Bruiser Chong

I see fatass Everyday Eddie blew another save after his team found a way back into it. How much did they pay for him again?

Cubs always seem to have trouble against the D-Backs. Been that way for years. Moreover, Chad Tracy has been a Cubs killer since he's been in the majors. I wasn't at all surprised to see him have a three-run homer. I guess it's good they have Batista over the 70-pitch mark through four innings, but they've been lousy driving anyone in tonight. Game isn't on where I am, but I see they've got six hits already and the only run's come on Greg Maddux of all people walking it in. Czech, did the Cubs display some more great baserunning out there or is it just poor situational hitting?

So he's human after all. Anyway, Neifi Perez popped out with the bases loaded leaving it up to Maddux to get any runs across. And he walks.

Well hey, it is Mike Remlinger.

An article about those elusive lefty BP pitchers. It's embarrassing to think these excuses aren't parody.

Their pen was awful in 2003, though, so I can see why he wanted to stick with his starters. It doesn't make it right, but we saw how ugly games with the middle of that pen involved got. Were it not for an increased strikeout figure, I would suspect Zambrano's starting to show signs of overuse. We've wondered for a couple years how a guy who usually throws over 100 pitches every start never had any serious issues, while his teammates were hitting the DL on the regular. Now he's shown isues with his command and seems to be serving up more hittable pitches. I guess in his defense, he has faced the Reds twice and the Brewers, two teams who have shown how good they can be offensively. But yeah, after this season, I'd say it'll be time to build the rotation without having Prior and Wood in mind. Wood will probably be gone; Prior will remain, but Hendry would be wise not to rely too heavily on him.

I'm not sure why Dusty getting a contract extension is even up for consideration. My god.

I really need to get that. I remember seeing it was being released back in February, but I didn't see it until this past Sunday. I've always been a fan, but I couldn't stop laughing during most of it. I could barely breathe during his Hot Pocket sequence. As for me, GameStop's been kind to me as usual. In the last two days: - Sin City (Extended Edition with Comic): $9.99 - Beavis & BUTT-Head: The Mike Judge Collection: $14.99 - Jake "The Snake" Roberts: Pick Your Poison: $5.99 Tack on the 10 percent discount for being a member of their rewards program and it's been all good.

I know they're in better position than a lot of teams that figure to be contending as the season wears on, but there's still some cause for concern. You know I often look for you to fine the silver lining, so if you'd like to give it a shot, here goes: - Pierre's OBP - Jones in a non-platoon situation - The middle of the pen - The backend of the rotation I figure Aramis will get things going, since he was this bad until near the end of May last year. But there's still the case of the 1-2 guys setting the table. Cedeno got off to a fast start, but his numbers don't suggest he should keep that up. At any rate, it may be early, but this figured to be the chunk of the season where the Cubs should ideally stock up on wins, since things get considerably harder once June rolls around.

It's just embarrassing to be a Cubs fan these days. I know it's only May 2, but the Cubs have scored an amazing four runs in the last four games. That includes being shut out twice in the last three. Missing Lee obviously hurts, but it's not realistic to think they'd be doing so much better with him in there. Let's consider that so far, Juan Pierre and Jacque Jones have been miserable failures. The Cubs have this stupid notion that having speedy guys is going to parlay into more runs, but that won't happen when these speedy guys are hitting around or lower than .300 with matching OBP. They gave up three guys for Juan Pierre to get on base. Right now, his OBP is looking like Corey Patterson's. And that's no exaggeration. At least Patterson offered some power in there. And let's not get started on Jones. He couldn't hit a lefty to save his life; he's another masher with minimal power and no patience. Plus he doesn't seem to be adjusting too well to the Windy City. Of course, this wouldn't look AS bad if we had some semblence of pitching. Guzman didn't look that bad today, but his line looks a lot worse thanks to Roberto Novoa, who I'm convinced is only brought into games to turn a losing effort into a complete blowout. It's just unbelivable that a team with this sort of income could only produce Pierre, Jones, and some bullpen guys. Oh, and Neifi with his sub .200 OBP and Glendon with his plus-8 ERA. I'm aware few people want to read this, but I needed to vent. This franchise just looks uterly lost half the time and it's frustrating when you consider where they were two or three years ago. And to think, Lee's injury is probably ensuring a Dusty extension. I'd probably accept another poor season if it meant moving him and his crew out and getting someone with a clue in there.

But from what I've seen, they aren't wasting outs by moving runners along. They just seem to get a lot of guys on base, whether it be with the walk or hit. Thus, they've usually got RISP and are actually cashing in on them.

I didn't get to see the game, but did just see the highlights. A win's a win, but it looked like it was another fundamentally unsound game (i.e. the Jones' Alou impression). I'm still not sold on the Reds, although with Harang and Arroyo anchoring the rotation, they're better off than they were in 2004 when they had a similar hot start.

Word is Rich Hill is getting called up, David Aardsma's going back down, and Glendon will finally be cast away to the pen.

Once again, the D-Rays love for picking up MLB's castaways bites them in the ass.

Tough loss for the Marlins. I was sure they'd tie it with the given circumstances.

Or if they could face Glendon Rusch and a string of mop-up men consistently... And if I'm Alex Gonzalez, no way I'm swinging away at 3-1 with the bases loaded, especially with a wild (aka typical) Roberto Hernandez on the mound.

These walks are ridiculous. You're down 11 in the ninth; why on earth are you nibbling?

Good thing we locked him up in a contract that makes trading him virtually impossible.

P.S. the Cubs love the doubleplay.

The Nationals are hopeless. Izzy made it interesting by walking the bases loaded and surprisingly, Nick Johnson, their best hitters, swings at the first pitch and weakly grounds out to Izzy. Losers.

Cubs sent the wrong fat pitcher to the minors. I wonder how much longer they can justify having Glendon in the starting rotation. He's just been an absolute disaster. That's not to take anything away from the Brewers' offense, but he doesn't belong in the rotation, even with the injuries.

Phillies fans, please explain why Bret Meyers was not lifted for a pinch-hitter with the go-ahead run on third base with two outs? He was closing in on 100 pitches and he's now given up two more runs.

In more serious news, former Dodger Steve Howe has died.

OMG HE GAVE UP TWO RUNS TO ONE OF THE BEST OFFENSIVE TEAMS IN BASEBALL!!! Who do you want there in his place, guy? Tanyon Sturtze?

With Rusch going tomorrow, it was paramount they win today if they wanted a realistic shot at taking the series. Maddux only really struggled in the first inning and the one where he gave up the two runs. He made Prince Fielder look ridiculously bad in what I thought was the key at-bat in the first inning.