I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow so this is likely to be my final post for eight or nine days. With all that's liable to transpire in the baseball world over the next week or so, it's a most inopportune time to be away. (I don't know WHAT my wife was thinking when she planned a trip in conflict with the Major League trading deadline.)

That said, when I watch what is happening with the Cubs right now--Ted Lilly about to go 11-4, Jacque Jones as hot as a pistol, Mike Fontenot with an OPS approaching 900, Albert Pujols going 0-for-9 in the first two games of a Cubs/Cardinals series, the Cubs scoring two-out runs as effortlessly as they customarily give them up--it's quite apparent to me that the end of the world is upon us.

And if that happens, I might well be away from the blog for more than eight or nine days.

(AP Photo Tom Gannam)

I did a lousy job of following up on last week's mention of Yovani Gallardo, the budding Brewer pitching star assuming Ben Sheets's spot in the Milwaukee rotation while Sheets recovers from a finger injury.

In any case, on Tuesday night, Gallardo started his second game since Sheets went down and the good news is, he didn't throw as well tonight against the Reds as he did last week against the Diamondbacks.

The bad news is, Gallardo was fabulous last week and merely outstanding tonight.

7/17 vs. Arizona (10-1 Milwaukee win)
6 IP
0 ER
3 H
2 BB
4 K

Tonight vs. Cincinnati (5-3 Milwaukee win)
6 2/3 IP
1 ER
6 H
3 BB
2 K

Gallardo, now 3-1 for the season, was the winning pitcher in both games and his ERA is a nifty 2.18. Looks like Sheets may be able to take his time getting healthy.

Deep in Wrigley Field’s innards, behind mountains of moldy, broken down boxes and undistributed Beanie Baby™ dolls, in a corner so dark even Wrigley’s famous feral cats have yet to discover it, a Tribune Company employee named Earl whose position is unique in the whole of Major League Baseball hunches over the keyboard of his Commodore 64 computer.

Earl’s highly secretive job? To devise arcane names for commonplace baseball injuries so they sound not so scary and not so threatening to the Cubs’ hopes of ending their nine-decade-plus championship drought. (Aficionados consider his work re: Mark Prior the art form's highest achievement.)

Earl was still at work earlier this evening, and the proof may be found in Carrie Muskat's report at cubs.com…

Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa was pulled from Tuesday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals in the third inning with left hamstring tendonitis.

Whew, what a relief! A run-of-the-mill pulled hamstring--the kind of hamstring injury that guys on other teams suffer--would have been so bad.

Nice win tonight.

Combined batting numbers for Derrek Lee's replacements--Daryle Ward, Mark DeRosa, and Scott Moore-- during Lee's five-game enforced absence:

18 AB
2 Hits
3 Runs
3 BB
3 KO
0 HR

.111 AVG
.238 OBP
.111 SLG
349 OPS

As pointed out today by Matthew Carruth at The Hardball Times:

Derrek Lee has responded well after a down year in 2006 beset with injuries and issues. The batting average and on base percentage are back up to great levels and while the gap prowess has remained, the homerun power has curiously disappeared. Lee...has an unsustainable high BABIP of .410 despite a low groundball rate and a line drive rate under 20%. If the BABIP was around where you'd expect, Lee would be joining the list of struggling post-30 first basemen with Sexson and Delgado. If I'm a Cubs fan, I'm watching his power output very closely.

I often wonder what it’s like for 19- and 20- and 21-year-old minor leaguers to encounter the big boys as they're hopscotching through the bushes on rehab assignments.

Arizona Phil of The Cub Reporter was on hand today for a case in point:

The latest outing in Kerry Wood’s ongoing rehab, a one-inning stint for the Cubs’ Arizona League team against the Royals’ AZL club.

According to AZ Phil, Wood only needed to throw seven pitches to get through a scoreless inning, all of his pitches were strikes, and Woody’s velocity reached 95 mph.

The only hit against him was a scratch infield hit by 17-year-old Fernando Cruz, a 6-foot-1, switch-hitting shortstop from Puerto Rico who KC drafted last month.

In his first 67 plate appearances as a professional baseball player this summer, Cruz, who the Royals say has a strong arm and “plus power,” is hitting .148 with 1 extra-base hit and no walks.

Will Cruz ever play on the manicured infield of Royals Stadium or any other Major League park for that matter? The odds are against him and not just because of the .148 start.

But even if Fernando Cruz never makes it to the Major Leagues, he’ll be able to say something that 99.999999999% of the baseball-playing universe never will:

That he once got a hit off of Kerry Wood.

And that’s not bad. Not bad at all.

As for the non-rehabbing Cubs today…

I’m glad Barry Bonds left town without tying Henry Aaron, and this is not an anti-Bonds or anti-steroid harangue. (Wait a minute—Anti Harangue. Doesn’t he pitch for Cincinnati?)

It’s just that between Mark McGwire’s 62nd and Sammy Sosa’s 600th, I’ve had enough of seeing the Cubs and their poor mope pitchers being turned into answers to sports trivia questions that will probably be asked for next 500 years.

Let the guy who serves up #755 and/or #756 be named Jeff Suppan or David Bush or Claudio Vargas or anybody not wearing the blue pinstripes.

AP Photo/Matt York

In Wednesday’s thumping of the Giants, the Cubs were 100% Lee-free, as Derrek chose to drop an appeal of his pending five-game suspension and begin serving the sentence immediately. As Carrie Muskat wrote today at cubs.com, it wasn’t pangs of guilt that motivated Lee, but rather…

“(Lee) fouled a ball off his left ankle in the eighth inning Tuesday night. He could've played Wednesday, but he'll benefit from the rest. His ankle was a factor in his decision.

“Lee said, ‘I probably could've played today but rather than limp through a couple games -- I have to serve it sometime. The feeling was I was going to get at the most one game reduced. Serve it now. We looked at Arizona and they didn't have many lefties. Daryle [Ward] can face them.’"

Ward, in fact, started Wednesday’s game against righty Matt Cain and the Giants, going 1-for-4 plus a walk. The veteran is now hitting .323/.449/.419 (AVG/OBP/SLG) with, surprisingly, no home runs and 8 RBI, the vast majority of his appearances coming as a pinch-hitter.

With the Cubs scheduled to face four right-handers over the next four days, it seems likely Ward will get at least a couple more starts before Lee’s return next week. (Another option would be to play Mark DeRosa at first and let Mike Fontenot play second.)

Coincidentally, this is all playing out for the Cubs at the same time the front-running Brewers are facing a four- to six-week stretch without disabled ace Ben Sheets. Is it too much to suggest that the Central Division race could come down to how the Cubs fare in their five games without Derrek Lee versus how the Brewers fare in Ben Sheets’s six or seven missed starts?

Of course it’s too much to suggest that. Nonetheless, it was certainly swell to see the Lee-less Cubs put 12 runs up on the board today against San Francisco. As Mike Fontenot caught the game-ending pop-up this afternoon, my first thought was, one down, four to go.

And Thursday afternoon, when young Yovani Gallardo makes his first start as Sheets’s replacement in the Milwaukee rotation against the Diamondbacks, all Cub fans should be watching closely.

The miracle basket was empty Tuesday night, and the Cubs lost 4-2 to the Giants.

Quite an inauspicious debut for Jason Kendall, the new Cubs catcher. He failed to come up with a tough, short-hop throw from leftfielder Alfonso Soriano in the fourth inning as Omar Vizquel scored, tying the game at that point, 1-1.

Then, in the eighth inning, Kendall couldn't locate a foul pop-up hit behind home plate by Bengie Molina. Finally, Kendall spotted the ball in the air and scrambled back to grab it, but the ball bounced off his mitt for a questionable "no play." His at-bat extended, Molina wound up singling to left field and Freddie Lewis, who entered the game to pinch run for the Giants catcher, eventually scored the go-ahead run when Will Ohman walked Dave Roberts with the bases loaded.

At the plate, Kendall was no better, going o-for-3. He was lifted in the ninth inning for pinch-hitter Daryle Ward, who grounded out to Ray Durham, stranding Aramis Ramirez at second base and ending the game in the visitors' favor.

Though Barry Bonds was not in the starting lineup for a second consecutive night, he did enter as a pinch-hitter during the high drama of the eighth inning. At the time, the score was tied 2-2, and the Giants had men at first and second with one out. Down in the count to Ohman 1-and-2, Bonds let a couple borderline pitches go by, before lining the 3-2 pitch to Soriano in medium deep leftfield for the second out.

If it is possible for a stadium crowd to be rabidly ambivalent, that is how I would describe those in attendance Tuesday night at Wrigley. Bonds' appearance was greeted with boos and cat calls and, I imagine, many other things that the tv cameras and microphones simply didn't pick up. But watching on TV and seeing all the camera flashes that preceded and followed every pitch of Bonds' at-bat, I also had the feeling that many, if not most, in the crowd were hoping to see some manner of history made right before their eyes.

hGH-fueled or not.

More on Kendall...

I offered a feeble description of Kendall's shortcomings in last night's post, but Rob G. at The Cub Reporter did his usual stellar job of assembling the relevants facts and opinions. If you want myriad reasons to be less than blown away by Monday's trade, read Rob's post at TCR and follow his links.

One other thing--this is the last one, I promise...

Following up on last night's mention of Ben Sheet's finger problem--he does, in fact, have a problem. A four to six-week problem.

AP Photo/Jerry Lai

On Monday, the Cubs landed a new catcher and learned of another reason to be optimistic about chasing down the Brewers. And, oh, yeah, they found time to win one of the season's most thrilling games.

The new catcher is the A's old Jason Kendall, who cost Jim Hendry catcher Rob Bowen and 23-year-old lefty reliever Jerry Blevins, who has split this season between Class "A" Peoria and Double-A Tennessee.

The 33-year-old Kendall is 80 games into the worst season of his career at the plate, hitting .226/.261/.281 (AVG/OBP/SLG) this year for Oakland. In 12 Major League seasons, he's a career .298 hitter, and his claim to semi-fame has been his rare foot-speed for a catcher--he stole more than 20 bases three years in a row between '99 and '01--and his ability to get on-base (.375 lifetime OBP). He has also earned praise for his defensive work behind the plate.

On balance, however,Kendall is old and expensive, earning $13 million in this, the final year of a six-year, $60 million contract he signed with Pirates. As Baseball Prospectus said in BP2007, "The day his contract expires should be one of relief in the Oakland front office."

Bowen joined the Cubs from San Diego on June 21st as part of the Michael Barrett trade. He walked in his first two at bats that night against the Rangers, then singled in his third try; it was all downhill after that. In all, Bowen played in only 10 games as a Cub, collecting 2 hits in 31 AB. Most damning of all, he wasn't even good enough to push Koyie Hill into unemployment.

As for Blevins, the 6-foot-6 lefty reliever was taken in the 17th round of the 2004 draft and has put together dazzling 2007 numbers, appearing in 38 games between Peoria and Tennessee, with a 3-2 record and unreal 1.02 ERA. Coming into this season, his numbers were much less dazzling: 10-11, 4.83 ERA, though he did fan 174 in just 149 1/3 IP.

All things considered, Kendall is a step up from Bowen and Hill. I'm hoping Geovany Soto, who has hit the ball hard in his first few games with the team, will still hold his place on the 25-man roster.

In Milwaukee, meanwhile, it was Ben Sheets Disabled List Day. The Brewer ace, suffering from a finger injury, will be replaced in Ned Yost's rotation by 21-year-old Yovani Gallardo, who looked so good against the Cubs in Milwaukee's last visit to Wrigley.

Last year, when Sheets and Tomo Ohka went down with injuries, the Brewers' replacement starters went 6-17. Gallardo should help prevent that level of catastrophe this time around...but we can hope, can't we?

Finally, there is the matter of Monday night's marvelous 3-2 comeback win against the Giants, the Cubs' 16th win in their last 20 games.

If you saw it, you don't need me to describe it. And if you didn't, you missed a beauty.

The last time Derrek Lee hit a home run...

Everyone was wondering whether or not Tony Soprano would get clipped.

Paris Hilton hadn't gone to jail or been released for medical reasons or returned to jail because the sheriff had overstepped his authority or been released early because of good behavior or found God.

Lady Bird Johnson was our oldest, living, former First Lady.

Scooter Libby was looking at a two-and-a-half year stretch in the federal pen.

And Amy Jacobson had a job...

the last time Derrek Lee hit a home run.

From Carrie Muskat's story today at cubs.com...

"Actor Jim Belushi is scheduled to lead the Wrigley Field crowd during the seventh-inning stretch on Friday. Ron Santo will sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" on Saturday, followed by Jeff Garlin on Sunday, and Juan Pablo Montoya, Reed Sorenson and David Stremme on Monday.

On Tuesday, it's "Rock and Roll Night" at Wrigley, and the seventh-inning stretch singer has yet to be named. Former Cubs pitcher Scott Sanderson will sing Wednesday, Santo will do the honors again July 19, and former Cubs pitchers Lee Smith and Fergie Jenkins will lead the crowd July 20 and July 22, respectively. Comedian Dennis Miller was scheduled to sing July 21."

In actual baseball news, the Cubs returned Felix Pie and his .216 average to Iowa and called up I-Cubs catcher Geovany Soto, who is hitting a robust .341 this season with 12 HR and 55 RBI in 226 AB, not to mention his handsome 996 OPS.

Soto has either finally figured out the hitting thing or is enjoying one heck of an anomaly: since the Cubs drafted him in 2001, he hasn't had a full-season OPS higher than a rather ordinary 756.

For the time being then, the Cubs will carry three catchers--Rob Bowen, Koyie Hill and Soto, who has also played some first base at Iowa and, when he's not starting, will offer Lou Piniella the right-handed bat off the bench he has been lobbying for.

With Ryan Dempster due to come off the Disabled List shortly, it looks like Hill, who is out of minor league options, may be on his way to being an ex-Cub.

On Tuesday, BP's Kevin Goldstein offered a look at National League prospects, separating the up-and-comers from the down-and-outers.

Regarding Iowa catcher Geovany Soto, Goldstein wrote, "Soto has added power to his game, batting .341/.412/.584 at Triple-A Iowa; why he’s still at Triple-A when the big league team lacks a single big league catcher is a bit of a mystery."

About Soto's teammate, Ronny Cedeno, who Goldstein wrote about last week, he now asks, "Will (Cedeno) (.383/.457/.611 at Triple-A Iowa) get another chance to fill the parent club's gaping hole at shortstop?

On the flip side, Goldstein points out that very wealthy Notre Dame alum, Jeff Samardzija, currently toiling for Class A Daytona, has been tagged for 102 hits in 80 innings, while fanning just 31. And heraled lefty Donnie Veal, pitching at Class AA Tennessee, has pitched to a 5.57 ERA.

Wednesday, July 11th, 7:00pm (EDT), Lancaster, Pennsylvania
10th Annual Atlantic League All-Star Game

The best players from Newark, Long Island, Bridgeport and the Road Warriors (?) go up against the finest from Camden, Somerset, Lancaster and York.

Hey, maybe they'd let the National League play so they could know what it feels like to win an All-Star Game.


Sunday, July 15th, 3:30pm (EDT), Washington D.C.
2007 WNBA All-Star Game

The host team, the Washington Mystics, is offering "one of two special fan experiences" to every group that purchases 150 or more tickets. If I can just find 149 other people, I'm going to get my photo taken on the court with DeLisha Milton-Jones!


Thursday, July 19th, 7:00pm (MT), Commerce City, Colorado
2007 Sierra Mist Major League Soccer All-Star Game at Dick's Sporting Goods Park

Looks like the only thing MLS hasn't sold sponsorship rights to is the gametime. When is that league going to get with it?

As I have no interest in tonight's Home Run Derby and almost no interest in Tuesday night's All-Star Game, I will offer this link to an account of Ryne Sandberg's first season as manager of the Peoria Chief by Ted Cox of the Chicago Reader.

All done.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to resume my All-Star break.

The Cubs defeated the Nationals 4-2 Thursday night, taking three of four at Washington, which bookended beautifully with events in Pittsburgh, where the woebegone Pirates beat the Brewers 6-3, completing a three-of-four series win against your National League Central leaders.

The second-place Cubs, who have won four consecutive series, are now just 4 1/2 games in back of Milwaukee.

Thursday night’s starting lineup included Daryle Ward, starting in place of homer-hungry Derrek Lee, and Jacque Jones, who lately has been doing double duty as an unsuccessful pinch-hitter and unloved trade prospect. Ward responded to the opportunity with two hits, a sac fly and two RBI; Jones, starting his first game since June 19th, smacked a pair of doubles and didn’t strike out even once.

Sean Marshall lost a chance to earn his fifth win of the season when he coughed up a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning, with the Nationals tying the game on RBI by Dmitri Young and Austin Kearns. But the Cub bullpen—in this case consisting of Will Ohman, Michael Wuertz, Carlos Marmol, and Bob Howry—held the home team scoreless over the last 3 2/3 innings, yielding just two hits and a walk. Mike Fontenot’s seventh-inning RBI single and Ward’s sacrifice fly provided the Cubs with their winning margin.

Now it’s on to Pittsburgh, where the Cubs will attempt to end the Pirates’ three-game winning streak Friday night and creep ever closer to the Brewers. Paul Maholm, who is 15-22 lifetime but 3-0 against the Cubs, will start for the Pirates against Jason Marquis.

The old-timers pine for the days when July 4th doubleheaders and Labor Day doubleheaders were a set part of the schedules. However, one game like today's is enough for a single afternoon, thank you.

Another stinker today for Rich Hill (5-6), who has dropped five of his last six decisions and in his last four starts has been tagged for 17 runs in 17 2/3 IP, good for an 8.66 ERA.

According to cubs.com, Lou Piniella had this to say of his struggling lefty:

"He fights himself too much out there. I think he wastes too much energy fighting himself instead of concentrating on getting hitters out. I'm going to have a little talk with him about that. You don't have to be perfect. He gets mad evey time somebody gets a base hit. You don't have to be perfect in this game. Nobody's perfect.

"You've got to keep your concentration. That's a big thing with the pitcher. Why let the other team know things aren't going as planned? I think the break will do him good, and I think it'll freshen his arm, and he'll come back and have a real nice second half for us."

The Cub offense, meanwhile, was sucking air for the second straight game, collecting just five hits (one by Hill) against three Nats pitchers. Matt Chico (4-5), making his first-ever start against the Cubs, threw seven shutout, walk-free innings. Chico was 0-1 in his last eight starts; in the seven no-decisions, Washington hitters had supported him with just 13 runs.

On the plus side, the Brewers lost again to the Pirates, so the Cubs remain 5 1/2 in back of Milwaukee.

Thursday night, the Cubs will play their final game ever at RFK Stadium. Sean Marshall, 4-3 but coming off of his worst start of the season, faces the National's Jason Bergmann (1-5).

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

It’s that time of year again, Independence Day Eve, and with the family going to bed early so everyone can be up at the dawn’s first light to gather around the tree and open their Independence Day gifts, I’ve decided to offer a Cubs/Nationals preview instead of the regular postview.

Cubs at Washington,
Tuesday, 7/3, 6:05PM
Broadcast on WGN-TV
Carlos Zambrano (9-6, 4.20) vs. Tim Redding (season’s first start)

Since announcing that he was "starting the season over," Zambrano is 4-1 with a 1.43 ERA. Last time out, this past Wednesday against the Rockies, Z prevailed in a 6-4 game, allowing five hits and two earned runs over six innings. He threw 107 pitches, which represented his lightest workload in awhile: in the previous four outings, he averaged a whopping 120 pitches. Nietzsche said, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” That seems to have been the case over Zambrano’s career, though Nietzsche skirted right over issues like frayed rotator cuffs and elbow problems.

As for Redding, the former Astro, Padre and Yankee is the 20th pitcher to take the mound on behalf of the Nats this season. His career numbers suggest he'll fit right in with the rest of the boys: 21-34, 5.16, 488 hits allowed in 436 1/3 IP.

If you were to cast a guy suitable for a team to face in an effort to win its tenth game in the last 11, Redding would definitely be on the short list.

The Nationals stink, and the Cubs delivered another reminder of it Monday night, sailing to a 7-2 win behind Ted Lilly's pitching and a combined five RBI from Mark DeRosa and Aramis Ramirez. With the win, the Cubs achieved a feat that seemed impossible just a few weeks ago: achieving a better than .500 record (41-40) at the halfway point in the season.

With three more games coming up against Washington followed by three against the Pirates, the Cubs could/should remain above .500 at the All-Star break. The problem is, the Brewers are at Pittsburgh now, after which they travel to Washington to pummel the Nats.

It was a great weekend, but the fact remains the Cubs have 6 1/2 games to make up against a very good Brewers team. (It says a lot about how talented and how deep they are that Yovanni Gallardo, who looked so good Friday afternoon, is being moved to the bullpen as Chris Capuano comes off the Disabled List.) In other words, we could have a good three months of scoreboard-watching ahead of us.

Will Ronny Cedeno be a part of the chase? Today's Baseball Prospectus includes a piece by Kevin Goldstein that offers this update on the Cubs' shortstop of the future turned Des Moines, Iowa resident:

Dispatched to the minors after beginning the year by going 3-for-31, no kind of chaser for an awful 2006 in the starter’s role last year (including a .211 Equivalent Average), but his scouting reports were better than that, and he’s putting everything together since going back to the minors. Currently batting .387/.466/.638 in 45 games as an I-Cub, Cedeno is showing unprecedented power, including five home runs in his last five games. After compiling a miserable strikeout-to-unintentional walk ratio of 109-13 for the Cubs last year, he has more walks (23), than strikeouts (21) in 163 at-bats for Iowa. If the Cubs think they’re in it, and it seems like they do (and are), there’s a free in-house upgrade awaiting them in the Hawkeye State.