1:20pm CT. Greg Maddux v. Chris Capuano. Game preview.

What would it take to get Adam Dunn from the Reds? And how much would it be worth?

Unlike Preston Wilson, Dunn is actually productive enough to be an upgrade for the Cubs. And he's only 25, so unlike Wilson, Dunn would be a good player to have around for a few years. And adding Dunn would solve another problem too; adding Dubois and Hollandsworth to the bench makes the bench look pretty good. And getting his sweet, sweet OBP into the lineup solves, or at least goes a long way toward solving, a third.

The Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan reports that "[t]alks with Colorado about center fielder Preston Wilson have continued this week." But here's what the Rockies are asking for: "The Denver Post reported the Rockies are trying to get a package of three prospects that includes pitcher Todd Wellemeyer and shortstop Ronny Cedeno, and also want the Cubs to pick up $4 million of the $6.3 million left on Wilson's contract."

Cedeno and Wellemeyer and another prospect and much of Wilson's remaining salary, which is too high to begin with? Would anyone even give the Rockies Cedeno all by himself for Wilson? I wouldn't.

1:20pm CT. Kerry Wood v. Ben Sheets. Game preview.

As expected, the Chicago Cubs designated Joe Borowski for assignment today in order to make room for the return of Kerry Wood, reports MLB.com.

Last night, Corey Patterson went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts batting leadoff for the Cubs. He was booed heavily. Then in the 8th inning he made a fantastic diving catch. He then alertly threw the ball to second for an inning-ending double play. He left the field to a standing ovation.

Patterson is clearly capable of moments of great brilliance on the baseball diamond, whether in the field, at the plate or on the bases. This is what makes his overall terribleness so frustrating to fans. I don't think Patterson's performance is a booing offense, but his slot in the batting order is.

Thus far this season, Dusty Baker has come under withering criticism for the fact that the 1st and 2nd hitters in the lineup have been players with low On Base Averages. According to the critics, this arrangement results in few tablesetters on base for D. Lee to drive in. Some critics have even made the case that Lee could wind up not making the NL Triple Crown due to a lack of RBI's.

At first glance, this criticism seems warranted. However, Baker may have a devious motive here. He may be trying to manipulate the normally slow starting and sub-.300 hitting Lee to really exert himself to make up for the lack of men on base. If so, its really working and the fact that Lee is close to the other Lee (as in Carlos) in the RBI rankings may be further helping to keep D. Lee wired and in gear.

Last season, Sammy Sosa volunteered to be dropped a few slots in the batting order and then complained at the end of the year that the drop was a sign of disrespect.  He has now been dropped for a second straight year.  "Sammy Sosa was dropped to sixth in the Baltimore Orioles' batting order Tuesday, a move designed to take some pressure off the slumping slugger," reports the AP.  In his first game in that slot, Sosa went 0-4.

Speaking of slugging veteran rightfielders, which one would you rather have on your team right now:

Carrying 12 pitchers for the foreseeable future, the Cubs finally decided to insert a productive player into the 13th position player spot. On Tuesday, they recalled shortstop Ronny Cedeno from triple-A Iowa and outrighted Enrique Wilson to Iowa.

Baseball Prospectus has posted a free article by John Erhardt today, detailing Derrek Lee's Triple Crown chances. Distressingly enough, Erhardt makes the good point that Lee's improvement this year is unprecedented in baseball history:

We might be tempted to find a reason behind a success like this but, unfortunately, there isn’t one; no player in history, not even Yastrzemski or Babe Ruth, has enjoyed a spike in slugging average so far out of line with career norms. While players do gain power as they age, they simply don’t gain this much.

As much as I'd like to believe that Lee has become one of baseball's all-time elite hitters just by learning to hit the inside pitch, it's hard to argue against all of history, no?

On May 27th my attitude toward the Cubs' hopes for the playoffs were markedly different than they are now. A line drive had just ricocheted off of Mark Prior's arm with such force that Aramis Ramirez caught it without moving more than few steps from third, and the Franchise writhed in pain just in front of the mound.

The subsequent days revealed that the injury wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, and the following weeks showed that inexplicably, it wasn't that bad at all. Prior had no timetable for return until he started playing catch, which turned into simulated games that had more favorable results than anyone would have guessed. The line drive that stopped the collective heart of Cub Nation was vanishing from memory and on June 26th, Prior made his return to the majors.

The last 3 days, the Cubs have pulled off the upset of the year defeating the team with the best record in baseball in their own ballpark. How did they pull it off? Let's count the ways:

1: Judging from the noise, there were apparently just as many Cubs fans as Sox fans, if not even more so, at U.S. Cellular Field. Either that or the Sox fans were concentrating on eating and drinking and making themselves merry and did not pay that much attention to what was actually transpiring on the field. All the noise coming in on the side of the Cubs, undoubtedly helped keep the team's spirits high.

2: The White Sox's 12-2 victory in the opening match caused the Cubs to get angry and redouble their efforts much like the Yankees' blowout victory in the 3rd game of last year's ALCS led to the Red Sox's sweep of the remaining 4 games.

2:05pm CT. Mark Prior v. Jon Garland. Game preview.

As expected, when the Chicago Cubs activated Mark Prior from the disabled list today, they optioned Rich Hill back to Iowa. This follows the recent swap between Todd Wellemeyer and Roberto Novoa between Iowa and Chicago. The Cubs will need to make another move when Kerry Wood returns, which he is expected to do this week.