Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com wrote an article back in August giving Ricketts a list of things not to do with the Cubs.  It’s an old article, but still has some good thoughts.  Before providing the list, Wojo said:

“This isn’t just any team you’re purchasing. This is the Cubs, a franchise with enough heartbreak and history that it needs its own traveling psychotherapist. What it doesn’t need is an owner who thinks of the Cubs as simply an investment, another expensive car to park in the portfolio garage. It needs someone who has business and baseball sense. (Jerry Reinsdorf isn’t a bad ownership template.) It needs someone who cares if the W flag flies — and not just because it might mean a full house the next day.”

The list Wojchiechowski put together includes:

• Don’t fire Jim Hendry
• Don’t let Crane Kenney be Crane Kenney
• Don’t sit in the front row seats next to the dugout
• Don’t touch the big three (red Wrigley Field marquee sign, center field scoreboard, ivy)
• Don’t continue the faux-tradition of inviting guests to sing the seventh inning stretch
• Don’t forget Greg Maddux
• Don’t wait on Piniella to decide  if he is coming back next year (Done)
• Don’t ditch the Triangle Building
• Don’t retire Sammy Sosa’s number
• Don’t be afraid to eat some salary
• Don’t be afraid to trade Carlos Zambrano
• Don’t be an imitator (of the Boston Red Sox Fenway Rehab)

There are three things on Wojo’s list of 14 “Don’ts” that pertain to Wrigley Field or the area surrounding Wrigley.  That’s interesting.  What other team (other than the Red Sox) would have as much concern about the stadium where the team plays it’s games.  The Texas Rangers are on the market now.  Do you think anyone is concerned about what is going to happen to Arlington Stadium (okay, technically Rangers Ballpark at Arlington) when the new owners take over the team?  Of course not.  But Wrigley Field is special and people treat it like Stonehenge or the Acropolis.

Wrigley Field is special.  It’s a beautiful ballpark.  It’s also a terrible place to go watch a baseball game.  If you’ve ever driving to the ballpark you know what I mean when I say it is nearly impossible to find a place to park that isn’t several blocks/miles away.  And I don’t know anyone who thinks that the urinal troughs in the mens room are a nostalgic reminder of a better time.  They’re disgusting.

I have to admit, I enjoyed going to Wrigley as a young man.  It was fun; an adventure.  When I was old enough to drink, the neighborhood surrounding Wrigley was like heaven.  There’s a bar on every corner and a few in between. 

But as an adult with a family, Wrigley Field is not a pleasant place to go.  It is hard to get to, it’s dirty, outdated, and it takes forever to leave (i.e. not close to the highway).  We’ve been to other stadiums that are easy to get to/easy to leave, have plenty of parking, are cleaner and more modern, and where the seats are more comfortable.  After being at these other stadiums, its hard to go back to Wrigley and enjoy the experience.

Of course, it’s true that the things I’m complaining about haven’t kept the fans away.  The Cubs are among the leaders in attendance among MLB teams every year.  But from a business perspective, that doesn’t mean that Wrigley Field is generating the profits it could.  For instance, there are not enough luxury boxes.  Corporations are big time clients for all baseball teams and the Cubs are unable to accomodate the demand for luxury suites.

Also, like a stately old home, Wrigley Field is a money pit.  Upkeep is expensive and the needed remodeling threatens to break the bank.

Finally, there’s no room to expand.  The Cubs desperately need bigger locker rooms and office space, but they are confined in a well established neighborhood.  The Cubs have proposed building the Triangle Building next to Wrigley Field, but neighbors are protesting because of the height of the building.  In fact, the neighbors complain about everything the team wants to do.  Whenever the Cubs want to make a change, they have to enter into negotiations with the city and their neighbors in Wrigleyville.  It’s a pain.

In many ways, I love Wrigley Field.  It’s a landmark, a baseball museum.  Unfortunately, it is no longer a great place to play MLB games.  Off the top of my head, I don’t know what the best alternative is, but I don’t think that Tom Ricketts should be so consumed with saving Wrigley at all costs that he refuses to consider other options.

**********

What do you think of a Milton Bradley for Vernon Wells trade?  Not much?  Me either, but Joel Koch at BleacherReport.com thinks it’s the Cubs best option.

The entire trade, as proposed by Koch, would send Bradley and Mike Fontenot to Toronto for Wells, RHP Jeremy Accardo, and OF Jose Bautista.  I talked about a potential trade scenario with Toronto previously, but I had Roy Halladay coming to the Cubs in order to make up for the huge and unexplainable contract of Vernon Wells.

It’s my opinion, Toronto would jump at the trade proposal that Joel Koch has layed out.  They’d be nuts not to.  But the Cubs would be nuts to seriously consider it.  Taking on Wells massive contract without getting something valuable to make up for it (no offense to Accardo and Bautista) doesn’t make any sense for the Cubs.  They may need to eat some of Bradley’s contract to move him, but trading a bad contract for potentially the worst contract in baseball history isn’t a good idea.

With the loss, the Cubs drop to 7.0 games behind Wildcard leading Colorado with just 18 games to play.  The team travels to St. Louis to start a three game series this evening against the NL Central leading Cardinals.  Ted Lilly (12-8) takes the mound versus John Smoltz (3-6).

**********

In yesterday’s game, Milton Bradley hit a single in the sixth inning and then pulled up lame at first base.  After a short conversation with first base coach Matt Sinatro, Bradley took himself out of the game.  At first, Lou Piniella seemed to be caught off-guard by the sudden departure of Bradley, and it took some time to get a pinch-runner in the game.  However, Piniella explained after the game that he knew Bradley’s knee was bothering him and it just took a little while for Bobby Scales to get loose in the tunnel before he could take over for Bradley on first base.

For his part, Bradley didn’t do anything to lessen the opinion that he is a whiny, self-centered baby.  This is what Carrie Muskat of MLB.com wrote about Bradley’s post-game pity party:

Bradley did not want to talk about his knee postgame.

“I have knee inflammation,” he said. “I’ve had two knee surgeries. It happens when you have knee surgery, in case you don’t know.”

It’s uncertain whether Bradley will miss Friday’s game in St. Louis. Asked if he was day to day, Bradley snapped.

“What else you got? You got anything significant?” he said. “If you have some baseball questions, I can answer. I’ve got nothing for you.”

The immature, disrespectful display didn’t sit well with Pinella.  The Tribune’s Paul Sullivan wrote this:

A few minutes later, Piniella called reporters into his office. He said Bradley’s mysterious reaction to questions about his injury was uncalled for.

“All he had to say was I talked to (the trainer) in front of the manager, which he did, and he said ‘My patella is bothering me,’” Piniella said. “And when he went over to first base, I motioned to him and he said he couldn’t run, and we just took him out of the ballgame… He was in his perfect rights to come out of the ballgame, and that’s all he needed to say.

“All he’s got to say are the facts. And if he says the facts, nobody is going to dispute anything. That’s all. Just say the facts.”

You don’t have to be a psychic to know that Piniella and Bradley don’t get along.  Think about it.  Piniella is an old school manager who has seen just about every type of player in his career.  He knows who can get the job done and who can’t.  Bradley is a player with a constant massive chip on his shoulder who has created controversy just about everywhere he has gone.  Piniella sees that Bradley is all about Bradley.  He’s not about team and he’s not about winning.  He’s all about doing what he can to increase his precious OBP numbers, often at the expense of doing what is best for the team in a given instance.  Of course they’re going to butt heads.

I have no idea what goes on behind closed doors, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Piniella has told Jim Hendry, if you want me back next year, move Bradley this off-season.  If I were in Piniella’s shoes, there’s no way I would want to put up with another year of Bradley and his drama.

**********

Bruce Levine of WMVP – AM 1000 in Chicago writes on his ESPN Chicago blog that new Cubs owner-in-waiting Tom Ricketts, team president Crane Kenney, and vice president of business operations Mark McGuire traveled to Mesa, AZ to scope out potential sites for a new Cubs Spring Training home.  The mayor of Mesa, AZ and other Arizona officials met with the Cubs trio to discuss options and to beg the Cubs on bended knee not to move to Florida.

It’s just my opinion, but I think the Cubs should move to Florida.  The Cubs are the biggest draw in Arizona, but they have some of the worst facilities. In the past, Mesa has been somewhat reluctant to commit funds to keep them in town while Florida has been chomping at the bit to spend money to bring the Cubs into the Grapefruit League.  Florida has been losing teams to Arizona over the past several years and they would like to reverse that trend.

Of even more importance is the fact that I often travel to Florida, but rarely get to Arizona.  Whatever other considerations there may be, this one should take precedence.

**********

I enjoy reading Murray Chass, but I rarely agree with him.  This is primarily due to the fact that Chass writes about baseball, but hasn’t liked anything about the game since Ducky Medwick hung up his uniform for the last time.  Of course I’m exaggerating badly, but you get the idea.  He is the sterotypical curmudgeon of a writer who looks at anything that is new or different as automatically bad.

Anyway, he recently wrote an article about the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team he knows a little bit about.  He doesn’t like what is happening there and makes a good case for why fans of the team shouldn’t like it either.  He writes:

When the Pirates completed their roster cleansing July 30, they had a 43-58 record (.426) and were 11 ½ games from first place. Since then, through Monday’s games, they had a 12-29 record (.293) and had tumbled 28 ½ games from first.

In the interim they set a major league record by insuring their 17^th successive losing season, but they were going to get that record with the players they traded away; it would just have taken them longer. 

If the Pirates incur losses in their last 20 games at the same rate they have lost since July 30, they will finish with a 60-102 record (.370), their worst record in the 17-season stretch and their second worst record since the early 1950s and the days of Vic Janowicz, the O’Brien twins Johnny and Eddie and Joe Garagiola.

On the one hand, the Pirates have been a horribly run organization for the better part of two decades, so I at least applaud them for now having a plan and following it.  On the other hand, trading away Nyjer Morgan, Freddie Sanchez, and maybe Jack Wilson made little sense to me.  I understand that the team is in rebuild mode, but what are they building around?  At their current pace, they are going to develop players over the course of three or four years who, when ready to really contrbute, will be too expensive to keep.  It seems like a viscous cycle to me.

But the part I liked best about Chass’ article is when he talked about the fact that the Pirates current payroll is less than the amount the team receives in revenue sharing.  He writes:

Perhaps the most striking figures are the payroll numbers. The Pirates opened the season with a $48.7 million payroll. They are closing it with a payroll (based on the Aug. 31 roster and disabled list) of $20 million. The players they traded during the season have salaries totaling $31 million.

Now for the kicker. The Pirates, one of the smallest revenue teams in the majors, received approximately $40 million in revenue sharing last year and most likely will get at least that much, despite the economy, for this year. One thing we know for sure. They aren’t spending the money to pay players.

Chass has hit on my pet peeve.  I’ve advocated for a salary cap in the past partly to control spending, but also to force lower revenue teams to spend a minimum amount on player payroll.  The Pirates are a perfect example of how the current system is not working.  The Pirates (and Royals, and Marlins) are not the Washington Generals, the perennial foes of the Harlem Globetrotters.  They are (or should be) a legitimate major league baseball team and it is a travesty that their payroll is less than 1/10th of the team with the highest payroll.

Chass continues:

Under the collective bargaining agreement, teams that receive money have to notify the commissioner’s office each April what they did with the money the previous year. “They’re going to have some explaining to do,” a baseball official said. “It’s going to be difficult for them absent some substantial moves between now and April.”

High-revenue teams don’t appreciate revenue recipients that don’t spend the money to improve themselves but pocket it instead. The commissioner’s office is supposed to monitor the spending to make sure teams use the money as they’re supposed to, but no team has ever been disciplined or even reprimanded for not using it correctly.

The Pirates might be a good place for the commissioner to start. It would be the best win for the fans all year.

Bravo, Murray!  The travesty has been exposed.  Now it is up to Bud Selig and the other owners to take action.

A  bad throw by Ryan Theriot pulled Mike Fontenot off of second base on a force out, but the umpire called the runner out anyway.  Don’t these types of calls usually go against the Cubs? 

Then, with runners on first and third, Theriot loses a pop-up in the sun and makes a wild throw to the plate which allows the Dodgers to take a 2-1 lead.  But wait, the umpires come to the rescue again.  The third base umpire says that he called time before the pitch and the Cubs get a do over.  This time, the batter hits into a DP and the inning is over.  The season is saved (not).

The Cubs won the game 3-1 and ended their West Coast road trip with a 2-5 record.  After a day off today, the Cubs will take on the Nationals for a three game set starting Tuesday.

**********

The paperwork is signed and the Ricketts family is on their way to owning the Cubs.  But how much did they pay for the priviledge.  Originally, the sale was supposed to be around $1 billion (with a b).  Then, the Rickett’s had the high bid at $900 million.  After a dispute over the value of the TV rights, the offer was lowered to $845 million.  Now, according to this article in the Chicago Tribune, the final price the parties settled on is $800 million.

Why the steep drop in price?  According to an article I read that I can’t find now, the sale could have closed fairly quickly and easily if Sam Zell had not tried to pawn off Wrigley Field to the State of Illinois.  While he was trying to make a couple of extra bucks, the credit markets collapsed making it more difficult for the Rickettses to obtain financing.  The value of the deal also shrank along with the shrinking economy, ultimately costing Zell (and his creditors) about $100 million.

Dave Kaplan also weighed in on his thoughts on the sale.  I’m pretty sure that he is incorrect when he says that the Cubs have to file for bankruptcy before the deal can get done.

**********

“Lovable” Lou Piniella says he’ll be back in 2010 to lead the Cubs to victory, or wherever they decide to go.  Gordon Wittenmyer has the scoop.

In another article, Wittenmyer says the players are happy to hear that Piniella will be returning.  Alfonso Soriano is especially happy.  He should be.  Lou keeps trotting him out there everyday even though he hasn’t hit this year.

**********

The next issue to be dealt with is whether or not Jim Hendry will be returning.  Aramis Ramirez says that Hendry is doing a good job and should come back, but others aren’t so sure.  Some people are calling for Hendry’s head after he took a 2008 playoff team and turned them into a 2009 also-ran.  Others are saying that crane Kenney will be the first casualty of the new owners.  Reports are that The Rickettses have already spoken to seasoned baseball people (like Sandy Alderson) to come in and take over the reigns from Kenney. 

**********

Richard Justice at the Houston Chronicle is one of my favorite sports writers.  He says that the Astros have two choices moving forward.  They can either open their wallet and spend the money necessary to build a winner in 2010, thus arttracting fans to the ballpark, or they can tighten the purse strings and drive people away.  Neither option is likely very attractive to the Astros owner.

**********

Today, I want to talk about a colum that Jason Stark has on ESPN.com.  In it, he has a few things to say about the Cubs.  First he talks about the Cubs offensive woes.  Here’s what he has to say:

Who bat-napped the Cubs’ offense?

 

Was it really only last year that the Cubs led the National League in runs (5.31 per game), slugging (.443) and on-base percentage (.354)? Yep, sure was. You can look that up.

So is there a logical explanation for why almost an identical lineup — substituting Milton Bradley for Mark DeRosa — should rank 26th in the big leagues in runs scored (4.24 per game), 21st in slugging (.397) and 20th (.325) in on-base percentage?

Well, there are explanations. You can decide for yourself how logical they are.

Aramis Ramirez has been out since May 9 with a dislocated left shoulder. And that’s a gigantic factor. “He’s got such a presence,” one scout said. “You fear that guy.”

And no one has done more than Geovany Soto to perpetuate the idea that the sophomore slump is no myth. He’s hitting .228 (down from .285), slugging .372 (down from .504) and has gotten shockingly pull-conscious. “He didn’t get off to the same kind of start,” GM Jim Hendry said. “And he’s really tried to overdo it.”

Then there’s Bradley, who couldn’t possibly have gotten off to a rockier start — going 3 for his first 31, spouting umpire-conspiracy theories and turning himself into a local boo magnet. “He’s a good player,” one scout said. “It just seems like there’s always a tension that follows him.”

And finally, you have Alfonso Soriano (hitting .167, with two homers and a .231 OBP, since May 19) and Derrek Lee (finally picking it up after spending the first six weeks under the Mendoza Line).

But if you’re looking for one pivotal number, it’s 29. That’s the number of points this team’s on-base percentage is down from last year, an enormous plummet.

“What that tells me,” Hendry said, “is that we’ve got a lot of real high-character guys who care, and they got off to slow starts and now they’re trying to do too much, chasing bad pitches and trying to be the guy who gets us going. And it snowballs.”

But maybe not for long. Ramirez should be back in a couple of weeks. Bradley has hit .341 the last two weeks. Lee has a 21-game hitting streak. And Soriano is 41 points below the lowest batting average of his career, and 105 points below the .531 slugging percentage he put up from 2002 to 2008. So “hopefully,” Hendry said, “in the second half, we can play more like we did last year.”

I thought Hendry’s explanation was weak, but if you’re in his shoes, what are you going to say?

**********

Jason also talked about the possibility of the Cubs re-aquiring Mark DeRosa (a move I heartily endorse).  Here’s what he said:

Reunion time?: And now for another potential Cleveland deal to watch: For all the weird talk in Chicago last week about some kind of fictional rift between Mark DeRosa and Lou Piniella, we’ve been hearing that the Cubs have kicked the tires on a deal that could bring DeRosa back to Wrigleyville.

For one thing, the reason the Cubs traded DeRosa in the first place had nothing to do with any “rifts.” It was because they’d have had to play almost an entire right-handed-hitting lineup if they’d kept him, and because they needed to move salaries to fill other needs.

But by late July, DeRosa would have only about $2 million left on his $5.5 million salary. So we’re guessing the Cubs might be allowed to take on that kind of money. That’s still unclear, though, given their ownership issues.

Finally, we know the Cubs have been doing some preliminary poking around for a bat. But because they aren’t sure where they’d play that bat, they’ve been asking about what one exec they talked to described as a “DeRosa-type player,” with enough versatility to be moved around as needed. But nobody fits that description, obviously, better than DeRosa himself.

Extremely well said.  The Cubs need a DeRosa-type of guy and no one is more like DeRosa than DeRosa himself.

I’ll only add that Crane Kenney has already said that the Cubs can add a smaller contract at the trade deadline and he used Mark DeRosa’s contract as an example.  It would be hard for him (or anyone else) to say the Cubs can’t afford DeRosa considering that Kenney has already said they could.

**********

The Cubs starting pitching is getting it done this year.  Unfortunately, the bullpen has not been good and the offense at times has been non-existent.

Jason Stark provides a list of the best and worst teams when it comes to having the starters complete 6 1/3 innings or more in their starts.  The Cubs are tied for second place with 33 (the Reds and Angels also have 33).  The Blue Jays lead the majors with 36.  The Brewers are 26th with only 19 games of 6 1/3 or more innings pitched by their starters.  I would think that would bode well for the rest of the season (although it hasn’t panned out so far).

**********

The Daily Herald reported that Geovany Soto tested positive for marijuana during the World Baseball Classic in March.  Soto addressed the issue by saying, “I don’t want this to be a distraction for me or my teammates. I’d appreciate if this is the last time we talk about it. It’s embarrassing, and I want to move forward. I’m man enough to do stuff; I’m man enough to face it. I just want to apologize to the Cubs’ organization, my family and the fans.”

Without being overly judgemental, this was a stupid thing to do by Soto.  At the time of the test, he was representing Puerto Rico in the WBC.  After the WBC, he had Spring Training with the Cubs.  Is being high really the best way to approach these responsibilities.

Soto claims that it was an isolated incident, but people will still question whether or not it is pot smoking that has led to Soto’s dismal offensive performance this year.  And if it’s not his pot smoking, is dealing with the aftermath of a failed drug test weighing too heavily on Soto’s mind?  Is that why he’s not hitting?  It was just a stupid thing to do no matter how you look at it.

What was so impressive about the win against the Indians was that the Cubs spotted the Indians a 7-0 lead, but kept fighting to come back.  Rich Harden looked bad, giving up all seven runs in the first four innings.  However, the Cubs bullpen looked unusually good, giving up just one hit and no runs over the final five innings of the game.

Derrick Lee was the hitting star for the Cubs.  He smacked a solo shot in the 6th off Cliff Lee, and then tied the game with a homerun in the bottom of the ninth off former Cub Kerry Wood.  Lee’s ninth inning heroics gave way to Theriot’s in the 10th.

**********

Milton Bradley continues to struggle.  It’s clear to see that he is pressing at the plate, trying to hit a five run  homerun every at-bat.  It’s not for lack of effort that Bradley’s hitting line stands at .242/.345/.386.  He’s trying hard, but just not getting the results.

I found this article profiling Bradley in 2003 while he was playing for Cleveland.  It details the tough childhood Bradley had and explains why he has such a “me against the world” mentality.  Even though we look at Bradley sometimes as fiery, angry, and maybe even a head case, I was struck reading the six-year old article with how much Bradley has mellowed.  That’s not to say he is mellow.  Just more mellow than he used to be.

After reading the article, I find myself looking at Bradley more as an underdog and cheering for him to turn his season around.  I was cheering for him before, but I’m cheering even more now.

**********

The sale of the Cubs continues at a snails pace.  The Ricketts family had exclusive negotiating rights to purchase the team up until this past week.  Now that the exclusive period has passed, Cubs owner Sam Zell and the Tribune Company have re-open negotiations with a group led by Marc Utah and Leo Hindery.  The Utay/Hindery group had the second highest bid behind the Rickett’s $900 million offer.

The sticking point at the moment for the Ricketts is the value of the Cubs television contract with WGN.  The Ricketts feel that WGN is paying too little for the broadcast rights and is looking to decrease their offer; some say by as much as $50 million.  It appears that Sam Zell is not budging.

An earlier report indicated that the sale was not moving forward because the Ricketts could not borrow the money they needed due to the current economic conditions.  However, a spokeman for the Ricketts family indicated that this was not true and that they had already secured the financing they would need to purchase the club, Wrigley Field, and 25% of Chicago Sports Net.

The sale of the Cubs would be nothing more than an interesting story if it didn’t also impact the team’s ability to add payroll at the trade deadline.  Crane Kenney has indicated that the Cubs could take on some “small” contracts, but it appears that Jim Hendry’s hand will be at least somewhat tied in doing anything more than tweaking the team.

During the 26 game stretch, the Cubs have scored two or fewer runs on 13 occasions; fully half of the games they have played in the past month.  They have compiled a record during that time of 10-16.

So yeah, not a lot to get excited about.  and yet, things aren’t as bad as they could be.  For instance, after beating the White Sox yesterday afternoon, the Cubs evened their record for the year at 31-31.  A .500 record is nothing to jump up and down about, but it’s a record that puts them just 4.0 games behind the division leading Brewers.  Considering how inept the Cubs offense has been, things could be a lot worse.

I’m not trying to foolishly optimistic here.  I understand that the team has some serious flaws.  But I don’t think all is lost.  While they are struggling at the moment, the Cubs best hitter, Aramis Ramirez, is working on healing his dislocated shoulder and getting into game shape.  He is expected to be back in the lineup by the All-Star break.  Once he’s back in the lineup, people like Derrick Lee and Milton Bradley should start seeing some better pitches.

Speaking of Bradley, can his slump last much longer?  The same can be asked of Alfonso Soriano.   Both of these guys have proven in the past that they are dangerous hitters and I’ve got to believe that they will eventually come around. 

I also have faith in Jim Hendry.  It would be easy to criticize the moves he made this past off-season, but Hendry has a track record of making good most at the trade deadline.  The pending sale of the club may hanstring him some, but Crane Kenney of the Tribune Company has stated publically that the club can take on some salary if it will improve the team.   

The Cubs also have one other thing going in their favor.  The NL Central is not very good this year.  The Brewers are not as good as their record would indicate (although they can score some runs), the Cardinals are over-achieving and are beginning to struggle, and I don’t think anyone expects the Reds to be in the hunt much longer.  So the Cubs don’t have to improve much to be right back in the thick of things.

Okay, call me a cock-eyed optimist, but I don’t think it is time to panic or lose hope.  If the Cubs can continue to get strong pitching from their starters, if the bullpen can start being more consistent, and if the offense can start scoring some runs (I know, a lot of “ifs”), the Cubs should be in the playoff hunt come September.

I have to go drink the rest of this Kool-Aid now.

A lot of people make a big deal out of this series.  One side hates the other and it’s common to see “Cubs Suck” or “Sox Suck” t-shirts all over town.  To me, it’s not that big of a deal, especially this year when both teams are struggling.  The White Sox are currently 30-34, in 3rd place, 4.5 games back in the AL Central.  The Cubs are in 4th place in the NL Central at 30-30, 3.0 games out of first place.

I think my attitude has something to do with growing up in a neighborhood made up predominately of White Sox fans.  I grew up a Cubs fan, but I never hated the White Sox.  If anything, I ignored the White Sox.  On the rare occassion when I watched a White Sox game (on WFLD, channel 32 in Chicago), I cheered for them, but it really didn’t matter to me.  How the White Sox did didn’t impact the Cubs, so I really didn’t care whether the Sox were winning or losing.  Maybe that’s why the media-created rivalry between the Cubs and Sox really doesn’t resonate with me.

**********

Will Carroll from Baseball Prospectus is reporting that Jake Peavy’s ankle injury is going to keep him out the rest of this season.  That report conflicts sharply with what the Padres are reporting.  According to the Padres website, Peavy should be back in mid-July. 

Of course, the only reason this has any interest to Cubs fans is because many fans (including me) were hoping that the Cubs would trade for Peavy before the July 31 trade deadline.  If Will Caroll is correct, there won’t be any trade.

**********

Speaking of trades, Crane Kenney from the Tribune Company seemed to indicate that the Cubs were in a position to take on a smaller contract prior to the trade deadline.  There had been some speculation that because of the impending sale of the Cubs, they would not be in a position to take on any additional salary.

In an interview on WGN with Steve Stone and Dan Kaplan, Kenney spoke specifically about the possibility of the Cubs reacquiring Mark DeRosa.  Kenney DID NOT suggest that the Cubs were interested in trading for DeRosa, but he did say that the team could take on a contract like DeRosa’s since it is a relatively inexpensive contract (about $2.5 million left this year) and the contract is up at the end of the season.  That’s encouraging.