http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2007/07/derrek-lee-drop.html

From the Article (Paul Sullivan)

Lee was injured during Tuesday night's 4-2 loss to the Giants after fouling a ball off his left ankle. He expects to be out for 2-3 games, which in part lead to his decision to drop his case. A hearing on the appeal had not been scheduled.

Lee will miss the rest of the Giants series and a weekend set against Arizona. The Cubs have Monday off. Lee's first game back is set for Tuesday in the first game of a series against St. Louis.

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From the espn.com article it says that the Cubs made Zambrano an offer of $11,025,000, a gap of $4,475,000 from what Z's agent requested.  

To me, it's not a question of IF they will come to terms as how much.  Perhaps they will just split the difference?  

(If you have nothing to add to your proposed diary, then it probably belongs as a comment under another appropriate thread.  The minimum is 300 characters.)

..via ESPN.com (Yahoo doesn't have the story yet)

Andruw Jones claimed on waivers; 10-5 rights loom

First Paragraph..

"With Andruw Jones only days away from gaining trade veto power, the All-Star center fielder was claimed on waivers by an unnamed team, leaving the Braves until 1 p.m. ET Saturday to decide whether to take their last opportunity to deal Jones unfettered." -Buster Olney

Who could it be, now?

(Sorry if this is a duplicate diary...please feel free to BOO)

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from ESPN.com...

Scoring change, 8 weeks later, lowers Maddux's ERA

It says it lowered his ERA by 1/3 of 1 point to 4.60 from 4.99, and that Cedeno would be charged with an error from the game on May 24 against the Marlins.

Filler - (Sorry Al)
  (One-line diaries are prohibited on Bleed Cubbie Blue. Give your diary a bit more thought, then give it another shot. If you have nothing to add to your proposed diary, then it probably belongs as a comment under another appropriate thread.  The minimum is 300 characters.)

Being that today is an off day for our underachieving Cubbies, I was curious to see if anyone else is watching any baseball.  Clemens returns on ESPN tonight, and regional baseball "should" be available to most people:  WSox-Cards, Mariners-Dodgers, Braves-Jays. I personally am flipping between Orioles-Marlins (and much to my chagirn, CP just made a nice diving catch) and Rocket's return.  

Any thoughts?  

From an espn.com article:

   "The Chicago Cubs agreed to a contract Sunday with fifth-round draft pick Jeff Samardzija of Notre Dame, a star wide receiver for the Fighting Irish football team."

"Samardzija's deal is for five years and worth up to $7.25 million, a source close to Samardzija told ESPN's Joe Schad."

Regretablly, Jim Hendry was probably in negociations all day so he wouldn't have to see his brainchild of a team on stink up the field at Wrigley this afternoon.  But at least this is something else to discuss.  

Rotoworld.com is reporting that Geovany Soto will likely be called up to replace Michael Barrett pending his suspension.  Soto is expected to get limited playing time behind Henry Blanco.  

Here are Soto's stats in AAA Iowa thru 5/22

.265/.341/.657 with 6 2B, 9 RBI, 13BB and 24 Ks in 36 games.

He made his ML debut last year, went 0-1 against the Astros in a game the Cubs won 5-4.  It was his only AB all season.

I honestly don't know much about him.  Would he be used to catch any specific pitcher or just fill in for Blanco occasionally?

I still don't understand why Jones gets so much criticism directed at him while Pierre gets little to none.  JJ has 30 points on JP in both avg and obp, yet he is the target of fan discontent (literally and figuratively) both here and at Wrigley.  

Okay, so maybe he has made a few inexcusable base running errors.  But at least he was on base.  How many games have the Cubs lost because Pierre has gone 0-for or 1-for?  Here is the team record for JJ/JP when each get on base 1 or fewer times a game (Hits/Walks)

 Pierre - 7-17    (9-5 when on base at least twice)
 Jones  - 11-13   (3-5 when on base at least twice)

So it is fair to say that the Cubs lose fewer games when Jones has a bad night at the plate than Pierre.  Granted, Jones has played in 6 fewer games but the trend is still visible.  This also shows that Pierre is indeed the catalyst for the offense (if being the lead off man wasn't enough already).

All I am trying to say is to treat both of these guys the same.  They are both offseason acqusitions and should be held to the same standards of play.  If you are going to boo JJ, then boo harder for the guy to his left who is making nearly $2 million more and producing less.  

  Sadly, it had been longer than I care to admit since I have seen a live Cubs game until yesterday at Turner Field.  Even worse, after 18 innings almost 7 hours of live baseball on Thursday, I still have yet to witness a Cubs victory.  (I apologize in advance for the length.)

Game 1

   There was a misty rain falling at Turner when my buddy Dave and I arrived around noon, but stopped right at the 1pm game time.  It was actually a nice break from the otherwise torrid summer heat of "Hotlanta," and the overcast skies only showed rays of sun briefly in the top of the 3rd. The stadium looked only about half full with basically all of the upper decks empty, and several areas of the field level had considerable gaps in between spectators. We scalped some tickets field level 3rd base (Cubs) side, about 4 rows up with an overall nice view of the diamond.  

Prior looked good to begin the game.  His fastball was working, the fly balls were staying in the park and he got some key strikeouts to keep the game close (most notably Raffy Furcal, who had words for the ump when he was called out looking).  The problem he had was with his off speed pitches.  He didn't seem to be locating it for strikes, and none of the Braves were biting on it, which led to 4 walks.  On the flip side, the Cubs obviously had nothing going.  Horatio Ramirez isn't exactly Cy Young, but the combination of his hot streak (5-1) and the Cubs dismal hitting lately underscored the troubles of this club and the perserverance of the Braves.  I thought it could still be an entertaining game when it was 3-0 in the 5th, but  right as I was making my 4th or 5th geriatric joke involving Julio Franco, he launched one into the outfield seats and the game was basically sealed.  The only bright spot for me in the game was getting (I would say catching but...) a laser line drive foul from Sergio Mitre's arm to Andruw Jones' bat to damn near taking off my right leg in the bottom of the 7th.  My first foul ball, ever =).

 Game 2

 By 530 or so, the remnants of tropical storm Cindy had turned into blue skies, sparse clouds and a very comfortable temperature for the nightcap at 730.  There were noticably more people walking towards the stadium for this one, and the stadium looked much more full compared to the first game by the 2nd inning or so.  With Smoltz on the mound, I figured it would be more of the same for the Northsiders, but the bats actually came alive. Well, sort of.  

 The game was obviously more competative than the former, and it was nice to clap for something other than a single or a strikeout.  Smoltz handcuffed the Cubs for the first 3 innings until Macias and Walker got on base and scored on a single by Ramirez and a sac fly from Hollansworthless.  The Braves came back with 3 runs in the next 2 innings, 2 of which came from Furcal's 6th homer this year.  Ramirez answered with a 2 run power shot in the 6th (which thankfully ended the obnoxious stadium "wave" that had been going.) Ohman came in to relieve in the 7th inning after a 1-2-3 6th for Williams.  This is where it gets frustrating.
  Ohman walked Furcal with 2 outs but fanned Kelly Johnson to end the inning and all was looking well. Enter Roberto Nova for the 8th.  I personally thought that Ohman was dealing, and that taking him out didn't make much sense, but hey, everything looks better in hindsight I guess. Marcus Giles comes up first and promptly blasts a pitch to right field. Myself and everyone in the stadium thought it was gone, and Burnitz made an excellent effort to catch it but it still turned in to 3 bases.  I guess (in hindsight, again) it wouldn't have mattered if it was a single because Andruw Jones crushed one over the center field wall which turned out to be the game winning home run.  I wanted to throw up.

  This should not have happened.  How can a veteran team get swept by basically a AAA Braves team + Andruw Jones, Giles, Furcal and old man Franco?  The Braves have been a MASH unit all year, but props where they are due.  They have done more with less this year than probably any team in baseball, and in the difficult NL East no less.  

  A few notes...

    Jeff Francour, a touted rookie from the Atlanta area, made his major league debut and did it with a 3 run shot off Rusch in the 8th.  I was amazed when he came to the plate in the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th he got a standing ovation from the hometown crowd each time.  

    The scoreboard at Turner Field is absolutely immense.  Calling it a jumbotron really does it no justice.  I looked for something in the stadium to reference it to but I came up with nothing.  Picture about 5 highway billboards stacked on top of each other, and in high definition.  It was funny watching the outfielders look up at it after they made a play.  

    The number of Brave to Cub fans in attendance was probably 2-1 in the first game, and blew up to around 6 or 7-1 in the second.  It was hard to gauge in the first game, because there wasn't much to cheer about, but I would say that the 2nd game count is accurate.  There was even a small "let's go cubbies" cheer that broke out briefly in the top of the 4th of the second game.

Whelp, it has been exactly 15 days since Hawkins was traded to the Giants for Jerome Williams and David Aardsma, and although I know we ALL have turned the page, I feel now is a good time to evaluate how much better off the Cubs are.

Hawkins (SF)

5    Apearances
4.0  IP
7/7  Runs/ER
0/1  Sv/L
5.48 ERA (pvs w/Cubs 3.32)

Williams(AAA Iowa)

3    Starts
18.1 IP
6/6  Runs/ER
1/0  W/L
2.95 ERA

I could not find any Cubs stats on Aardsma, leading me to believe he has no appearances thus far.

So, there are the numbers thus far for both parties in the trade.  Clearly it was a good trade on paper, but anyone would tell you that this trade had to be made because of Hawkins' play while he was a Cub, blowing leads and the like.  Looks like his struggles continue while the Cubs picked up a nice prospect, although I could see Williams used as bait when the trading deadline nears.  Any thoughts on whether or not they should keep Williams would be appreciated!