Some quick notes.

Ted Lilly got a quality start tonight, which probably would have warmed the heart of Jerome Holtzman, who invented the stat. Holtzman, a long-time fixture in the Chicago baseball press, died over the weekend. Bruce Miles has a touching tribute.

Wood could go onto the DL soon, and his replacement might bee Jeff Samardzija. Shark’s on a very odd developmental path right now:

Yeah, a lot of guys raise their strikeout rate and cut their walk rate when they get promoted to AAA. Happens ALL the time.

An interesting thing happened on the way to buying the Cubs:

A group led by John Canning, chairman of Chicago private-equity firm Madison Dearborn, valued the Cubs, Wrigley and the team's stake in Comcast SportsNet at far less than the $1 billion or more that the four or five groups team owner Tribune Co. deemed satisfactory to continue, a source with knowledge of the process said.

…

But Tribune Co., which also owns the Chicago Tribune, appeared to be serving notice in shooting down the lowball offer. The source indicated that the most important figures connected with any offer will be the ones with dollar signs, in order to maintain the integrity of the process and the media concern's fiduciary responsibilities.

…

Of the five to 10 offers fielded for just Wrigley Field, the source said three were deemed promising enough to be asked to continue in the process.

Expect to hear more on this in the coming days. Meanwhile, MLB doesn’t seem to be happy with the Cubs’ draft:

The Cubs' fine for violations related to the June draft of first-year players was a whopping $500,000, SI.com has learned. Major League Baseball ruled that the Cubs violated a couple of baseball rules, including failing to report a signing to MLB's New York offices and putting the player on the field before receiving approval for the signing from MLB offices. The Cubs were said by people familiar with the case to have exacerbated the situation by how they responded to MLB's concerns.

This is the sort of thing that just wouldn’t have happened under the watch of Andy MacPhail, who came from a long line of distinguished baseball statesmen and who played ball with the commissioner. I personally am comforted by the thought of a front office who cares more about what’s best for the team and less about what’s best for the league.

Over the past 28 days - a number conveniently chosen because Baseball Reference lists it on the splits page - has hit, or really has not hit, .149/.233/.324. That's called "slugging Ryan Theriot's batting average," folks. Even Ryan Theriot does better than that.

This has officially freaked out a segment of the Cubs fanbase. People are also freaking out about Derrek Lee again - even though I asked them not to - because he's hitting .143/.143/.190 since the All-Star Break. (Incidently, Lee's overall seasonal line improved since I wrote that post.)

I'm going to, admittedly, go out on a slight limb here. This is a wager that is open to all other Cubs blogers, including the other Riders. (And if any, say, Brewers or Reds bloggers are interested in the bet, that'd be fine, too. Open to Cubs beat writers, too!)

I have Lee projected at .306/.382/.521 for the rest of the season, or a wOBA of .390. Similarly, Ramirez is projected to hit .288/.368/.523, wOBA of .384. (I'm using the Marcels, not the ZiPS, which in this case makes almost no difference at all.)

The bet, as it stands right now, is that over the next 30 days - so between tonight's game and the game against the Nationals on August 23rd - Aramis Ramirez will hit within one standard deviation of his projected wOBA or above. In order for the bet to to stand, Ramirez has to get at least 80 plate appearances. (Ramirez is on pace for 118 PAs over the next 30 games.) If Ramirez doesn't get 80 PAs during that time period, the bet shifts to Lee and his projected wOBA (within one standard deviation). wOBA is to be calculated using the weights published on Tango's website, and stats used to calculate wOBA for the time period will be from baseball-reference.com

The stakes are as follows - and are only in play if another blogger puts up a matching bet: if Ramirez (or, as a fallback, Lee) fails to do so, I will write a sonnet extolling the virtues of Ryan Theriot as a shortstop, baseball player and human being, to be published on Goat Riders of the Apocalypse no later than September 1st.

Please comment or e-mail me no later than the commencement of the Cubs-Marlins game tomorrow night if you want to be involved in this. Remember - there will be no Ryan Theriot sonnet if somebody doesn't match the bet.

Alright, so, the vast majority of people will give you some kind of lecture about how you either shouldn't panic or, if you haven't panicked by now, you're an idiot. Here at Goat Riders, we don't like to lecture. Panic if you like; don't panic. Whatever. Me? I'm taking the "crippling depression" approach. I'm just going to go ahead and curl up in the South-East corner of my apartment and cover my head with a book and wait for this all to blow over.

I'm firmly in denial about the entire Cubs team being in a slump. Aramis is OhForTheSecondHalf, Derrek is still on pace for a very unpleasant record involving double plays and hitting into them, and...um, I don't know. Everyone else is sucking? Actually, that's not true. Theriot and Fontenot have been quite hot in the second half and Fukudome has been heating up in Arizona. But when Theriot and Fontenot are your carriers of hope, you are likely doomed. DOOMED!

But then you look on the bright side (because that's how one gets through the day when the night is filled with Cub baseball). Aramis has an OPS of 048. Zero point Four Eight. And his batting average? Zero. But he's not been the only one depressing this lineup. Lee is sporting a solid 333 OPS, DeRosa 591, and Soto 106. In fact, if you took all the production from Lee, Ramirez, and Soto and added it all together, you wouldn't quite have a Neifi. That's the type of production that will get you a 1-4 start and that's the type of production that will dissolve a lead.

Wait, wasn't there supposed to be a bright side? Ah yes, the bright side. The bright side (stop saying bright side) is that this obviously won't continue. Team-wide slumps like this happen (we previously called them "The 2006 Chicago Cubs") and there's not much anyone can do about it. Hits tend to come in streaks and that means there will be streaks of nothingness which will, on occasion, overlap. But this little period of slumpiness will come to an end for some of these players (and soon, please) and then the runs will start to rise again. And if the pitching remains as good as it's been, the wins will return as well. Add to that the return of Soriano, and our pain will soon come to a close. We can go back to the lineup that's been so successful, platoon Edmonds and Johnson, and re-solidify our defense.

Oh yeah, this was supposed to be a game recap. Well, there's really nothing to say. Fukudome and Theriot had a couple of hits and Hart needs to go back to the minors. Lee left five on base. Ward hit a solo homer. Blah.

The game was incredibly lame and at no point did I think the Cubs had a chance. Whee!

Cubs play tonight at 8:40. Even if Lilly can murder the Diamondbacks and fashion their skin into an evening wear collection, it's not going to matter if the Cubs can't score some runs. So, again I say, hurry back Alfonso.

HURRY!

And Go Cubs.

As happens from time to time when people get busy, we failed to deliver unto you a timely preview or recap.  Hell, we're only 3 hours away from the second game of the series and you still don't know the Cubs chances because we haven't written about it yet!!  I know!  It's crazy!

Let's do it in the reverse this time - we'll recap yesterday's game and then preview the pending twofer.

Game Recap: Arizona 2, Cubs 0

If Randy Johnson only pitched against the Cubs in his career, he would certainly have a better record than Cy Young.  He has, does, and always will own the Cubs.  Even in this, a season in which Johnson has clearly lost whatever he had that made him great, and, more importantly, a season in which the Cubs have one of the best teams in recent memory, and El Gordo Unito still dominates.  So much for my clearly optimistic photoshop of Johnson as a human punching bag:

Once you discount the fact that the Cubs lost and were made to look like tools, it was a pretty good game.  Rich Harden stepped in and, without an apparent pitch count, threw 112 pitches in 7 innings, giving up a solitary hit, walking 2, and striking out 10.   Unfortunately for the Cubs, the lone hit against Harden was one which landed in a mass of bodies, and that was enough for the Cubs to lose.

Oh, also, Bob Howry has continued to prove himself irreverent.  He had another shoddy outing in the 9th.  Chad Gaudin, the Cubs are calling your number.  Please step up to the set-up role.

Tuesday, July 22nd, Jason Marquis (6-5, 4.44 ERA) vs. Yusmeiro Petit (0-1, 3.06 ERA)

Want to hear something strange?  When I looked to the upcoming schedule and saw the name "Marquis," I had a sick feeling in my stomach.  Somehow, a part of me had forgotten Marquis is a Cub.  To see him scheduled to pitch tonight was a tremendous disappointment.  You know, had I been the guy scheduling the rotation, I would have flipped Marquis with Harden.  You know from experience that it's going to be tough beating Randy Johnson, why waste Harden's arm on a heart-breaker?  Anyway, Marquis is trying to carry momentum into this start, although he may have trouble doing so as I expect that he's shocked to learn that he has momentum.  The Big Jason won 4 games last month to only 1 loss, while compiling an ERA of 4.91.  So far in July, Marquis is 0-1 but with a 1.29 ERA as, like Lilly, he has found it hard to win games when his team has scored an average of 1 run per start.  

Yusmeiro Petit, on the other hand, is one in a long line of pitchers who have both silly names and the ability to wipe that smile off your face real quickly.  Petit is a young pitcher with a career ERA of 5.61, and in particular, through 17.2 innings of work this year his ERA is 3.06.  He's only walked 1 guy to 11 strikeouts, he was pretty damn good in his only start this year, and ESPN says that his name is pronounced "Puh-TEET." 

Wednesday, July 23rd, Ted Lilly (9-6, 4.49 ERA) vs. Doug Davis (3-4, 4.14 ERA)

Theodore Roosevelt Lilly looks to win his 10th game of the year against Doug Davis, who shockingly just isn't pitching up to the level he delivered against the Cubs last October.  Davis is neither overpowering nor even particularly effective these days, and the Cubs offense needs to wake up Dr. Phil style and take him to town tomorrow in order to compensate for the castration delivered to them by Randy Johnson last night.  (Castrated by a "Randy Johnson?"  Oh, sweet irony!)

Lilly has yet to win a game this month, although his ERA has been a reasonable 4.04 through 3 starts.  If you pretend that the July 10th game against the Reds never happened*, then you may observe that Lilly has pitched pretty well this month, but has received next-to-no run support from the Cubs offense.

(*Note: it's probably not a good thing when you have to flat-out pretend that five or six of your pitcher's starts simply never happened.  Not exactly the biggest lender of confidence.)

Predictions: The Cubs really need to get their offense into gear.  It's a sad, shameful day when a 44 year old man with no cartilage in his knee can make your team look that bad, but Randy Johnson did it.  Maybe we should just accept that the Cubs can not, and never will beat the Big Unit, or maybe we should be worried about a team that has scored exactly 2 runs in 3 of the 4 games played since the All Star Break.

It's hard to put my faith in the arm of Jason Marquis.  You might as well ask me to flush myself down the toilet.  But the Cubs are only holding a 2-run lead in the Central, and with the bitterly despised Marlins coming up on the schedule, a little momentum would be a nice thing.  So, you know, maybe they should just buckle down and blow out the D-Backs tonight on the back of a Marquis shut-out.   And maybe moneybags will fall from the sky.  Anything's possible.

Greetings, Cub fans. Welcome to a surprise round of the Debateacolypse. I will be joined by Kyle today, as we will discuss a hot topic in Chicago right now - ballpark cleavage. Is there too much or too little?

No, wait, actually we're going to discuss a relevant topic for once - lineups. As Kyle so aptly pointed out in a private EMail in which he also disclosed his hatred of clowns and his distaste for m-words (that's little people in politically-correct talk), while commenting on his personal belief that Scarlett Johansson is the opposite of hot ... actually, I got lost there. Basically, now that I'm done slandering him, Kyle said that with Soriano returning, somebody's going to lose at bats. So, let us begin the debate:

Kurt: If I'm picking a guy to punt from the lineup, then obviously there are a limited number of choices. Fukudome, Edmonds, Ramirez, Lee, and DeRosa are pretty well guaranteed to start. Theriot, Fontenot, and Reed Johnson, not so much.

However, while he's been playing very well as of late, I think Fontenot in particular will lose the most at bats in the return of the Fonz. I sincerely doubt that he'd be able to keep up the pace anyway, and a bat as strong as his is best suited perhaps to be our first pinch hit option late in games.

Therefore, my vote goes to Fontenot, even over Ryan Theriot. Reed Johnson and his ridiculous Fu will probably remain part-time in the outfield with Jim Edmonds.

Kyle: While I will concede that Mike Fontenot will most likely be the at-bat casualty upon The Return of the Fonz, I'm going to take the Lou Piniella-approach today and stay with the hot bat while benching the cold one...therefore sparing Mike Fontenot from grabbing some pine and allowing me to kick dirt on Kurt's shoes and yell in his face when he disagrees with me.

I think we can all agree the Fontenot has been hot as of late. Lil' Mikey just gets up there and swings his tiny bat around like a child trying to smash a piñata into pieces...except instead of tasty candy he gets doubles and the occasionally homerun. No one knows how long Fontenot's hot streak is going to last, but we know the piñata will eventually be empty and he will return to being an average bat. Until then, the Cubs need to capitalize on his production because who knows how long it will be there.

So who takes the fall instead?

Well it's not one guy, but rather two: Fukudome and DeRosa. Kurt mentioned both these players as being "guaranteed to start", but no one in this lineup has been colder than Fukudome over the last few weeks. He struggles tremendously against lefties (this is where DeRosa comes into play as a platoon guy) and he seems to have lost his trademark patience at the plate. Something is clearly wrong and he should take the next few weeks to work with the hitting coach and get it all figured out.

While I believe this team can win without Fontenot, I don't know if they can do it without Fukudome down the stretch.

Kurt: As I turn my hat to better lean in and get into your face, I would like to respectfully suggest that yourblinditwasastrikeyouradirtyco-ahem. Sorry. Actually, I think that benching the struggling player is perhaps the least conductive way to get him out of his druthers.

Therefore, while Fontenot has been a huge offensive asset, maybe it would be more sensible to suggest that he's playing above his head - not a pun on his height, oh, who am I kidding, that was a total pun - and will eventually return to Planet Mediocre.

Let Fontenot be Lou's clutch pinch hit choice. Start him every odd week. Leave playing regularly up to the big boys - ooh, I punned him again - particularly when compared with Fukudome, who's been an offensive outcast.

Kyle: Fukudome wouldn’t necessarily be benched so much as he will be platooned with DeRosa, because real game at-bats are too valuable.

However my friends, I believe that Fukudome is dangerously close to being infected with “The Thing”. For those of you that don’t know, “The Thing” is usually a disease that resides in pitchers (like good ole Rich Hill), but dear Kosuke is showing the classic signs of becoming ill.

He’s second-guessing his swings, he’s going out of his comfort zone, and he is clearly showing his disgust and frustrating. All this is leading to what “The Thing” does best: kill confidence.

Now I want to clarify that this isn’t a permanent benching for Fukudome. In fact, with Soriano’s return seemingly imminent, perhaps the platoon idea would only last through the rest of this month because the Cubs play 19 games at home in August…and it is well documented that Fukudome is a different player at home (and by “different” I mean “better”).

Right now he just needs to relax, clear his mind and learn how to hit an off-speed pitch. That would be nice.

The reality of the situation, however, is that if keeping Fontenot in the lineup is a performance-based decision, then the reducing of at-bats for another player should also be performance-based. So the logical choice (outside of benching Fontenot on an anti-short people platform that Kurt is clearly basing his whole argument around) seems to indicate taking some field time away from Fukudome due to his recent performances.

Kurt: Dammit, Kyle! They'll bite you in the knees. The knees!!! Erm...

I just can't see how minimizing at bats solves confidence issues. Now, if you could convince me that Fukudome's problems are fatigue related, I'd take a different approach.

Ultimately, we have to think about Lou Piniella when we argue what will happen. What'll Lou do?

Realistically, Reed Johnson is about to learn first-hand the most intimate details of the Cubs bench. Mark DeRosa is going to reacquaint himself with the pansy-ass lofts of Ryan Theriot. Mike Fontenot is going to find himself left out a little, as well.

However, we have to remember one thing. Alfonso Soriano isn't about to go from 0 to 100 in 2.4 seconds. He's going to play more often than he doesn't, but I'm betting he starts no more than 75% of the time for a while.

In other words, this is probably realistic:

When Alfonso doesn't start in left, DeRosa does, and Fontenot plays second.

When Edmonds doesn't start in center, Fukudome does, DeRosa moves to right, and Fontenot plays second.

When Fukudome takes a day off - about twice a month, it seems, DeRosa plays in right and Fontenot plays second.

When Aramis takes a day off, Fontenot or DeRosa play third.

And, when a tired Mark DeRosa finally rests, Fontenot's there for that, too.

It won't be a daily thing, but when you're Lou's first option off the bench, there's definitely work for you. I would suspect that, depending on how they swing it, Fontenot could find himself with heavy playing time in at least half of the remaining games this year.

Kyle, any final thoughts or conclusions on your end?

It won't be regular, but if Fontenot is the top

Kyle: Personally, I have to believe that Lou is going to try and ride the hot bat, which means I believe he is going to get Fontenot as many at-bats as possible (whether that be as a regular starter, a pinch-hitter or a late-game sub) in the last half of the season.

What you've highlighted above brings attention to perhaps this team's greatest strength:the ability to use everyone on the roster and have those players produce.

The fact that we're arguing about which GOOD player Lou should bench is great. This time last season, I was ready to run onto the field and dropkick Jacque Jones in the head. Now, the Cubs have too many quality players. Awesome x3.

On a day when I've been generally pissed off after witnessing one of the most painful games I've watched this season, I now feel a little bit better about our chances...and midgets.

Hi, everybody!

I just wanted to give you, a loyal member of the Goat Rider Army, an iggy on what to expect for the day.   At some point, we will have a Series Preview/Game Recap Combo, other bits of random baseball news, and  best yet, our first Debatacolypse in a while.   So, stay tuned, and check back regularly.  It should be one of those fun days that we sometimes have.

You know, I've been meaning to write this post since Friday.  My plan is to basically comment on the many items of interest in a witty and amusing way.  So, let's take a look at what's news:

Kerry Wood returns to the DL for the 12th time in his career.   However, if, March of this year, you were going to tell me that Wood was DL bound at some point in '08, believe me, I'd have felt relieved to learn it was for a blister.  Lou chose to celebrate Kerry's DL-boundness by pitching Carlos Marmol in a blowout as he was preparing Marmol to be the interim closer.  It was a "tune up" because Marmol apparently needed the work.

I know that Rob has retaliated to my criticism of Piniella for his mismanagement of Marmol.   Hey, I remain a huge fan of Piniella.  If you want to talk about pitcher mismanagement, Lou will never come close to escaping the shadow of Dusty Baker.  However, as this season progresses my frustration about the way he handles Marmol will grow, believe me. 

Alfonso Soriano has begun his rehab.   There has been some debate as to whether or not he would return directly to the majors, or recover in the minors for a while.  I for one am happy that the Cubs smartly assigned him to the minors, and I suspect that he'll be there for only a few games.  However, the strength of his hand will remain an issue for the rest of the season.  I believe that Alfonso will again be a contributing factor to the team's offense, but I don't think he's going to hit a whole lot of homeruns for the rest of this year.  I look forward to being wrong.

Also mentioned in the article, Scott Eyre is also recovering from his injury problems, but he will not do a minor league rehab stint, and Rich Hill continues to tank in the minors.  Hill claims that his problems are related to a back spasm, rather than a brain spasm.  Time will tell on that one.

Ray Durham has been dealt to the Brewers for two minor leaguers.  Unfortunately for Milwaukee, Durham does not know how to pitch out of the bullpen, so the Cubs are probably not sweating this acquisition.

Lastly, at some point tonight I'm going to do a direct comparison of the Cubs with the various teams in the American League who are likely playoff bound.  I haven't looked yet, but I have a suspicion that the Cubs will compare favorably.   

Kurtis, Kurtis....how could you have forsaken thee?

I love Uncle Lou with every fiber of my body, except maybe my pee pee.  I have agreed with everything he has done in his tenure, INCLUDING his Game 1 decision with Zambrano, INCLUDING his decision to leave Marmol in there last week, and especially including his decision to bring him out there yesterday in the ninth.

Kurt is convinced that Marmol's problems are fatigue-related, which explains his stance that Lou is running him into the ground, which explains why he would drop an (edited) f-bomb in his name.  For shame!!  Que cosa!  As my high school Spanish teacher would say.  Ya lo crea!  The idea of swearing at Uncle Lou..

..lookee here.  Kerry Wood is going on the disabled list, backdated a week, so we will not have him around for the next two series.  We are playing probably the "best" performers of the "rest" of the National League, the D-backs and the Fighting Fish.  We have traditionally needed all hands on deck against these two foes - these will be tough series, in which a closer will be necessary.

The short term answer is to bring in Howry - which is what most of us so-called internet GMs would advocate.  I guarantee you that Lou is fully aware that Bob Howry has closing experience, and that he is available.   He isn't the greatest closer ever, either, you know.  Plus, he's 37 or so...is he the Future of the Cubs Bullpen? 

No.  Marmol is.  And contrary to Kurt, I am as convinced as he is about what might be wrong with Marmol, and in my view, it ain't fatigue.  It's all about Confidence, and the man that SHOULD know the most about it, Lou Pinella, seems to agree with me.

Eventually, Lou knows that the kid is going to be the closer, sooner or later.  It would be nice for all of us to imagine the 31-year-old Wood settling in for a nice 8-year-run as the Cubs closer, ala Eckersley, Hoffman, Percival, and some other guys you can name who closed close to their 40's.  It ain't gonna happen.  If it isn't blistered fingers, sore shoulders or gamey elbow ligaments, it will be something else with Wood (who I love), but is more of a emotional, "dealing with adversity with class" hero than a "performing physical feats on the field of play" hero.

Smart baseball men do not count on Kerry Wood to hold positions of grave importance on their rosters.

Thus, we need to groom Marmol sooner or later.  But which one is it, sooner or later?  Do we throw him out there this week in ninth inning save situations?  Is he ready?  Will he succeed, and close out vital games in this 2008 pennant run, bolster his confidence, and gain vital experience for 2009, 2010, or whenever he becomes the full-time closer?  Or does he blow the games for us, dropping us out of the NL Central lead, and shred whatever confidence he has left?  How do we know?  How COULD we know?

Welllll.....we could hook him up to a simulator on a PS3, let him take the controls for a ninth inning save.  OR, we could send him down to Iowa to let him save a game there?  OR, maybe we run him out in the ninth inning yesterday.  I understand that none of these situations are ideal, but which one of the three will most closely simulate the type of action he should expect in a major league save situation, while at the same time be logistically feasible, and, oh incidentally, helps us close out a win we desperately needed to salvage an otherwise depressing series coming out of the All-Star Break?

If Marmol went out yesterday and crapped himself in a Hawkins-esque fashion, then all Lou has to do is send in Cotts or Howry to clean up, and he pretty much has his answer as to: 1) whether Marmol is ready to close this next week, and 2) how close is he to becoming the full-time Closer of the Future.  Because if you have some tissue attached to your brain stem, and if you read this here blog, you must know by now that Closing is about 10% physical and 90% mental, and if you doubt that, then tell me how the hell Rod Beck was able to log 53 saves in 1998 with a piece of raw fish hanging from his right shoulder joint?

Lou isn't just paid to win in 2008 - he has to know how he is going to do it next year, too.  He needs to know exactly what he has in Marmol.  He KNOWS he can throw caked-on-dirty sliders...but he needs to find out once and for all what he has between his huge Mickey Mouse ears, and also what he has hanging in his jock.

If we take a look at the final tally of this series in Houston, we will find that the Cubs outscored the Astros 11-6 but still managed to lose 2 of 3 games. It was clearly a frustrating series for Lou Piniella, as he commented after yesterday's game that the Cubs were pretty miserable on the road, at least offensively. For that reason, Lou must have decided that the only true way to retaliate would be in the usual manner - punishing Carlos Marmol by pitching him in a blowout. But hey, after all the beatings the Cubs have been taking, we'll take any kind of win, even if it's a tear-inducing one for Marmol who has to be frustrated by the overuse and abuse he's experienced this season.

Offensively, the Cubs jumped out of the gate quickly thanks to the bat of the overrated Derrek Lee (just ask one of our readers) who went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI. Actually, while it is always nice watching Lee swing the bat well, Kosuke Fukudome is the most important story of the game, at least for me. Our Japanese sensation has looked redonkulous the last few weeks, but he had a respectable day today, getting 2 hits and scoring 2 runs. It'll still be a while before he's officially busted out of his mid-season druthers, but I'm convinced he's capable.

Today's most depressing offensive performance came from Aramis Ramirez. I think that, as Cub fans, we have to better appreciate the fact that, when he's hitting the ball, Ramirez can be just as devastating as Alfonso Soriano. However, like the Fonz, A-Ram can get ice-cold sometimes, too, and he's had some legendary slumps in the past couple of seasons. Take his 0-for-28 streak he had earlier this year, which lasted from June 25th until July 5th. Or his 0-for-14 streak which went from the last game of the regular season last year all the way through the playoffs. Currently, he's in the throws of an 0-for-16 streak. Youch.

However, as Ramirez struggles, growing Cub legend Mike Fontenot had a 3 for 4 day, including a solo homerun in the 5th and a 2-run double in the 9th. Apparently, Fontenot uncovered the secret location of the head of Ted Williams and underwent a brain transplant not too long ago. Or he could just have reached that mythical point in his baseball career where he has the exact right mixture of confidence, ability, and intelligence. Enjoy it while it lasts, Cub fans, be it a year, a month, or a week. Little Babe Ruth is winning games for this team with his bat.

The one mildly concerning offensive fact of today's game: 0 walks. The Cubs drew a collective 1 walk in the last 3 games; maybe it's not too surprising that they didn't exactly set Houston on fire with the fury of their offense.

On the pitching front, Ryan Dempster looked his 0-win road record square in the eye and landed a hard surprise-kick straight in its nads. He went 8 solid innings, giving up only 6 hits and 1 walk while striking out 7. Oh, and did we mention that Carlos Marmol came in to pitch the 9th and delivered a clutch, much-needed 1-2-3 inning to end the game? Yep, the Cubs needed that, as their lead on Houston was tenuous at best. F*****g Lou.

Series Recap: A very brief one because I've got about ten other things I want to do before I go to bed tonight. The Cubs could very well enter the playoffs with the best record in the National League. They could lead all of baseball in runs scored, their pitching could buckle down and put up on of the best ERAs in the game this year, and if they continue to lose regularly on the road, then a World Series victory - not to mention a losing appearance, for that matter - will remain a vague concept to be dreamt of for future seasons.

Current Record: 58-40
Position in the NL Central: 1st place, 2 games in front of St. Louis
On Pace For: 96-66
Record needed to win 120: 62-2

It's apparently hard to win baseball games when your sole offensive contribution is your moose-like starting pitcher.  Carlos Zambrano tried to git 'er done by himself last night, but his solo homerun in the 7th wasn't enough to make up for the 4 runs he gave up to the Astros. 

The good news - The Cubs managed to account for a respectable 9 hits, including 3 from the leadoff man Ryan Theriot.  The bad news - they failed to capitalize on any runners-on situation in the game.  Consequently, they are relying on a pitcher who has yet to win a game on the road in order to avoid an opening-series sweep to start the second half.

Carlos was ineffective-at-best.  He pitched into the 7th, but he walked 6 and surrendered 6 hits.  Before the break, Zambrano was on a pitch count and he delivered two very effective performances.  It's likely that the Cubs are no longer monitoring his arm, consequently we saw a return of Erratic Carlos.

Chad Gaudin, meanwhile, continues to pitch well for the Cubs.  He finished up the game with 1.2 innings of no-hit, no-walk ball, and he is quickly ascending to the position where he may need to supplant Marmol as the setup man of choice for Lou.  

The Cubs play to avoid the sweep today.  Look at it this way, folks.  We know they have the firepower, we know they have the arms, the offense will come around soon enough, and today is as good a time as any to lay a whuppin' on an NL Central opponent.