DELMON, THE CUBS AND BASEBALL'S GREATS

Delmon Young gets 50 games without pay for throwing a bat at an umpire. It's just. People that think not should consider that his offense would land him in court with a lawsuit and possibly jailtime in the 'real' world. Baseball, of course, is not the real world.

The Cubs busted out last night with a 8-1 rout of the Giants. Zambrano went 8 innings and got the win. Here's the disturbing thing, which to me shows me that these long droughts on offense are likely to continue: The Cubs managed to see only 122 pitches from the Giants. The Giants saw 119. The Cubs also drew only 2 walks. It's great on the nights when you face a back of the rotation starter and you can crank balls into the gap and over the fence. As was the case last night. But at some point you have to work it--work the count, work the pitcher and work your patience.

Pitchers are also subject to impatience. When they know batters aren't chasing after junk they will have to throw more strikes. They get frustrated too. It sounds simple but it's something that has not been stressed on the North Side.

Good discussions are taking place over at Tim Ellsworth's blog. People are voting on their top 5 players at each position, and then debating it. I find myself defending Sandberg and after listening to some of the arguments realize I might have a little too much Cubs Kool Aid in my system.

At First Base the consensus was Gehrig. Looks as if Rogers Hornsby will take it at 2nd. Join the fun here.