The Cubs head into tonight 54-54, with 54 games to play and without their center fielder, Jerry Hairston, who will miss the next months with a torn ligament in his non-throwing elbow. Expect to see a lot of Jeremy Burnitz in CF, with Corey Patterson mired below .220 in the minors.

For the weekend's series, we have Rich Hill vs. Tom Glavine (2.72 ERA in last 4 stars), which smells like a loss to me, then Maddux vs. Ishii where I see Maddux winning one after his last outing, wrapped up by Zambrano vs. Zambrano which I'll also chalk up to the Mets w/Carlos' raw big toe. Cubs come back to Wrigley 55-56 to face Cinci and St. Louis.

Curious to see how quickly the pitchers get over to cover first base tonight after the last few days of mishaps in that regard.

The Dusty to Someplace Else rumors have officially started on radio and in print. I like Dusty for the most part, but I'm really sick of seeing his team do things that "Dusty teams just don't do" like play poor D and mental mistakes in the "heat" of a wild card race. I can't tell you who would be better, but I can't tell you Dusty's team next year will be any better either.

Next week, politics.

Cedric Benson, get they West Texas Ass into training camp, pronto! Pronto!