As the non-waiver trading deadline passe at for 4:00 PM EDT today the Cubs aquired Matt Lawton from the Pirates for Jody Gerut. Lawton is hitting .273 with 10 HR's and 44 RBI's. Lawton also adds speed to Cubs. He has 16 stolen bases this year. He may also solve their leadoff problem seeing as he has a .380 OBP. This will give Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez more chances to drive in runs.The Cubs are also a good fit for Lawton because the play the majority of their games during the day and Lawton has a .298 AVG during day games.He has struck out only 19 times durig day games compared to 61 during night games. Also during July Lawton hit .301. So Lawton should be a great addition to the Cubs.

Once again on Monday against the Reds the Cubs bullpen failed. In the bottom of the 8th the game was tied. Jon Leicster failed. He gave up 2 runs putting the Cubs down by two. There was another disturbing fact. The Cubs did not score any runs except one off hits. All 5 of the 6 runs were home runs. If the Cubs expect to win they are going to have to get the base hits. The Cubs record dropped to 6-7 last night. Tonight the Cubs could use a win. Mark Prior starts tonight and Dusty Baker would like to see a better start than Kerry Wood had last night who blew a 4-0 lead. All I have to say is the Cubs are going to have to improve the bullpen to win games.

So with a win on Sunday and Greg Maddux getting his first win of the year it appears that the Cubs are on track for a good season. Of course it is too early to tell. Today the cubs start a two game series with the Reds. With Prior and Wood starting look for Dusty to watch both pitchers carefully. The cubs definentley could use a two game sweep. Well thats all for now!