The Chicago Cubs have finally found a taker for Derrek Lee.

Earlier in the year, reports surfaced that the Cubs have come to an agreement with the Los Angeles Angels to send the all-star to the west coast, but the first baseman had declined the trade. This time, the Cubs have agreed to send Lee to the Atlanta Braves and Lee approved, becoming fourth Cub to be traded in the past month. Lefty Ted Lilly and Ryan Theriot were sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers before the deadline and Mike Fontenot to the San Francisco shortly after.

In return, the Cubs get three minor league pitchers and absolve themselves of the remaining $3 million on Lee’s contract.

Since his breakout season in 2005 when he hit .335 with 50 doubles and 46 homeruns, Lee has been overrated by Cubs fans everywhere. People point to his gold glove in 2007 as evidence of his great defense and his .306 average in 2009 to show that Lee is still the same player. However, anyone that has watched Lee play will understand that he’s merely a shell of the player he used to be.

Since suffering the wrist injury that limited him to just 50 games in 2006, Lee’s bat speed and plate discipline haven’t been the same. He’s no longer able to hit the inside fastball and apparently no longer willing to use the opposite field. This horrible combination has led to a ton of unproductive at-bats, including a whopping 81 double plays since the career year. Unlike the Cubs’ refusal to cut ties with the aging Sammy Sosa until things were much too late, the team was only a little late to part ways with Lee.

As of now, there is no clear cut replacement for Lee in 2011. Some have suggested moving Tyler Colvin to first base to free the logjam in the outfield and allow Kosuke Fukudome more playing time and that remains a possibility. However, I think it’s a little too soon to start speculating about next season. There’s still 41 games remaining on the schedule this year and then an entire off-season for Jim Hendry and the rest of the front office to mold the team for 2011.

The emergence of Starlin Castro as the shortstop has created a logjam at second base, so that was one area where the Cubs wanted to move some pieces around.

Since the off-season, the Cubs have made their interest in trading Ryan Theriot perfectly clear. Despite being only $800,000 apart in arbitration, the Cubs refused to even negotiate with Theriot and went to arbitration for the first time since 1993. So it makes sense that the team packaged left-hander Ted Lilly together with Theriot in a trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The return package brings three players all under the age of 25, but doesn’t exactly do a whole lot to solve the situation at second base. The only Major League ready player of the trio is another light-hitting second baseman: Blake DeWitt. Now, Dewitt will have to split time with Fontenot and Baker at second base for the rest of the year, once again showing the Cubs are proficient in stock-piling mediocre middle infielders. (At least DeWitt is young and still has room to grow.) The pitching prospects do bring some promise, however. Kyle Smit and Brett Wallach have both posted impressive numbers on the lower levels of the minors leagues and are 22 and 21 years old, respectively.

The trade saves the Cubs about $5 million, but the team was unable to move any more players. The Cubs had agreed to a trade with the Los Angeles Angels that would’ve sent the aging Derrek Lee to Anaheim, but the first baseman used his no-trade clause to block the deal.

I’m a little disappointed that the team was not more active at the deadline, but we knew that a trade involving any of the high-priced players like Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome, or Carlos Zambrano was going to be next to impossible. One silver lining is that all three of those players should clear waivers easily, so there’s still yet time to work out something else.

In the top of the first inning of a game that the St. Louis Cardinals would eventually win 4-3, the Cardinals had Matt Holliday on first base and Ryan Ludwick on third base with two outs.

When a pitch by Cubs’ starter Ryan Dempster ended up in the dirt, Holliday broke for second. Catcher Geovany Soto pounced on the ball and threw to shortstop Starlin Castro well ahead of Holliday. Knowing that he was going to be out, Holliday stayed in a rundown to try to give Ludwick a chance to score. Castro chased down Holliday until the last instant when he surprisingly turned and fired an off-balance strike to Soto to nail Ludwick at the plate. But the surprising part wasn’t that he made a perfect throw.

Since Castro has been at the Major League level, two things have been perfectly clear about him: he has talent and he’s stupid. The fact that Castro was able to make such an acrobatic throw came to nobody’s surprise, but I was shocked that Castro remembered there was another runner on base. After witnessing this miracle, I sat there hoping that this play was a sign of things to come for the 20-year-old rookie.

As it turned out, Castro took very little time to take away this hope.

In the bottom of the first inning, with Tyler Colvin on first base, Castro was up to bat. Before the first pitch, Castro called time by throwing his right hand up in the air. Anyone can tell you that’s not the proper way to call time: the batter should keep both hands on the bat and be prepared for the pitch in case time is not granted. And even though many other players call time in this fashion, they still keep themselves in a reasonable position to be ready for the pitch. Not Castro. He stood up straight out of his crouch, threw his right hand and waved it in umpire Bob Davidson’s face and looked away. Later in the same at-bat with a 3-1 count, Colvin was going on a hit-and-run. I don’t know if Castro missed a sign or if he’s just selfish, but he took strike two right down the middle and catcher Yadier Molina was able to cut down Colvin easily.

Castro called time so exaggeratedly on at least one other occasion in this game. You see, Castro has a sense of arrogance about himself. He knows he has talent and so he feels like he can order around the clubhouse staff for equipment or demand time from an umpire and automatically get it. Maybe this type of confidence is a good thing, but I would prefer that Castro develop this holier-than-thou attitude after having played in a little more than 68 Major League games.

But Castro’s biggest blunder was yet to come. He saves those for the extra innings. Standing at first base as the trail runner behind Colvin who was at second base, Castro didn’t seem to realize that the score was tied and so his run doesn’t mean anything. He also appeared to be unaware of Molina’s tendency to throw behind runners, which was evidenced by him bouncing wildly off of first base with each pitch. When Albert Pujols finally called for the pickoff play on the 1-1 pitch, Castro would’ve been out by at least three steps had Derrek Lee not fouled the pitch away.

At the beginning of his time at the Major League level, you wondered and hoped if these types of mistakes were because Castro is so young and that he will learn in the future. But at some point, we must also consider the possibility that Castro literally does not possess the intellectual capability to show a moderate deal of awareness on the field. I told my friend that this play confirmed that Castro is as dumb as a rock, only to hear him respond that even a rock knows when to stay put.

Of course, when ESPN is involved in a baseball game (or as we learned this summer, a soccer game), it always tries its hardest not to be outclassed on stupidity by anyone. During an in-game update (which happened in the eighth inning), ESPN pointed out that the Philadelphia Phillies had completed the sweep of the Colorado Rockies. Looks like ESPN has that crystal ball working: I better call my bookie and bet the house on the Phillies beating the Rockies on Monday. Then, in the ninth inning, we were told that the reason why closer Carlos Marmol has so many strikeouts was because his slider moves just enough to miss the barrel of the bat. Last time I checked, you don’t strike out 89 batters in 47 1/3 innings by pitching to contact.

But hey, what do I know? They’re the television experts.

The Chicago Cubs gave Lou Piniella all of his due respect and then some.

In his old age, Piniella has become more senile and less enthusiastic about winning games — a trend that has dramatically grown in the past few years. The Cubs should have cut ties with Piniella halfway through the 2008 season but didn’t. That’s because the team had the best record in the league, even though that wasn’t because of Piniella — but rather in spite of Piniella.

Nonetheless, the old adage goes that you don’t fix something that isn’t broken, so Piniella stayed. But surely he would’ve been gone after an 83-78 record in 2009, right? Well, not exactly. And even despite a 42-52 start to the 2010 season, the Cubs are honoring Piniella by giving him yet another chance to walk out on his own terms. Finally, he’s accepted.

Nobody will question that Piniella was a great manager. He has over 1,800 career wins, 6 division championships and a World Series championship to prove it. But that was in the past and now he’s just a shell of his old self. Piniella needs to go and along with him, many players too.

The next big change is at the first base position. This love fest with Derrek Lee is really starting to make me sick. I saw the downfall of Sammy Sosa two years before everyone else did and I’ve been on my “Derrek Lee is bad” horn for about two years. People who are ignorant to the game will blindly point at Lee’s offensive numbers from the past to claim that he’s a good hitter or refer to his gold gloves to argue that he’s a good defender. But people who actually bother to watch the games should realize that Lee is an average hitter and a below-average defender.

The double plays that Lee consistently grounds into is one thing, but only part of the bigger picture. It’s that Lee is completely clueless at the plate. When he hit .335 in 2005, he was able to use all parts of the field and had some of the quickest hands in baseball: he would drive the pitches that were off the outside corner to right field with authority, forcing the pitchers to pitch inside. When they did, he drove the ball out of the ballpark.

These days, Lee tries to pull every pitch regardless of the location. If the pitch is outside, it turns into a harmless groundball to the shortstop. If the pitch is inside, he’s not quick enough to catch it. His .244 batting average this season is not a slump and not a mystery. And quite honestly, it’s not a surprise; it’s actually pretty consistent with his talents as a baseball player.

Still Lee brings a “veteran presence” to the clubhouse and a contending team that isn’t familiar with him might be tempted to look at his .306 average last season and have hopes that he could provide a late spark to their team’s playoff chase. This makes Lee movable before the trading deadline, despite the $13 million contract.

All other players who are not under contract for 2011 are also trade candidates, including lefty Ted Lilly (2010: $12 million), outfielder Xavier Nady ($3.3 million), infielder Ryan Theriot ($2.6 million), and utilityman Jeff Baker ($975,000).

Alfonso Soriano, Ryan Dempster, Kosuke Fukudome, Carlos Silva, and John Grabow are also pieces that the Cubs would wish they could trade, but would probably be unable to because their high-priced contracts extend past the 2010 season. Quite honestly, aside from Marlon Byrd, Tyler Colvin, Andrew Cashner, Carlos Marmol, Geovany Soto, and Starlin Castro, the Cubs should want to trade everyone else.

Whether or not the Cubs are successful in unloading as much of the deadweight from the team as possible, the 2011 season looks very bleak. As things currently stand, there’s not a single reliable starting pitcher for next year and only one full-time position player that is both smarter than the chair that I’m sitting on and can hit. (For those late to the party, I’m talking about Byrd.) This means that regardless of who the new manager is, he is destined to fail.

The managerial options for next season include Ryne Sandberg, Bob Brenly and Alan Trammel, but I hope that the Cubs understand what will happen to whoever it is that takes the 2011 job. The team will be bad and it won’t be long before fans start calling for that new manager’s head. If the team is insistent on letting Sandberg be the manager of the future, it may be wise to leave him in the minor leagues a bit longer.

Marlon Byrd showed the world why he deserves to be an all-star.

Byrd worked a quality at-bat in the seventh inning by drawing an eight-pitch walk ahead of the bases-clearing double by Atlanta’s Brian McCann and also contributed defensively. While the diving effort on New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter in the sixth inning was not enough, the Cubs lone representative in the All-Star Game continued to play the game the way he’s always played: the right way. In the ninth inning, Byrd tracked down a blooper off the bat of Toronto’s John Buck and made an acrobatic throw to second base to force Boston’s David Ortiz for the second out. Many fans around the country may have been surprised by that play, but Cubs fans have been able to get used to that kind of defense from Byrd.

After the final out of the game was recorded, Cubs fans were treated to another familiar sight — though one that hasn’t been familiar enough — Byrd leaped into the air and collided with two of his teammates to celebrate the win. Only this time, it wasn’t Kosuke Fukudome and Alfonso Soriano jumping with him, but rather Houston’s Michael Bourn and Arizona’s Chris Young.

With the 3-1 win in the All-Star Game, the National League has home field advantage in the World Series for the first time since 2001. Sadly, the Cubs seem unlikely to be able to take advantage of it.

Closing out the first half of the season trailing the Cincinnati Reds by 9 1/2 games in the division, the Cubs have found themselves entering the second half as 80/1 longshots to win the pennant. The more likely scenario is that the team will be sellers at the trading deadline, hoping to move some of the big contracts by the end of the year and looking forward to 2011 and beyond.

In a season in which almost all of the Cubs have been underperforming, one guy has been the exception.

Though Marlon Byrd is getting paid a modest $3 million in what is the first year of his three-year contract, he has been the most consistent and hardest working player on the team.

Byrd, whose highest qualifying season average is .303, was hitting .310 coming into Sunday. His 9 homeruns are on pace to come close to his career-best of 20 last season and his current mark of 26 doubles sets him to fly by his previous best in that category. Even more impressive is that Byrd has been doing this while bouncing around in the lineup: he’s made at least three starts in each of the top six spots in the lineup. Plus, Byrd has been a tremendous asset defensively, making catches like this look fairly routine.

Before the start of the season, Byrd was nowhere near the top of the list of the Cubs expected to make the all-star team. But with Derrek Lee hitting .227 and Aramis Ramirez just .177, Byrd’s hard work ethic helped him jump to the front. And Byrd wasn’t taken just because the Cubs were required to have a representative: the players voted him on the team before that rule even came into play.

And while Byrd will be making his first all-star appearance, it looks like Washington’s phenom Stephen Strasburg is out. For now.

Judging purely on performance this season, there’s no question that Strasburg should be left off of the team: 92 pitchers in the league have more wins than Strasburg, 60 have more strikeouts and 106 have pitched more innings. I mean, who was the last starting pitcher to make the all-star team with just 2 wins?

But there was some speculation as to whether Philadelphia and National League manager Charlie Manuel would take Strasburg because this game “counts”. Basing an argument on talent, ability to get guys out, and being able to help the team win the game, Strasburg should get consideration. It’s just one more by product of the stupid rule to award home-field advantage in the World Series to the team that wins.

But with Milwaukee’s Yovani Gallardo likely to miss the all-star game due to an injury, will Manuel be more willing to use a replacement roster spot on a guy like Strasburg?

It’s all too eerily similar to June 1, 2007.

On that day, the Cubs had fallen to 22-30 on the year which was good for 7 1/2 games out of first place. But the bigger headline was Cubs’ pitcher Carlos Zambrano and catcher Michael Barrett getting involved in a dugout altercation. The day after the incident, manager Lou Piniella was ejected after making a scene by kicking dirt on third-base umpire Mark Wegner and the Cubs lost that game also. But with those two incidents taking some attention off of the Cubs underachieving performance, the team was able to rebound. From June 3 to August 1, the Cubs won 35 of 53 games and climbed to a tie at the top of the division.

Today, the scene between Zambrano and Barrett played out again in the dugout, with Derrek Lee cast in the role of Barrett. But, Lee basically is Barrett: at the time, Barrett was hitting .241 with 7 homers, 8 doubles and 25 RBI’s. We’re only slightly further along in the season now and Lee is batting .233 with 10 homers, 10 doubles and 33 RBI’s. Barrett had been on a steep decline defensively, and even though most Cubs fans are in denial about it, it’s been a long time since Lee was anything better than average defensively. Shortly after the 2007 incident, Zambrano was suspended by the team and Barrett was traded. The Cubs have again suspended Zambrano and Lee is a likely candidate to be dealt at the deadline.

The team is in a similar situation too. The Cubs are only slightly worse now than they were that year: nine games below .500 and 8 1/2 games out of first.

Cubs’ announcer Bob Brenly hit it on the head when he said that it was nice to see someone finally showing some passion. Zambrano has done something I’ve been wanting to do the whole year: yell at the little boys for not trying. So will this tirade similarly help the team this year? Well one thing is for certain: it can’t hurt.

But things are a little different this year. Well, actually a lot different.

For one, there’s much less time left in the season and much less time left until the trading deadline. Here, the Cubs would have to make a mad dash to the front of the division standings even quicker to convince general manager Jim Hendry not to blow up the team come July 31. And though the currently front-running Cincinnati Reds might seem similar to the inexperienced Milwaukee Brewers team that always looked like they would blow the lead in 2007, the Cubs are also looking up at the St. Louis Cardinals, who are chock full of winners and are a clearly superior ballclub anyway.

Besides, Piniella demonstrated in the game’s fifth inning that he no longer has the passion or the energy that he did three years ago. On June 2, 2007, Piniella was looking for anything to argue about. He had made up his mind that he was going to get tossed and created controversy out of nothing by arguing a call that truthfully wasn’t close. This time, there was a ready-made bang-bang play and Piniella just calmly discussed it with second-base umpire Gary Darling before returning to his dugout with his tail between his legs.

There will be no repeat of 2007. Hendry should take this as the green light to blow up as much of the team as possible and start over.

For the first time in the history of the FIFA World Cup, Korea Republic have advanced into the final sixteen on foreign soil.

After starting with an impressive 2:0 victory over Greece, Korea Republic were sitting atop the group. But a 4:1 loss to Argentina erased the superiority in goal differential and left the Taeguk Jeonsa clinging on for dear life. Heading into the final match against Nigeria, the math wasn’t so difficult: secure at least a draw and hope that Greece don’t do better against the table-topping Albiceleste. But achieving the necessary result wouldn’t be as easy as the calculation. Nigeria would be no push-over and while Argentina are clearly the strongest side in the group, it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that they would win. That’s because with entry in to the second round more or less squared away, Diego Maradona chose to make seven lineup changes to his squad in order to prepare for the round of sixteen.

Korea Republic had the first chance in the game’s 2nd minute, but it was Nigeria who drew first blood. Kalu Uche outbattled a complacent Cha Du Ri to get on the end of a grounded cross in the 12th minute to give the Super Eagles flight. As it turned out, that was just the first of many defensive errors that Korea Republic would make.

In the 36th minute, Kalu Uche made a serious effort for his second goal of the match. He let loose a line drive from 25 meters out and the shot soared through Korean defenders and past goalkeeper Jung Sung Ryung before eventually hitting off the post to keep the Asians alive.

And just two minutes later, Korea Republic capitalized. Lee Jung Soo turned in a free-kick sent towards the far post, very similar to the way he scored against Greece, to level the scores. With Argentina and Greece still scoreless in Polokwane, Lee’s equaliser meant that Korea Republic were now in position to advance.

In the 49th minute, Park Chu Young further solidified his country’s chances with a great individual effort. Amidst a sea of Nigerian defenders, Park turned nothing into something by winning a foul in an advanced position. He then atoned for his own goal against Argentina by drilling the ball into the side netting between goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama and the far post on the 26-meter free kick. But Nigeria wouldn’t bow out so easily.

In the 66th minute, Nigeria found space behind the Korean backline and created a chance for Yakubu Ayegbani. Ayegbani had the ball just 3 meters away from an empty net, but managed to push the shot wide — a task that was probably harder than scoring the equaliser.

Korea Republic made yet another serious mistake just two minutes later. Second-half substitute Kim Nam Il lost possession of the ball inside of his penalty box and foolishly took down Chinedu Obasi from behind. Kim was lucky to get away with just a yellow card, but the luck would run out there. Ayegbani made amends for his earlier miss by dispatching the resulting penalty kick into the net to level the scores and keep Nigeria alive.

When it was known that Argentina had finally broken through by scoring in the 77th minute and again in the 89th minute, the tide of the game drastically changed. Korea Republic were now certain that a draw would see them through, while Nigeria pushed men forward with a seemingly renewed vigor in an attempt to score the goal that would give them the ticket into the second round instead. The final minutes of the match featured various Nigeria players making attempts at goal from distance. Each one missed, but none of them by very much.

Though Korea Republic are through to the knockout stage, they are not without serious questions to ask. Nigeria had picked apart the defense but were ultimately unable to convert enough of the chances. However, the match suggested that an opponent of higher quality — such as second-round opponent Uruguay — would be able to better punish the Koreans for their mistakes. After all, Argentina had pounded out four goals against Korea Republic just five days earlier.

The offense also leaves something to be desired. Though the five goals in the group stage are good, three were from set pieces and the other two were gifts from the defense. Korea Republic lack the cohesive teamwork necessary to threaten the goal with a live ball using just forwards and midfielders. But when the backs move up to help on the attack, it further weakens an already suspect defense.

As a Korea Republic supporter, I’ve literally been losing sleep over this match the last few days.

Before the competition started, I had predicted that Argentina would win the group and that second place would come down to this very match. Assuming that Argentina beat Greece, this is exactly the scenario that would come to place: Korea Republic advance with a win or a draw, Nigeria are through with a win.

Let us compare results so far.

Nigeria lost to Argentina by a 1:0 score. While Korea Republic lost by a 4:1 score, the scoreline does tell a bit of a lie. The game was closer than your typical three-goal result.

Korea Republic defeated Greece by a 2:0 score, and it very easily could’ve been 3:0 or more. On the other hand, Nigeria looked well on their way to matching Korea Republic’s result before an unfortunate red card crippled the Super Eagles and allowed Greece to squeak out a victory.

All reports seem to indicate that the two sides are very evenly matched.

Korea Republic are more technically talented in the midfield, especially with the absence of John Obi Mikel and now, the suspended Sani Kaita. This seemingly sets the advantage for Korea Republic. And while the Nigerian back line has holes, goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama has perhaps been the goalkeeper of the tournament so far and I fear that Korea Republic lack the finisher of the quality necessary to beat him. Of Korea Republic’s three goals scored so far in the tournament, one was from a set piece and the other two were the direct result of defender errors.

Korea Republic lack the sophisticated teamwork necessary to create chances up front and lone striker Park Chu Young has been known to let a few speculative shots fly. Against Enyeama, those will just be wasted efforts. [Update: Korea Republic will deploy in a 4-4-2 against Nigeria with Yeom Ki Hun joining Park up front. Korea Republic used a 4-4-2 in the victory over Greece, before switching to 4-2-3-1 against Argentina.]

Korea Republic hope to create their chances by moving men forward on blitz counterattacks. But that’s also their biggest weakness: defenders are sometimes a little slow returning to their line or a little sloppy with their marking. I don’t expect Nigeria to be as unforgiving as Argentina, but I don’t expect Nigeria to be quite as hapless as Greece either. A lot rides on the hands of goalie Jung Sung Ryong and he has proven before that he could step up to the task; with Jung and veteran Lee Woon Jae sharing the net-minding responsibilities, Korea Republic only allowed four goals during their eight qualifications matches.

Right now, I am fearing the worst — but I tend to panic. If the Super Eagles win, they would fly ahead of Korea Republic on goal differential and leave no permutation for the Taeguk Jeonsa to advance. All things considering, I would take my chances with a draw against Nigeria and hope that Argentina — who will be without Jonas Gutierrez, Gabriel Heinze, Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain and skipper Javier Mascherano — will come through with some help.

I keep looking to the bookmakers for some relief. Nigeria backers are getting 7/4 and Greece backers will get paid 5/1 for a win. The betting public — which hasn’t been that horrible so far — seem to be placing bets most heavily on NGA/KOR ending in a draw and Argentina finishing the group with nine points, a turn of events that would see Korea Republic through. But right now, that information brings little consolation.

I offer my “predictions” that appear to be a combination of actual expectation and optimistic thinking.

Nigeria 1:1 Korea Republic

Argentina 2:0 Greece

To say that Derrek Lee has been slipping recently is an understatement.

Many have looked to Lee’s struggles at the plate this year and have been shocked at his offensive inconsistency; after Tuesday’s game, his average is now down to .225. But his defense has also been very lackluster for longer than people think.

Due to many people believing that the Gold Glove awards are actually awarded to the best defenders in the game, Lee has had a reputation of being a good defender for much longer than he actually has been. According to John Dewan’s Fielding Bible, Lee didn’t deserve any of his Gold Glove awards and wasn’t even close to deserving the award in 2007.

The Fielding Bible ranks fielders by a very simple method: whenever a defender makes a play on a ball that the average defender would not be able to make, he gets +1. Whenever a defender fails to make a play on a ball that the average defender would be able to make, he gets -1. Though Lee won the Gold Glove in 2007, St. Louis’ Albert Pujols led all first baseman with +37 that year. James Loney and Scott Thorman were tied for tenth among first basemen with +2 and Lee was not in the top ten. In fact, that has been the norm; a glance at Dewan’s list for each of the few most recent years suggests that Lee has been nothing better than mediocre.

To those that actually watch the game everyday, this is no shocking revelation.

There were many times over the past few years where Lee failed to make a diving stop on sharp grounder or come up with a big leaping catch. The typical reaction has been to excuse Lee for not making the play and justifiably so because it’s a tough play. But when Lee consistently fails to come up with a great defensive play, the realization needs to be made at some point: he’s not a superior defender.

But during the fourth inning of Tuesday’s loss to the Oakland Athletics, Lee was unable to make the routine plays. When the first baseman fanned on a perfect Starlin Castro throw, he was charged with the second error of the inning for the first time in his career.

In addition to Lee slipping, the game provided further proof that Lou Piniella is starting to become more senile.

With the score 5-4 in favor of the Athletics at the time, Piniella let Carlos Zambrano take a sixth inning at-bat for himself despite the tying run being in scoring position with two outs. Zambrano failed to knock in the run, but that move still would’ve been acceptable if Zambrano was going to start the seventh inning. Instead, Jeff Stevens came out to pitch the seventh, demonstrating that Piniella actually left his pitcher in the game because he believed that was the best chance to drive in the tying run. There’s no doubt that Zambrano is a good hitting pitcher, but he’s just that: a pitcher.

Instead of looking for trouble with the media members of Chicago, Piniella should focus on his team. Much like umpires who get defensive and are quick to toss arguing players when they know they got the call wrong, Piniella seeking out White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone is an indication that even Piniella himself knows he’s past his prime. Whether or not Stone was right with his comments is not the point, so I will not go into detail about that here: a confident Piniella would not find the need to lash out at every criticism.

Castro still maturing: In the short time that Starlin Castro has been with the big club, he has shown that he has the skill set to be a major league player. However, he also has continued to show that his maturation level is not where it needs to be. I have already discussed at length about Castro never seeming to have his head in the game and the seventh inning of Tuesday’s game was no exception. On the play that officially went down as a throwing error on Tyler Colvin, Castro was actually to blame. Colvin chased down a ball at the wall and made a throw from the warning track into Castro, who was serving as the cut-off man on the play. The throw wasn’t perfect but few throws of that distance are. All Castro had to do was take two steps to his left to get in front of the ball, but instead he held his ground and missed with a half-hearted jab.