Jon

That reminds me of some Bears fans I saw at a game who spent $200 on authentic Packers customized jerseys with derogatory names for the Packers on the back. They had to keep turning their backs to show the names in order to stop the food from flying towards them. It must be nice to throw money away like that. Of course, those Bears fans probably kept their information factual.

The only thing that report got right so far was that it's a back injury. He wasn't shut down, as we now know that he already had surgery to repair a herniated disc.

It's supposedly unrelated to the back spasms Williams had earlier.

That was pitiful, defense. Not only did they give up the score, there's just 6:15 left on the clock and the offense has plenty of work they need to do.

That completion to the Bears' 5 was definitely incomplete. It was jarred loose and the ball hit the ground.

Maybe we should create something, too. It might be a nice resource. I'm sure a lot of people have some comments. For example, I'd say avoid the first two or three rows of Terrace Box seats like the plague and probably the first row of the 500 level, as well. Row 9 in the 500 level is where it's at since you have a great view behind you on the first base side and you can stand up whenever you want.

Amazingly, Soriano may actually be having the least streaky season out of all the Cubs this year. His BA, OBP, and SLG% have all pretty much gone straight up since the start of the season: http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs/847_OF_daily_full_0_20080805.png http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs/847_OF_daily_full_1_20080805.png http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs/847_OF_daily_full_2_20080805.png Lee, Ramirez, Soto, and company have all gone through more significant ups and downs.

I watched some highlights and Len had a great line today following the grand slam: "And today's curtain call is brought to you by..." It's one of those years.

Well, they just gave an update. It's still raining at Wrigley with standing warning all over the warning track. There's also a lot of debris and standing water on the infield, particularly in foul territory. However, there is still no word about the game.

I don't believe they have said anything about the game in a while. The rain is going to hang around for a little while, though. Over an hour.

Average fastball: 89.95 mph (down 2.64 mph from last time out) Top fastball: 92.8 mph (down 3.0 mph from last time out) Release point wasn't that low, though the pattern looks a little different: http://brooksbaseball.net/pfx/release.php?xml=http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2008/month_08/day_03/gid_2008_08_03_pitmlb_chnmlb_1//pbp/pitchers/407296.xml&batterX=0&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=1 But I'm sure Lou will have him throw 120+ pitches for no reason next time out.

Zambrano has a 90.0 mph average fastball today and has topped out at 92.8 mph...

It has nothing to do with truth. SSR has spent the last few years building up an immunity to wearing an Edmonds t-shirt. I'd like the jersey t-shirts a lot more if Majestic used cotton that didn't feel like a paper bag. I'm not sure I have a more uncomfortable t-shirt.

Any idea what he was throwing? Everything?

Home day games by the day of the week: Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. April 1 1 1 2 May 1 0 0 2 June 0 0 0 2 July 0 0 0 1 August 0 1 1 1 September 1 0 0 1 Two of the Monday day games are due to holidays (Memorial Day and Labor Day). For June, July, and August combined, they play a grand total of two home games on Monday through Wednesday. There are four Thursday day games, all of which are getaway days for either the Cubs and/or their opponent. Of the three home day games from Monday to Thursday in August, two are back to back followed by a day off before continuing a homestand and the other follows a night game and precedes a day game. That's 16 day games the entire season at home between Monday and Thursday. Hardly worth my time to format that chart, actually. The total is quite insignificant and I doubt is much different than any other team in the majors for the summer months. So that leaves the Friday and Saturday games, which they sellout anyways. Plus, if they were to play Friday or Saturday night home games, the Cubs would probably have to fork over more money for traffic control. I don't think there's anything to suggest that playing Friday and Saturday afternoon games at Wrigley is any kind of disadvantage, either.

What exactly is the financial gain for the Cubs in doing this?

Got to keep riding this streak. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3080/2716143287_c23bff232f.jpg?v=0

For those so concerned with Lee's tendency to hit ground balls: http://www.fangraphs.com/graphs/525_1B_daily_full_9_20080729.png

Theriot inching closer and closer to a .400 OBP. Why was Cedeno running on at least one of the 3-2 pitches to Soriano?

Gaudin for 2 sets up Marmol and Samardzija nicely for tomorrow. Nice indirect Jeremy's Iron reference, Len.

Peoria won the suspended game with a walkoff RBI single by Bautista in the 12th.

Did you get the sense that it contributed to most of his walks, as well, or was that just an observation that they made?

At Wrigley still? That will be odd. And who calls a rain delay with 2 outs in the ninth? No, it'll be back at Peoria. I'm not sure how hard it was raining. I didn't know there were storms in the area until my DirecTV went out. But when I looked at the radar, it sure didn't look like it was going to move out of the area anytime soon.

Zambrano striking out Weeks in the 7th: http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u310/nucubs/zambranostrikesoutweeksgamedaychart.jpg Note the misclassified pitch, the crazy release point, and the 58.9 mph speed as it crossed the plate.

I thought that this would be a different outing for him considering how he had been used. He wasn't getting as much movement on his fastball, though the velocity was still there: http://brooksbaseball.net/pfx/horzspeed.php?xml=http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2008/month_07/day_29/gid_2008_07_29_chnmlb_milmlb_1//pbp/pitchers/502188.xml&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=1 Last time out: http://brooksbaseball.net/pfx/horzspeed.php?xml=http://gd2.mlb.com/components/game/mlb/year_2008/month_07/day_27/gid_2008_07_27_flomlb_chnmlb_1//pbp/pitchers/502188.xml&innings=yyyyyyyyy&sp_type=1&s_type=1