Hey David,
Great idea on "Baseball Musing's Player of the Week!" I will try and participate when I can. I subscribed to MLB.TV thanks to those guys at Fruit of the Loom. They offered a 5-day free trial of it at MLB.com...and it was only $29.95 to keep it after that...needless to say I kept it. What a great way to see other teams and players. And MLB Mosaic allows me to have 6 games on in high-quality video at once. I've been listening to your podcasts David...sorry I haven't been around, but my health hasn't been the greatest as of late. Keep up the GREAT work....Regards, Bob Merc-The Shift

Put everybody away? Don't go into the victory lap quite yet. A four-game losing streak could erase the Cubs' lead.

If I'm Lou Pinella I have to be concerned with Zambrano and the end of my pen. He seems determined to burn Samar...out by Sept and who knows with Wood. Marmol always seems to pitch great when you limit his exposure then not so great when he has to step up.

He's right though. going into that stretch, the cubs had a tenuous lead over the brewers and the Cardinals were stalking. had they done poorly, they could have been just in the mix for the playoffs. Instead, according to the computers, they now have a 95% chance of making the playoffs, and 78% chance of winning the division.

The fact is a 3.5/7 game lead is pretty big at this point. The brewers have to play about .100 better and the cards nearly .200 better to overtake the cubs. But every indication from the cubs - no weaknesses with a huge run diff advantage, by far best and balanced OFF, deep very good SP and RP, good DEF, deep bench - is they are likely to continue to be the best, most consistent team down the stretch. the people who know the most, the odds makers, have the cubs at even odds-plus of winning the pennant and 3 or 4 to one winning the WS, just below the favorite angles,.
of course we have t see it play out, but the cubs have a good look at it this year

He's right though. going into that stretch, the cubs had a tenuous lead over the brewers and the Cardinals were stalking. had they done poorly, they could have been just in the mix for the playoffs. Instead, according to the computers, they now have a 95% chance of making the playoffs, and 78% chance of winning the division.

The fact is a 3.5/7 game lead is pretty big at this point. The brewers have to play about .100 better and the cards nearly .200 better to overtake the cubs. But every indication from the cubs - no weaknesses with a huge run diff advantage, by far best and balanced OFF, deep very good SP and RP, good DEF, deep bench - is they are likely to continue to be the best, most consistent team down the stretch. the people who know the most, the odds makers, have the cubs at even odds-plus of winning the pennant and 3 or 4 to one winning the WS, just below the favorite angles,.
of course we have t see it play out, but the cubs have a good look at it this year