You’re invited! Please join the Churchill Elementary Home & School Association at the Annual Churchill Elementary Gala and Silent Auction Benefit - An Evening at the Races - Saturday, May 17th at Whitetail Ridge Golf Club in Yorkville, IL - 7pm to midnight.

This year, we have been fortunate to receive autographed Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano Cubs jerseys to silent auction at our event. We are spreading the word to Cubs fans who might like to bid on a jersey and support a great cause at the same time.

The second-guessers -- Phil Rogers, Jay Mariotti, Gordon Wittenmyer, Melissa Isaacson, Rick Morrissey, Mike Downey, Mike Imrem, and Barry Rozner (talk about group think) -- were out in full force this morning after the Cubs' 3-1 loss in Game 1 of the NLDS. All of them consider Lou Piniella's removal of Carlos Zambrano to start the seventh inning in favor of Carlos Marmol to have been the cause of the Cubs' loss.

The real cause, of course, was Brandon Webb's mastery of the Cubs' hitters, the particular angle of some line drives off Cubs' bats, and Marmol's inability to locate his pitches in the 7th inning. But not to the aforementioned writers, who have created a new Zambrano in their mind, some unstoppable force who would of course not allowed any runs going forward. Either that, or they just could not come up with another angle on this game.

In making their judgments, they ignore the information Piniella had to go on when he made the decision, namely, that Marmol is a better pitcher than Zambrano over a 1-2 inning stretch.

After Trevor Hoffman struck out the side in the 9th inning of the San Diego Padres' 6-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers tonight, radio play-by-play man Bob Uecker went to break with, "This one is over."

When the Brewers defeated the Chicago Cubs on June 30, they moved to 7.5 games ahead of the Cubs, the second place team. With the Cubs' 6-0 win tonight over the Cincinnati Reds and the Brewers' loss, the Cubs have clinched the NL Central divisional crown with two games to spare. It is not exactly a 1969 Cubs-style collapse for the Brewers, or even a 2007 Mets-style collapse, but it is a collapse. The Cubs needed help after their slow start and they got it when Milwaukee went 20-34 in July and August.

Carlos Zambrano came up huge tonight, throwing 7 shutout innings. He moved his season record to 18-13 and he is lined up to start Game 1 of the NLDS. Zambrano had decisions in 31 of his 34 starts this season. Zambrano's 31 decisions are the most by a Cubs' pitcher since Greg Maddux went 20-11 in 1992.

Alfonso Soriano also had a big game, leading it off with a home run, doubling, and throwing (another) runner out at the plate. The Cubs have not had a strong-armed outfielder with as an accurate an arm as Soriano since Andre Dawson.

Either Chip Caray or Steve Stone may be broadcasting the Cubs' playoff series.

I have written on booing before. See here, here, and here. As such, I won't go into it again other than to say that Carlos Zambrano was right when he called out some Cubs' fans for booing him. Others disagree with me. See here, here, here, and here. In any event, it was clearly a stupid public relations decision by Zambrano. Here's an important rule Zambrano needs to learn and learn fast: When you are good, give credit to others; when you are bad, put the blame on yourself. His quick apology was a good start.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2978642

I think this is the best deal the Cubs could have possibly done to keep him. If he had hit the market, his contract would have been astronomical.

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.

"[Carlos Zambrano and Michael Barrett] will be among the best at their craft when they can maximize their diamond knowledgeability while controlling their sometimes white-hot emotions." -- George Castle, Entangled in Ivy

Ron Santo just said on the radio that Barrett and Zambrano traded punches in the dugout after the Braves' 5-run 5th inning. Zambrano appeared to Santo to be the instigator.

That's the Carlos Zambrano we know and love. His 62 Game Score today wasn't his best of the season -- his best was his 66 two starts ago against the Mets -- but this performance seemed even better. That's because his control was excellent. He struck out 8 for the first time this year while walking just one (the last batter he faced, on his 125th pitch of the day). The Dodgers rarely hit the ball hard off him all day, demonstrating the good movement on his pitches. Zambrano won this game with his pitching, not any particularly great defense.

Meanwhile, Ryan Theriot has received two days off in a row, after hitting just .229/.316/.286 in 80 plate appearances over his last 18 games.

http://tinyurl.com/2z6y8v

Phil Rogers suggests in today's Tribune that Carlos Zambrano may be expendable. I don't usually dwell to much on anything Rogers has to say. I think he is off base more than he is on it, but even the blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while, and I have to admit that I have been thinking the same thing about Zambrano for a few weeks now. It's a fact that for the third straight season Big-Z's BB, HR and ERA are heading in the wrong direction. It's also a fact that Zambrano has come up MIA in some of the biggest Cubs' games since 2003. Rogers is right. Losing Zambrano would not exactly be like losing Maddux.

Whatever changes Carlos Zambrano made tonight, they returned him to his 2003 groundball throwing ways: 16 ground ball outs; 4 fly outs.

The control the strike zone message Lou Piniella has been preaching since his arrival is good. The execution, today at least, not so much.

The man apparently on the verge of signing a 5-year, $80M extension, Carlos Zambrano, threw like the man who led the National League in walks last season rather than the man who would win a Cy Young. 47 balls to 45 strikes, leadings to 5 walks, a hit batter, and a wild pitch. Combine that with Adam Dunn's (1071 OPS the last three seasons against the Cubs) power, and Zambrano had less than an ideal opening to his promised Cy Young campaign.

The countdown to get Carlos Zambrano signed to an extension before opening day is on. The Tribune is now saying that Zambrano could play for the Mets, or the White Sox, next season. (What, are the Cardinals the next possibility?) What could be the holdup? We know both sides are at five years.

UPDATE: It's for $12.4M, not the $12M originally stated, putting the amount closer to the middle, but still much closer to the Cubs' figure.

Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs reached an agreement on a $12M, one year contract just in time to avoid the arbitration hearing today. The $12M is easily on the Cubs' side of the dividing line between the two parties' submitted arbitration figures. That it is so much closer to the Cubs' figure would seem to indicate that a long-term contract is getting close to completion.

Some excellent news out of spring training today: MLB.com reports that the Cubs have made an opening offer to Carlos Zambrano, and that the offer is for five years. Even better, while Zambrano said that what the Giants gave Barry Zito would be a fair deal for him, he also said, "I would sign for five years, and they offered five years, so we're on the same page in negotiations."

Five years for a pitcher is, of course, much better than seven. Now that Zambrano has said that he will sign for five, a la Roy Oswalt and Chris Carpenter, instead of demanding Zito's seven, there would seem to be few obstacles (money's not one, right?) to getting this deal done.

In a headline that makes a Cub fan gulp, Carlos Zambrano has indicated that the Cubs must give him a contract now "OR ELSE" he will be gone after 2007. What better way to bring negotiations to a climax, huh? My take on this is that this is Zambrano letting his real feelings show. He has himself pumped up. He is a proud man, and he feels he has earned a new contract with a whole lot of money (and he has). Whether his ego and agent will be satisfied in a deal between now and arbitration is a very important question for the Cubbies. It would be ironic for them to quibble over the last million or two, given what has gone on in the market for lesser talents. My guess and hope is that they reach a deal extending for four years, with increasing pay increments and bonuses galore.
See the ESPN story: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2763803&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines