Ramirez Back Today

Ha! See what I did there? The picture is of Ramirez's back...and he's back today. Well whatever, they're not all going to be winners.

Anyway, today is the day we've been dreaming about since May 8th, when the Cubs were 2.5 games out of first in the NL Central. After two very long and frustrating months, the Cubs get a key component back and just in time because they find themselves 2.5 games out. Wait, what? We didn't lose any ground when Ramirez was out? But we played like shit pretty much the entire time. In fact, when I go back and look at the stats, I'm pretty sure we scored a total of 7 runs in that time frame. I guess we have no choice now but to go out and win the division, again.

David Patton Must Go

With the Cubs expected to activate the trio of Aramis Ramirez, Reed Johnson and Angel Guzman on Monday, some tough roster decisions are going to have to be made. Let's be honest here, it's not as if this team is so incredibly deep with talent that it makes sending someone down difficult, it's just that there are so many players that do the same thing, how do you pick the right one? One player that should not have a roster spot come Monday is David Patton.

David Patton is a luxury that this team cannot afford. I understand that if he is not kept on the 25-man roster then you have to send him back to Colorado. I'm not concerned. If this was a 97-win team like last season, then I could see the Cubs wasting a roster spot and holding onto Patton because they're good enough to overcome it. He may very well develop into a nice pitcher if given the chance, but this is not the place to develop pitchers.

I'm sure at this point that Jim Hendry doesn't want to look like he's admitting to a mistake. He already looked like he admitted to one when he inquired about DeRosa's availability from Cleveland. He's taking a lot of heat over the Milton Bradley signing. At this point though with Patton, is it a bigger mistake to keep him or to cut bait?

Lou has already lost faith in Patton and only uses him in mop up situations. We've already been told that because of the ownership uncertainty, we probably won't be making a major splash via the trade at the deadline. If that's the case, so be it. But can Jim Hendry at least have the decency to let the Cubs play with a full 25-man roster? Before we start making the hard decisions like which player that's been contributing gets sent down, can we at least get rid of the players that don't contribute at all?

Bush League Times All-Star Contest

Since the Cubs only have one player on the All-Star squad and I fear the game will be rather uninteresting (it's in St. Louis, where interesting goes to die), I've decided to hold an All-Star contest.

All you have to do is tell me which team will win the 2009 All-Star Game and which player will be the MVP. In case of a tie, please predict the final score. Closest guess to the actual score will win. That's it. The winner will receive his or her choice of t-shirts from the Bush League Times store. Enter as many times as you'd like by entering your guess in the comments section of this post. You must enter before 6:00pm on July 14th. All guesses after 6pm will not be eligible for prizes.

Winners will be contacted on Wednesday July 15th via email to claim their prize. Good luck to everyone.

Ted Lilly Is The Lone All Star

The American and National League All Stars were announced today and not surprisingly, the Cubs only had one player named to the team. Ted Lilly will represent the Cubs in St. Louis, only one year after they sent 8 players to the midsummer classic.

Some thought Derrek Lee may have had an outside chance to make the team, but Charlie Manual chose Prince Fielder, Adrian Gonzalez and Ryan Howard to go along with starter Albert Pujols.

Happy 4th of July

We at Bush League Times would like to wish everyone a safe and happy Fourth of July. May you end today with as many fingers as you started with and may you all enjoy a Cubs victory.

Your Source For Exclusive Aramis Ramirez Updates

With Aramis Ramirez on a rehab assignment with the Peoria Chiefs, we decided to send Bush League Times' correspondant Dan O'Clock to Elfstrom Stadium to cover the action. Dan has a knack for covering the big stories like nobody else can, we like to think it's because of his desire to be the best and the fact that he just won't take no for an answer. We asked Dan to cover the game and snap some pictures of Aramis in a Chiefs uniform that we could use on the site. As you can see, he did not disappoint.


Great job as always Dan, your work continues to amaze us. As Josh Elliott would say, that's tremendous stuff.

Cubs Acquire Jeff Baker...Hoo-Frickin'-Ray

In a move that should officially eliminate Jim Hendry from 'Executive of the Year' consideration, the Cubs have acquired infielder Jeff Baker from the Colorado Rockies according to Yahoo sports.

With Aramis Ramirez expected back on Monday, the Cubs will have to choose between the following people to play second base:

Aaron Miles, Mike Fontenot, Jeff Baker, Andres Blanco, Ryan Freel and if any of them get hurt, Bobby Scales. Is it possible to teach Jake Fox to play second instead of third?

If You Had July 1st In The Office Pool, Then You Win

It's nice to see that Carol Slezak has finally lit a match under Lou's ass. It's just too bad that Phil Rogers will now want to get rid of Lou because he's as emotional as Zambrano. I guess there's no pleasing everybody.

Lou finally blew his top tonight and got himself tossed. Although it wasn't his best show and it felt a little forced, I have to admit I enjoyed it. I'm sure that those of us who did enjoy it will be called goons and meat heads by the usual suspects on talk radio and even in other Cubs blogs. I don't care. It's just nice to finally see that Lou isn't apathetic in the dugout. Not only do I like my managers to have a pulse, I like them to have high blood pressure. Also, don't think for a second that it's a coincidence that Lou got tossed and then the Cubs started hitting with runners in scoring position. It's not a coincidence, it's science.