with Kerry Wood’s return next week, and like the Blanco situation, there will always be teams out there who need a left-handed spot starter in their bullpen.

If you package Blanco and Rusch, maybe throw in one of the young pitchers like Angel Guzman, or one of the borderline guys like Freddie Bynum or Michael Restovich, maybe you can get a solid first-baseman who can bring you someone else if Derrek Lee comes back before the trade deadline.

In the end, how many historic losers can you see end their streaks before you stop considering .500 a successful year? I think we’ve seen enough.

Sometimes...

Sometimes I need to learn just to keep my big, fat trap shut.

In the tenth inning Saturday night, I decided to take a rare opportunity to gloat to a Sox fan friend of mine, even though his team had the best record in baseball and mine was down to .500 for the first time in a month.

"Hey, those White Sox castoffs are doing pretty well in the Cub bullpen this year."

It was a legitimate jab. Minus an ill-advised flip to first base, Scott Eyre and Bobby Howry have given the Cubs everything they could ask for and more this season. Pretty much right up until I said that.

By the time the words left my mouth, Rob Bowen's walkoff home run was on its way toward the stands, and the Padres were about to take a second straight extra-inning win while scoring a total of three runs. Man...

It's funny, that sort of thing just kind of happens to me. During the 2003 playoffs when the Cubs were five outs away from their first pennant in 58 years, I turned to the fella next to me at a local watering hole and told him, and may God strike me down if I'm lying, "It feels like a dream. I feel like I'm going to wake up any minute." "Shut up," he said, as well he should have. Not two minutes later, some poor schlub from the northern suburbs became a footnote in baseball history.

(Bottom line, of course, if Moises Alou doesn't wig out over a lousy foul ball, maybe things turn out differently. It's time we all give this poor guy a break for doing something you or I would have done too if given the opportunity. Except, of course, you or I would have made that catch and some innocent bystander wouldn't wind up with 98 thou and change.)

So for the record, if you ever happen to be taking in a game with ol' West Side Charlie and I start to say something ironic in a key situation, shut me the hell up.

Can't Buy a Thrill

I told you how much I appreciate low-scoring games. In a low-scoring game, one play here or there, maybe even one pitch out of 300+ between two teams, is the difference between winning and losing.

On two plays in the 11th inning tonight, the fundamentals fell short and it cost the Cubs the game.

I'm not a fan of Jacque Jones yet; I think the Cubs essentially paid more money for a less talented version of Corey Patterson (who has 12 hits in his last seven starts and has raised his average to .277 with seven steals for Baltimore). While Jones came through with two of the Cubs' four hits, he had a chance to double up Khalil Greene from first base on a sinking liner by Adrian Gonzalez in the 11th, but he took three steps and threw off the wrong foot, three-hopping an off-line throw on a play that was right in front of him. Greene ambled back safely as Todd Walker moved off the bag to take the throw.

After getting a second life, Greene proceeded to take off for second. He got a huge jump, but while a swift throw from Michael Barrett would have made it a close play, Neifi Perez was out of position to make a tag and Greene slid in behind him. One pitch later, the ballgame was over and the D-Backs won 1-0.

If either play nabs Greene, Josh Barfield's first career game-winning hit turns into a regular old single, assuming he comes through with two outs and the bases empty instead of one out and a runner on second. It's all in the details.

The great shame of it all, apart from a tough loss, is that Carlos Zambrano was outstanding again. Obviously throwing shutout ball, Big Z scattered four hits and three walks over seven innings while striking out ten. Leading the majors in strikeouts is probably little consolation for seven winless starts.

When Zambrano, Scott Eyre, Bobby Howry and Scott Williamson combine to allow four hits and no runs over ten innings and you still can't get the win, either you're facing tough pitching, you're just not hitting, or both. Tonight it was both. Chan Ho Park took a no-hitter into the fifth and threw nine innings of two-hit ball, and pinch-hitter John Mabry was the only Cub to so much as draw a walk with a runner on base. No Cub reached third base.

The Freddie Bynum experiment isn't panning out either. Bynum was 0-for-5 batting second, making two errors in left field and grounding into a 4-6-3 first-inning double play after Juan Pierre walked to open the game. Outfielder Buck Coats is currently batting .341 down at Iowa.

I agree you need to make some changes when you go through a week losing five of six, getting outscored 45-5 without a home run and getting shut out three times. But youth movement leaders Matt Murton and Ronny Cedeno were each given the night off instead of still-cold Aramis Ramirez, and the night ended with four of the eight starters at .214 or less, a fourth shutout and a season-high four-game losing streak.

And as long as changes are being made, Cub fan favorite Augie Ojeda has scored ten runs in only 50 at-bats at Iowa with an OBP of .417, more than double fellow switch-hitter Neifi Perez' .208. I don't care if Neifi did win a Gold Glove six years ago, no major league team can afford to have a .174 hitter in its top eight in at-bats this far into the season.

With Cub bats desperately floundering and no big singular threat as Ramirez struggles to reach mid-season form, the Cubs are reportedly looking to Baltimore to fill the void left by Derrek Lee with one of two more former members of the Florida Marlins, Kevin Millar and Jeff Conine. Neither is off to a hot start, but either could move to the outfield when Lee returns, and Conine, the better hitter of the two, could spell Ramirez at third.

It would only make sense to deal with the Orioles, as the Cubs have trended toward former Marlins and the O's trend toward Cub castoffs (Patterson, Sammy Sosa and LaTroy Hawkins in the past two years). Baltimore is without a veteran utility infielder, and Perez or a return of Jerry Hairston Jr. would fill that bill.

In the meantime, the Cubs look to rookie Sean Marshall to snap the skid against Jake Peavy in game two of the four-game set Saturday night. But as impressive as Marshall and many Cub pitchers have been early on, somebody's going to have to light a fire under this team post haste or it won't make any difference if everybody comes back on schedule.

Overheard

Overheard during today's TBS Mets-Braves broadcast, following a trivia question about how far back the Mets were in mid-August 1969 and tongue-in-cheek apologies to fans watching in Chicago:

"You ever worked in Chicago, Chip?"
"I worked in Chicago for a long time. I'm used to taking the blame."

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad

How do you put a positive spin on 13-0 sixth-inning deficit?

Well, it counts the same as any other loss in the only statistic that matters in the end, and you're not wasting a gutsy performance from your starter to get it. You can treat the second half of the game like putting in the B squad in a spring training game, which you can't when any pitch could be a game-changer. Shake the rust off of the new guys on your bench. Let Michael Reskovich and Freddy Bynum come in and get two hits and an RBI apiece. Give Aardsma and Ohman and Novoa a couple innings and see if they can work their way out of a jam (they couldn't). Give your big three relievers a day off in a stretch where you don't have a day off for the next two weeks. Give Michael Barrett his first at-bat after jamming his fingers where a big hit isn't crucial.

And you can get out-scored 18-8 over two games and still have a chance to take two of three in the series.

Five for Five

I swear, I should just re-post the same thing every five days.

Five of the Cubs’ eight losses have now been followed up by Greg Maddux wins. He allowed two runs over six innings, and saved himself further damage by inducing two inning-ending double plays. Bobby Howry, Scott Eyre and Scott Williamson threw a hitless, scoreless inning apiece to back him up.

Maddux continues to lead the majors in both wins (5) and ERA (1.35). He looks to be shaping up as one of those great pitchers like Ryan, Clemens, Johnson and Niekro who finds another gear late in his career, and he’s just the rudder the Cubs’ young pitching staff needs.

Meanwhile the first six Cubs in the lineup either scored runs, drove in runs or both. The kids came through again as Matt Murton came through with the go-ahead RBI to put the Cubs on the board and Ronny Cedeno collected three more hits, including a two-run homer in the fifth to answer two Brewer runs in the top half.

Aramis Ramirez and Jacque Jones’ batting averages continue to creep back toward reality. Ramirez reached twice on a walk and a double, and on a 3-for-4 day Jones drove in Murton for the Cubs’ second run and tacked on a solo homer in the eighth to cap the score at 6-2.

So where are the Cubs with an eighth of the season by the boards?

Obviously the loss of Derrek Lee is huge, but a lot of other factors are working out. Like the Who said, the kids are alright. Murton and Cedeno are hitting like real major leaguers, and have both shown skills afield, though sometimes Cedeno needs to rein in his arm a bit trying to make bang-bang plays.

The new guys, Jones and Juan Pierre, are off to slow starts, but Pierre leads the team in steals and runs scored by a wide margin despite a .264 average and an OBP under .300, and Jones’ big day today pushed his slugging average up to .500 now that he finally appears to be safely on the happy side of the Mendoza line at .231.

As for the revamped bullpen, the guys who look to stick around, save for an appearance here and there, are getting the job done. At the tail end of the pen, Eyre, Howry and Ryan Dempster have been all but lights-out all April.

Some of the youngsters on the staff have struggled, but Sean Marshall emerged winning two of his first four major league starts, outpitching Dontrelle Willis his last time out. I wouldn’t be surprised if Glendon Rusch, second in the league in homers allowed, loses his job to Marshall as the rotation’s token lefty once the rotation starts returning to full strength.

As a whole, the Cubs’ staff has allowed the fewest hits in the majors and are one of only three teams without a blown save. Walks are still a concern, fourth-worst in the league, but the low number of hits keep them third in team ERA behind the Mets and Cardinals.

I don’t trust the NL Central will get through 162 games with five teams above .500, but getting off to a 13-8 start with three starters on the shelf and the first week without Lee, there’s a lot of promise here. With 16 of the Cubs’ next 19 games and 22 of 28 coming against teams below .500, the Cubs have a good chance to nail down some wins while waiting for Wood and Prior to come back, hopefully before the longest road trip of the year through the three teams currently ahead of them in early June.