Aramis Ramirez and Milton Bradley both homered for the Cubs.  Bradley also drew three walks in the game.  For all of his other faults, Bradley can draw a walk.

Meanwhile, the Cardinals won in Los Angeles, so the Cubs remain 6.0 games behind St. Louis.  The Cubs are 5.o games behind Colorado in the Wildcard race.  The Giants, Marlins and Braves are also ahead of the Cubs in the Wildcard.

The Cubs travel up the Pacific Coast to start a four game series with the Dodgers tonight.  Lefty Tom Gorzelanny (5-2) goes up against Jeff Weaver (5-4).

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As you probably know, Bud Selig is a big fan of this blog and he has jumped on the bandwagon I started the other day to institute a worldwide draft.  Dave Shenin writes in the Washington Post that Selig wants to make an “aggressive” push with the players union to implement a worldwide draft and a hard slotting system when the two sides get together to discuss the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. 

At least in theory, I like the idea of a salary cap tied to revenues as well.  I don’t know if this idea will get any traction, but I don’t think you can continue to have one team outspending another team by a factor of five or six and expect the game to remain healthy.  Of course, as I’ve said in the past, any salary cap must also have a salary floor so that teams don’t take undue advantage of the agreement.  I know a salary cap is a long shot, but I thought I’d throw it out there to give Bud something else to think about.

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Is Lou Piniella going to quit after this season?  Scott Miller at CBSSports.com thinks he might.  Although I enjoyed Miller’s article, be warned, it’s just an opinion piece.  Miller is suggesting that Piniella might walk away after this season.  Piniella doesn’t say that.

What I liked best about the article is the way that Miller detailed all of the things that have gone wrong for the Cubs this year.  I tend to forget all of the diasters and near-disasters that have plagued the Cubs this year.  Things really haven’t broken the Cubs way very often this season.

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Bill Hall has left the building.  Yesterday, I suggested that the Cubs look at adding the former Brewer to their roster to be the utility man for 2010.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the Mariners beat the Cubs to the punch and traded for Hall.   The Mariners traded a low level pitching prospect for Hall and a lot of money.  Milwaukee will be paying Hall’s salary for the rest of 2009 and a good chuck of his $9.5 million contract next year.

Lossing out on Hall isn’t a big deal, but it does bother me that the Cubs seem to constantly rely on weak hitting backup infielders as bench players each year.  The one exception to that rule over the past several years was acquiring Mark DeRosa, but of course we all know how that ended.  Bill Hall wouldn’t have been the team savior, but he would have been an upgrade.

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Some in Collier County, Florida would like to make a push to bring the Cubs there for Spring Training.  However, the residents and officials in the county don’t seem to be very united. 

According to a report on NBC2.com in Naples, Murray Hendel, a member of the county’s Tourist Development Council, is leading the charge to bring the Cubs to southwest Florida.  But before he can convince the Cubs, he first has to convince the county’s tourism director, Jack Wert.  Wert says that bringing the Cubs or any team to Collier County just isn’t a priority.

“We just aren’t really that same kind of destination.  We’re much more of a resort and beach, and golf destination,” Wert said.

In case you don’t know, Naples likes to think of itself as a posh, upscale community.  There are several spa and golf resorts in the area, along with a lot of overpriced homes on the Gulf of Mexico.  Don’t get me wrong.  Naples is very nice.  In fact, I like it.  But how can a man that makes his living attracting tourist dollars to an area not get behind a movement to attract an MLB ball club?  That just doesn’t make sense to me.

Earlier this year, a group in Vero Beach announced that they would like to attract the Cubs to the empty Dodgertown.  Unlike Naples, Vero Beach and Indian River County would bend over backwards to get the Cubs to move there.  And the history of the Cubs coupled with the history of Dodgertown would be a great match.  I haven’t heard anything about this recently, but I like the idea.

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On his blog, former Dodger GM Fred Claire has a nice piece on Mark Prior.  It’s a bit of a puff piece.  No breaking news here.  But it still gives a good insight into Prior’s outlook on life and baseball.  I’ve always liked Prior.  I was never one of those who bashed him for being soft and not playing through his injuries.  It would be great to see him come back next year healthy and back on top of his game.