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.   

So, as it turns out, writing is the kind of thing where you have to do it or the ability goes away. Given that my "ability" was limited to various nerdisms and poo-jokes, I'm not sure if the break was a good idea. But a break I took, and so now in my own bed I will lie (lay? lye?). I'd like to say that I'm going to break out the funny (or the relevant) in this post , but I'm really just trying to get all the commas in the right places and keep the typos to a minimum, something I struggle with in the best of times. Given all this, I feel it is best to stick to a bullet list, some links, and minimal personal contribution.

But wait! What's this? I'm feeling the urge to write? The words...they're spilling out. Is it the wine? Or the frozen Tombstone pizza? What is the source of this inspiration? And how long can I keep rambling about my desire to write before I have to actually write something of value?

One paragraph?

Two?

And did that count as two paragraphs? And is this now three?

These are all questions to which I have no answers and so I'm going with the bullet list after all. Here's what's happened in the world since I've left*

(* quick note: did anyone notice I was gone? Anyone? Hello?)

• Will Leitch left Deadspin. As it turns out, there are people over at Desipio who like to talk bad about Will, but I've never found him to be anything other than extremely polite and friendly. He's willingly submitted himself to my ridiculous interview questions (note: not a bad read, surprisingly. I usually can't stand reading my old writing) and has linked us on many an occasion, including our hand in the downfall of Stephen A. Smith. Dislike of Will Leitch continues to baffle me as I couldn't disagree more with the claims that he is "full of himself" or "a douche". All I ever noticed is a guy with midwest values living in the New York. I contend that Midwest values never leave you. Thanks for the entertainment lo these many years, Will, and good luck in the future.
• Blackhawks sign two of the top free agents available, giving Chicago the possibility of having the top teams in the NHL, NFL, NBA, NL, and AL. Of course, that just requires a Chicago team to win the Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, NBA Finals, ALCS and NLCS...yep, I called it here first.
• We decide that, no, particle physics isn't going to end the world as we know it. But if it did, it would be frickin' cool (you know,briefly).
• And guess who submitted her thesis? Yep, that's right, she's going to be a doctor. But not that kind of doctor, the cool kind. You know, the kind that can't heal you but can make a histogram of the frequency of your gaseous emissions, fit it to a Gaussian, and predict your next release. Now *that's* a real doctor.

So now you're saying, hey! You didn't talk about baseball! And I'm thinking, hay? Why are we talking about hay? Hay is for horses and grass is cheaper? And then I realize, that's a verbal joke. That doesn't make any sense in print. Clearly you said "hey". not "hay". But my point is, there was no need for me to talk about baseball. The rest of the gang here at Goat Riders has kept you up to date and well covered, much like a blanket...a blanket of words. And anything I could add regarding to Rich Hill's relation to Steve Blass or Derrek Lee's desire to double his pleasure could only serve to distract from the real story around these parts:

The Cubs are in first. The Cubs are getting healthy. The Cubs are going to be in even firstier very soon.

Take it to the bank.

And have the bank look at you curiously.

Because that wasn't a form of currency.

Just words. Not subject to inflation.

Go Cubs.

I'd be driving to work right about now, but I have the morning off for a doctor's appointment. The Cubs are even luckier - they've got a full day off, allowing them the opportunity to rest after the intense beating they've given the White Sox this past weekend. Cubs and Sox players describe the interleague series as having "a playoff atmosphere," and usually when they say it, they do so in a way where they sound like nobody had ever said the same thing before and they just struck Baseball-Quote Gold. I overheard Jim Thome on ESPN Radio on Friday. "It's a fun series to play in and watch," he said (or something close to it, I'm paraphrasing). "It's definitely intense. It's like ... it's like ... it's like a Playoff Atmosphere!!!! Wooo-hooo! I just came up with a good'un. They're gonna quote me everywhere for that'un!"

Except maybe it's true. As I wrote in my guest column for 35th Street, it's probably different within Chicago where Cub fans go to work with Sox fans and have to live with each other's taunts on a regular basis. Taking that kind of mindset to a game can certainly lead to a charged-up atmosphere. But, as a resident of the Rest of the World, I can say truthfully that it didn't matter much, except in the standings.

Now then, the Cubs are off today, and because I've got time to kill I've researched a few interesting things. Be prepared to be shocked.

• It's June 23rd, 2008. The Cubs have the best record in all of baseball.
• They have won 14 games in a row at home - their longest such streak since 1934 or '35. You know what else happened in the 1930's? There was a depression going on, fascism was on the rise in Europe, and, oh, the Cubs made the World Series on 3 different occasions.
• Aramis Ramirez - whose name is pronounced inconsistently by ESPN broadcasters - hulked up this weekend and hit a lot of homeruns. He suddenly finds himself on pace for more than 30.
• Speaking of hulking up, as we've suggested all along, the Alfonso Soriano Replacement Sweepstakes has now become the Cubs Deadline Trade-Bait Showcase. Eric Patterson is now batting .318 with 2 walks in 22 at bats (Corey could get 220 at bats and still he might only walk twice), and he hit a big homerun last night against the Sox. Matt Murton is now batting .273, but he's yet to hit any extra base hits or homers. Micah Hoffpauir is batting .400 in 35 at bats with 6 doubles and a homer. If even one of these guys contribute toward the landing of C.C. Sabathia at the trade deadline, then this little Showcase will be a mission accomplished, and I will start accusing the Cubs of faking Soriano's injury in order to allow for the opportunity.
• If it's true that this series was a "playoff atmosphere" then it's good that Dempster pitched well. I remain unconvinced that the Cubs have the arms to win a short series. A few more epic starts like the last one, and Clownsevelt will convince me to change my mind.
• Carlos Marmol is hugely concerning. Lou did the right thing by trotting him out there, and you can safely bet money on Marmol making an appearance tomorrow night against Baltimore, regardless the situation, but his last two outings have been Ankiel-like. In his 4-run outing against Tampa, where he was unable to get a single out, Marmol threw 20 pitches, 7 for strikes, and he hit 2 batters. In his next outing against the Sox, Marmol threw 31 pitches, 13 for strikes, including a wild pitch. In total, that's 51 pitches, 20 strikes, 5 walked batters, 2 hit batters, and at least 1 wild pitch that I know of. I am comforted by Kerry Wood, who once noted that he went through a similar stretch when he was still a minor league pitcher, and it actually may be more common than we realize.
• Speaking of K.Wood, Jon Miller EMailed me recently to note that ESPN has him - and 2 other Cubs out of 10 total players - in their National League Cy Young Predictor.

Oh, and one last thing. The Cubs are now 13-7 for the month of June, and they are 6-4 in 10 games without The Fonz. They play 7 more games this month - 3 at home against the 38-36 (but 16-24 on the road) Orioles, 3 at near-home against the reeling-but-still-deadly Sox, and 1 on the road in San Fran as a precursor to a 4-game series that will carry into July. As I keep pointing out, at the start of this horribly rough stretch of games, I said, "the Cubs might exit June with 13 or 14 wins for the month." I also said that, if the Cubs won 16, we should be happy and the Cubs should have a healthy lead on the #2 team. Byron then made a poll in which the vast majority of readers predicted between 14 and 17 wins. With 7 games remaining, it is very, very possible that the Cubs will win 17, or even 18 games in the hardest month of their season!

Even if you want to argue that other months are tougher schedule-wise (and that's an argument you will lose, in my opinion), with Carlos missing two or three starts, with Marmol looking like Ankiel, and with Alfonso missing more than half the month due to injury, the play of the Cubs has been just flat out amazing. And maybe that's what we should call them - the Amazing Cubs. The way things are headed, we also might have a few other prefixes to tack onto their names. Some remain unspeakable for now, but The 100-Win Cubs is becoming a strong possibility.