12:05pm CT. Kerry Wood v. Jake Peavy, and Mark Prior v. Brian Lawrence.

"Dusty Baker said Tuesday that Jerry Hairston will get the majority of the playing time at second base during Todd Walker's absence," reports the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan. This completely contradicts what Sullivan reported yesterday, without citing a source, which Sullivan fails to acknowledge.

ICubs finally win, Daytona finally loses, Brownlie and Ryu throw well, and Sing and Montanez stay hot.

As expected, the Cubs optioned Todd Wellemeyer to Iowa to make room for Mark Prior on the 25-man roster.

That the Bulls continue to be successful without Luol Deng and Eddy Curry shows the depth of the team. It sure would be nice to have Curry back for the playoffs, though. The Sun-Times' Jay Mariotti has a column on Curry today:

Something is unfair about it all, so bittersweet and demoralizing, like a house burglar on Christmas morning. Here are the Bulls, finally overcoming their seven-year ache to make the playoffs and shake down the town once again. And there is Eddy Curry, the hometown kid who absorbed abuse and fat jokes during the torturous years, spending today at a Minnesota clinic to determine why his heart doesn't tick properly.

Let's pray that the docs figure out Curry's heart problems soon.

Well, another series has come and gone and this time around, the Cubbies won it 2-1. However, the Home Opener was a colossal embarrassment complete with a dozen walks issued and Leicester coming off like a Kerry Wood imitator in more ways than one. Also, it showed that the much-vaunted Cubs GM Hendry was amiss in not trading for Carlos Lee in that doing so would have converted a Cub-Killer into a Cub-Savior and would have spared poor Todd Walker a knee injury.

Talking about poor, prepare to pity Mark Prior as the San Diego Padres prepare to walk all over him. Folks, this has the potential to be a repeat of last years Home Opener vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates in terms of sheer embarrassment to the North Side. My prediction for Tuesday's game: SD 15, ChC 2 with Cubs pitching giving up 15-20 walks and numerous base hits and that's assuming that the winds will be blowing in at Wrigley. Look for Prior to be pulled out by the 4th Inning when his pitch count exceeds the 120 mark.