Bruiser Chong

He won't turn the team around on his own, but when he's on (and that's been all but one start this season), it's a near automatic win for the Cubs. That is, assuming, the pen doesn't blow it. Were it not for the pen, he'd be nearing 10 wins already, which is amazing, considering he missed the first couple of weeks and then a month.

Prior balked yesterday.

And by normal, you mean incredible, right? Your dislike of the Cubs has made you blind even to the obvious.

That's some bitching defense the Yankees have.

Prior went six, gave up a bloop hit, and struck out three. I cannot believe this is the same guy who looked like he had his arm explode on the field a month ago. Jerome Williams looked good in his inning of work, so hopefully they can get it to Dempster, who's been reliable since moving into the closer's role. *knocks on wood*

I think he's got a shot at winning batting average, but the other two will be tough. Even with all the power, he's still getting a lot of singles to keep that average nice and fat. He'll smash his previous careers highs to hell, though. Coming into this season, 29 homers and 98 RBIs were his career highs. He's seven and 34 behind those numbers and it's not even July.

So when do Met fans start to complain about Beltran?

The Cubs haven't been a patient team the last two or three seasons. Garcia had eight K's today, but he was only nearing 100 pitches after seven innings. That's bad for the Cubs. Here are the surface problems for the Cubs: - Relying on the longball. Remember Dusty said this team was going to be creating runs in other ways because Sosa and Alou are gone? Yeah, that lasted part of the first week of the season. They're right back to where they were last year. Homers and they've got a shot. No homers, forget about it. I'm not saying resort to smallball, but this team is so one-dimensional. - Corey Patterson. He's a future gold-glover out there in center, but his stubborness with his plate approach has him on thin ice. I don't expect him to live up to the expectations put before him. He's never gonna hit for a high average, draw walks, and he'll probably always be prone to the K. But he's one of the worst situational hitters the team has in the starting lineup. The homers are nice, but he's got such a nice swing when he shortens up on it. Ryne Sandberg actually called him out on that during today's broadcast. - The one and two hitters. Perez has been about everything you could ask for as a fill-in for Nomar. The Cubs haven't had to trade for a replacement and that's been an unexpected blessing. His defense at short has been great for the most part and his hitting has also been better than expected. That said, he's falling back to Earth. He's not a great hitter or even a really good hitter. He's got a low OBP. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, he and Patterson have the lowest OBP of all the regulars. Not good to have them in such key spots in the batting order. - The pitching. It hit a hot streak during that winning streak they had a couple weeks back, but this rotation and pen is being held together by threads. Mitre doesn't look like he belongs in a starting rotation, Glendon Rusch is still only adequate in that role and the pen is still a work in progress. As bad as they've been at times this season, I still like them better than ones of years pasts. It appears the closer situation is finally figured out, but the middle relief has been awful the last couple of weeks. It seems like losses for the team are now via the blowout. Borowski needs to go, Remlinger isn't all that effective and everyone else is hit or miss. - Leftfield. Okay, I know I was pushing hard for Dubois, but let's be realistic. The platoon ain't working. Holly's picked it up, but it's still an awful one for a position like leftfield. Dubois can't hit a breaking ball to save his life, and the Cubs are nuts if they invest in Hollandsworth and his unsure health. But I want to hear nothing about Alou and Sosa. They were problems that would still exist in more extreme fashion (i.e. the homers) if they were here. Burnitz has put up better numbers than Sammy this season and his defense is a big upgrade. I still think they need to make a trade for another bat and some pen help if they want a hope of contending, though.

Cubs look so inferior to the White Sox, it's depressing. I'll peep Sunday's game if Prior's pitching, but fuck the rest of this series. I don't need the stress.

That seems about right.

But look at the bright side. You scored 13 runs in an inning.

Because eight-run innings are few and far between. Outside of the Carlos Lee solo shot in the 7th, the Brewers were shut down by the Cub pen. Not to take anything away from what was a disasterous inning by Zambrano, but the nine runs look a bit less impressive when eight came in one inning. He didn't have good stuff tonight, but he caught some bad breaks (the double from Davis was a jam shot grounder that just snuck past Lee and the two-run single from Clark, I believe it was, blooped into rightfield). All of them counted, though, and that's all that matters, but they've got some offensive issues right now. Carlos Lee's having a monster season, but no one's giving him props.

Yeah, he loathed it. He viewed it as inferior to the point where you thought he would rather see them miss the postseason than get the WC.

I think you may be thinking of Al, although I'm sure I've said some ill things about it in the past. If it's the only way you can get into the postseason, then so be it. It's worked the last three seasons.

Carlos Zambrano got absolutely rocked, giving up eight in the second inning (which he didn't even get out of). Worst part was that had he gotten the bottom third down, he wouldn't have faced the guys who really did the damage. Giving up a two-run double to a guy batting .067 won't help your confidence, though.

You aim for second after it becomes less realistic that an inconsistent team can close such a wide gap between themselves and a superb club that makes it a habit of winning series. There are still a ton of H2H matchups between the two, but I expect it to be like last season where after a certain point, the division was no longer a realistic goal. But much like last year, they've got a great shot at the WC and it's not how you get there, it's if you get there.

If it's any consolation, the Yankees looked like they blew their proverbial wad last night, as they ultimately lost the series, which is more important than scoring 20 in one game.

Good thing I didn't bench Sheffield like I had thoughts of doing. I almost benched Jeremy Bonderman because he's been awful against the Twins in his career. Once again, going against instinct helped, as he went the distance with nine K's in a Tiger win tonight.

Makes sense. He was pretty bad as a starter, out of the pen, and as a closer. Oh wait.

I'll be at the Indians/Sox game tonight. Battle of the fatass pitchers!

He'll never get it, but Big Shot Bob = MVP at this juncture. Think about it. Ginobili, Parker, and Duncan. Where were they the last quarter and overtime? Nowhere. Horry turned it on at that time and never looked back. Had he not come through, we'd all be looking at how much Duncan buckled down the stretch. Heartbreaking game to watch, but I sense there will be no Pistons repeat.

Dodger pen blows the game for the second straight night and now we get to hear even more endorsements for "smartball." Ugh.

That's because a lot of people not connected to the media are sick and tired of the Yankees.

Yankee fans love to act like they're the rich kid who gets picked on just for having money, but the truth is, the team gets the most attention of any other squad in baseball and I'd say, they're easily MLB favorites. Hell, Randy Johnson coming to the team suddenly made them automatic World Series participants according to the majority of the media.

Well, tonight sure won't settle the stomachs of those who were unsure about Brazoban as the closer for the Dodgers. He's shown he can get the job done before, but he's certainly not yet lights out.