Question for the Masses

Looking back at our recent games played, apparently the Cubs have taken 2 out of 3 against their last two opponents. That is actually pretty good, considering if they could keep it up all year they would be the proud owners of a .666 win percentage. But for some reason my gut seems to tell me that the team has been rather lackluster as of late, even knowing that they still lead the Central. Does anyone else feel this way, that we've been playing badly and still winning? I'm sure Soriano's return will straighten things out but this still worries me.

And from a blog that I had not read before yesterday and that puts a lot more thought into these matters than I do, Jacque Jones may have saved the Cubs season. And the collective cynics of the world say: huh?

Daryle Ward is a Golden God

Ward just blasted a grand slam in the 3rd inning to give the division leading Cubs a 5-0 lead over the redbirds. Assuming Sean Marshall can keep it together this will be a magnificent day.

Crap. Juan Encarnacion just made it 5-1 as I'm writing this. Is it too early to get a pitcher warming up in the bullpen?

All things considered though, I'm still amazed that we're 1st in the division after the horrible baseball we've been playing since Soriano was out. He can't come back soon enough.

Back Spasms Anyone?

After today's game, I've come to the conclusion that Ryan Dempster needs to go the way of Wade Miller and come down with a sudden case of back spasms for the rest of the season. I know Ryan has his good moments, but it seems like every time I see him take the mound he puts two men on base and makes me shout angry things at my television. Put in Carlos Marmol, he could be twice the closer that Dempster ever was. With the addition of Kerry Wood to the 'pen we can use Marmol to close, Wood can be our setup guy with Howry helping out, and the rest of the relievers can fill in as needed. Either way, Dempster cannot be allowed to close games if I'm expecting to live past 50.

Cubs are a game back from the Brewers now. That was a lot shorter than I expected.

Well That Was Short Lived

The Cubs grabbed the outright division lead for a solid 39 minutes before matching the Brewer's shoddy performance and earning a loss of their own. Tomorrow, the two teams switch opponents yet again as they've been doing for the past two months or so. If anyone knows why their schedules are set up like this, could you let me know? It's getting kind of weird and I'm not sure how much I like it.

Again, technically the Cubs still have a slight edge over the Brewers. But technically Carmen Electra has never told me she doesn't want to date me. A victory in both cases, yes, albeit a rather small one.

NL Pitcher of the Month Zambrano takes the mound against the Mighty Mets, one of the few teams in the NL that worries me. Zambrano had a 5-1 record in July with a 1.83 ERA, which is pretty incredible. Then you realize that Ted Lilly, who I until recently may or may not have hated, also pulled off a 5-1 record with a slightly worse 2.52 ERA in that same month. With pitchers like these, I'm kind of disappointed we're not actually ahead of the Brewers.

Cubs Take Division Lead

With today's exciting win, the Cubs have finally taken the NL Central Division lead for what I believe is the first time all season. So I might have been off with my prediction by 3 days, but I say that's close enough to be right. And I'm sure many of you out there are looking at the standings and thinking hold the phone, we're still tied with Milwaukee. NOT.

Yes, technically the Cubs and Brewers are both 8 games over .500 at this point, but we've played two less games. This gives us an all important .001 lead in winning percentage, which places us squarely at the top of the standings.

The team had a lot of help getting there tonight, with Thunder Matt's heads-up baserunning and Brett Myers control problems at the end helping secure the W and the Mets taking care of the Brewers for us. I don't need to spell it out for you though: this team is hot. I think I'm perfectly justified in getting overly excited about today considering this is the best position we've been in since 2004.



And in case you were wondering, Minnesota was hot and dry this past week, contrary to popular belief that there is always snow on the ground. It's nice to be back to a place where I can watch the Cubbies every day. Here's hoping Marshall can lock it up for tomorrow and we can start to increase this lead.