I sure didn't think this would happen.

Then I saw Ryan Dempster huffing and puffing in between pitches as if it took all of the resolve and concentration he could muster to make a good pitch (even though he was leading 2-0 at the time).

Then the good pitches got fewer and farther between as the number of walks issued to Dodger batters climbed.

And then came the grand slam gopher ball. And then the Cubs really settled into their offensive feebleness. And then I turned the channel in search of previews of tomorrow night's Vice Presidential Debate, which I am planning to watch instead of Game Two, because I don't expect Carlos Zambrano to be the guy who will get us back on track so the Cubs can head out to L.A. with the series tied, and I just can't handle that much more disappointment.

I sure didn't think this would happen.

---

You'll find a more thoughtful, detailed analysis of tonight's humiliation at The Cub Reporter. Transmission proved to me what a strong stomach he has by recounting all of the grisly details.

My stomach isn't strong enough to even allow me to read the recounting of all of the grisly details.

---

Update: The Cubs, who were given a 52% likelihood of winning this first-round series yesterday, according to The Hardball Times' statistical analysis, are now given a 32.8% likelihood of reaching the NLCS.

I figured you probably weren't already depressed enough this morning and so, decided to pass that on.

Daryle Ward has started in 497 Major League games and has never had a five-hit game. (For that matter, Aramis Ramirez has started in 1,291 Major League games and has never had a five-hit game.)

But last night, in just his 11th Major League start, Micah Hoffpauir banged out five hits—two home runs, a double, and two singles—in the Cubs' 7-6 loss to the Mets.

Hoffpauir is in a fight with the 33-year-old Ward, among others, for one of the precious spots on the Cubs playoff roster. If this team was managed by veteran-loving Dusty Baker, we could be sure who would capture that spot, but the current Cubs manager is at least suggesting there's a possibility he would give the 28-year-old Hoffpauir the nod.

"You know, we're looking for a couple spots, we're looking for some offense," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "Put it this way, he'll be in the lineup [Friday] against Milwaukee..."

...The Cubs have three games remaining to finalize the playoff roster. The Cubs still don't know who they'll be playing, and Piniella said that could determine who he picks.

"We have to know who our opponent is first," Piniella said. "Hoffpauir's not hurting himself."

---

On the subject of hurting yourself relative to a post-season position...

Carlos Zambrano, who has been awful recently outside of his no-hit game against the Astros, has lost out to Ryan Dempster, who has been mostly brilliant this year at Wrigley Field, in a bid to win the starting assignment for Game 1 of the NLDS.

Earlier today, I wrote sort of a goodbye-Shea-Stadium-see-you-in-hell post at The Cub Reporter. Also this evening, the Tribune's Paul Sullivan offers a short history of Cub misery at Shea Stadium, invoking names like Turk Wendell and LaTroy Hawkins.

All of this grisly reminiscence was at odds with what wound up being a pretty satisfying Cub victory tonight. Carlos Zambrano (4 2/3 IP, 5 R, 4 BB, and one grand slam allowed to Carlos Delgado) pitched like a guy who should be grateful to get a starting turn in the playoffs, let alone the Game One assignment, but the Cub bullpen, despite some bumpy going, limited the home team to just one run over the last five innings. The Cub offense recovered from a 5-1 deficit and eventually seized a 6-5 lead. After the Mets tied the game in the eighth inning, then failed to capitalize on a golden scoring opportunity in the bottom of the ninth against Bob Howry, Derrek Lee drove home Ryan Theriot with the game-winner in the top of the tenth and Aramis Ramirez ripped a two-run homer to seal the 9-6 win.

In all, the Mets scored one run despite having a man on third with nobody out in each of the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings.

The Mets remain 1 1/2 games behind the Phillies in the NL East. The Brewers, who beat the Pirates behind C.C. Sabathia on Wednesday night, are now tied with the Mets for the Wild Card.

If the three teams end the season in a tie, the Mets and Phillies will play Monday in Philadelphia to determine the NL East winner. The losing team will then travel to Milwaukee to settle the Wild Card. And the Cubs will be watching all the while.

Former Giant Juan Marichal pitched his way into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but to the best of my knowledge, he was never man enough to snap a bat in half over his knee after striking out as a hitter.

As of late Sunday night, however, Marichal does have one thing in common with the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano: both have no-hit Houston.

A surprisingly short list of the pitchers who, in the last 46 years, have thrown no-no's at either the Astros or the Colt .45's, as the expansion club was known between 1962 and 1964:

Pitcher(s)	Team	Date
Juan Marichal	San Francisco	June 15, 1963
Jim Maloney	Cincinnati	April 30, 1969
F. Cordova (9 IP), R. Rincon (1 IP)	Pittsburgh	July 12, 1997
Carlos Zambrano	Chicago Cubs	Sept. 14, 2008

A footnote...

In the starts immediately following their no-hit efforts v. Houston, here is how Zambrano's three predecessors fared:

Marichal followed his no-hitter with an impressive win (1 ER, 7.2 IP) against the Dodgers; Maloney lasted just 5 innings, though he yielded only one run, in a loss to the Mets; and Cordova, who was no Juan Marichal and not even a Jim Maloney, got bombed, allowing 8 hits and 7 runs in just 2 IP as the Pirates lost to the Reds.

If Zambrano takes his regular turn in the rotation, his next start will be on Friday, at Wrigley Field, against the Cardinals.

While the Cubs were stumbling in Cincinnati this past weekend, the Dodgers were sweeping the Diamondbacks right out of the NL West lead. With their 5-3 victory on Sunday, L.A. had won eight straight and established a game-and-a-half lead in the division over Arizona, who had assumed first place all the way back on April 6th and remained there until this latest visit to Dodger Stadium.

If the Dodgers can hold onto their lead, the Cubs win the NL Central, and the Brewers claim the Wild Card, the Cubs would host Joe Torre's club in the NLDS. In 7 games this year, the Cubs went 5-2 against L.A., sweeping a tense, low-scoring three-game series at Wrigley in late May (by scores of 3-1, 3-1, and 2-1), and splitting a four-game series at Dodger Stadium in early June. All of this, of course, happened during the Dodgers' pre-Manny Ramirez days.

Bob Howry claimed two of the Cubs' five wins, with Ryan Dempster, Sean Gallagher, and Jason Marquis earning the others. Gallagher and Carlos Zambrano accepted the two Chicago defeats. Hiroki Kuroda and Derek Lowe registered the only Dodgers wins in the series. Coincidentally, the Dodgers' highly regarded rookie lefthander, Clayton Kershaw, who started Sunday's game against Arizona, never had his turn in the rotation come up when the Dodgers and Cubs played this season.

If telescoping ahead to a post-season series that may never happen seems like a way to avoid confronting Sunday's loss or thinking too intently about a future without a healthy Zambrano and/or Rich Harden in the Cubs rotation, well, that's pretty much what it is. The Cubs, however, are hopeful that Harden will be have benefited from his recent rest when he starts Thursday's game at St. Louis and that Zambrano will be able to make his next scheduled start on Saturday, in the middle game of the Cubs/Astros series in Houston.

(In the time it took me to finish this post, the Dodgers and Diamondbacks both lost games on the West Coast, to the Padres and Giants, respectively, so L.A. will remain atop the West. For their part, the Brewers' dreadful bullpen, i.e., Salomon Torres, allowed the Reds to pull out yet another 9th inning win, dropping the Milwaukees 4 1/2 games behind the Cubs. If I didn't hate the Reds so much, I might actually be feeling some fondness for them right now.)

From Will Carroll's "Under the Knife" column at Baseball Prospectus (subscription):

The most worrisome aspects of Zambrano's start (on Tuesday) were the arm angle and the quick drop in velocity. By the third inning, he was down from 93 to 90, and by the fourth and fifth he was exerting more effort just to stay in the 90 range. The extra time off might have made him stronger in the early going, but it didn't last time out...

On Thursday, (Zambrano) did receive another cortisone shot and had scheduled tests done that apparently showed he's having another bout of rotator cuff tendonitis. Given his results since last time, I'm not sure that this is going to be comforting news to Cubs fans, especially if he comes back next week with his lower arm slot.

Apart from our learning that Carlos Zambrano could be back on the mound by September 14th, presumably minus the discomfort caused recently by his rotator cuff tendinitis, there was another positive development on the baseball front Thursday:

The Brewers lost 5-2 at home to the team with the worst record and worst road record in the National League, the woeful Padres. Compounding the Brewers' frustration was knowing that they had been conquered by the habitually woeful Shawn Estes, who was making his first start since May, when he sustained a broken thumb.

Yes, it's that Shawn Estes. The one who merited 28 starts for Dusty Baker's 2003 Cubs though his ERA was 5.73 and who missed all of the 2007 season as he recovered from Tommy John Surgery.

(In all, Tom Haudricort of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel found ten reasons for the Brewers to be profoundly bummed out by having fallen to the Pads. Read and enjoy.)

The bottom line for the Cubs on this non-playing day is that they currently enjoy a five-game lead over Milwaukee with 22 contests to come. And if there is a National League Central championship in the team's near future, it sounds as though Carlos Zambrano will be back in uniform to help toast it.

After attending the first two Cub losses to the Astros, I wouldn't have thought it possible that the final game in the series could be worse than those I viewed in person.

Shows what I know.

So Carlos is hurting, while Rich Harden is denying that he's hurting, saying instead that the Cubs' plan to hold him back until the middle of next week was part of a long-ago conceived plan to lighten his load heading into the season's final weeks. The current five-game losing streak is the team's longest of the season, and now the Cubs head into that 22-game stretch, including 16 road contests, we have been anticipating and perhaps fearing since the season was in its infancy. And, oh, yeah, every Cub-hating jerk you know has decided it's terribly clever of him to remind you about 1969...as if any of us will ever really put '69 behind us until the Cubs win it all.

For the record:

On this date in 1969, the Cubs were 84-53 and enjoyed a 5-game bulge over the second-place Mets, a margin which rapidly evaporated as the Cubs proceeded to lose 8 games in a row and 11 of 12 through the middle of the month, at which point the Mets had built a 4 1/2-game lead and the NL East race was over.

After tonight's loss, the Cubs are 83-55 and enjoy a 4 1/2-game lead over the second-place Brewers, and they're in the middle of a significant losing streak.

Sorry, I just don't see the parallel.

(Thank God for the Wild Card.)

Carlos Zambrano may skip his scheduled Sunday start in the finalé of the Cubs' 4-game series with the Phillies because of a dead BUT NOT INJURED! arm.

(By the way, Lou Piniella isn't even willing to concede the "dead arm" description. As he told Toni Ginnetti of the Sun-Times, ''Zambrano doesn't have a sore arm, and he doesn't have a dead arm. It's muscular in the triceps area, and that's where you get tired.")

Said Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild of Zambrano:

"He's pitched a lot of innings in the last six, seven years. You can compare him with a lot of people, but I don't know anyone who has logged the pitches and innings that he has."

Larry Rothschild asked, and I will answer–here are the National League leaders in pitches thrown since 2001:

1. Livan Hernandez 25,789
2. Tom Glavine 24,270
3. Roy Oswalt 23,651
4. Carlos Zambrano 22,458
5. Greg Maddux 22,314
6. Matt Morris 21,372
7. Ben Sheets 21,584
8. Brad Penny 21,204
9. Jake Peavy 20,070
10. Woody Williams 19,932

Carlos' Cub teammate Jason Marquis is 11th on the list at 19,522.

As you might have guessed, the list of NL hurlers with the most innings pitched since '01 contains many of the same names. Maddux heads that list at 1660.2 IP; Zambrano is 7th at 1361.2. Marquis, with 1220 innings logged for the Braves, Cardinals, and Cubs, is 12th.

Tuesday's 14-9 Cub win at Pittsburgh may go down as the game that cemented Geovany Soto's selection as 2008 National League Rookie of the Year. Geo had a pair of three-run doubles, a solo homer, and 7 RBI overall. Soto has now hit more home runs than any rookie catcher in Cub history and his batting line, which currently stands at .280 AVG/20 HR/78 RBI, will wind up as one of the best ever by a Cub catcher, rookie or otherwise.

Also positive—Kosuke Fukudome's throw from rightfield to nail rookie Brandon Moss on his way to third base; Carlos Zambrano continuing to hit like a sonofagun (eighth consecutive start in which he has driven in a run); Mike Fonenot, who entered the game in the bottom of the fifth, going 2-for-2 and also making a fine, diving play in the field.

On the negative side of Tuesday's fun, however, we have:

Zambrano pitching like hell: 8 hits, 6 ER in just 4 1/3 innings. Not the first time our supposed ace has turned in game like this. In fact, it's the third time in Zambrano's last four starts that he has pitched quite poorly.

Alfonso Soriano bunny-hopping his way to another embarrassing error on a routine fly ball. The only thing worse then giving the opposition an extra out and a free run, which Fonzie did with his flub in the sixth inning, is injuring yourself in the process, which, as we all know, Soriano has also done this season. For the love of God and Lou Piniella...NO...MORE...HOPPING!

Ben Sheets pitching like Ben Sheets. The Milwaukee righty helped the Brewers vanquish the Cardinals, 12-0, at Busch Stadium to stay within five games of the first-place Cubs. It's a tad frustrating that the Cubs have played as well as they have lately and still, the Brewers are within haling distance of first place. For their part, the Brewers have won 14 out of 18 and not gained a game or even a half game on the Cubs. There is some consolation for the Milwaukees, however:

By shutting out the Cards Tuesday, the Brewers now have a 4 1/2 game lead in the Wild Card race.

Six box score lines belonging to young starter pitchers in Thursday's National League games:

7 IP, 6H, 1 ER
8 IP, 6 H, 0 ER
8.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER
6 IP, 4 H, 0 ER
5 IP, 4 H, 3 ER
6 IP, 10 H, 11 ER

The first four lines belong, respectively, to Mike Pelfrey (Mets), Chad Billingsley (Dodgers), Cole Hamels (Phillies), and Manny Parra (Brewers).

The bottom two lines, the mediocre one and the ghastly one, belong to Sean Gallagher of the Cubs and Mitchell Boggs of the Cardinals.

The Mets, Dodgers, and Phillies were all winners yesterday. But despite Parra's strong effort, the Brewers lost when their bullpen allowed Arizona to rally from a 5-0 ninth-inning deficit and score a miraculous 6-5 victory.

Gallagher, who survived a terrible second inning at San Francisco, to post a respectable start against the Giants' outstanding young pitcher, Tim Lincecum, was also a loser.

Finally, Boggs, the owner of that 11-earned run start, was on the wrong side of the 11-0 beating that the Mets and Pelfrey doled out to St. Louis. While it might seem cruel and unusual for Tony LaRussa to have left Boggs in for six innings of abuse, the manager actually had little choice. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

"I would rather save him the beating when it's not his night," La Russa said, "but I was much more concerned about the effect on the rest of our pitching staff trying to finish that game."

The Cardinals' bullpen has had plenty of work lately, with three of the previous four St. Louis starters failing to last past the fifth inning and the Cubs are coming to town tonight.

"It was good for me to stay out there and take my lumps and get better," Boggs said. "It's a huge series starting (tonight). The last thing I want to do is come out in the third inning. Then our bullpen has to eat up six innings. That's a killer.

Carlos Zambrano (8-3, 3.13) returns from the Disabled List to meet Braden Looper (9-5, 4.26) in the first of three between the Cubs and St.Louis at 7:15 Friday night. Cubs lead the NL Central by 2 1/2.

Six and two-thirds innings into Wednesday night's 5-4 Cub loss at Tampa, Carlos Zambrano left with "shoulder discomfort," which is causing profound unease in Cub-lovers everywhere.

Here is a stat line you're going to read so many times in the next few days, you'll lose count (I'm hoping this is the first time you're coming across it):

Since Carlos's 130-pitch outing against L.A. back on May 28th, he has gone 1-2, fanned 13, walked 12, served up 33 hits, allowed a .317 batting average against and been worked over for 16 earned runs in 25 1/3 IP (5.68 ERA).

We'll presumably hear some medically meaningful translation of "shoulder discomfort" tomorrow. The fact is, assuming that Zambrano doesn't have a serious problem requiring a visit to the DL, the Cubs need Carlos back in the rotation, and they need him to recover whatever zip he may have lost in that marathon outing three weeks ago versus the Dodgers.

This past weekend, the Texas Rangers released their #3 starter, much-traveled and much-troubled veteran pitcher Sidney Ponson. While declining to get too specific about the reasons for the move, Rangers GM Jon Daniels said the team's action was triggered by Ponson's...

"...disrespectful and adverse reactions to situations that were unbecoming of a teammate. We want guys who want to be here. We're trying to put together a team here, and based on some comments and reactions, he didn't want to be part of that. That's not something we're going to tolerate."

Evan Grant's story in Saturday's Dallas News cites multiple sources in reporting that Ponson, who was a more than respectable 4-1, 3.88 (108 ERA+) for the Rangers this year, was hacked off over "a disagreement in (his) pitching schedule."

After pitching on three days' rest last Wednesday, Ponson was told he would have to go five days before his next outing so Kevin Millwood could go on his normal four days' rest. Ponson then challenged the Rangers to release him.

Grant writes:

According to the sources, however, problems began to fester more than a week ago when the Rangers were in Tampa Bay.

The night before his start against the Rays, according to the sources, Ponson was seen late in the evening in the hotel bar. The next day, he lasted only five innings and allowed 12 hits in a 7-3 loss.

Club officials spoke with Ponson, 31, about comportment after the incident and reiterated the "one-strike" stance they took when they signed him in March. In essence, the club said it would cut ties if he had one behavioral issue.

Sound like a short leash? Well, only if you're not up on your Sidney Ponson history:

Three years ago, Ponson was cut by the Orioles after two alcohol-related arrests in the space of nine months. The year before, he spent 11 days in jail in his native Aruba for assaulting a judge.

The question isn't whether or not someone will give Ponson yet another chance; it's who will be first in line.

The loose connection between the Ponson story and the Cubs' adventures this past weekend was Carlos Zambrano's own meltdown Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. The incident was triggered by Zambrano's frustration with himself after he allowed the Dodgers 7 runs and 13 hits over 6 2/3 innings. Since it happened a couple days ago, I won't recount the details, but last I heard, neither of the Gatorade coolers assaulted by the Cubs ace are planning to press charges.

Finally there is the case of Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis, who got into a dugout brawl with Manny Ramirez last Thursday during a game in Tampa.

Per Enrique Rojas, writing for ESPNdeportes.com:

A Red Sox source told ESPNdeportes.com that the cause of the dugout disagreement was Youkilis' temper following a poor at-bat.

"It all happened because Manny complained about Youkilis' habit of throwing bats, helmets and other objects in the dugout when he has a bad at-bat, something that has become a constant practice," the source said.

"Other players have told Youkilis in the past about the situation, which makes him look selfish and that he is more worried about each at-bat than about the team. If Boston is winning easily, there's no reason to throw objects all over the dugout because of a bad at-bat.

"There was a meeting where the team let Youkilis know that many of his teammates were tired of his explosive reactions for each bad plate appearance. It became very bothersome … more so when the team is winning and it's in first place. There's not much room for individualistic attitudes."

I mention the latter case, because Zambrano's eruption struck me much as Youkilis's explosions apparently were perceived by his fellow Sox, as a self-centered and unnecessary distraction from the game at hand. The good news is, Carlos has performed so well this season, he has had little reason to think about going berserk. I hope that continues to be the case.

And I hope Sidney Ponson's next Major League paycheck is signed by someone other than Crane Kenney.

As well as Carlos Zambrano has pitched so far this season, his effort tonight in the Cubs' 12-3 win at Pittsburgh—7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 6 K, 1 BB—was hardly exceptional. The now 7-1 Zambrano's performance at the plate was another story. His four hits were a career high and marked the first time since 1964 that a Cub pitcher had collected four hits at the plate. Lew Burdette was the man with the magic bat in July of '64, going 4-for-5 in a 13-4 thrashing of the Giants.

Interestingly, just four years earlier, in June of 1960, another Cub pitcher, Don Cardwell, rapped four hits in an 11-5 win over the Braves.

I was surprised to see that according to the Baseball-Reference Play Index, since 1956, pitchers have managed the four-hit trick 29 times, and Arizona's Micah Owings accomplished it twice last year, in games just five weeks apart.

But I wonder if Micah Owings can snap a bat over his knee.

Cubs 7, Mets 1

Winner: Zambrano (7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 4 K, 2 BB), 3-1
Loser: Maine (6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 6 K, 2 BB), 1-2

Turning point: Aramis Ramirez's two-run homer in the fourth inning gave the Cubs a 2-0 lead they never gave up, but Jose Reyes's error on a ground ball hit by Derrek Lee, leading off the last of the eighth inning, was also critical. It opened the door to a 5-run Cubs rally—2-run single by Cedeno, 3-run bomb by Pie—that turned a tense, one-run game into a laugher of sorts. Let's call it a Laugher Lite.

Backstory: Zambrano's strong seven-inning effort, in which his newfound control was again in evidence, gave all but Marmol and Wood in the Cubs bullpen a much needed night off. And as much fun as it is to see the Cubs bludgeon the Pittsburgh Pirates, there is something uniquely satisfying about seeing them beat a first-rate team, especially when that team is wearing New York Mets colors. Zambrano now passes the baton to Ted Lilly, who has been miserable in 2008, but with a good effort in his Tuesday afternoon start against the Mets' Nelson Figueroa, could help the Cubs lock down a 7-1 homestand.

Cub players, as quoted by Paul Sullivan in the Tribune, wish to absolve Dusty Baker of:

1. Overusing, and thus causing the arm problems suffered by, Kerry Wood and Mark Prior
2. Facilitating the Kent Mercker/Steve Stone kerfuffle
3. Responsibility for the Cubs' collapse in 2004
4. Enabling Carlos Zambrano's temper tantrums and generally juvenile behavior
5. Preventing Ryan Theriot's development by playing him behind Neifi Perez
6. Not being Lou Piniella

That's a lot to not be reponsible for. Good thing we got that cleared up.

What you are about to read is true:

• As I write this, the National League's highest batting average (.538) belongs to Jason Kendall.

• Corey Patterson, among the last free agents to find a home this past off-season, is tied for second in the NL with four home runs.

• Dusty Baker is thinking about how he might contribute to the long-term health of his young pitching phenoms.

• Those hateful St. Louis Cardinals, who were finally going to get their due this year and maybe just maybe experience life near the bottom of the NL Central, are sitting on top of it. And Kyle Lohse, who shared membership with Corey Patterson in the Please Won't Somebody Sign Me? Club this winter and early spring, didn't allow a run in his first 12 innings in Cardinal colors.
  

• The Miguel Cabrera-enhanced Tigers, who were going to slug it out with the Indians for the AL Central title, inflict terror on the rest of the American League, and put 1,000 runs on the board this season, are last in the AL in run-scoring, which has a lot to do with the fact that they also have the worst record in Major League Baseball.

• Carlos Zambrano, who was the losing pitcher in the Cubs' 5-3 defeat to the Phillies Friday night, has simply stopped walking people. After walking more men than any other NL pitcher in each of the last two seasons, Z has passed just two hitters in 19 2/3 IP this season. At that rate, assuming he pitches the same number of innings this season as he did in '07, he'll walk 22 men. Last year, he walked 101.

• Former Cub Cliff Floyd, who began life as a Tampa Bay Ray by collecting five hits in his first 15 at-bats including two home runs, has landed on the Disabled List.

If you've followed Cliff Floyd's career, that last item is probably not hard for you to believe.

Here is cinematic confirmation that Carlos Zambrano can throw hard and act pretty well, and that HBP's can be terribly funny as long as you're not the guy getting drilled.

Since I last posted, the Cubs have won three games in a row and improved their record to better than .500 for the first time this season; Kerry Wood picked up his second and third saves of the season; and Kosuke Fukudome is well on his way to earning a statue of his very own.

Monday's game, in which Ted Lilly couldn't stick around long enough to earn his first win of the season despite the fact that the Cubs had staked him to an early 7-0 lead, was damned ugly in just about every way a 12-inning victory can be.

What made it all the more challenging was the fact that Lou Piniella had committed to giving Wood and his right arm the day off. That forced Jon Lieber to pitch three innings of relief--it's not often a long relief assignment begins in the ninth inning--but Lieber came through with three scoreless innings. The Cubs then pushed across the winning runs in the top of the 12th, which meant Lieber collected the win and Carlos Marmol, the fill-in closer on this day, picked up his first save.

Deserving ends for Lieber and Marmol, I would say, but it will be nice to know Wood is available for duty once again on Wednesday night, when the Cubs and Pirates resume their three-game series.

---

Carlos Zambrano, who had a 5.77 ERA with 25 K and 19 BB in 34 1/3 innings last April, is having a much better go of it so far in 2008. Z followed up his 6 2/3 shutout innings on Opening Day by giving up two runs in seven innings on Saturday on the way to his first win of the season. Maybe most impressive of all, Zambrano has walked just one man in 13 2/3 IP. For that matter, Kerry Wood, who didn't issue any walks in Arizona this spring, has issued just one BB in four innings.

In other words, between the two of them, Zambrano and Wood have passed two hitters in 17 2/3 innings.

That'll work.

– The Chicago Tribune reports that a new investor group has announced its intention to get in on the bidding for the Cubs. Called Robinson-Greenberg and Associates (after Hall of Famers Jackie Robinson and Hank Greenberg), it "would represent the first African-American majority ownership of an MLB franchise."

Principals include: a Lutheran minister named Anthony Williams; real estate investor and catering company owner Marshall Bynum, Jr.; and entrepreneur Harold Davis.

According to the Tribune...

Bynum said the group intends to purchase both the Cubs and Wrigley Field, and is prepared for a price tag of $1 billion dollars or more. Tribune Co. has indicated it prefers to sell the stadium and team separately.

The Trib story also quotes a baseball official who questions whether or not this heretofore unknown investor group could possibly be a serious bidder for the club.

– Alright, it's my fault. I dared to think that the Cubs might go through the Cactus League season and the regular schedule without losing a game, and look what happens.

On Friday afternoon in Mesa, Les Walrond was tagged for an eighth-inning grand slam by the Giants' Eddy Martinez-Esteve, as San Francisco turned a 5-4 deficit into an 8-5 lead, eventually dumping the Cubs 8-6. Carlos Zambrano and Rich Hill gave up a combined one earned run over the first four innings. Kosuke Fukudome collected two more walks and scored two of the Cub runs.

Alfonso Soriano, who sat out the Spring Training opener on Thursday, made his debut Friday and went 0-for-2. Aramis Ramirez was absent from the lineup for the second straight day owing to a "tight right shoulder."

The Cubs (Jason Marquis) will visit the Angels (Jered Weaver) in Tempe on Saturday.

– The Cubs have already sold 2.7 million tickets for the upcoming season. That's a franchise record this far out from Opening Day.

Put another way, it's more tickets than the White Sox, Mariners, Rangers, Blue Jays, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Indians, Twins, Orioles, Reds, Nationals, A's, Pirates, Royals, Devil Rays, or Marlins sold in all of 2007.

– The Wrigley Company is not reacting to Sam Zell's reported desire that they pony up for the naming rights to Wrigley Field and, in the words of the Sun-Times, start to "pay for what the chewing gum company has been getting for free," i.e., the promotional value of having their name on one of the world's most famous sports venues.

The Sun-Times says that Zell would prefer to peddle those rights to Wrigley since that would allow him to put many millions of dollars in the Trib's corporate pocket and spare Cub fans the trauma of having to attend games at Boeing Park or McDonald's Field.

Always thinking about the fans--Sam seems to be really great that way.