Sorry if this horse has been beaten to death, but I've been away for awhile. I noticed the genius (a.k.a. Tony LaRussa) has taken to batting the pitcher 8th again. I'm just a dumb hayseed and was hoping you all could help me with this one. What exactly is the benefit of batting the pitcher 8th if he is clearly not a better hitter than the guy batting 9th? Also, if this is such great strategy, why is that managers have been batting the pitcher 9th for as long as anyone can remember? My opinion is that LaRussa is just doing this to show he is such a great genius and hayseeds like me will never understand this childs game. Opinions?

I have to say that this has been long overdue. This article http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=633464 says Sheets could be out as little as 2 or 3 starts, or as much as 6 weeks. If it's the longer time period, I'd have to think the Brewers make a deal for some pitching. It'll be interesting to see who, if anyone, they go after. In any case this should be prime time for the Cubs to make up some ground.

This Crain's article has a list of individuals and groups that may be putting together bids for the Cubs. Looks like the bids will be between $500M and $700M. Interestingly, they mention William Wrigley Jr. as a potential bidder. Article includes a quote from Steve Stone. Too bad he couldn't be part of a group to buy the Cubs.

http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=22908&bt=cubs&arc=n&searchType=all

This bloomberg article details several interested parties in the company that owns our favorite baseball team:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a90PTCD4v7_c

It looks like Oct 27th is the deadline for bids for the corporation. It promises to be a real interesting winter.

Bob Nightengale has an interesting article in the USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/cubs/2006-08-20-cubs-baker-focus_x.htm

The article points out the higher expectations for the Cubs since 2003 as well as problems a few players have had with racism at Wrigley Field.

Ryan Dempster states that "sometimes it's a whole lot easier to play on the road."

This situation reminds me of a time in the late '70s and early '80s when Green Bay Packer fans were accused of hampering the home team's play with the constant booing. They tried to turn everything positive and make it more like a college game atmosphere.

What do you think?

With the Cardinals expected to place Carpenter on the DL today with shoulder problems, comes news now that Jim Edmonds may have a sports hernia and could miss a few weeks. Does anyone here still hold out hope for capturing the NL central. I know it's unrealistic, but the Cards losing 2 of their top players for an extended period can't hurt..

...get minor league pitchers Lincoln Holdzkom and Zach McCormack..they don't look all that hot..both single A guys...Holdzkom is 24 and has had Tommy John surgery..McCormack is also 24 and is left handed. I guess the deal is better than nothing. Holdzkom had the lower era despite the surgery. With Welley struggling this spring, I guess it made it tough to get much for him. Maybe one of these 2 will pan out. It would have been nice to get a position player prospect though since the Cubs are so thin there. Any thoughts?