We were treated to a trio of articles this morning in the Chicago dailies on Derrek Lee's month-long home run drought, and the fact that he has just six on the season. (D-H; S-T; Trib.) Not that the power drought has hurt his overall production much. Lee is sixth in the National League in Batting Runs Above Average.

Lee blames his relative lack of power on a lack of fly balls: "Overall I haven't hit a lot of fly balls. Sometimes you get on that streak where you hit a lot of fly balls, and some of them you hit well enough to go out of the ballpark. This year I just haven't hit fly balls in general. That's the main reason my home runs are down."

It is true that Lee's fly ball rate has fallen from previous seasons, but only slightly:

The suspensions for Saturday's fight are in. Derrek Lee and Chris Young received five games each; Cubs' hitting coach Gerald Perry received three.

Derrek Lee provided a teaching moment today for all parents watching this game with their children. To the left is a picture of what is supposed to be two grown men.

Chris Young threw a fastball up-and-in to Lee in the 4th inning, hitting Lee in the arm. Lee got up, shook it off, and began to walk to first. He appeared calm. But he decided to walk a little too far inside the first base line. And he started speaking with Young. And then Young said . . . something. No one, including Lee and Young, is saying what that something was. Whatever it was, Lee decided that it was worth throwing -- and missing -- a punch over.

I do not pretend to know that I would have kept my cool in that situation. But it would have been my duty to do so. Lee was neither defending himself nor defending others from physical harm. His failure to keep his cool resulted in the Cubs losing him for this game, and certainly for several others. He thus hurt his team because of a few words from an opposing pitcher.

The Cubs simply do not operate with a big enough margin to lose their star first baseman to a suspension, especially with their star third baseman already on the disabled list.

The fight, and Lee's pending suspension, overshadows Carlos Zambrano's complete game gem, in which he took a no-hitter into the 8th inning. It was his third very good game in a row. Unfortunately, the Cubs' offense was completely unable to breakthrough against the Padres' bullpen after Young was ejected, resulting in another one-run loss. The final batter in the game? Jacque Jones (611 OPS), hitting for Cesar Izturis (620 OPS). In Lee's spot in the lineup.

(Courtesy of The Sports Xchange) One of the duties of new Cubs bench coach Alan Trammell is to work with the infield.

The four-time Gold Glove-winning shortstop, who helped turn 1,321 double plays in his career, is looking forward to his duties with an infield that has two Gold Glove players and a pair of question marks.

First baseman Derrek Lee and shortstop Cesar Izturis are former Gold Glove winners whose 2006 seasons were shortened because of injuries.

"Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee could be out for the rest of the season because of his 3-year-old daughter's illness," reports the AP. . . . "'My daughter's lost some vision in one eye and we'll find out more at a later time; we have to go through some more tests,' Lee said in a statement. 'Right now we just ask for everyone's prayers. We need a miracle, we need your prayers. We need everyone to believe she's going to be OK.'"

If the Cubs were in contention right now, I would still support Lee's decision. It's just a game. She's his three year old daughter. My prayers are with Lee and his family.

(Courtesy of The Sports Xchange) Les Walrond's emergency start on Sunday, in which he was not able to complete three innings, was likely not good enough for him to make another start for the Cubs.

Dusty Baker says, with regard to what would have happened had Derrek Lee not been injured this season, "you can figure he'd make up 10, 12, 15 games by himself," reports the Chicago Tribune. A ten game difference would put the Cubs at 64-67, 3 games out of the wild card lead.