Crosstown Classic: Round 1 Preview

For the first time since the inception of Interleague Play, the Chicago Cubs and White Sox are atop their respective divisions. And that's only one reason the city should be on heightened alert.

Yet, when I think of Cubs-Sox, this picture comes to mind.

The Cubs (45-28) enter the series with the best record in baseball.

Let it sink in. Best. Record. In. Baseball.

The Sox (41-31) enjoy the largest lead of any division leader and come into the series white hot (pun intended) after sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates at U.S. Cellular Field.

To the three Sox fans that read this blog, let it sink in. Largest. Lead. Of. Any. Division. Leader.

Fans of both sides should expect some excellent baseball to be played despite the fact the first round of games will be without the star presence of Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle.

The Cubs will look to take advantage of some home cooking in the three game set. At 29-8, the Friendly Confines is finally living up to its name for the team with white jerseys with blue pinstripes, blue numbers, blue shoes and blue caps. Conversely, the Sox are 17-20 on the road. But really, who isn't below .500 on the road this year?

Game One will feature dueling lefties to start the game. John Danks (4-4) takes the hill for the South Siders and he will be opposed by Ted Lilly (7-5.)

Rebounding right-handers will toe the rubber in Game Two. Jose Contreras (6-5, 3.24) is enjoying a bounce back year, while Jason Marquis (5-3, 4.24) is 2-0 since being railed by manager Lou Piniella after being pulled in a poor outing against the San Diego Padres.

Finally, ESPN gives the Yanks and the Sawks a rest and instead will feature the Battle for Red Line Supremacy's third game. Javier Vazquez (7-5, 4.13) will oppose Ryan Dempster (8-2, 2.76) who is almost unhittable at Wrigley Field (1.11 WHIP in 58.1 IP.)

In closing, I'll leave you some of the match-ups and in the comments section you can tell me who you'd take.

Let's get interactive people!

CATCHER: Geovany Soto (.286 12 HR 48 RBI) vs. A.J. Pierzynski (.306 4 HR 26 RBI)

FIRST BASE: Derrek Lee (.283 14 HR 44 RBI) vs. Nick Swisher (.230 8 HR 27 RBI

SECOND BASE: Mark DeRosa (.296 8 HR 30 RBI) vs. Alexei Ramirez (.289 4 HR 20 RBI)

SHORTSTOP: Ryan Theriot (.309 1 HR 21 RBI) vs. Orlando Cabrera (.273 5 HR 26 RBI)

THIRD BASE: Aramis Ramirez (.295 10 HR 45 RBI) vs. Joe Crede (.284 15 HR 44 RBI)

OUTFIELD 1: Matt Murton/Micah Hoffpauir (.299 0 HR 5 RBI in 50 ABs)vs. Carlos Quentin (.270 17 HR 56 RBI)

OUTFIELD 2: Jim Edmonds/Reed Johnson (.285 5 HR 50 RBI as Cubs) vs. Brian Anderson (.247 3 HR 11 RBI in 97 ABs)

OUTFIELD 3: Kosuke Fukudome (.295 5 HR 30 RBI) vs. Jermaine Dye (.286 12 HR 32 RBI)

BULLPEN: Carlos Marmol (63 K in 43 IP) and Kerry Wood (18 SV 2.65 ERA) vs. Scott Linebrink (16 HLD 1.29 ERA) and Bobby Jenks (16 SV 1.91 ERA)

P.S. Go Cubs Go!

And to add fuel to the fire, check out this youtube video!

Three Play Featuring The Chicago Sports Scene

It's a day like this that the dirty sports reporter inside of me dies for. And if you are lucky enough to be a sports editor for one of the Windy City's newspapers, you've had yourself a newsday.

You'd also be lucky if you got the opportunity to go home with one of these girls.

Just sayin'.

BENSON BURNOUT

Cedric Benson's time in Chicago is up.

The lethal combination of poor performance on the field and poor decision making off it have cost Benson his job. The No. 4 overall pick in 2005 was released by the Bears Monday afternoon when coach Lovie Smith told Benson to go home when he showed up for practice.

Benson's career to this point has been star-crossed, to say the least. He never appealed to the fans, and how could you when you have a lengthy hold out before you've even taken a snap in the NFL. Then once in The League, Benson was out played by journeyman Thomas Jones mostly because Jones was willing to be a good teammate who had a history of being a gym rat. And when he did get playing time, Cedric was less than entertaining (did you see what I did there?) and would have likely ran second string behind second round draft pick Matt Forte.

Move over Cade McNown, Curtis Enis and Rashaan Salaam because No. 32 will likely go down as the No. 1 bust in the franchise's history.

MY COUSIN COACH VINNY

The Chicago Bulls have officially wasted all of the momentum and buzz generated by winning the No. 1 pick by taking the cheap way out.

Sources say the Bulls are close to naming Mike D'Antoni Doug Collins Vinny Del Negro as the team's next head coach. The former San Antonio Spurs guard (whose name loosely translates to "Vinny of the Negroes) has absolutely no coaching experience, but is currently the assistant general manager of the Phoenix Suns and has interviewed for the vacancies in Chicago and Phoenix.

A move like this just shows how cheap Jerry Reinsdorf is. The Bulls had a chance to bring in an offensive mind such as D'Antoni, a former Coach of the Year in Avery Johnson, a teacher such as Collins. But settled for Del Negro, despite the best candidate just might have been Boston Celtics defensive assistant Tom Thibodeau. (Yeah, I'm agreeing with Jay Mariotti. Deal with it.)

Del Negro's coaching career will be decided by whoever the Bulls choose as their No. 1 pick. Will the former point guard lean towards Derrick Rose or the front court beast Michael Beasley.

THE SECOND CITY'S FIRST PLACE BASEBALL TEAMS

Chicago's baseball teams aren't taking a back seat to anyone, whether it be in their own towns or in their respective divisions.

The Chicago Cubs sport the best record in Major League Baseball and are preparing to host the Atlanta Braves, who might be playing without All-Star Chipper Jones. Five days after being chewed out during his start against the San Diego Padres, Jason Marquis puts forth his best effort of the season.

Coincidence? I think not!

The Chicago White Sox ain't to shabby either. The South Sider's completed a perfect homestand with a 7-5 win over the second-place Minnesota Twins and are currently enjoying a 7-game winning streak while averaging more than 9 runs per game in that span. And to think, Ozzie Guillen was tired of watching this team.

Who the hell gets tired of watching a first-place ball club? Well, it's understandable if you have to do it from U.S. Cellular Field.

This is a hell of a way to end a short week of blogging. I'm going on vacation and will be away from my computer 'til at least Monday. But don't worry, I have stuff in the can that will be unleashed beginning next Tuesday. Hopefully.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to put out my unique spin on the Bulls coaching search which would have netted the team (presumably) its first player-coach, Michael Beasley.

Topics that might be touched on are as follows:

• Where has Mark Prior gone?
• Chicago's Olympic Hopes
• Sleeping with the enemy (like when you're most hated rival joins your favorite team)
• The statistical anomaly that was the 2005 Chicago White Sox
• And hopefully a preview of the Crosstown Classic

That's it. I'm gone to pack. Take care!

"Kerry Wood Just Pissed On The Padres..."

Kerry Wood is flat out filthy!

The Chicago Cubs closer struck out two batters as he converted his 16th save of the season in the Cubs 9-6 win against the San Diego Padres.

Moments after the save, I got this text message: "Kerry Wood just pissed on the padres and said no homo."

For those of you that aren't hip to the lingo, check out the accompanying video below which is taken from the movie "Killa Season" starring rapper Cam'Ron.

***SPOILER ALERT***

In the scene, "Killa Cam" busts some guy in the back of the head with a liquor bottle and proceeds to "R. Kelly" on him all while saying "no homo" because if you're pissing on a dude, it's apparently "homo."

I thought it was hilarious (both the text and the video itself.)

But let's take a further look at Kerry's numbers, shall we?

Wood has converted 16 of 20 save opportunities. The 16 saves puts Wood in a three-way tie for the NL lead with San Francisco's Brian Wilson and Houston's Jose Valverde.

In 32.1 innings Kid K has struck out 36 batters and is back to living up to the nickname he earned after fanning 20 Astros on May 6, 1998. He's only allowed six base on balls. That means his strikeout-to-walk ratio is 6-to-1, a significant improvement over his career 2.40-to-1 K/BB ratio.

His ERA is 2.78. That's a run-and-a-half better than Wilson and almost a run better than Valverde's.

The only thing keeping Woody from being an elite closer is the dreaded hit by pitch. He's already hit five batters this year and has 86 in his career. If he can pitch inside without hitting a batter, he'd be nearly untouchable.

With Wood pitching lights out in the 9th inning, the talk of moving Carlos Marmol into the closer's role has cooled. And it's not Marmol's fault.

"Marmolade" has a cool 2.43 ERA to go along with 55 strikeouts in 37 innings. Think of it this way: Marmol's 55 strikeouts ranks ahead of John Maine (54 in 64 IP), Derek Lowe (52 in 77.2 IP), Tim Hudson (51 in 83.2 IP), John Danks (50 in 63 IP), Jon Lester (49 in 76 IP) and Justin Verlander (44 in 71.1 IP.)

You know what all of those guys have in common???

They're all starting pitchers!!!!!

If that's not stat-of-the-day material, I don't know what is? And that's why they call me Stat Boy!


Alright, here's the video. Fast forward to the 3:06 mark.

Alfonso Soriano, Meet Brant Brown

It's a game like this that separates the Chicago Cubs from all the other teams in baseball.

And not in a good way.

Left fielder Alfonso Soriano dropped a routine fly ball that would have given the Cubs their second road series victory of the season. Instead, Alfonso Soriano did his best Brant Brown impersonation and allowed the Pittsburgh Pirates to tie the game 5-5.

The Pirates would eventually win 6-5 in 11 innings.

If you're not familiar with the Brant Brown story, check it out here.

But the more pressing issue here is that the Cubs absolutely CANNOT win on the road. If they can't beat the Astros and Pirates on the road, I cannot consider them serious contenders.

I don't care what the pundits say. I don't care what my mother says (don't tell her I said that, though.) I do not believe that the Cubs can win the World Series (let alone the NL Central) if they can't beat crap on the road.

And yes, I understand how hard it is to win on the road. But that is no excuse. The Red Sox would have beat the crap out of these two teams. The Diamondbacks would have beat the crap out of these two teams. Heck, even with their crappy offense, I'm tempted to say that the White Sox can beat that crap too.

The Cubs have a prime opportunity to do something special in 2008. This is one of the most talented teams I have ever seen at Clark and Addison. But do not even think about comparing this team to the great 1984 team that was a Leon Durham ground ball away from going to the Series. Or the 2003 team, whose starting pitching blew the rest of the league out of the water.

There are too many holes on this team to make them the odds on favorite.

After staff ace Carlos Zambrano, the rest of the staff is just above average.

Ted Lilly is a nice No. 3 starter and Ryan Dempster is showing the stuff that made him an All-Star as a starting pitcher with the Florida Marlins. Jason Marquis and Sean Gallagher aren't hurting you if they're the No. 5 starter.

The fact that this team is missing a No. 2 starter could possibly hurt them if they make the playoffs.

Also, the Cubs get no offensive contribution from their center fielder. And their best defender at that position is toiling away at Triple-A.

The rest of the team is solid. Kerry Wood, Carlos Marmol and Bob Howry are living up to the off-season's lofty expectations for the most part. Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Alfonso Soriano, Kosuke Fukudome and Geovany Soto are doing their part to score runs. Heck, even the scrappy Ryan Theriot is getting the job done in the No. 2 slot.

I'll take a step back for now, seeing that it's only one game. But if the Cubs want to be serious, they better get their act together on the road.