Randy Wells allowed three runs in the first inning to put the Cubs in a hole right off the bat.  Wells pitched a total of 5.1 innings, giving up eight hits and five earned runs (seven runs total).  Jeff Stevens came in to replace Wells and proceeded to throw gas on the fire.  He threw 1.o inning, giving up five hits and four earned runs.

The defense was bad on Sunday as well.  The Cubs commited three errors on the day, one each for Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee and Koyie Hill.

The offense was explosive, getting 17 hits on the day, but they could only muster five runs on all of those hits.  Milton Bradley led the way going 4-for-5 with a double and an RBI.  Koyie Hill was 3-for-5 with and RBI and a run scored.

Even the umps had a bad day.  In the second inning, Clint Barmes was pulled off of second base on a throw from third baseman Ian Stewart.  Everyone in North America saw that Barmes was not close to being on the bag except second base umpire Chris Guccione.  Guccione called Hill out at second on the front end of what turned out to be a double play.  Lou Piniella sprinted out from the dug out (or the closest thing to sprinting that Lou is capable of) and politely disagreed with Guccione’s obviously incorrect call.  Guccione was not in the mood and threw Piniella out of the game.

The Cubs end their 10-game road trip tonight as lefty Tom Gorzellany (4-1) takes on Jorge De La Rosa (9-8) in the last match up of the year between the two teams.

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Odd Stat of The Day:  Colorado pitching allowed 17 hits yesterday, but they didn’t give up any walks to Cubs hitters.

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Yesterday I wrote a post giving my thoughts on a possible Cubs acquisition of John Smoltz.   After writing the post, I realized that I wasn’t as clear on waiver transactions as I could have been.  To get some info on the matter, I asked the guys over at The Cub Reporter for some help.  Arizona Phil at TCR proved the needed knowledge:

When a player is “Designated for Assignment” (DFA’d) it actually means he was placed on his club’s Designated List. A player cannot refuse this assignment.

A player on the Designated List is removed from his club’s MLB Active List (25-man roster) and MLB Reserve List (40-man roster), but continues to accrue MLB Service Time and continues to get paid while on the Designated List.

When a club places a player on the Designated List, it has ten days to either trade, release, or outright the player to the minors. (NOTE: If the player is not replaced on the 40-man roster by another player and if the player has minor league options remaining, he could be optioned to the minors, but that is rare).

During the ten days the player is on the Designated List, his club will try and trade the player and get something of value back in return (a player and/or cash). If the player isn’t traded within ten days, the club has to place the player either on Outright Assignment Waivers or Outright Release Waivers, but if the player has at least five years of MLB Service Time, the player MUST be placed on Release Waivers because players with at least five years of MLB Service Time have the right to refuse an Outright Assignment to the minors and be returned to both the 25-man and 40-man roster, which obviously can’t be done if the player was Designated for Assignment. (A player who is Designated for Assignment actually has to be traded within eight days, because it takes two days for a player to clear waivers).

Smoltz has way more than five years of MLB Service Time, so the Red Sox only option would be to trade or release him. So if Smoltz is not traded within eight days (and to get traded now he would also have to clear Trade Assignment Waivers because the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline has passed), he would have to be placed on Release Waivers.

If a player is placed on Release Waivers, he can be claimed for just $1 (one dollar), but the claiming club assumes 100% of the player’s contract. Also, a player can decline a waiver claim off Release Waivers and become a free-agent, so players are almost never claimed off Release Waivers.

If a player is placed on Release Waivers and is not claimed, he becomes a free-agent and can sign with any club (this happened recently with B. J. Ryan), and the player’s former club is responsible for paying the player’s remaining salary minus the pro-rated portion of the MLB minimum salary that is paid by the player’s new club.

Thanks, Arizona Phil!  You are a wealth of information.

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The Toronto Blue Jays placed OF Alex Rios on waivers last week and he was claimed.  Rumor has it that the White Sox claimed Rios, but so far, no one in MLB is confirming that.  The question now is, will Toronto pull Rios back, trade him, or just let the claiming team have him?  Danny Knobler at CBSSports.com has some thoughts.

The reason this is important is because Rios is owed nearly $60 million over the next five years.  Rios’ contract is one of the big contracts that is limiting the team’s ability to rebuild and compete in the AL East.  So it would make all the sense in the world for Toronto to just let Rios go.  However, it is not a foregone conclusion.

If JP Ricciardi just let’s Rios go, he is admitting that he made a huge mistake when he signed Rios to the big contract, and Ricciardi is not usually very comfortable admitting that he is wrong.  Sure, it would hurt to just give Rios away without getting something in return, but it will hurt even more to pay him $60 million dollars and tie up that money for the next five years.  If Ricciard is smart, he’ll let Rios go and then turn his attention to trading Roy Halladay and Vernon Wells.  We should find out what is going to happen later today.

UPDATE: I was one day off.  According to a Twitter message from Jon Heyman at Sports Illustrated, the Blue Jays have until tomorrow (Tuesday) at 1:30 PM ET to decide what to do with Alex Rios.  Heyman also reiterates that the White Sox are likely the team that claimed Rios.