Chicago Cubs

By Al So a modified platoon of Granderson and Reed Johnson would be, in my opinion, the ticket to success for the Cubs outfield. I say "modified" because Johnson would also have to spell Fukudome in RF from time to time; on those days, Granderson would have to start in CF vs. LHP. Sam Fuld would stick w...

By Al The Chicago Cubs today acquired left-handed pitcher Scott Maine and first baseman Ryne White from the Arizona Diamondbacks for right-handed pitcher Aaron Heilman. White is a native of Chicago and is a 2005 graduate of St. Rita of Cascia High School.

By Al The Cubs wound up losing the game 3-1, despite getting the first two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth (sound familiar?). This image, frozen in time, was the last out of the top of the eighth inning at Wrigley Field on Monday, August 18, 1975. Attendance on that cloudy day was 14,383. The...

By Al Individual game tickets for the 2010 Chicago Cubs home spring training games at HoHoKam Park will go on sale Tuesday, January 5 at 10 a.m. CST on www.cubs.com or by calling 1-800-905-3315. The ticket box office at HoHoKam Park will open for the sale of individual game tickets beginning on Janua...

By Al Lou Piniella says, "Get me out of here!" the last time the Cubs played in Chase Field; they lost 10-0 on April 29. The last time the Cubs and D'backs played a similar exhibition schedule at the end of spring training was in 2003. The Cubs won both games and went on to make the playoffs. Just sayin'.

By shawndgoldman Let's start with the 2009 roster. The Cubs have already committed ~$122,658,333 to 10 players from 2009 plus Luis Vizciano: Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukudome, Ryan Dempster, Derrek Lee, Ted Lilly, Milton Bradley, Jeff Samardzija, and Aaron Miles. Al pr...

By Al 15: Aroldis Chapman, Yankees 14: Chone Figgins, White Sox 13: Hideki Matsui, Yankees 12: John Lackey, Angels 11: Jermaine Dye, Rays 10: Jason Bay, Red Sox 9: Jose Valverde, Astros 8: Miguel Tejada, Mariners 7: Matt Holliday, Mariners 6: Rich Harden, Red Sox 5: Mark DeRosa, Cubs 4: Johnny...

By Al Since the National League doesn't have the DH rule -- yet; I still expect that having the DH in the NL will be a bargaining chip in the next round of player/owner labor negotiations -- Burrell would be useless to the Cubs, even as a backup. You wouldn't want him in the outfield, and he'd be an exp...

By Al Not so fast, Mr. Councilman. Keep in mind that until 1998, only eight of the then-28 teams trained in Arizona. So just on sheer numbers -- you're a numbers guy, right? -- 71% of World Series winners should have come from Florida training camps. And it's true that not until after 1998, when there w...

By Al For the Cy Young Award, Mike & I agreed on our ballots right down the line -- and neither of us voted for the SBN winner, Tim Lincecum, who got 18 first-place votes. Carpenter and Wainwright appeared to split the Cardinal vote down the middle, so neither could win. No Cubs received any vote...

By Al The Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox will play two exhibition games in Las Vegas next March for the 2010 Big League Weekend at Cashman Field, home of the Las Vegas 51s. The clubs will play on Friday, March 12, 2010 and Saturday, March 13, 2010. Games times are to be determined. The Cubs and Whit...

By Al Me: 1) Happ 2) Hanson 3) Wells Mike: 1) Coghlan 2) Happ 3) Hanson National League RkPlayerTeam1st2nd3rdPts1Tommy HansonAtlanta Braves996782J.A. HappPhiladelphia Phillies697643Andrew McCutchenPittsburgh Pirates835544Chris CoghlanFlorida Marlins754545Dexter FowlerColor...

By AndrewJStone Cubs GM Jim Hendry says Milton Bradley may be back in 2010, and called the outfielder's '09 season a "major hiccup" Via Twitter from Carrie Muskat

By Al Tuesday 11/10: Rookie of the Year Wednesday 11/11: Cy Young Award Thursday 11/12: MVP National League RkManagerTeam1st2nd3rdPts1Jim TracyColorado Rockies24121252Tony LaRussaSt. Louis Cardinals3710463Fredi GonzalezFlorida Marlins265334Joe TorreLos Angeles Dodgers-9229...

By Al View full size photo » Demolition barricades surround the former Yum Yum Donut Shop on Clark St. next to Wrigley Field. The building has been used for Cubs offices in recent years; it will soon be demolished, the first step toward clearing the site for construction of the Triangle Building.

By Al Among them are Giants prospect catcher Buster Posey, who played in two games against the Cubs last September; Hank Conger, who may be the Angels' next catcher; and, of course, the Cubs' own Starlin Castro, who we have been talking about here all throughout the AFL season. Castro enters ton...

By Al Alfonso Soriano, $19,000,000 Carlos Zambrano, $18,875,000 Aramis Ramirez, $16,500,000 Kosuke Fukudome, $14,000,000 Ryan Dempster, $13,500,000 Derrek Lee, $13,000,000 Ted Lilly, $13,000,000 That's $107,875,000 for seven players. The Cubs also owe Jeff Samardzija $1,000,000 o...

By Al The two sides are talking about a two-year deal for anywhere between a total of $6.5 million and $7.5 million. Grabow's people would like a vesting option for a third year added to the contract. This may be a pretty good indicator, actually, of where the new ownership is heading. In the past, Jim H...

By Al The World Series moves to Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia tonight. The new owner of the Chicago Cubs will have to repay loans of $425 million he obtained for the purchase. That's an expense the Cubs' seller, Tribune Co., never had. Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al Since the departure of Milton Bradley was only going to be made possible by taking on someone else's bad contract, this might be a possible "best of the worst". Wells is about six months younger than Bradley and had a big offensive season as recently as 2006. He can play center field, which wou...

By Al Asked whether any other sports franchise is a model for the Cubs, he responds: "I think obviously what they've done with Fenway is a good thing for us to look at in terms of how to improve the stadium. Because we really do want to preserve and keep improving the special experience that Wrigley...

By Josh77 Just some few basic information to start.  The Arizona Fall League is a post-season league for minor leaguers. mostly from AA and AAA teams.  The six teams play in the Spring Training complexes in the Cactus League.  The Cub prospects are on the Mesa Solar Sox, a team that  is also stocked with p...

By Al More history: as you likely know from watching the game last night, Cliff Lee was on target, before Jimmy Rollins' bad throw, to throw the first CG shutout in a World Series since Josh Beckett's clinching shutout in Game 6 of the 2003 World Series. That was also the last CG of any kind in a World...

By Al Meanwhile, the Phillies have, up to very recently, been the sad sack team of the National League. Much was made of the Pirates recently breaking the Phillies' record of 16 consecutive losing seasons from 1933-48. But had the Phillies not won the last game of the 1932 season to finish 78-76, t...

By shawndgoldman However, the power of the method is not that it can help make decisions, but that it should always improve the foundations upon which those decisions are made. Adam Dunn, a player at the center of much debate here over the years, is a great example of this. A few years ago many sabermetric Cubs f...

By Al Timeline Of Cubs Ownership Here's a complete history of Cubs ownership going back to the origins of the National League in 1876.

By Al The family closed a transaction Tuesday morning to take control of the team, Wrigley Field and other assets in a deal valued at $845 million. The family will hold a news conference Friday at the ballpark. Discuss, etc. Also see kaseyi's FanPost.

By Al Compare that to this map of the Florida spring training sites (from the same ticket broker site). The group trying to lure the Cubs to Florida would place them in Collier County -- that's where Naples is. The closest spring training park to Naples is the Red Sox' City of Palms Park in Ft. Myers --...

By Al Cub news: Cubs honchos met with officials of Collier County, Florida over the weekend to discuss possible spring training sites there. Opinion: this is simply a negotiating ploy to get the folks in Mesa to up their ante. No one really wants to move to Florida for spring training; the weather...

By Al Let's start with a few players we know are going to be Cubs in 2010: Derrek Lee: .291/.378/.516, 40 doubles, 30 HR, 98 RBI, 94 runs Aramis Ramirez: .292/.364/.514, 32 doubles, 26 HR, 97 RBI, 76 runs Alfonso Soriano: .263/.320/.487, 35 doubles, 30 HR, 77 RBI, 85 runs Kosuke Fukudome: .265/.365/.427, 39 d...

By Al That is, until last night, when the Phillies won their second consecutive pennant. Congratulations to them, and unless the Angels can pull a comeback from their 3-1 deficit, I'll be rooting for them to beat the Yankees in the World Series. Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al Rudy Jaramillo is widely regarded as the premiere hitting instructor in the game," said Cubs General Manager Jim Hendry. "The addition of Rudy to our franchise is a strong statement from our new owners, the Ricketts family, and we thank them for allowing us to move quickly to fill this impo...

By Al SI.com's Jon Heyman says that the Cubs are close to signing Rudy Jaramillo, and he'd become the highest-paid coach in Cubs history: In any case, this is a good decision. Batting coaches may be overrated, but many players say that Jaramillo has helped them. This is a good move by Jim Hendry.

By Al One thing is for certain, we're told by insiders: there's very little chance of the Cubs moving to Florida, no matter how bad Naples officials covet the team. And give the Cubs some credit: they're not out (yet, anyway) playing cities against cities for the best spring-training deal. This i...

By Al In addition to watching minor-league prospects Starlin Castro, Josh Vitters and Andrew Cashner in the Arizona Fall League, the Cubs may have made significant progress toward hiring Rudy Jaramillo as their new hitting coach. Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al Phillies at Dodgers, 3:07 pm CDT. Phillies lead series 1-0. TV: TBS. Announcers: Chip Caray, Buck Martinez and Ron Darling. Baseball-reference.com game preview Please visit our SB Nation Dodgers site True Blue LA and Phillies site The Good Phight. Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al These teams are pretty evenly matched. The NLCS hasn't gone seven games since that yawner of a seven-gamer between the Cardinals and Mets in 2006, but I say this one goes seven, and the Dodgers go to the World Series. Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al This morning, wrote that the Cubs are interested in acquiring Brian Roberts Jake Peavy Mike Cameron Mark Prior Mark DeRosaBrian Roberts AND Jake Peavy. Cubs GM Jim Hendry . Meanwhile, Hendry said that Milton Bradley would be traded to the Tigers for Magglio Ordonez Giants for Aaron Rowand...

By Al With still more than 24 hours to go before the league championship series begin, mainly thanks to three sweeps and one four-game division series, here are a few Cub and baseball-related notes for you to pick over today. Starlin Castro went 3-for-5 in his first Arizona Fall League game yest...

By Al Lesson learned (are you listening, Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella?): even a 90+ win team during the regular season can go through three games where they look bad and don't get breaks and have some bad luck and lose three games in a row. The Dodgers, for example, had a five-game losing streak not l...

By Al Why? Because it is a fascinating history of the time, an era in baseball which is largely forgotten, 90 years later. You'll learn more about "Lucky" Charlie Weeghman, who got ownership of the Cubs in 1916 in the agreement between the NL/AL baseball owners and the Federal League (the author...

By Worf Mrs. Worf the Evil Cardinals fan is holding up fine. She just shrugged her shoulders. She also realizes that Matt Holliday is one of the reasons -- maybe the main one -- that the Cards were even playing instead of the Cubs. My father-in-law, also a Cardinals fan, was bummed the Cards didn't win at...

By AlaskaFan My name is AlaskaFan, and I am a Cubs fan. There, I've admitted it, which I am told is the first step to defeating an addiction. It all started in school in the early 1970's, when one of my business law professors, former attorney to Tigers' great Denny McClain, used to take us to the bleachers in...

By Zeke So, since the Cardinals won the World Series in 2006, does the recent three year trend mean the division is really weaker than the others in the National League, or is it just an anomaly? Is it just a case of running into a "hot" team in the playoffs, or is the problem deeper than that?

By Al Baseball-reference.com game preview Phillies at Rockies, 9 pm CDT. Series tied 1-1. TV: TBS. Announcers: Brian Anderson and Joe Simpson Baseball-reference.com game preview Please visit our SB Nation Rockies site Purple Row and Phillies site The Good Phight.

By Al This October, the Dodgers have a chance to sweep the Cardinals, who have inexplicably turned into the Cubs, right before your disbelieving eyes. And that was unpredictable. Baseball-reference.com game preview Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Ivy Walls Looking at the 2009 Cubs there were two players of significance that need to be subtracted from the locker room are two key contracts; the obvious--- Milton Bradley "the daily "As the World Turns" and "I wonder, wonder who wrote that he was a superstar" Alfonso Soriano, totally almost $30...

By dat cubfan daver DeLuca's sources say Cubs pushing Rays on Bradley-for-Burrell trade According to Sun-Times reporter Chris DeLuca's sources, the Cubs are pushing the Rays to make a quick and easy swap of Bradley for Burrell. DeLuca suggests Burrell could play right field at Wrigley Field. That seems hi...

By Al Rockies at Phillies, 1:30 pm CDT. TV: TBS. Announcers: Brian Anderson and Joe Simpson Baseball-reference.com game preview Baseball-reference.com game preview Cardinals at Dodgers, 8:30 pm CDT. TV: TBS. Announcers: Dick Stockton and Bob Brenly Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al On April 7, I asked everyone here to make their prediction for how many games the Cubs would win in 2009. Arbusto, please email me with your mailing address so I can send you your prize, "The Cubs" by Glenn Stout and Richard Johnson, a comprehensive history of the club.

By DGU Aramis Ramirez  - For the past few years, even as other 3B have slipped in or out of this category, Aramis Ramirez has undoubtedly and consistently been a top 5 3B in the MLs.  Since coming under Lou's tutelage, Ramirez has added more patience to his game, making him a more complete hitter, a...

By Holtzmaniac Per the normally useless Dave Kaplan, the other 29 owners of MLB teams met via conference call today and approved the sale of the Cubs to the Ricketts family.  Before things become official, it has to go through some bankruptcy issues next week.  After that, the banks putting up the cash to fu...

By Ryan at Cubshub MLB Trade Rumors' list of 2010 Free Agents I figured I'd post the list of free agents for the upcoming offseason so that perhaps we could start some sort of semi-logical conversations about who the Cubs should pick up or avoid.

By Al The baseball punditocracy talks about today's game: Rob Neyer @ ESPN: Twins all the way. Chris DeLuca of the Chicago Sun-Times downplays the teams involved and instead whines that the White Sox should have been in it. Ugh. MLB.com Gameday Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al Not the kind of October baseball we wanted, of course, but here it is October and the Cubs are still playing baseball. As I said yesterday, enjoy it while it's here... because you know you'll miss it over the winter. Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al Five months and a day ago, the Cubs and Cardinals were supposed to meet on ESPN on Sunday Night Baseball. The Cubs were 7-4 and had won two of the first three games of the series; the Cardinals were 8-5. Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al Ted Lilly has faced the Reds only once this year -- on April 22 at Wrigley Field -- and pitched well, giving up only an unearned run in seven innings. The Cubs scored zero runs that day, however, resulting in a loss for Ted. Joey Votto has hit two HR off Ted in 16 career AB.

By Al I didn't get a chance to fully walk around Citi Field last night, but my first impression is: kinda generic. There's nothing that screams "New York" about the place, and I understand Mets fans were extremely unhappy about the entry rotunda, which is supposed to evoke the Brooklyn Dodgers'...

By Al And the way the Cubs have played most of this month, that would have been it -- giving up the lead run in the late innings, they haven't been able to mount comebacks. This time, though, a double from Milton Bradley -- who also had an adventurous game in the outfield, even while having a fine day a...

By Al 5. Commit money to expanding the baseball operations staff. This goes along with the point above. The Cubs have the second-smallest front-office staff in baseball (only the Marlins have fewer full-time, year-round employees). This flies in the face of the stated desire to be like the Red So...

By Al And yet. The 1969 NL East race is only one example littered over the four decades since when a team came out of nowhere to make the postseason. And many of those teams -- 1978 Yankees, 1980 Phillies, and yes, even last year's Phillies, who were 3.5 games out with only 16 games remaining, won the Wo...

By Al That's really all this Cubs team needs to do -- play the way they are capable of, and get two injured pitchers off the DL (which will happen within the next week). And there is also no doubt that the Cubs are a far different club without Aramis Ramirez in the lineup. Ramirez has started 42 games; t...

By Al It won't get any easier when the Cubs visit Florida this weekend; the Marlins have a good pitching staff and they are only two games off the wild-card lead. Take two of three down there and then we're really talking about a run that could be sustained for some time. The Cubs' 11-3 record since th...

By Al Kevin Hart, who threw very well against the Reds last Saturday, will be making his first career start against Houston. He has made one career relief appearance against the Astros, on April 5, 2008 at Wrigley Field; the only current Astro to get a hit off him that day was Michael Bourn, who tri...

By Al Kyle Lohse has been on the DL since June 4 with forearm problems. He has made several good starts this year but got hit pretty hard by the Cubs at Wrigley Field on April 18. This would be a real good day for some Cubs who have hit Lohse hard in the past to do it again: Alfonso Soriano (14-for-37, .378,...

By Josh77 Iowa Cubs The Iowa Cubs were blown away by the New Orleans Zephyrs, 9-1. Daytona Cubs The D-Cubs were grounded by the Dunedin Blue Jays, 6-4. For the rehabbers, Aramis Ramirez was 1 for 2 with a walk. Reed Johnson was 1 for 4 and scored a run. Boise Hawks AZL Cubs

By Al Lou Gehrig played in a World Series at Wrigley Field, but before that he made his mark at Wrigley as a high schooler. In 1920 he played in a special "national championship" high school game between his NY school, Commerce High, and Lane Tech in Chicago. He was 17 years old. He hit a titanic grand s...

By Al And I suppose all you want to talk about is Milton Bradley. Bradley and manager Lou Piniella had words in the dugout after Bradley flied to left in the sixth inning and, to make a long story short -- and the story may yet get longer -- Lou sent Milton home, but not before Bradley had slugged the Ga...

By Al I'm still not sold on Bradley as the big bat that's going to save this team. He seemed unfocused out there today, and he has yet to have any sustained stretch of hitting that would carry the team in the absence of Aramis Ramirez and the vanished bat of Alfonso Soriano. I repeat: I do not want Bradl...

By Josh77 It's amazing how fast the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft has grown over the past decade. Some of us can remember when picks after the first round were secret for at least a week. (That's why Bob Brenly's story about him calling the commissioner's office to see if he had been drafted isn't...

By Al A: Fukudome's on fire right now, so I'd probably take the hot bat, but I've always liked Reed Johnson (and kind of wish the Braves had made a play for him last year). Obviously, Aramis when he's healthy is a middle of the order force. I must say that the Cubs don't have anyone I really covet, but I'...

By Al amp;lt;div class="photo-tpl photo-tpl-right_landscape"> <a href="/photos/the-good-things-only-recap-of-a"><img alt="What could be going on in this conversation? You decide!" class="ap_photo" src="http://cdn1.sbnation.com/entry_pho...

By Al Ryan Dempster has already started twice vs. St. Louis this year, getting no-decisions in a Cubs win on April 18 and a Cubs loss on April 24. He threw six innings both times. He'll need to step it up a little more tonight. Dempster will be happy to not have to face Ryan Ludwick tonight -- Ludwick is 8-f...

By AussieCub On Sunday me and my girlfriend are heading over to the States for the first time, flying into LA, heading to Las Vegas and touching down in Chicago on Wednesday for the Brewers game at Wrigley. We've got a pair of tickets behind the Cubs dugout which I paid a bit for, my main ish is we get into Chic...

By Al Sean Marshall threw five solid innings without his best stuff and three Cubs relievers shut down the Brewers and the Cubs salvaged the final game of the series in Milwaukee, 4-2, and wound up with a winning road trip and went over .500 on the road for the season at 9-8.

By vegasjs It looks like Lilly is hot, Z is getting set for another big september, Dempster has a strong arm due to his break during the season and Harden can always run off a set of wins. These guys have not given up and nor shall I. If the Cubs go 20-4 (not impossible) and Colorado plays .500 ball its a Cubs/Ro...

By Al Can we now knock off all the Soriano-has-to-be-dropped-from-leadoff talk? He produces in that spot. He hits better in that spot. The Cubs don't have a reasonable alternative. And guess who's leading all MLB leadoff hitters in runs scored? That's right, Soriano, who now has 19 (Brian Rober...

By Al The book's charm comes mainly from its primary source, Root's 90-year-old daughter, Della Root Arnold, still living in California (where her car bears the license plate "BABEWHO"), who sat down for long interviews with the book's author, Roger Snell. She gave Snell many clear recollec...

By Al Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez were taken out of last night's lineup because of the sketchy weather. But had they played last night, Lou said he was going to sit them today, so with today's weather looking windy but dry, expect to see both of them play. Soriano didn't get his wish to be the f...

By Al It's got the 2008 roster (says it's updated through "November 1, 2009, which is obviously off by a year), and uses that for another fill-in-the-blank quiz, and of course there are many pages that younger, or even older, kids can color in, both players and things such as the Wrigley Field sc...

By Al Soriano, LF Theriot, SS Lee, 1B Bradley, RF Ramirez, 3B Johnson, CF Soto, C Miles, 2B Gaudin, P Kosuke Fukudome will be returning to camp soon, and will have a lot to prove to fans and teammates who saw his free-fall in the second half of last year. One place he won't be going is the minors:

By Al Since the Chicago Cubs first adopted uniform numbers in 1932, the team has handed out only 71 numbers to more than 1,100 players. That’s a lot of overlap. It also makes for a lot of good stories. Cubs by the Numbers tells those stories for every Cub since ’32, from 1930s outfielder Ethan Allen to...

By Ivy Walls As fan[atics] we judge teams by their  wins & losses, playoff wins and ultimately WS wins. Through this decade I think I can say that Boston is the best organization both financially and fan-wise. The Yankees are a good #2 the Cardinals appear to be a solid #3 and recently the Phillies app...

By toonsterwu 34.  Randy Wells.  Maybe the best thing that happened to Randy was that he went to Toronto.  A former catcher, Wells added a nice sinker to his mix.  Now, that sinker didn't improve his home run rate, but Wells looks to be the type of guy that fits in at the end, the 12th arm out of the pen, a guy that ge...

By Al That's what the Cubs of 1980 and 1981 were. The '80 Cubs lost 98 games -- and then decided to trade their best pitcher, closer Bruce Sutter, because the Wrigley ownership, in its dying throes, couldn't afford him (he had been awarded a then-record $700,000 in arbitration the year before; th...

By SackMan However, I'm having a difficult time finding any history suggesting the Cubs enforce their right to revoke tickets. Complicating matters, of course, is the Cubs very own scalping business... Wrigley Field Premium Ticket Services Inc.

By Ivy Walls Get a true HOF level ace at the top of the rotation Then as the economy continues to erode and attendance and concessions especially with teams not performing clubs will be pulling the plug faster....This is where an ace or RF'er or CF'er will emerge at the talent level the Cubs are seeking.

By Al It begins before the season even starts, with Durbin meeting Cubs owner Charles W. Murphy in his ornate downtown Chicago office to sign a contract (for more money than Durbin, who was from a small town in Missouri, could have imagined). It takes you through the "Practice Season", which was h...

By Al Since there's no game and no other baseball activity today, I thought I'd post a little more information that I've found about him. Kevin Foster was an outstanding young man at Evanston Township High School as well as an excellent baseball player. He was a leader on and off the field. He led by e...

By Olemisscubs I know we are all having a hard time right now. I went through the same pain Saturday night. I sat on my couch with tears in my eyes, cause I truly believed that this was the year. I had tickets to game five of the World Series, which happened to be on my birthday by the way. All I know is that I will always...

By Al You can read about a Yankee loss each day of the baseball season and about Yankee draft follies, including, in 1978, the Yankees passing on Cal Ripken Jr., Ryne Sandberg, Kent Hrbek, Mike Boddicker, Steve Bedrosian, Kirk Gibson, Bob Horner and Dave Stieb, despite having three first-roun...

By DGU The 2008 Cubs won 97 games, with winning records in every division (except interleague).  They scored more runs than anyone in the National League, 56 more than the next best teams.  Only the Texas Rangers scored more runs in all baseball.  Similarly, they were second best in runs allowed (s...

By Al Chicago Cubs New York Mets Mets10-2W-L5-62.03ERA5.50177SO7856BB4011HR18vs. NY--vs. Cubs W-LGGSCGSHOSVBSIPHRERHRBBKERAWHIP 2008 - Rich Harden 5-11111000065.0371412625851.66.95 Note, the stats above are Harden's with the Cubs only; see the pitcher box for his full season stats. W-LG...

By bleed that blue I know tomorrows game is on fox...BOOOOOOO!  IF the Cubs win tomorrow they will clinch the NL cent!!!  I really want to see them win tomorrow and they know that they will have the the NL Cent title for the 2nd year in a row.  BUT seeing how the game is on fox I doubt we will see the post game celebration....

By hip2bsquare Pat and Ron call the Cubs' miracle comeback The WGN Radio calls of Geo's homer in the 9th, and Lee's game-winning hit in the 12th... enjoy. :)

By Al Oh, the heck with it. There is no positive spin you can put on today's depressing 3-0 Cub shutout loss to the Astros, the first shutout loss since... the last time the Astros were in town a month ago, when they blanked the Cubs and Ryan Dempster on Tornado Siren Night, a game shortened to eight inni...

By Al BCB: I noticed on Sunday when Aramis Ramirez hit the double that broke the tie, they took a shot of all you guys in the dugout and everybody was right off the bench cheering for everybody. That really shows how tight you are as a team. BCB: You know one of the broadcasters calls you Little Babe Rut...

By JohnM Pat Hughes Calls Daryle Ward's Home Run By popular demand - an astonished Pat Hughes calls the game winning home run by Daryle Ward in the ninth inning of the Cubs game against the Marlins on August 15th, on WGN 720.

By Al Ozzie. Gotta love him, right? Thankfully, the Cubs had extra security in the bleachers last night -- they needed it, as the crowd, likely overfueled from being able to party all day before the Sunday night game, was pretty rowdy. There were quite a few ejections, both of people wearing Cubs A...

By Al That was in evidence again today, as Jim Edmonds, nearly booed out of Wrigley Field in his first few days as a Cub, had two more extra-base hits today and two RBI, and maybe, just maybe, is going to show enough of his previous form to become a useful platoon center fielder. A productive Edmonds...

By Al Anyway, other than the one inning where the Dodgers scored, Z was pretty solid, as were Derek Lowe and Jonathan Broxton, who kept the Cubs off the board through eight. The Cubs hit Lowe pretty hard, but everything was right at people. Broxton was throwing gas; he struck out Reed Johnson, a tot...

By Al That's a risky way to win games, but it worked. Howry struck out Loney and got Young to fly to Jim Edmonds (the ball, not too far away from Alfonso Soriano, had us yelling, "Let Edmonds take it!" (We were threatening to ask the Cubs to put those beeping sounds you hear from trucks backing up near...

By Al Six Cubs have drawn sixteen or more walks -- that's about 0.5 per game or more, or 80+ for a season -- and that includes Ryan Theriot, and Mr. Theriot is, at least in part, going to be the focus of this post. And somewhere along the line, both a Kosuke Fukudome -- who is fundamentally sound and also a...

By Al For some in-person details and photos, check out BCB reader 08cubs' excellent FanPost, posted late last night. And hang in there -- the Cardinals and Brewers also both lost last night, which keeps the Cubs' early-season division lead at 1.5 games, and with Carlos Zambrano on the mound toni...

By Al New York Mets Chicago Cubs Monday, Apr 21, 2008, 6:05 PM CDT Wrigley Field John Maine vs Carlos Zambrano Q: Nelson Figueroa starts against the Cubs on Tuesday. He's a great story, but can he maintain this pace all year? Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al Good signs today: a good outing from Michael Wuertz, who has needed one. He dispatched the Reds 1-2-3 in the 9th inning, not that it mattered by that time. Reed Johnson had four hits today and played a good CF. I would imagine he'll be playing CF vs. the two Pirates LHP on Saturday and Sunday.

By Al Small sample size on those numbers; Lilly isn't that bad, and Hamels isn't that good. Well, maybe Hamels is -- he's been the Phillies' top young pitcher for a while, and they need him to step up and become an ace. He hasn't faced that many current Cubs, but Alfonso Soriano has homered three time...

By Al Mark Prior: Projected: G-18 GS-16 IP-100 H-80 W-7 L-5 BB-39 SO-105 ERA-3.89 WHIP-1.19 Actual: Did not play Carlos Zambrano: Projected: G/GS-34 IP-225 H-170 W-19 L-7 BB-91 SO-215 ERA-3.02 WHIP-1.16 Actual: G/GS-34 IP-216.1 H-187 W-18 L-13 BB-101 SO-177 ERA-3.95 WHIP-1.33

By Al In the meantime, there is still work to be done, a division to be clinched in the next few days, and as he has done all season, Lou Piniella has his team focused on that goal: Focused and on a mission. Exactly right. Enjoy the off day. Go Cubs.

By Al One of them wasn't Carlos Zambrano, who had singled leading off the third, and when Soriano followed with a double, ran through a stop sign (I was afraid he might even knock 3B coach Mike Quade over, he was barrelling around third so fast) and was easily tagged out.

By Al If you don't know what The Heckler is, you'll see it in and around the Wrigleyville area and the ballpark; it's a free newspaper containing humorous articles like this one titled "Cubs Cut Bullpen", in which Jim Hendry releases everyone in the pen because the starters have done so well, an...

By Al With yesterday's impressive 8-1 Cubs win over the Cardinals seemingly well in hand late in a summery Chicago afternoon, I decided to hie myself to a DGA-sponsored screening of the new Anthony Hopkins/Ryan Gosling psychological thriller. AYRating: