Bradley was a bad signing. Hoffpauir is a poor outfielder, but probably as good as Bradley and has produced more offense. Even as Bradley has been getting more hits of late, he fails over and over in situations where there are runners in scoring position. Hoffpauir led all players in the spring, with 26 RBI in spring training. When he gets more regular at bats, he will hit even better. Fukadome has hit about where I expected he might, before the season began. Soriano has been really bad with far too many unproductive outs with runners on base, the past 5 weeks. Yes, this has been a bad outfield all around. They field well below average and have not hit as expected either. The hitting was supposed to more than make up for the below average defense. Bad, Bad, Bad....

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Go Cubs!!!!

I really don't know what to say. They seem to score just enough runs to lose.
These fucking cocksuckers are ruining my summer.

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We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.- Eric Hoffer

It's hard to watch this team, and I am not looking forward to this series with the Sox.

But I still look at the Cubs with how bad they have played and they are still only 3 1/2 games out.

Players with extensive histories will usually play toward their career averages. Unless Soriano is hurt more than has been let on, he is due for a hot streak. His lowest batting avg for a season is .268. His career is .279. He is now at .227. Too hit .268 he needs to bat around .300 for the rest of the year. It seems impossible but then again, I can't see him batting .227 the rest of the year. And when Soriano is hot, this team does kick it up a notch.

Ramirez will be back and while I don't think he will immediately become a force, I think just his presence might take pressure off certain guys, especially Bradley.

Neither the Cards or Brewers appear able to run away with this division, so if the Cubs can stay within striking distance until Ramirez comes back, this team will make a run.

Unfortunately, I think the Brewers and Cards might be able to swing for a big trade to improve their clubs, while the Cubs might be hamstrung due to ownership/payroll issues. And this teams lack of a closer will, IMO, ultimately prove fatal.

So I expect the Cubs to in the mix in September, therefore I will be sucked in by this team. But I don't think they will be able to pull it off.