Entries associated with the tag "Chicago Cubs":

The White Sox' Carlos Quentin just got recognized as an All-Star, in addition to receiving a well-done profile from the Tribune's usually puffy Melissa Isaacson, who delivered a piece with some fine quotes and details from Quentin's mother, Queta. Yet through it all what's been overlooked is his pivotal place in the Cubs-Sox interleague series. (Let's call it the City Serious, in honor of Ring Lardner's Jack Keefe, as opposed to the Crosstown Classic or whatever else.) With both teams entering in first place, when the Sox got swept at Wrigley, making it seem as if they didn’t deserve a postseason date with the Cubs, they came back more determined and more focused when the action shifted to Sox Park. The pivotal moment came early in Friday’s opening game when Cubs starter Ryan Dempster came high and tight with some chin music to Quentin with the Sox rallying in the third inning, knocking him to the ground. As the baseball book requires, Dempster followed that with a low, outside breaking ball, and Quentin lashed it down the right-field line to score a run and make it 3-0 Sox. Jermaine Dye drove him in, the next two batters walked against the rattled Dempster, and Nick Swisher followed with a grand slam, so the rout -- and the Sox comeback -- was on. If Quentin doesn't deliver in that instant, the Cubs have delivered their message of dominance and perhaps everything is different.

“He came up and in,” Quentin said afterward in his typically understated, matter-of-fact manner. “I’m not surprised by that when a pitcher does it. He’s trying to make a pitch. Obviously, I don’t want to get hit. (Dempster’s) got enough control that he might have wanted to put it there. It’s neither here nor there. The job had to get done to get the run in. You dust yourself back off, refocus, and I was happy I got a good swing on the ball and got the run in and got the job done.”

He got the job done the next day too, when he hit the game-winning homer, and Sunday as well, when another Quentin homer broke a scoreless tie and sent the Sox toward a 5-1 victory to complete the reverse sweep. That might not have sealed Quentin's spot on the All-Star team, but it sealed his place in the hearts of Sox fans. 

As it turns out, Geovany Soto would not be the first rookie to be the primary starting catcher on a World Series winner -- even if the Cubs manage to pull it off. Thanks and a tip of the cap to Ajax, who pointed out in responding to a previous post that Andy Etchebarren was the rookie catcher on the 1966 world-champion Baltimore Orioles. Etchebarren made his big-league debut in 1962, when he was the youngest player in the American League at 19, and had another brief cup of coffee with the team in 1965, when he became one of many players whose every hit was a homer for a full season (he was 1-for-6). So he was still a rookie in 1966 -- one of three at critical positions up the middle for Baltimore, joining second baseman Davey Johnson and center fielder Paul Blair. Soto has already surpassed Etchebarren's 11 homers he hit in 121 games, and will soon top his 50 runs batted in.

Etchebarren batted just .221 in the middle of what has been called "the second dead-ball era," when pitching dominated in the 60s. Yet it's a mystery why Etchebarren isn't more celebrated for the feat. He received no votes in the American League Rookie of the Year balloting (won by the White Sox' Tommie Agee), and the Cubs' Randy Hundley was named catcher on the Topps interleague All-Rookie Team, even though Etchebarren did place 17th in Most Valuable Player voting that year. He caught all four games of the O's four-game Series sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers, the last three of which were shutouts, and Etchebarren recently told Baseball Prospectus of how they pounded the Dodgers with hard stuff on the outside corner to do it. Yet Google Etchebarren today and you're more likely to read of how by grounding into a double play to end the sixth inning of the second game of that series he was the last batter to face Sandy Koufax (soon to be retired), if not how Jim Bouton named him catcher on the All Ugly team in his 1970 book, Ball Four, no doubt thanks to his prodigious eyebrows. Etchebarren deserves better -- and Soto couldn't put himself in better company. 

Especially over the last month or so, I've heard some people remark on how unusual it would be for the Cubs to win a World Series championship with a rookie as their primary catcher -- if indeed they do win this year. But it seems as if no one has actually done the work to see just how rare it is. So while working on the profile of Geovany Soto in this week's Reader, I got out my trusty Baseball Encyclopedia and went through each series winner going back to the first in 1903. My findings? It has never been done before. Never. Not once.

Oh, some have come close. The Saint Louis Cardinals' Yadier Molina was in his third season when they won just two years ago. Before that, a few narrowly exceeded the rookie maximum for at-bats (130) the previous year and went on to win it all in their first full season. As I point out in the story, Joe Oliver of, yes, Lou Piniella's 1990 Cincinnati Reds batted 151 times the previous season to spoil his rookie status. And there are a couple of big names: the New York Yankees' Jorge Posada batted 188 times in 1997 before winning it all the following year, and--the closest to pulling it off --Mike Sciosia batted 134 times for the 1980 Los Angeles Dodgers, scotching his rookie status by four at-bats before winning it all in the strike-tainted following season. Among true rookies, a couple were part-timers on championship teams, including another big name, Yogi Berra, who played 83 games as a rookie on the 1947 New York Yankees, splitting duties with Aaron Robinson, and a certain Jack Lapp caught 71 games for the 1910 Philadelphia Athletics, sharing the job with Ira Thomas. Yet no rookie catcher has been the primary starter on a championship team.

In some ways Soto actually has more experience than many of those named above. He was up for cups of coffee in September of 2005 and 2006 before laying claim to the starting job late last year, but even so he kept his rookie status intact with 80 lifetime big-league at-bats. So don't worry about the Cubs' century-long championship drought: worry about them attempting something that's never been done before in World Series history. 

The Cubs are in first place, the White Sox are in first place, and so, Aware One, am I -- in first place for the Golden BAT Award, that is. The BAT, or Baseball Acumen Test, as my friend and former Hot Type columnist Neil Tesser coined it, determines which Chicago sportswriter is best at picking the winners in baseball. Hey, I've won it before, in 1984 I believe, and at this point, through the first week in June, I have all six division leaders in baseball. That's right, six for six.

Yes, I have the White Sox finishing first in the American League Central -- more for the weakness of the competition, which I've thus far been proved true about, than for the strength of the Sox, which they've flexed recently -- and the Cubs in the National League Central. The others are all no-brainers, to my way of thinking: the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Angels in the AL, the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL. True, I'm far from being eight for eight, with the New York Yankees my wild-card pick in the AL and the Cincinnati Reds in the NL. Yet who picks second-place teams? Besides, the Reds are ascendant now that Dusty Baker has finally called up Jay Bruce and Homer Bailey (predicted, with all else, here), and who can count out my AL pick of the New York Yankees, with their deep pockets and resources for midseason trades? In any case, they don't figure in my World Series pick: Cubs and Bosox. So, no, it's not yet July 4, the traditional date for baseball league leaders to crow about their leads, but I'll take what I got -- and go from there. What else was the blog invented for other than to blow one's own horn? 

With the Cubs and the White Sox going south the last few days, both Lou Piniella and Ozzie Guillen lost it. Yet Sweet Lou's tirades seemed real, while Ozzie's seemed a bit of a masquerade, even though his language was harsher. Piniella barely made it through a minute of a post-game media conference after last Thursday's blown save by Kerry Wood, triggered by a key misplay by left fielder Alfonso Soriano, and that was after bashing a Gatorade cooler. (No doubt he wished he'd had a water cooler on hand to get real satisfaction.) When some scribe wondered afterward if he'd thought about replacing Soriano with a better defender, say Reed Johnson, in the ninth inning, Lou blasted back, "You're damn right I thought about it. You think I'm stupid or something?" Then he stormed out muttering profanities, perhaps having learned something from the recent Lee Elia anniversary.

Guillen, by contrast, held no profanities back after the Sox' fourth straight loss before the game on Sunday, but word is he was actually quite subdued and not angry while making the comments, and the old scapegoat -- the idea that the Cubs get preferential media treatment while the Sox are "the bitch of Chicago" -- made it seem he was just throwing up a smoke screen for his players, especially as he was talking about the situation in Chicago while on the road in Toronto, where there would soon be a much better whipping boy available in a badly blown call by umpire Dale Scott (something that no doubt would have cost Guillen money in fines if he had blamed the loss on it). As it was, neither outburst worked to inspire the teams. The Cubs lost their ensuing series in Saint Louis and Monday's series opener in Cincinnati, while the Sox were swept in Toronto with losses Sunday and Monday night. Time perhaps to start shouting at the players.

So why are Wrigley Field ushers so tough on fans who move seats?  

The only rules I could find on the Cubs Web site related to fans and seating are from the "Guest Conduct" section of the "Ballpark A to Z Guide," also called the "Wrigley Field Fan Guide -- 2008": 

"Customer Service is a major objective of the Chicago Cubs. The team strives to provide its Guests with the most positive baseball experience in the Major Leagues in a safe, comfortable environment. To help us achieve our goal of outstanding customer service, we ask for fan cooperation in the following areas:

• Dress appropriately for baseball. It is quite often cooler near the lake.
• Respect other guests' ability to enjoy the game. Loud or obnoxious fans could be asked to leave the ballpark if their behavior is deemed to be offensive to guests around them.
• Please do not bring balloons, beach balls, nets or laser pointers into Wrigley Field. These items are not permitted at any time.
• For the safety of all fans, do not interfere with the progress of the game or go onto the playing field. Any fan interfering with a ball in play or going onto the field will be removed from the park and could be subject to arrest.
• Please sit in your assigned seat and be prepared to show your ticket to an usher or ballpark supervisor upon request.
• There is no re-entry on a ticket stub."

Like everyone else in town, I want to write about Kosuke Fukudome being on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but not to address the curse -- just another in a series -- but simply to point out that you read it here first. After all, blogging is all about tooting your own horn, or at least it can seem to be to anyone who reads a post not written by him or herself.

The Reader's own Irma Nunez made a lovely post last week on the very loose translation of "It's gonna happen," the Cubs' motto of recent years, into Japanese characters, adopted by Cub Bleacher Bums and then put on SI's cover. (I was happy to translate "It's gonna happen" for nonfan Irma as a message of optimism -- "After 100 years it's finally going to happen" -- although fans with any experience tend to put an ironic spin on it, as in, "Oh boy, SI put us on the cover, we're gonna get screwed again.")

Then I published a piece about how Fukudome seemed to be having a lead-by-example effect on his teammates in the form of more disciplined, fundamentally sound play, both in the field and especially at bat. When the Cubs returned home briefly this week, not only was Fukudome second in the majors in pitches taken per at-bat at 4.54, behind only the Philadelphia Phillies' Jayson Werth at 4.7, but the Cubs were second in the majors at 3.91. For a team of traditional free-swingers (even on a list of hitters with 500 homers on Sunday in the New York Times, Ernie Banks stood out with his comparatively measly .330 on-base percentage), that's amazing progress. Look at Aramis Ramirez, with 15 walks already the first month, with a previous career high of 50 in a six-month season, and how that has him off to an uncharacteristic fast start. (A .259 career hitter in March and April, he was batting .281 this season, with a robust six homers and 19 runs batted in.) Ramirez had 15 walks, Fukudome had a team high 19, and with plentiful runners on base the Cubs were second in the National League in runs scored.

SI cover jinx or not, that truly has a Cubs fan thinking, "Guuzen da zo!" Oh, there's always a new way for us to fool ourselves, isn't there? How unexpected indeed.

Moving down to better seats at a major league ball game is practically an initiation rite for fans. I go to several Cubs and Sox games a year, and I not only see it happen all the time but occasionally I do it too. The ushers at Wrigley Field, however, seem preoccupied with stopping it.

Consider this: at a recent game I was sitting five rows back, just past the Cubs dugout toward left field. The guy in front of me stood to take pictures of Kosuke Fukudome each time he came to bat. He was with three men in business casual. They looked Japanese.

"Are you Japanese?" I asked. "No, I'm from Chicago," he replied in perfect English. "But my friends are." Hi, I'm an idiot, nice to meet you.

He knew a lot about Fukudome's baseball days in Japan and he wanted to give his friends the best possible view of the game. There were a few empty seats in the front row and he'd already spoken to an usher about moving down to them. The usher, who didn't happen to be the main usher guarding that aisle, told him that in order to do that they'd need season tickets to those seats. Even game tickets to the seats wouldn't be good enough. They'd need the kind of ducats you get in a pack when you buy a season's package. 

So the already empty seats were out of the question. More than once the fan walked down to the front row of our section looking for season ticket holders who'd be willing to give him their tickets if they left the game early. Lo and behold, in the 7th inning, with the Cubs well ahead, a middle-aged couple sitting on the aisle in the first row got up, walked right to him, and openly handed him their season tickets.

He nudged one of his friends and, tickets in hand, the two of them moved into the two seats. The main usher, standing just to their right, motioned for their tickets, which they showed. The usher nodded his head and resumed his position on the aisle, and all seemed right in the world. Meanwhile, the two seats to my right were suddenly occupied by 20something dudes with backwards caps and Miller Lites. They wore big smiles. Their secret was safe with me.

Not a half inning later, the usher who'd told the Fukudome fan about the seat-moving policy came down the aisle toward them. Now that the fan and his friend had actually done what the usher had told them was the only way to do it, he felt squeamish. He said they needed to return to their old seats while he checked with his supervisor. "Just gimme a minute and I'll let you know."

He was gone half an inning. He came back and said. "I'm really sorry, but I can't let you sit down there."

"I thought you said if I had the season tickets I could sit there," the guy protested.

"I know, I know I told you that before, but we just can't let you move. I'm really sorry."

So what's the deal? 

Who could have blamed him for taking out the candy basket?

Actually, I'm referring to what Lou Piniella called "the bubble gum thing," the dugout receptacle that holds the chewing gum and sunflower seeds so essential to the Norman Rockwell game that is Major League Baseball. Carlos Zambrano, frustrated by a so-so pitching performance that ended in a 5-3 loss to the Phillies last Friday, had thrown one of his fits and, again to quote Uncle Lou, "flipped [the basket] over a little bit." 

Lou lamented that these days "there are no more water coolers. Now you have to tussle with the Gatorade."

Sullivan elicited from Piniella that, after being forced to cough up $200 to $300 for each smashed water cooler back in the day, he'd taken them home and kept them for a while in his garage--after all, he'd paid for them.

"'I wish I had kept them,' he said. 'I'd be selling them on eBay.'"

Ozzie Guillen better start reading his Bible. He's in danger of losing his title as Chicago baseball's King of Quotes.

When Kosuke Fukudome emerged from the dugout -- smiling bashfully at the media and shaking his head at the cold -- before the Cubs' home opener on Monday, the thing that distinguished him most from his teammates wasn't that he is the first Japanese Cub. It was that he carried a white bat. After they all dropped their equipment near the batting cage and went to stretch and warm up with a game of catch, Fukudome's white bat stood out amid all the black bats of his teammates, laid out like trout on the grass. Fukudome's Professional Edge (SSK) bat bore his name on the barrel and the once-cheesy slogan "Made in Japan," but it embodied how the connotations of that phrase have changed over the last 40 years. Compared with the black bats around it, it seemed to have a lethal quality, as it was white as can be -- white as Ahab's peg leg. It almost didn't appear to be made out of wood; rather, it seemed forged somehow, like Roy Hobbs' lightning-struck Wonderboy. And did Fukudome ever put it to use. Later that day, he lashed a double over the center fielder's head on the first pitch he saw in Major League Baseball, then tied the game in the ninth with a homer to center field off the Milwaukee Brewers' closer Eric Gagne (after working the count to 3-0, then looking at a fastball at 3-1, the same basic pitch he hit next). By the time he keyed the Cubs' game-tying rally with another double to left on Thursday -- a rally that would lead to the Cubs' first win of the season -- he was making the bat stick in the mind for another reason, for the way it practically recoiled out of his hands after a well-struck pitch as he ran to first base. I don't know what color bats Chicago Little Leaguers are going to be using this summer -- most likely they'll be brightly colored aluminum -- but I know Little League umpires are going to need to admonish hitters about tossing their bats. Every young baseball player in Chicago is going to try to mimic that flourish after crushing one.

Having narrowly avoided the basement in last year's Baseball Acumen Test by my blind pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East (like everyone else I had the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees making the playoffs, although I must insist I got hosed by the last-minute collapse of the San Diego Padres), I courageously reveal my picks this year. And keep in mind I am a former Golden BAT winner, although it was back in my early prime in the mid-80s.

First the American League. I'll stick with the BoSox and Yankees, in that order, in the East, with the Yanks the wild card. I'll join with the majority as well in picking the Los Angeles Angels in the West. But then I'll be a homer and pick the White Sox in the Central, not because I'm so optimistic about the Sox, but because I'm more pessimistic about the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers (not enough pitching). The Sox' Ozzie Guillen is absolutely right in suggesting that Jose Contreras's return to form is essential, but by the same token Ozzie has to return to form and his aggressive ways violating the conventional "baseball book" as a manager. He has to find the right tweaks for a lineup with its considerable talent concentrated in the corner positions, and no I don't think playing Nick Swisher in center field will work. So I'll take the White Sox as a sentimental choice in the AL Central, but the Red Sox to win the pennant.

In the National League, yes, I'm picking the Cubs, even after manager Lou Piniella labeled it "an in-vogue thing ... because of the 100th year" -- that is, the 100 years since the Cubs last won it all. Still, they have good hitting (if they can find a dependable leadoff man), good deep pitching (Jon Lieber will be key before it's all over), and outstanding outfield defense, especially with Felix Pie taking the majority of time in center in a platoon with the newly acquired Reed Johnson. So I'll take the Cubs to win the NL pennant, over the Phils in the East, the Arizona Diamondbacks in the West, and -- dig this, Dusty Baker haters -- the Cincinnati Reds in the wild card, not through any fault of Baker's own, but simply because they have the talent to be this year's Milwaukee Brewers. Look for Baker to stumble into the playoffs almost by accident, much as he did five years ago, just as soon as he wakes up and makes room for Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, and Homer Bailey.

That said, I have to follow Sports Illustrated in picking the Bosox over the Cubs in the World Series. I'm trendy and a homer, but only up to a point. 

For years, baseball statistical experts from Bill James on down have been debating the role of the closer. Is it best to save your best relief pitcher for the ninth inning and the last three outs? Or should he be deployed in the middle innings, when it might be the actual critical moment of the game, say, with runners on in the sixth or seventh inning and the opponents' heart of the order coming up? Most of the statistical analysis has concluded there's nothing special about those last three outs and that your best reliever should be brought in at the critical moment, the way Napoleon used his reserves. At the same time, the conventional baseball book insists there is something to the "closer mentality," closing out a victory.

The Boston Red Sox tried it without a closer early after Bill James joined their front office, but they sure had set closers in Keith Foulke and Jonathan Paplebon when they won it all in 2004 and last season. 

Look at Lou Piniella's bullpen usage -- especially this spring -- and he might be having it both ways. Last season, Carlos Marmol was clearly the Cubs' best reliever by any statistical analysis. Yet Piniella used him at critical junctures in the middle innings, leaving the ninth, usually, to Ryan Dempster. This spring, he appears to be leaning to keeping Marmol in the same role, with the veteran Kerry Wood as closer, provided his arm and now his back hold up. Coincidence, or has Lou intuited -- or even read -- what the statheads have been espousing?

"I think that's just coincidence," Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus said last week after the BP book signing at the DePaul Barnes & Noble downtown. "I think the fact was he wasn't comfortable putting a rookie in the closer's job. He was the best reliever, obviously, but he didn't want to let him close."

Fine, but it sure seems as if Lou's going to go with Wood as closer this season and Marmol again in the cavalry role. There is, indeed, something to Wood fitting the traditional closer's mentality as a tough Texas fireballer. Yet Marmol has been, statistically, the Cubs' best reliever in spring training. Coincidence? I think Lou really has intuited something new about the game -- that the biggest outs might come in the middle innings -- while at the same time staying true to the baseball book. And who can argue with that? Not me; I've got Wood at a $1 salary in my keeper fantasy league. 

Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak was in town last weekend to tape 15 family-, college-, and sports-themed episodes that will begin airing April 28. Sajak was born in Chicago and grew up around 31st Street and Kedzie. He attended Goethe and Gary elementary schools, graduated from Farragut High School, and went to Columbia College (while working nights as a desk clerk at the Palmer House Hotel), leaving early to enlist in the army in 1968. His mother still lives in Crystal Lake.

Before a taping on Saturday I chatted with Sajak. He recently hosted the Pat Sajak Baseball Hour on mlb.com for three years (he had to end it a year and a half ago because of scheduling conflicts) and became an investor in the Golden Baseball League, an independent professional league with eight teams in the western U.S. and Canada. His son plays baseball for his high school team in Maryland.

Are you a Cubs or a White Sox fan?

You know, I get asked that a lot. I'm a fan of both teams. I've never understood why I had to hate one or the other. I grew up close enough to Comiskey that I could hear the fireworks after games, but I watched the Cubs on TV. And back when Bill Veeck was with the White Sox I used to go to the Sunday double-headers for $1.50.

Any favorite players from those teams?

Well, I followed the White Sox pennant team in '59, so there was Luis Aparicio, Nellie Fox, Ted Kluszewski. On the Cubs I liked Ron Santo, Ernie Banks, Billy Williams.

Did you play baseball growing up?

No, I didn't throw or hit or field or run well--other than that I was a good athlete [laughing].

Have you ever used performance-enhancing drugs?

[Laughing] Yeah, you can tell when I spin the wheel that I've done steroids--I've been injected a few times.

Sajak says that when he got into town last Wednesday he went to the Blackhawks game (they beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-0) and over Thursday and Friday ate lots of hot dogs at Al's #1 Italian Beef (1079 W. Taylor St.). He's "addicted" to Chicago-style hot dogs, he says, and can't find them in LA. Here's his essential-ingredients list.

Pat Sajak's Chicago-style hot dog*

1) Vienna beef

2) Poppy-seed bun, steamed (the steaming is very important, Sajak says)

3) Yellow mustard

4) Onions

5) "Tiny little peppers"

6) Celery salt

* slices of pickle, tomato, and cucumber optional

Time capsule 1980: Jane Byrne is mayor, the Cubs are still owned by the Wrigley family, and Harry Caray is still calling games for the White Sox, who are still owned by Bill Veeck and still play at Comiskey Park. The Cubs roster includes local legends like Rick Reuschel, Bruce Sutter, Dave Kingman, and Lee Smith--and Mike Royko defects from Cubs fandom?

Sure enough, in a Q & A by Sydney Weisman that ran in the Reader May 9, 1980, Royko announced with much fanfare that he'd had enough. Here's a partial transcript of his conversation with her:

I spoke with Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Mike Royko shortly after he made a major life decision. Following is an edited version of our conversation:

Sydney Weisman: What took you so long to become a White Sox fan? 

Mike Royko: It took me until there were players I did not like as people. That's really the truth. I've been watching this Cub team for a couple of years and something was bothering me about it and I couldn't figure out what it was about this team that bothered me. And then I realized I don't like these guys. I don't like whiners, I don't like people who go out and cry to the public about their problems when they have no problems. At a time when people at all levels of life are really having a hard time making it, you have a bunch of grown men, not even grown men, young men making these incredible sums of money and just crying and moaning. I don't care how unhappy they are, and what their business dealings are. I don't care how much money they make. I just don't understand people going public with this. Like Sutter did, and like [Jerry] Martin, their center fielder, these guys are a bunch of jerks. So what am I doing here, wasting my time, cheering for jerks?

SW: Can we expect to see you at Comiskey Park?

MR: Yeah, I'm going to broadcast part of one of the ball games. 

SW: With Harry?

MR: Yeah, with Harry. I'm learning to say na-na-na-na and Holy Cow. . . . I really don't know much about the Sox, being a Cubs fan all those years. I didn't feel it was right to watch the Sox.

SW: But like this weekend, you'll begin?

MR: Yeah, I couldn't begin, though, until I'd taken the oath. Now I don't even know that Dave Kingman exists. I wish them well, but I'll never see them again . . .

Royko went to Comiskey, reporting in a subsequent column that "it was an uplifting spiritual experience. Veeck bought me a couple of beers; Harry Caray welcomed me and bellowed 'Holy Cow' in my left ear." The honeymoon didn't last long, though: a few months later, when Veeck sold the Sox to Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, Royko used the transfer as a pretext to go back to the Cubs--who for his pains went 64-98 and placed last in the NL East (though in fairness I should acknowledge that the Sox went 70-90).

The next year the Cubs would be sold to Tribune Company, Harry Caray would begin broadcasting games on WGN, and a new era would begin.

Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus is out with his annual list of the top 100 minor-league prospects, but don't waste your time hunting for all the Chicago players on it. The Cubs placed two -- Geovany Soto at 37 and Josh Vitters at 45 -- and the Sox just one, Aaron Poreda at 87. Suffice to say it's hard times down on the farm for Chicago's baseball teams.

Cubs fans got a glimpse of Soto at the end of last season, and they liked what they saw. After a Most Valuable Player season at Triple-A Iowa, where he hit .353 with 26 homers and 109 runs batted in, he batted .389 with three more homers and eight RBI while catching 18 games in September. Manager Lou Piniella liked what he saw, too, as Soto started the first two games of the playoffs in Arizona. His homer off Doug Davis to put the Cubs briefly ahead in Game Two was the high point of the series for them, as they went on to be swept in three games. General manager Jim Hendry evidently liked it too: he let Jason Kendall go in free agency to make Soto the de facto Cubs' starting catcher this season. A 37 ranking isn't exactly can't-miss territory, but if Soto can hit 20 homers while batting respectably and calling a good game, he'll fit right in. BP's Pecota projection says Soto should approach those numbers. Just as important where the Cubs are concerned, he's got the matinee-idol looks to have the Wrigley Field tube-top brigade sighing for years.

A few Cubs fans got a glimpse of Vitters as well, but they probably didn't realize it. The Cubs' top choice and third overall in the June draft out of Cypress High School in California, he was considered the top high-school hitter available, and upon signing in August they let the then 17-year-old suit up and take batting practice before a game. He's lean and slight, but the ball jumps off his bat, and the projection is he'll fill out and hit for power in playing the position once held by Ron Santo. But for now it's all speculation. He hit .067 in seven games in his Rookie League debut in Mesa, and not much better at .190 in seven more games at short-season Boise. He figures to be at least four years away, but a 45 ranking is high praise for a teenager and marks high promise.

Poreda was the Sox' top draft choice too, 25th overall last June, out of the University of San Francisco, and he had a much more impressive debut at Great Falls in the Rookie League. The lefty was undefeated in four decisions, with a sparkling 1.17 earned-run average, with 48 strikeouts against 10 walks in 46 innings. Bears fans should like him, too, as he played defensive end and tight end in high school, and has filled out to 6-foot-6 and 240 pounds. His three-quarter-sidearm delivery -- think a big Billy Wagner -- produces a fastball that has touched 100 miles an hour and a nasty sinker, but thus far has kept him from developing any other breaking or off-speed pitches. His fastest route to the majors is as a reliever, and if the Sox go through what they did last year in the bullpen, it's not unthinkable the 21-year-old could be called up this year, though the Sox would no doubt prefer to take it slow and see if he can develop as a starter.

The Sox would have had another couple of pitchers in the top 100, but instead they included the highly touted Fautino de los Santos (46) and Gio Gonzalez (56) in the Nick Swisher trade. That left them with "arguably the thinnest farm system in baseball," according to Baseball America's Phil Rogers. So, Sox fans, just consider Nick Swisher your top new prospect for years to come.

I haven't seen Kosuke Fukudome play, but I know his statistics make him look like a prime baseball player. Over nine years with the Chunichi Dragons in the Japan League, he hit .305 with 192 homers. Even better, he posted a .397 lifetime on-base percentage and was above .430 his last three seasons. That's the sign of a good, sound, fundamental ballplayer with a keen batting eye, something the Cubs need (as if any team couldn't use such a talent), which is why they paid $48 million over the next four seasons to bring him to Chicago.

Baseball Prospectus's Nate Silver projects him hitting 15 homers with a .289 batting average and a .400 on-base percentage next season in Wrigley Field, while noting that's held down by the season-ending arm injury he suffered this year, which should be fully healed by spring training. In a video, BP's Will Carroll likewise says Fukudome's skill set should translate to the American game, while commenting on the mysterious lack of video on him in the digital age. So for now all we have to go on is his presentation to the Chicago media at Wrigley Field Wednesday -- which was quite favorable.

Speaking through a translator, Fukudome said all the right things: that he chose the Cubs to play for a "historic team" in a "historic ballpark" before "ecstatic fans." He answered concerns about day baseball by pointing to his career, in which "I actually performed better in day games," adding, "I think I can make my adjustments as I play the game." Asked to project his own statistical goals, he said, "My only target is to help this team win a championship." Altogether, he projected a confident, smiling demeanor, with long, seemingly eloquent and well-thought-out answers. But one image struck me above all the others. When Fukudome donned a Cubs jersey (No. 1) and cap and finally had the jersey buttoned over his dress shirt and tie and the cap fitted just right, he suddenly thrust out his chest with apparent pride, as if the Cubs had finally found the man to epitomize the "Cubbie swagger" Lou Piniella said they needed when he became manager a year ago.

So here's your homework between now and spring training, Cubs fans: Pronounce Kosuke Fukudome. The last name, Fukudome, is easy enough: Foo-koo-DOH-may. But the first is just two syllables: KOH-skay. Right-field bleacher bums: time to trade the salaam in for a proper bow. 

There wasn't much doing at baseball's winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee, this week, especially where the Cubs and White Sox were concerned. Only one major free agent signed: Andruw Jones, who's going to the Los Angeles Dodgers for $36.2 million for two years. (Where did LA general manager Ned Colletti learn to spend that kind of money? Not doing media relations for the Cubs in the early years of the Tribune era, that's for sure.) Only one blockbuster trade came off, but it was a doozy, with the Detroit Tigers obtaining Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera from the Florida Marlins for six highly regarded prospects. A fan might think this would put a little urgency in the step of Sox GM Kenny Williams, but in a record-breaking case of denial he replied, "All this has done is put the Tigers in a better position to compete with us." True, the Sox are only two years removed from their world championship, while the Tigers are one year past their American League pennant, and neither made the playoffs last season, but the Tigers were a lot closer at 88 wins than the Sox at 72 last season.

The Sox made one deal early on, obtaining Carlos Quentin from the Arizona Diamondbacks for single-A player Chris Carter, and I like the trade even though it hurts personally. I can vouch for Quention, as he was on my National League-only rotisserie team, which means I now lose the rights to him. Losing him to the Sox eases the pain, however. Quentin hits for power, and more than that he has a discerning batting eye. Factor in his penchant for being hit by pitches and he's an on-base machine, something the Sox badly needed. He was hurt last year and fell out of favor in Arizona, and Baseball Prospectus weighed in preferring Carter's potential, but Quentin looks to me to be just the sort of player who benefits from a change of scenery. Pencil him in for 20 homers, 80 runs batted in, and a .350 on-base percentage in left field -- and watch him build on those numbers in the years ahead, barring injury.

Otherwise, however, the Sox stood pat, and Williams got cranky about being unable to pull off deals for Cabrera and Torii Hunter. I like that the Sox seem ready to give Brian Anderson another shot at center, but they still need a leadoff man (neither Jerry Owens nor Danny Richar seemed ready to fill that critical position last season), and the bullpen remains in shambles even with the acquisition of Scott Linebrink.

The Cubs were quiet for the most part too, but the Sox could have benefitted from the sort of minor tweaking the Cubs pulled off in obtaining hard-throwing bullpen help in prospects Jose Ascanio from Atlanta in a trade and then Tim Lahey in a deal growing out of the Rule Five draft of unprotected minor leaguers. Both have impressive stats and 90-mile-an-hour fastballs, and they bolster an already overstocked bullpen with the return of Kerry Wood.

The Cubs are reportedly lying in the weeds for Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukodome should he decide to come to America, but otherwise they seem prepared to give Felix Pie another shot in center. He could still be great if he improves his plate discipline and learns to cover that hole in his swing on the inside corner with improved bunting. So they still look like an NL playoff team, and they stake their improvement on adding Geovany Soto at catcher, which seems well placed. But if they sign Fukodome, look for Kenny Williams to insist that only puts the Cubs in better position to compete with the Sox for Chicago's baseball fans.

Try to forget Devin Hester -- at least for the moment. Believe it or not, one other figure on the Chicago sports scene has shown even better moves of late: John McDonough. On November 20 the Cubs' president left the team to accept the equivalent position with the Blackhawks.

You might be scratching your head. McDonough goes from the Cubs, whom he built into a marketing marvel with the help of his invention of the Cubs Convention, to the Blackhawks, the bereft NHL franchise that has been struggling to draw 10,000 fans a game? Yet even after the Cubs made the playoffs this season, McDonough's position was precarious with the team up for sale in the Tribune Co. deal. A new owner would no doubt want to move in his or her own people. So McDonough takes the safe money -- and he was right to.

It's no risk to McDonough. He moves to a team overjoyed to have him. But the potential upside is high: to reclaim Chicago, and the United Center, as the home of the Hawks. He has a lot to work with, starting with teen-phenom Hawk rookies Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, and not coincidentally including new Hawk honcho Rocky Wirtz, who has wasted no time overthrowing the Neanderthal legacy of his father, Bill Wirtz. This franchise has immense resources and a sleeping fan base eager to be awakened. Give McDonough credit for picking Lou Piniella as the Cubs' manager -- and even more for picking the Hawks over the Cubs.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella tried to put an optimistic spin on the season in his final words after being swept out of the playoffs last weekend. "This is just a start, fellas. We're gonna get better," he told reporters in the Wrigley Field media interview room after the third game. "We'll reconvene next spring and take this thing further." The Cubs went from worst to first in the National League Central Division in Uncle Lou's first year, true enough, but is there just cause to believe that upswing will continue, and not be just a one-year mirage, the way it was in 2003 -- and 1998 and 1989 and 1984?

The Cubs are not a young team. On the pitching staff we can expect continued improvement for Rich Hill and Sean Marshall, and perhaps Carlos Marmol will move up to closer after looking overworked as a middle reliever at the end of the season. One can expect more consistency from "ace" Carlos Zambrano, and perhaps, just maybe, a full season for Kerry Wood. But this season Ted Lilly was as good as he's ever likely to be (up to his implosion in the playoffs), and Jason Marquis will never be reliable. On the offensive side, Geovany Soto looks ready to be the starting catcher after being named Most Valuable Player of the Pacific Coast League, but otherwise Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, and Alfonso Soriano are all at or near peak levels with little room for improvement, which can also be said of Mark DeRosa, Jacque Jones, and, should he return, Cliff Floyd. Felix Pie has a hole in his swing and may never be ready for the majors, and even Ryan Theriot and Mike Fontenot, the little players who could and did this year, might have maxed out. Most painfully, the Arizona Diamondbacks revealed in the playoffs how easy it was to attack overaggresssive hitters like Soriano and Ramirez, and even Piniella admitted before that third game he couldn't change a leopard's spots on that count.

Even worse, the Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies are both showing in the National League Championship Series what true, homegrown talent looks like (even if Chris Young isn't homegrown but was spirited away from the White Sox in the trade for Javier Vazquez). In the Cubs' own division, the Milwaukee Brewers still have the best young talent core in the majors, and having come so close this year they figure to shore up their pitching staff beyond Ben Sheets and Yovani Gallardo. Even the lowly Cincinnati Reds are restocking on the quick, with Jay Bruce and Joey Votto and pitcher Homer Bailey set to join a team that already includes the fearsome Adam Dunn, Brandon Phillips, and, yes, Ken Griffey Jr., just as the Cubs' discarded Dusty Baker is being mentioned as a managerial candidate. At this point, they look like the Brewers of next season.

The Cubs aren't just going to have to get better next year, they're going to have to get a lot better just to get to the playoffs, much less advance. Will whoever eventually buys the Cubs be ready to throw another $300 million to general manager Jim Hendry to improve the team again over the off-season?  

Something changed for Cub fans in 2003, something etched into their outlook by the White Sox' world championship in 2005. Manager Dusty Baker urged his team and the fans to reject the old "lovable losers" stereotype, and they did, but when the Cubs came up five outs short of the World Series neither the players nor the fans were able to return to that earlier innocence.

If you want an illustration, look no further than Alfonso Soriano. A smiley player with speed and power -- a coltish manner in the field matched with the wrists of Ernie Banks -- Soriano is the present-day incarnation of the sort of star the Cubs have always turned into matinee idols with their TV deals and afternoon games. Yet in marked contrast with Banks, Ryne Sandberg, and most of all Sammy Sosa, Soriano hasn't been embraced by Cub fans. Sosa too was a skilled if flawed player, like Soriano with a fan-friendly demeanor, like Soriano with a weak grasp of the fundamentals, a largely selfish player incapable of hitting a cutoff man or giving himself up to advance a runner from second to third with a groundout to the right side of the infield. Soriano heard it from the boo birds when he made the last out in the Cubs' playoff sweep at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and one gets the impression that it would take more than even a 60-homer season to win them over.

Cub fans want to win at this point, by next year a full century since their last championship. Pity Soriano for not arriving in town in less demanding times, but as it is he'd be well advised to learn how to talk a walk -- and hit a grounder to second base when necessary.

Writing about Lou Piniella's decision to yank Carlos Zambrano after the sixth inning in Game One of the National League Division Series, Rick Telander goes batty:

"What might be remembered as Lou's Boo-Boo or his Dopa-in-Maricopa had all the potential to be the kind of lingering goof that could fry the manager into part of the loser's omelette that is Cubbie lore."

Say wha? You have to crack a lot of eggs to make that one.

Well, I got the Boston Red Sox right with my predictions in late March, and if that didn't exactly take a Nostradamus I was one of the few to get the Philadelphia Phillies right as well, mainly because I simply hated the Mets. Give me half credit for having the Cleveland Indians in the playoffs as the American League wild card team, not the Central Division champs that they turned out to be with their much-improved bullpen (even if closer Joe Borowski was as iffy as I'd expected). And I should get half credit for the San Diego Padres as well, even if I can't say the Padres were the better team in their one-game wild-card playoff with the Rockies in Colorado Monday.

San Diego manager Bud Black played three butchers in the outfield in the most critical game of the year, and they cost his team the game. Yeah, I know, Mike Cameron and Milton Bradley were hurt, but what, you're telling me the entire San Diego minor league system didn't have even a Sam Fuld* to call upon? That indictment falls on San Diego general manager Kevin Towers as well. Wouldn't Jermaine Dye have looked good -- even in one of those nauseous oatmeal-colored Padre unis -- playing for the Padres Monday night? Or even Brian Anderson? I don't know what his White Sox counterpart Kenny Williams was holding out for to deal them, but Towers has to be kicking his own ass for not pulling the trigger on whatever it was. Boston is my no-brainer pick to win it all right now behind Josh Beckett, but San Diego had the pitching to compete. Pity the Padres didn't get the chance.

Oh, that's right, I had the Milwaukee Brewers over the Cubs, too, didn't I? Yet with the notable caveat that the Brewers would hold up only as long as ace Ben Sheets did. That proved to be prophetic. The Brewers tanked when Sheets went on the disabled list with a finger strain at midseason, then finished their implosion when he pulled up lame with a bad hamstring going to the mound, after he had already rallied them on his return in September. Also, allow me to point out I was one of the few to label the Arizona Diamondbacks possible contenders.

So what about the Cubs-Diamondbacks series? First, baseball proceeds not to shoot itself in the foot, but to hand the gun to TV and tell it to blast away by letting Fox and TBS fix the schedule. Postseason baseball, to me, is afternoon weekday games in October -- kids sneaking radios into school and adults slipping out of work to catch a few innings in a bar. Instead, TBS will present all three games in Arizona -- if three games in Arizona there are -- at 9 PM CST. What, no Chicago schoolkid has an interest in the outcome?

That said, I like the Cubs, but not as much as others. The Snakes won 90 games while being outscored for a reason, and that reason is Brandon Webb. He figures to go in Games 1 and 5. I like the Cubs' Carlos Zambrano on the road in Arizona in Wednesday's opener, but not so much if he goes with three days' rest in Game 4 here in Chicago on Sunday. He looked awful at home against the Cincinnati Reds on short rest in a critical series in September, and I wouldn't expect him any better in the playoffs. Still, the Cubs -- yes, the Cubs -- have the more experienced playoff roster, and manager Lou Piniella has been known to work postseason miracles, as with the world champion Reds in 1990 and, as Sox fans can attest, with the Seattle Mariners, flummoxing the Sox in 2000. I'll take the Cubs in four games, but I fear whoever emerges from the Phils-Rox series. Even so, it doesn't matter. The BoSox -- or whoever takes the AL pennant -- will win the World Series handily. This year, there are no Detroit Tiger pretenders in that bunch.

*Scroll down to September 22 for video of the rookie's catch in the ivy at Wrigley. 

What did Carlos Zambrano say after his brutal Labor Day start that required an apology? Nothing, really. Zambrano said simply he didn't "accept" being booed after his poor performance -- including a baserunning boner on offense -- and that "when you're struggling, that's when you want to feel support from the fans." The only place Zambrano really skirted propriety was when he said Cub fans are the best in baseball, but their churlish behavior on Monday showed it was all about them.

Nothing too terrible -- or untrue -- there. Even when Mark Buehrle was scuffling last year for the White Sox, he didn't get booed the way Zambrano was Monday, but then again a World Series championship buys a lot of charity, while the Cubs themselves have been saying for years going back to the Dusty Baker administration that they were trying to shake the image of being lovable losers. So the fans booed Zambrano, he in turn ripped the fans, and when the media made a big deal of it in Tuesday's papers Zambrano -- clearly at the Cubs' urging -- went into damage-control mode. Hey, as Jim Bouton said to his roommate Gary Bell in Ball Four, it's never wrong to say you're sorry, even when you don't mean it -- and perhaps then most of all.

The Milwaukee Brewers were slugging the ball into the stands -- and onto Waveland and Sheffield -- with the wind blowing out during batting practice at Wrigley Field as they opened their big series with the Cubs Tuesday night. Even so, the mood around the Brewers' batting cage was markedly different from the last time they were here. The sunken-eyed Ryan Braun, the "Hebrew Hammer," was quietly efficient as usual, smashing balls into the left-field stands, but the left-handed slugger Prince Fielder eschewed the personal sound effects ("Bam!") he offered last time he was taking swings in the Wrigley cage. The few Milwaukee fans in the Wrigley grandstand before the game tried to make up for it by hooting and cheering Fielder's every tape-measure clout that landed deep in the bleachers or out on Sheffield, but on the field the Brew Crew was silent -- no batting-practice games or situational hitting -- and manager Ned Yost worked his chewing gum hard, with his jaw muscles tense and flexing.

And with good reason. The Brewers entered the series having surrendered first place in the National League Central Division to the Cubs by losing four straight, 10 of 13, 14 of 19, and 19 of 27 since mid-July, when pitching ace Ben Sheets went on the disabled list with the Brewers leading the Cubs by three-and-a-half games. They were, to paraphrase the Cubs' old TV announcer Jack Brickhouse, a snake-bitten Brewer ball club, and that they'd stay. They claimed a 3-0 lead early, but starter Jeff Suppan gave one back when he allowed Cub pitcher Rich Hill a run-scoring single, and the Cubs went ahead with four runs in the seventh, the lead run scoring on an error by Milwaukee reliever Scott Linebrink. The Cubs won, 5-3, on Lou Piniella's birthday. Through it all, the Brewers' batting-practice power only led to overaggressiveness in the game, as they chased numerous high fastballs. It was the 14th time this season the Brewers have lost after blowing a lead of three runs or more -- the most in the majors. At the end of the night, the Brewers had fallen into third place behind the Saint Louis Cardinals, and they looked done. They couldn't get any tighter.  

Wrigley Field fans got their first glimpse of top draft pick Josh Vitters in a Cub uniform on Friday -- but only the earliest arrivals before the game with the Cardinals got to see him, and they probably didn’t even realize what they were looking at. Vitters, the 17-year-old third baseman chosen third overall by the Cubs in the June draft out of Cypress, California, was still in town after signing his contract earlier this week and took batting practice with the scrubeenies in the Cubs’ last group Friday morning just as the gates were opening. Appropriately enough, Vitters wore uniform No. 1, with shoes borrowed from Cliff Floyd and a leftover black bat from Rob Bowen. He displayed a loose, fluid, almost slappy swing, but as advertised by scouts -- Baseball America proclaimed him the best pure hitter in the draft and the high school player closest to being ready for the majors -- the ball leapt off his bat with line-drive power. As one might expect with a teenager taking his first batting practice in a big league park, he didn’t let many pitches go by, at one point taking an eye-high fastball and lashing it into left field.

“The kid has a good swing, doesn’t he?” said manager Lou Piniella, who also made a point of shaking Vitters’s hand between turns in the cage and saying, “Good to have you here.” Vitters won’t be here long, however. He’s booked to join the Cubs’ rookie league team in Mesa, Arizona, next week, in time for his 18th birthday, with a brief boost to Boise, Idaho, expected before the end of the short-season Class A Northwest League campaign. After that, he might put in a month in the Arizona Instructional League this fall.

Although listed at 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds, Vitters looked lean and rangy, almost skinny, not like a power-hitting third baseman, but that’s where the alchemy of baseball scouting comes in. It’s expected that, with a fluid swing with good timing and strong wrists, Vitters will develop even more power as he fills out. For now, he said he felt welcomed in the Cubs’ clubhouse, even with his $3.2 million deal, but how could anyone take offense to that chump change on a day Carlos Zambrano was signing a five-year, $91.5 million contract? “They all were great to me,” Vitters said afterward, somewhat bashfully, “and it was an amazing experience.” He said he was trying not to set a timetable, but hoped to be back at the big league level in two-and-a-half to four years.   

Is it worse to lose a game or a key player? The Cubs lost both Sunday, but the Brewers' loss to the Phillies might have been even more damaging. First the Cubs. When Alfonso Soriano pulled up lame going from first to third Sunday night at Wrigley Field, I thought his season was done -- and with it that of the Cubs. It had all the looks of a torn Achilles' tendon -- a season-ending and career-threatening injury. It turned out to be a strained quadriceps muscle, meaning Soriano is out for a fortnight to a month. That's a considerable loss for a key offensive player, but consider the plight of the Brewers. They lost Sunday in brutal fashion, blowing a 6-1 lead in the ninth inning. A couple of errors, one committed by third baseman Ryan Braun, who as I wrote fields as if he had a spatula in his left hand and not a glove, contributed to the Philadelphia rally, and the Phils went on to win 8-6 in 11 innings.

Which was worse? The Cubs lost 8-3, in the process presenting New York starter Tom Glavine with his 300th career victory -- no humilation in that. And the loss of someone like Soriano frequently prompts teammates to step it up. Eric Patterson, Corey's younger brother, joined the team today and will attempt to become another in a series of Cub rookies to make an impact this season.

True, Cub closer Ryan Dempster got lit up for the second time in a row against his old Met teammates, but the Cubs have three potential closers in waiting: Bobby Howry, Carlos Marmol, and Kerry Wood, who made his season debut in the same game Sunday night to a raucous crowd response. Compare that to the Brew crew. Bullpen closer Francisco Cordero blew the save Sunday, and nothing shatters a baseball team's confidence faster than a bullpen that can't hold a lead. (Just ask the White Sox.)

The Brewers still led the Cubs by a game Monday, and even as a Cubs fan I'm standing by Milwaukee as my team of destiny in the National League Central Division -- though not without qualms. I said they'd be good as long as ace Ben Sheets held the pitching staff together. He went down with a strained finger, but phenom Yovani Gallardo stepped right in for him, for instance winning a pitching duel Friday. Still, that puts strain on the pitching staff -- meaning no room for error should their bullpen go bad. We'll see how the Cubs and the Brewers weather their various struggles in the coming weeks as they head toward their showdown at Wrigley Field the last week of August.

The Cubs stood pat at the trading deadline and seemed content with what they have. With Kerry Wood and Daryle Ward due back from the disabled list in the coming days, general manager Jim Hendry figured they were better additions than anyone available  -- and at considerably less cost in prospects and salary.

If the presence of Tadahito Iguchi on the visiting Philadelphia Phillies at Wrigley Field this week reminded Chicago fans that not everyone was so content, still the White Sox surprised with how little they actually did to break up and rebuild the 2005 World Championship team. Only weeks ago Mark Buehrle seemingly had his ticket stamped out of town, with Jermaine Dye and Jose Contreras soon to follow. Yet once Buehrle signed an extension, Sox GM "Trader" Kenny Williams suddenly seemed reluctant -- or unable --  to move anyone else. The Sox got little for Gooch in the form of minor-league pitcher Michael Dubee, and even less for Rob Mackowiak at the deadline. Meanwhile, Dye, Contreras, and Jon Garland, also mentioned as possible trade bait, stayed in place.

The Cubs could afford to rest content: with tonight's win over the Phillies they remain just one game back of the Brewers for first, and they'd be tied if Milwaukee hadn't rallied to beat the Mets in 13 innings. The White Sox couldn't. There was probably no market for Contreras after the way he's pitched lately--now at 5-14, he was the loser in tonight's 16-3 drubbing at the hands of the Yankees, just the worst of a string of games in which he's looked washed-up. On the other end of the spectrum, Garland, at 8-7, would have to be considered the team's de facto ace at this point and a potential piece of the long-term puzzle.

Not so Dye, I'm afraid. Game Four World Series hero or not, he's a player whose skills and fielding range are diminishing rapidly at a position relatively easy to fill on the free-agent market. Williams should have moved him, if not for another young outfielder, then to clear the way for the Sox to test out Ryan Sweeney once and for all. Unless he can pull off a waiver-wire miracle, Williams is looking to be disappointed this off-season with how he failed to address the team's problems when he still had the chance. You know it's bad when even Paul Konerko gets himself tossed out of a game.

The Cubs sent Felix Pie down to Triple-A Iowa before opening the second half of the season after the All-Star break. The writing was on the wall: manager Lou Piniella had been favoring Angel Pagan of late in center field. Pie was hitting only .216 with two homers and 18 runs batted in, while Pagan was hitting .267 with three homers and 13 RBI in fewer at-bats. Yet, as Paul Sullivan pointed out today in the Tribune, the Cubs were 32-16 in games Pie appeared in. Some of that was no doubt padded slightly by games where Pie was inserted late as a defensive replacement with the Cubs ahead, but a .667 winning percentage speaks for itself, especially on a team only one game over .500 overall. Pie had six stolen bases to Pagan's three, and also had shown progress in plate discipline, with 11 walks against 139 at-bats, for an on-base percentage of .272 -- not great by any means, but not abysmal. Most important, the Cubs simply looked better with Pie in center field. He has great range and had yet to make an error, and that played a factor in the team's improved pitching since his arrival. If the Cubs sent him down because they think he was overmatched and needs more seasoning, fine, but if they think the team is better without him, they're wrong. A sharp-fielding center fielder brings a lot of intangibles to a team, and those intangibes are made tangible when a record of 32-16 turns up in games a center fielder plays. That's no accident.

Which brings to mind the White Sox and Brian Anderson. Anderson played center field like Jesus' son last season. Baseball Prospectus estimated he saved the team 12 runs over the average center fielder -- almost a run every 10 games he played in, which is considerable. The Sox looked better early in the season, when Anderson was playing more, than they did later, when manager Ozzie Guillen was giving Rob Mackowiak more time in center. There's no denying Anderson struggled early, but when he bottomed out at .152 on June 10, the Sox were already 38-23 and about to run off nine straight wins. Yet for some reason the Sox and Guillen did nothing but doubt Anderson, even after he started hitting. They urged him to play winter ball, attacked him when he resisted, and pooh-poohed it when he came home from Venezuela early with stomach problems. They never really seemed to want to play him this season with the acquisition of Darin Erstad, and at one point Guillen even played Anderson in left with Erstad in center -- inexcusable. True, he was hitting an anemic .118 when sent back to Triple-A Charlotte April 29, but that was in 17 at-bats over 13 games.

I'm not necessarily saying A