For all the bad moves Jim Hendry has made over the years, one stands out above the rest. When the Cubs were in need of a 3B and OF during the 2003 season, Jim reached out to the Cubs Farm team in Pittsburgh and plucked Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez.

Ramirez has worked out just fine, and besides the shoulder injury, played really well this season. Ramirez, long known for sub-par defense, seperated a shoulder diving to stop a Ryan Braun smash. He made the play, but thus ended the Cubs playoff hopes. The Cubs never really got rolling after that injury, even though they were in contention most of the season.

Ramirez turned in his lowest HR (15) and RBI totals (65) of his Cub career, but he did that damage in just 82 games. He actually hit .317 this season with an OPS of .890, but it was obvious at times that he had trouble with his power after the injury. Hopefully, an entire offseason of rest will help Ramirez and he will roll to huge numbers in 2010.

The biggest question following Rameriz is, "will he stay healthy?" He turns 32 this year, and we've seen that players are down declining in their 30's without the help of PEDs. Will this happen to him? Or does he have a few more years in the tank. My guess is that he will turn in a couple more solid years, before giving way to Josh Vitters in 2012.

Overall, it's hard to judge Ramirez's year for the Cubs. He played well when he was in the lineup, but his missed time really killed the Cubs since they didn't have a guy like Mark DeRosa. Instead, we had to trot out Aaron Miles and Mike Fontenot in the same lineup. He was able to play late in the season with a little pain, so the Cubs have to figure that he will be just fine. Still, I would love to see a capable backup plan that doesn't include Fontenot gettting the majority of time at third base.

Sponsored by sporting and entertainment events retailer Coast to Coast Tickets, your reliable Chicago Cubs ticket broker! 

(with contributions from Kurt)
Makes sense, I guess.

When the Cubs failed to score in the bottom of the 12th, I was thinking the top of the 13th would be a breeze.

"What they should do here," I said to myself, "is let the NL leader in stolen bases take first on a base hit to lead off. They'll waste an out on Kaz calling for a bunt. Then we walk Tejada, because everyone knows Carlos Lee sucks in the late innings against young pitchers who rely too much on their fastball! Easy DP."

Check.

To continue my lengthy soliloquy, I pondered, "Now what would make the most sense for the bottom of the 13th? Lee, Ramirez, and Bradley are due up... They'll probably figure out a way to get on base. What I really want to have happen is for Soriano, the guy with three strikeouts and another out on a bad hustle play, to have to win this game. Naturally, I can expect him to hit a grand slam home run to put the game away and give the Cubs another night in first place."

It made sense then, and it makes sense now.

At times, it seemed as though the Cubs were trying to give this one away. In the bottom of the 9th, Lou seemed to overthink a bases-loaded, one-out situation. Rather than use Jake Fox to try to bring the winning run home, Lou played The Handedness Game, putting in a lefty (Fontenot) to face Valverde.

Things looked more or less fine, until a 1-1 pitch from Valverde went outside. Fontenot tried to bunt, but couldn't get the bat on the ball; at the same time, Milton Bradley broke from third. The squeeze was foiled, and the game slogged on.

Excellent outings from the bullpen regulars. Heilman, Marmol and Marshall were shutdown. On top of that, the Jeffs (Stevens and Samardzija) contributed 3.2 scoreless innings, giving the Cubs every chance to win.

And win they did, in grand fashion.  After failing to capitalize on early opportunities, the Cubs finally broke through the Astros bullpen and, after loading the bases with no outs, Alfonso Soriano hit the game-winner in grand fashion.

I saw that one coming, too -- or at least, I entertained the possibility when I noticed the bases were juiced.  "It'd just be fitting," I told myself, "for Soriano to not only win the game with a hit, but to win it definitively."  Granted, I was in an empty room at the time, and talking to one's self out loud and later admitting to it on a blog is probably on the wrong side of the crazy line, but I was right.

This was one of those games that could mean more than a simple W in the standings.  Not that the Cubs necessarily need it -- they've already seemed to find the momentum they've been lacking all year long.  But consider that the Astros have been even hotter than the Cubs this month, and yet the bullpen managed to hold them to 0 runs for 6 innings.  Then, consider that Soriano has turned a cold streak into a career move, but last night's grand slam is the icing on top of a great month for him. 

This was a gutsy win, and a much-needed victory that helps Chicago keep pace in the NL Central. Tomorrow, the Cardinals face Chad Billingsley, while we get Roy Oswalt, and a thin Astro bullpen. Guzman and Gregg should be available for the Cubs.

One random thought on the Cubs-Phillies Games
In the ShoutBox yesterday, one reader suggested that it's difficult to really get excited because the Cubs got beaten by the Phillies not too long ago.  But consider the facts...

The Cubs lost two games out of three on the road against one of the best teams in the NL.  Their first loss -- a blow-out -- occurred in part because it was Ted Lilly pitching for the Cubs.  Lilly has since then been placed on the DL with a sore shoulder and had his knee scoped.   Might it be fair to suggest that on most days, Lilly and the Cubs do not surrender 10 runs to the Phillies?

The second game, which they also lost, took 13 innings of play.  The Phillies didn't exactly win with authority. 

And the third game was a Cubs route.  Just saying -- with a healthy Lilly on the mound, the Cubs may not have lost two games there -- and even the loss that came "honestly" was one that also came in extra innings.

I guess all it takes to wake up the Cubs' bats (other than two days of suck) is an ancient lefty soft-tosser. Something about the line-up being predominantly right-handed, need a lefty power bat, can't get it? Whatever.

Anyways, the Cubs won today! Woo hoo!

Lots of Cubs had multiple hits today (Theriot, A-Ram, Bradley, and Soriano). Also, Ryan Theriot stole three bases. I guess that means he'll get picked off twice tomorrow.

Despite the offensive onslaught, only two of our 13 hits went for extra bases (both doubles), and only one of our runs scored with two outs. So, still no soul-crushing big hits, still no clutch performances, but 11 singles and 9 walks should get you somewhere.

Z was actually really hittable today, giving up 10 hits in his start, along with three walks. But it was good enough for today, thanks to all the Cubs that got themselves safely to first over and over.

---

As far as the series goes, I for one think these three games were pretty indicative of what we can expect from the team here on out.

Some days they'll slap a bunch of singles off a crap starter having a bad day, and some days all those pokes will roll right to infielders and will mostly turn into outs. Against top line starting pitching (guys like Rodrigo Lopez and Joe Blanton), the Cubs will have trouble scoring runs. And the whole time, the pitching will be more or less good enough to give the team a chance to win.

We will continue to hold out hope for this offense. It'd be great if Soto could heal up by, say, tomorrow. The Baker/Fontenot platoon at second base looks pretty alright. If Bradley can get better, and Soriano can stay hot... well, then, who knows what might happen.

Getting Dempster back soon will make the pitching that much better. I hope the Cubs quit jerking Samardzija around and just stash him in Iowa for the rest of the season when Demp does come back (we need him to start, not handle mop-up).

Beyond those things, what else can you really do?

Current Record: 48-45
Position in the NL Central: 2nd place, 1.5 games out
Best Possible Record: 117-45
Worst Possible Record: 48-114
Record needed to win 110: 52-5
On Pace For: 83-79

Update: The moves have been announced.

Fuld and Hart have been sent to AAA, and Patton is on the DL with a groin strain.

As for the line-up, here's tonight's:

Fukudome, CF
Theriot, SS
Lee, 1B
Bradley, RF
Ramirez, 3B
Soriano, LF
Soto, C
Fontenot, 2B
Wells, P

From earlier:

At some point today, the Cubs will announce their recall of Aramis Ramirez, Reed Johnson, and Angel Guzman to the major league club's active roster. They'll also announce the corresponding roster moves they've made to make room for these three bona fide major league players.

In my opinion, roster and line-up speculation is what makes sports blogging fun. Not only do you get to play GM, but you also get nearly instant feedback from other passionate fans with interesting ideas of their own.

With that, let's try to get some opinions in the comments on what folks are thinking would be ideal for the club at this point. There are two questions to answer:

1) Who should be sent down?

2) How should Lou line the hitters up now that Aramis is back?

Matt Snyder over at AOL Fanhouse made an interesting point the other day.  During their initial podcast, he (as their resident Cubs fan) was asked if the Cubs can get back into the NL Central race.

He noted that the question he was asked included the word "can", which he took to mean "is it possible"?  Well, all you have to do is look to your right to see that, as of this morning, it says "2.5" for us under the "GB" column, and since this is July, and not September 30th, it is quite numerically possible for the Cubs to win the NL Central.  So he said yes, they can.  But then Matt continued to say that if the question he was posed was a bit different, if he had been asked "will they" instead of "can they", he would have said "no", because the Cubs have not at any point in this season resembled a champion in anything.

This is all I have ever said on here the past two months, that the Cubs I have been watching day in and day out lack fundamentals, can't hit worth a damn, the manager has been sitting on his hands, and appearing confused, and the GM keeps making excuses while picking up the dregs of the rest of the league.  Most, if not nearly all of you, have taken offense to me saying the same thing Matt is, which has disappointed me greatly. 

I would have expected a bit more respect for a guy who has been watching the Cubs for 40 years now, and at least knows good baseball from bad baseball, and the baseball I have seen so far in 2009 has been bad.  Many of you have leaned on the "early" crutch, as in "it's early, we're only 2.5 games out, we can do it".  And I said, yes, we can, but that doesn't mean we will, because I have seen no evidence that the Cubs possess the character to do so.

But, at least, most of you were decent enough to not make this a personal issue.  While I shake my head sadly for all of you who come out here for another glass of Kool Aid, at least if you came here and said "I'm sick of hearing Rob complain, he bums me out," well, that's a valid opinion, and I have no right to tell you what to feel.  Point taken.

But then there's others who have suggested that I kill myself.

Look, you miserable drops of monkeyjizz...it really isn't fair, first of all, to come after me like that.  My hands are tied.  We made a pact here on GROTA, some time ago, that we would not make personal attacks in public.  Yes, last week, it got pretty damn personal around here, with some of us in one corner, and some in the other corner, but at least we were decent enough to e-mail each other to express our anger.  We didn't fight it out here.  We understand that there are real boundaries in the world.  There is the world out here that you all see, there is the next lower level - e-mails, which is somewhat private, and at the same time, direct and, not anonymous.  Then there is REAL life, where a man stands before another man, and names will never hurt me, but sticks and stones and fists and kicks can break my bones.

But,there were no suggestions I take my own life, just suggesting I walk away from blogging on here.  So, e-mail was the appropriate avenue for such things.  It was a way for us to air our grievances, without standing next to one another, where human nature might have caused one or the other of us to do something we might have regretted.  We agreed to disagree, and I believe the worst is behind us.

Funny thing is, though, it all relates to the small minority of you who sit there in your safe anonymity, in your mom's basement or whatever, and suggest I hang myself.  See, once upon a time, I had my own blog, and I made the mistake of expressing a few of my liberal viewpoints, which were followed by two separate, distinct threats on my life!  I felt that the other day we were inadvertently going down a similar path, because God forbid you ever ever refer to race, creed, religion, gender, or orientation on the internets. Fact is, considering some people's recent suggestions, along with encountering some ACTUAL violence last weekend in Chicago -  I've been spooked out lately.  But, I did not do the best job of expressing my concerns, which led to our own little personal apocalypse.

But finally, with all the background out of the way, let's deal with my business now, shall we?  I do not have the ability to fire back at you on a one-to-one basis out here, nor is this the place for it.  This is a Cubs blog, and here we will talk about the Cubs, and only the Cubs.  At the present moment, they have won three in a row, A-Ram comes back Monday, and Ryan Freel, Neal Cotts, and Aaron Miles are no longer taking up space in our clubhouse.  Frankly, all of that isn't quite enough to change my mind personally, but Cubs stock hasn't been this high in a while, and hopefully July will turn out to be a big month for all of us, and we will cover it ALL in gory and graphic detail, right here on GROTA, with Series Previews, Game Casts, Game Recaps, and our own observations, as well as our continuing Cubs 101 series, brought to you by the fine folks at Coast-to-Coast Tickets.

So if you persist on making suggestions that I do harm to myself, I suggest that you do the manly thing, and e-mail me personally at ribeyerob@yahoo.com.  Because I gotta tell you, I'm NOT going to kill myself.  If you want me dead, you're gonna have to come out and do it for me.  I'll tell you where and when to find me, and I'll be waiting for you, all 6-foot-3 and 300 pounds of me, along with transcripts of the e-mails, and a guy with a videocamera, so he can take all the footage of me beating the living piss out of you and post it on YouTube for the rest of us to laugh at.  Because I'm totally sick of your s**t, and if you keep invading my boundaries, if you're gonna talk the talk, walk the walk. 

GO Cubs!

Let's face it Cub's fans this season has been a disappointment thus far. There is a good chance the Cubs may need more than Aramis to get out of this funk. After last season, I thought the Cubs needed to add some pieces to prove they truly deserved the title of World Series contender.                                                   

Their most tradable player was Mark DeRosa. There was a huge belief that he peaked and it was very unlikely that he would not match last year's output. I agreed with that belief. A player who never hit more than 13 home runs in the season and before the age of 30 didn't hit double digit home runs in his career was probably would not to have season that matched '08. In hindsight, the reason why they traded DeRosa made some sense. The Cubbies also dumped Jason Marquis (somehow one of the leaders in wins.) Chicago was trying to gain the pieces to trade for Peavy. Given Zambrano's emotional and recent physical issues, it was understood that Hendry felt the Cubs needed a true ace. 

Another incredibly more important issue Hendry had to answer was the Cubs need for another bat.  His belief that the Cubs lineup was too right handed bought in Aaron Miles and the infamous Milton Bradley. Here is where things go really interested. In addition to these acquisitions, the Cubs let go of Jim Edmonds, Daryle Ward, and Hank White. Jim Edmonds was crucial for the Cubs last season. He had two clutch home runs against his former team; the hated St. Louis Cardinals. He also brought a number of exciting catches with him. However, he was at the end of the road, and there was no way the Cubs were going to resign him. Daryle Ward had a number clutch hits, but Micah Hoffpauir and Jake Fox more than replaced him. Henry Blanco on the other hand was the only man in history who could pull of a feathered mullet and tattoos. He was Big Z’s countryman. He gave guidance to Carlos. Unfortunately, he would have asked more money than the Cubs were willing to give him.

Essentially, Milton Bradley or “board game was brought into replace DeRosa’s bat in the lineup. Ideally, Fontenot would have replaced Edmonds production. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Fontenot instead of living up to the nickname of “Little Babe Ruth” has turned into “Mini Mickey Morandini” (or Mini Morandini for short). Kosuke Fukudome was expected to be much better than last year. So far, his fall has come sooner than last season. Based on last season, Milton Bradley was a great acquisition. He put up great numbers in Texas. He lead the AL in on base percentage and OPS. He even lead the majors in OPS+ which takes ballpark into consideration. One problem with Bradley was that he played more than 120 games in season only twice in nine seasons. Everyone knew about Milton being a head case. This season has only given further proof of his jackassery. In Zambrano’s own words, Milton is the living embodiment of a “screw.” Worst of all, this season he really stinks. To put things in perspective, Scott Podsednik was taken off the trash heap and he has a higher batting average, more RBIs, and only two less home runs. This is while playing fewer games than “Board Game”. I realize this is beating a dead horse, but if he played better we would probably forgive his idiocy.

Now, it is unfair to blame all of the Cubs problems on Milton and Hendry, but they have to take a huge chunk of the blame. The assumption was that the combo Bradley and Fontenot would make up 40 home runs and 136 RBIs. Fukudome was asked to bat 40 points higher than last season and produce more runs. Neither of these has happened. In my opinion only Fukudome’s hitting was the only thing that could be expected. One can say that the loss of Aramis was huge. Yes, his injury was huge loss, but it did not cause Soto bat around .220, it didn’t cause Fontenot to resemble former Cub Mickey Morandini. Soriano is a hacker that rarely thinks about pitches, so how would Aramis’ presence made any difference in his performance?

At the beginning of the season, I felt the Cubs would win 88 games and win the division. Hendry really didn’t improve the team. In fact, the team has taken a step back talent wise.

Sure, Edmonds was old and on a downslide, but it would have made more sense to find someone who could play in right field who could replace his power numbers. Everyone and their dog knew there was no way the Cubs could do anything but continue to play Fukudome. They had no choice but to platoon him with Reed Johnson.

Last season, there were a number of wins by the Cubs where they had problems against the starter but were able to light up the other teams relievers. That is what we saw against the Indians. This season starters have gone further against the Cubs. This team needed another bat, not a replacement for DeRosa. If Bradley was supposed to be a left-handed replacement for DeRosa, then he was a clearly more expensive one. If they wanted another leftie in the lineup, they could have started Fontenot and still moved DeRosa to right field. That would have been a cheaper alternative for the same result. You don’t have to overburden your lineup with lefties if they are mediocre or bad. The Phillies’ lineup is an anomaly. There is no point trying to emulate the Philadelphia lineup. The Cubs were a good team. Still, I wanted to see the Cubs sign either Ibanez or Abreu(I was leaning towards Abreu). If Hendry had more patience, he would have be able to snag either for a decent cost, but here we are overpaying for crap the next few years.

The Good News
Randy Wells delivered 5 innings of scoreless baseball in his debut start.  He managed to shake off 5 hits, 2 walks, and 3 trailer-park skanks in the process (did I mention how much he looks like Kevin Federline?).  Regrettably for him, the Cubs bullpen will not be mentioned under "The Good News" heading.

In a pinch hit appearance, Bobby Scales! collected his second ever major league hit - a triple.  Considering all the hub-bub with the Rammy shoulder injury, the performance made by Scales today and in the near future might have a pretty big impact on the Cubs.

Milton Bradley went 1 for 4, raising his AVG to .150.  (Pretty bad that a 1 for 4 day raises your batting average.)  But the 1 was his 3rd homer as a Cub.

The Bad News
Angel Guzman and Aaron Heilman pitched 3 innings of relief and surrendered 3 earned runs in the process.  I'm not too upset with Angel, who also struck out 4 and made one mistake, but Aaron Heilman walked Hart, advanced him to second with a wild pitch, and made it a moot point by surrendering a homer to Ryan Braun.  Not a good night for Heilman.

The Ugly News
Aramis Ramirez, as you are already aware, dislocated his shoulder and may miss 4 to 6 weeks.  I will remind you that last season the 97-win Cubs lost one of their best hitters for more than a month due to a broken hand and they still won 97 games.  Just saying.

A-Ram's injury comes hot on the heels of the acquisition of Ryan Freel from Baltimore.  Freel, as Rob eloquently noted, is really a guy you want on your team ... if you live in the year 2005.  (In case you don't get it, that's a clever way of saying that he has lost some of his shine.)  They amazingly acquired Freel for Joey Gathright, which makes no sense since Mr. G. was probably a week away from getting cut.

Freel is a guy who plays a lot of positions - he's logged more than 100 appearances (many of them starts) at second base, third base, center field, right field, and he's appeared in left field 75 times.  When the 33-year-old is performing well, he's a patient-but-not-spectacular hitter who can steal a lot of bases.  But with a career OPS of .731, he's the kind of guy who, like Theriot, bats leadoff or bats eighth and belongs nowhere in between.

With Ramirez missing a big chunk of time, this leaves the Cubs roster in a continued state of flux.  Bobby Scales(!) was probably going to get demoted once Freel joined the team, but with Gathright gone and Ramirez hurt, Scales* will probably remain on the big league roster.

(*!)

This leaves the Cubs still with their precious 7 man bullpen, and Wells pitched solidly enough to not only continue starting until Zambrano returns, but to be the first candidate to replace the inept Chad Fox at that point.  Although, obviously, Wells will still have time to look like crap.

Anyway, I know that the natural reaction of any Cub fan is to immediately panic when something like this happens, but as I noted back in Spring Training the Cubs were built with depth this year.  I'm not exactly challenging them to prove me right, but they could probably actually handle a few more injuries to their regulars before we should start getting nervous.  But one thing this does mean is that there should now be slightly more pressure on the shoulders of Soto, Lee, and Bradley to start producing.  If they can do that, then they'll be fine.

Quick Links
Series Preview: Cubs at Brewers
GameCast: May 8th Cubs at Brewers

Baseball is a game of inches.  A ball hit down the third base line ... if it drops just a few inches to the left ...

... a high blast, flying against the wind ... if it can just clear the wall in the outfield ...

... the ball is caught and a runner tags up.  If the outfielder can just gun it to the infielder in time ...

Well, you get the point.  It feels right now like the last two games have been won by inches.  A few bad breaks, a few terrible calls, a few runs not scored and the Cubs could easily be 5-6 right now instead of 7-4.  As a Cub fan living with perennial fear for my team, I can't help but worry about all these close calls.  As a baseball fan watching a good team win close games, I can't help but be thrilled by the outcomes.  It's a strange thing to be a Cub fan - I can't speak for you, but most of us are just a little crazy.

So what was the defining moment of tonight's game?  Was it ...

• The bottom of the 3rd when, down 3-0, Kosuke Fukudome delivered again, this time an RBI double, keeping the Cubs offense alive in a game that could have fallen out of hand?
• How about the bottom of the 5th when, down 4-2, Derrek Lee hit a 2-run double that tied the game for the Cubs?
• Perhaps it was the 7th when, after Neal Cotts walked 2 men on 8 pitches, Carlos Marmol stepped in and ended the Cardinals threat briefly keeping the Cubs in front 5-4?
• It probably was not the 8th inning when Marmol returned to pitch again (against my wishes, curse you Lou) and surrendered two doubles before hitting Khalil Greene.  Although Kevin Gregg stepping in and extinguishing the threat gives him back some of the closer cred that he lost in the first week of the season.
• The top of the 10th when Alfonso Soriano made a good catch and gunned out Chris Duncan at second base?
• The bottom of the 11th when Aramis Ramirez sent 'em all home with a walk off homerun.

I'll let you decide which moment was the most important.  The easy answer is the A-Ram homer.  The tougher one is that none of it would have happened if those players - Kosuke, Lee, Marmol, Gregg, Soriano, and the unmentioned Aaron Miles - hadn't delivered.

So, the Cubs won again.  They've now won 2 of 3 and have the chance tomorrow to send St. Louis out of Chicago as sad participants.  I predicted previously that Dempster would have a great game; man was I wrong.  He wasn't particularly terrible but his output definitely would have fallen under the meh-diocre banner.

Tomorrow his left-handed partner in crime will try to finish the job.  As I said before, baseball is a game of inches.  The Cubs easily could be down 3 games to 0 right now.  As exciting as these close wins have been, I'm a little tired of living with these retracted-from-fear testes and I hope they win tomorrow by a mile.  It'll be Lilly v. Wellemeyer.  It shouldn't be close.  ...I hope.

Quick Links
Series Preview: Cardinals vs. Cubs
Game Recap: Cardinals 7, Cubs 4
Game Recap: Cubs 8, Cardinals 7
GameCast: Cubs vs. Cardinals April 18th

Quick Links

• Aramis Ramirez is not a leader of men
• Playing under a microscope
• 2008 Season Recap: Aramis Ramirez

Did you know: The Goat Riders of the Apocalypse sponsor Aramis Ramirez's baseball-reference page?  It's true.  Also true is that GROTA was recognized as one of the great Chicago Blogs (capital C capital B) by Chicago Magazine.  It's true!  I read it on Aramis Ramirez's baseball reference page!

Sure, you know all that.  Everyone knows that.  But do you know why we sponsor his page?  Do you know why, given alllllllll the possible Cubs -  past, present and future - we could sponsor (Les Lancaster, Frank Castillo, Sandy Martinez...the list goes on and on), we chose Aramis Ramirez? Do you?

It's because he rocks.  It's because he's the answer to the question "who's finally filled Ron Santo's shoes (so to speak*)".  It's because of his 36, 38, 31, 27, and 26 homer seasons since coming over to the Cubs.  It's because he's finally learned to consistently take a walk.  It's because his defense has gone from poor to decent to pretty damn good. 

(* yes, I know he wears shoes.  I'm not sure where I was going with that)

The people who used to bitch that he doesn't hustle?  They're in someone's crawl space.  The people who claimed that he's selfish?  They'll trapped under a stack of Tribune articles revealing that Aramis took less money to stay with the Cubs.  Those people are trapped and can't get to food and are really hungry and have to pee and it's really sad.  Because they're going to have to pee on themselves.  And maybe poo a little.

If only that had realized that Aramis is the best thing to happen to the Cubs since Slammin' Sammy and Kid K.  He's Mister Consistency and Mister Spectacular all at once (and Mister Clutch.  Don't forget about Mister Clutch).  He's the true heart of the Cubs and Cub fans should be praising Hendry for bringing him over from his Pittsburgh Purgatory.

Because he rocks.  Here's to more of the same in 2009. 

Go Cubs.

On Saturday's I turn off my brain.

It's really the one day of the week where I (and I'm sure most of you) can just kick back and enter a Zen-like state of complete boredom and minimal brain activity. Plus some of us have to recover from all that "studying" we did on Friday night.

Hence, I decided to take a gander around the media horn for some Cubs stories to stimulate and entertain you instead of trying to come up with my own unique content.

Hooray laziness

Over at the Trib, Paul Sullivan enlightens us about the massive turnover of players on the Cubs roster since 2007. According to Sullivan, massive turnover is usually a sign of a struggling franchise, but the Cubs have won two division titles and 182 games over the last two season. The only players who were on the 2007 Opening Day roster that are still on the Cubs as of now are Soriano, Lee, Ramirez, Dempster, Zambrano, Lilly and Theriot.

While I personally believe constantly changing your roster (especially one that works) can be a bit of gamble to team chemistry and creating consistency, I can't argue against its success so far. During the Dusty era, he collected a set of "his guys" (think Neifi Perez) that eventually contributed to his downfall. While Lou has earned the trust of many fans, I have to take all this turnover with a grain of salt. Messing with success is like playing with fire...or chainsaws...or chainsaws set on fire.

Daily Herald columnist Barry Rozner can't let go of this whole Mark DeRosa thing.

I love when journalists try to recycle a story and present it as being timely. Sure, there's not a lot going on in Cubdom right now, but can we leave this DeRosa thing alone. He's gone. There is nothing we can do about. Some people are unhappy, some people aren't. Everyone has a way of dealing with it. Maybe Cubs fans can't let go of DeRosa, but you have to let go of this story otherwise people will keep talking about it. Do you see the monster you're creating Rozner?!?!?!

On a side note, I want to make mention of Rozner's claim that Aramis Ramirez is "fragile". When he wrote that it might have been a mistake to "give $75 million to someone (Ramirez) so fragile", I felt like someone was trying to get away with a claim without checking their facts. Since 2004 (his first full season with the Cubs), Ramirez has played 145, 123, 157, 132 and 149 games. As someone in the comment section mentions, that's a 141 games-per-season average, which adds up to Ramirez missing about 13 percent of every season since he's been with the Cubs. Go back even farther and you'll see that Ramirez hasn't played less than 123 games in a season since 2000 when he only played 73. Fragile? I think not.

Back to the Tribune where Phil Rogers is reporting that the Astros might be moving to sign Adam Dunn.

I'm not really sure why Rogers describes this potential move as a "sneak attack", but I personally think people are sleeping on the Astros with or without Dunn. There's been some talk around here about the Reds, Cards and Brewers as being the biggest competition to the Cubs in the division, but I'm actually worried about the Astros for some reason. They have a solid group of big hitters (Berkman, Lee, Tejada, Pence) and perhaps the best starter in the NLC with Oswalt. I'm not saying the Astros can pose a serious threat to the Cubs yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were the ones right behind the Cubs for most of the season.

I'm sure there's more Cubs-related stories out there, but these where just a few that I happened to stumble across this morning.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean up all those "soda" bottles in my living room.