Congratulations to Geovany Soto and Evan Longoria, the 2008 SB Nation baseball Rookies of the Year. All this week, we'll be announcing the results of SB Nation balloting, in advance of the MLB awards.

Schedule:

This is the third year we've done this, and if you weren't here last year, here's how it works: each SB Nation baseball blog was allotted two ballots -- just as there are two BBWAA writers in each major league city who vote.

The second BCB ballot went, as last year, to Mike, who draws all the great cartoons here. 19 total ballots were returned from the NL bloggers, 17 from the AL bloggers. Here's how the voting went, with 5 points for a first-place vote, 3 points for second, 1 point for third:

Full disclosure:

My ballot: 1) Soto 2) Bruce 3) Votto

Mike's ballot: 1) Soto 2) Volquez 3) Votto

On September 30, 2004, as the wild-card contending Cubs were melting down, they had to, absolutely had to, beat the Reds at Wrigley Field to keep any sort of postseason hopes alive (after having lost the previous day, they had fallen half a game behind the Astros).

And in the twelfth inning, after Mark Prior (can't even call him The Former Employee here -- it was one of his finest Cub moments) had pitched nine magnificent innings, striking out sixteen, Javier Valentin stood in the batter's box against Kyle Farnsworth with two out and a runner on second base. Valentin smacked a double down the right field line, breaking a 1-1 tie, and the ballpark fell silent; though the Cubs did get the tying and winning runs on base in the last of the twelfth, you just knew the fight had gone out of them. The 2-1, 12-inning loss finished any realistic hopes that Cub team had of the postseason, and since then Valentin has been a particular nemesis of the Cubs; his lifetime averages against the Cubs coming into today's game are .303/.384/.566 with 6 HR and 20 RBI in 99 AB, his best marks against any team that he's faced for more than 28 career AB.

So when Valentin stepped into the batter's box at Wrigley Field today with two out and a one-run Cub lead in the ninth against Kerry Wood, one of only four Cubs remaining from that 2004 team, I worried.

No worries! Wood caught Valentin looking, his second strikeout of the inning, posting his 26th save in a 3-2 Cubs win over the Reds, putting them back at 29 games over .500 and registering their seventh consecutive series win, done in two hours and fourteen minutes, the fastest game of 2008 -- and maybe that was because of the little rainshower that had the umbrellas up and down most of the game, reminiscent of the rain that fell during Wood's 20K game on May 6, 1998. It never rained very hard, but maybe the players picked up the pace a little bit because they didn't want to be out there too long if it did begin raining any harder.

The Cubs scored all their runs in the first three innings off Josh Fogg -- whose ERA went down despite giving up three runs in four innings -- one at a time, scoring on another DP-Lee ball. Part of the reason for the 24 GIDP for Lee is Ryan Theriot's .394 OBA -- if there are more people on base ahead of a hitter like Lee, he's going to hit into more DP. The major league season record holders in GIDP -- Jim Rice and Henry Aaron -- are good hitters, as is the club record holder, Ron Santo (27 in 1973, and that's probably going to fall soon).

Mark DeRosa hit a solo HR in the 2nd, increasing his career-best season total to 15 (DeRo is only one RBI short of tying his career best set in 2006 with Texas, and also made a slick defensive play today, saving a first-inning run), and then Z slammed his fourth of the year and 16th of his career, putting him one ahead of Mike Hampton as the leader among active pitchers, and tying him with Jim Kaat, Schoolboy Rowe and Jim Tobin for 15th place on the all-time pitcher home run list. (Note: both Rowe and Tobin hit other HR not as pitchers.) Z's season average went up nine points, from .357 to .366.

The Reds chipped away with a Jay Bruce HR in the sixth and then Joey Votto hit a Carlos Marmol pitch somewhere into orbit -- OK, just onto Sheffield, but it was quite a blast, making it 3-2. Marmol got hit pretty hard today; fortunately, all but Votto's ball were caught.

Z threw pretty well today; his command was shaky in the first three innings, when he issued two walks, but he settled down and gave up only six hits in all and four walks, including one to the nearly-unwalkable Corey Patterson (11 walks in 274 PA coming into today's game). He and Lou both said in the press conference that they were satisfied, but that Z would continue to work on mechanics. The win today was his first in August in almost two years, since August 24, 2006.

Today was my son Mark's 13th birthday and his personal record moved to 11-1 (yes, he will be at all three games of the Nationals series). Also, nice to meet BCB reader SteveABQ, in from (as you might have guessed) Albuquerque for three games. He told me he's always lived there, never in Chicago; he's one of the many of you who became Cubs fans because of the nationwide reach of WGN. Cubs Nation celebrates tonight, 5.5 games in first place. Onward.

Maybe it's my fault. I did, after all, sort of predict this in the pregame thread when I said:

Let's be realistic. It's going to be warm and somewhat humid today with the wind blowing out. Lilly and Arroyo rank 5th and 6th in the NL in HR allowed. Watch for long balls on both sides this afternoon.

What I was thinking was that the teams would pretty much evenly split their home runs and the Cubs come out on top. I would never have guessed that the only Cub HR would be hit by the littlest Cub, Mike Fontenot, and the Reds would pound out seven, including possibly the longest one I've ever seen hit onto Sheffield -- by Adam Dunn in the sixth inning; it appeared to hit the Lakeview Baseball Club building just below the AC sign, a blast that, if you believe the foot-marker that was on that building briefly in the 1980's, was about 480-490 feet.

Even at that, the Cubs did try to climb back into the game, helped by some shoddy Reds defense; after the Reds took an 8-3 lead into the bottom of the 4th, the Cubs closed it to 8-5 on Fontenot's HR, and then 10-7 in the sixth when they should have scored more; Edwin Encarnacion's throw in the general vicinity of right field on an attempted force at 2B gave the Cubs runners on first and third with nobody out, and a run already in, but Ryan Theriot hit an almost identical ball to Encarnacion. He turned it into a DP; a run scored, but that was their last, best opportunity of the 12-7 loss to the Reds this afternoon, which, combined with Milwaukee's 11-1 blowout of Colorado and the Cardinals' loss to the Phillies, put the Brewers in second place, four games behind the Cubs, so the division lead shrinks by only a half-game, rather than a full game, as second place changes hands.

By the time Theriot hit into the DP, a moderate rainshower had dampened the Yard -- apparently, no one but us had prepared for rain, because I saw virtually no other umbrellas anywhere in the park and only a few ponchos; the rain and the unfavorable score sent about a third of the crowd home at that point, and by the time Neal Cotts allowed the last Reds HR of the game to Joey Votto, about half the 41,459 had departed.

These things are going to happen, even to good teams, and it's hard to sweep series; the Cubs won this one and if they can take two of three from the Giants this weekend, they'll go into the break in fine shape. But I do have a bone to pick with Lou Piniella over his use of the 13-man pitching staff today. Yes, there are plenty of relievers, especially after most of them got yesterday off. But that was an awfully quick hook of Ted Lilly -- yes, he wasn't sharp, but only 63 pitches? And Lou -- you've got a long reliever. His name is Jon Lieber. Why wasn't he the first pitcher into the game, if you are going to take your starter out in the third inning? (Not that Lieber did all that well today, either, but that's not the point.) Michael Wuertz, the forgotten man in the pen (hadn't pitched in a week, and neither had Lieber, for that matter), had nothing today -- the Reds pounded him. Maybe that's not fair -- the Reds pounded everyone the Cubs sent out there, including Chad Gaudin, who gave up a HR to the first batter he faced in blue pinstripes. After allowing a single to the next man he faced, pinch-hitter Jay Bruce, he retired the next six hitters easily.

In discussing this in the bleachers today, we reached the conclusion that Lieber or Wuertz might be the odd-man out after the All-Star break. Lieber's probably going to retire after this season anyway, Lou doesn't seem to trust him much, and he's only got (approximately) $1.5 million left on his contract. I could see him being unconditionally released. Wuertz, despite today's poor performance, does have trade value, and perhaps Jim Hendry is working on that. That makes tomorrow's start by Jason Marquis important not only for the team, but for Marquis, because he could also be on the "get rid of" list. One of those three is likely to not be a Cub when they reconvene in Houston next Friday.

Dave was also very critical of Kosuke Fukudome today; he said, "The Cubs wanted him because he supposedly had LH power, but he hasn't hit for much power." That's true, and I think most of us expected that his power would drop on coming over from Japan, as happens to many Japanese players. Fukudome has added value in other areas, including plate discipline and good defense, but the league seems to be catching up to him and he needs to make adjustments. He looked really bad today in going 0-for-5 and striking out three times; he'll go to the All-Star Game primarily because of online voting from Japan (I think all of us acknowledge that he really doesn't deserve the slot based on performance), but I suspect he could really take advantage

of some time off. With the Giants starting three righthanders this weekend and with only three true outfielders on the major league roster, don't look for much time off for either Fukudome or Jim Edmonds, and they could both use it.

Losses happen, even blowouts. The offense did enough today to win, but the bullpen failed -- eight runs allowed in 6.1 innings. Ugh. Go get 'em tomorrow.

Note from walking around the ballpark pre-game today: the Matt Murton jerseys are all on clearance. You can get one for $69.99, which in my opinion is too much. I'm guessing they'll be cut to about half that before any got sold.

Oh, and for those of you who did want, or still want, Erik Bedard -- it's a good thing he's still a Mariner. He's on the DL again. (And, just to note, that article also mentions the Mariners' release of Richie Sexson -- they are eating $6 million of his contract.)

Two plays.

One ball hit by Jeff Keppinger that Aramis Ramirez couldn't handle, and which went under his glove for a first-inning error.

And another, one bad pitch from Carlos Zambrano to Adam Dunn that was deposited into the center-field juniper bushes for a brief 1-0 Reds lead in the second.

Other than that, Carlos Zambrano was perfect last night, retiring all 20 batters he faced after the Dunn HR. So what would you have done? The Cubs had, thanks to a Ramirez HR and some other timely hitting, extended the lead to 5-1 (which would be the final, a 5-1 win over the Reds, the Cubs' third in a row), and Z was at 103 pitches. Do you leave him in to finish what would have been the first CG one-hitter of his career?

There are conflicting reports. Bruce Miles writes that Lou felt 100-105 pitches was enough:

"He wanted to go out and finish it, but it was only his second time out since being off the DL, and we were on a game plan of 100-105 pitches," Piniella said. "We let him hit (in the eighth). That appeased him a little bit."

But, even Z himself acknowledged, in Carrie Muskat's cubs.com recap, that taking him out was the wise thing to do:

"I was thinking about that," Zambrano said about going the distance. "It's been a long time since I pitched a complete game. But not in this situation. I came off the DL one start ago, and it's too soon. Hopefully, in the second half of the season, I will have a chance to throw a complete game."

It was a near-perfect weather night, too, the kind you want to bottle up and let out on some blustery January day when you think it's never, ever going to get warm again. Unlike Tuesday night, the wind had pretty much died completely not long after game time, and just a few clouds on the horizon made the sunset pink and orange over the Yard. While Z was firing blanks at the Reds -- and in his best 2003-style form, not trying to blow hitters away, but instead getting ground balls, eleven of the twenty consecutive outs being on the ground -- the Cubs were methodically putting up runs. Dunn's HR was matched in the bottom of the 2nd when Jeff Keppinger's error on Mark DeRosa's grounder allowed Geovany Soto to score.

Later, Ramirez homered to give the Cubs a 2-1 lead, and then in the seventh, the Cubs batted around and extended it to 5-1 on RBI hits from Kosuke Fukudome (double), Derrek Lee (single), and A-Ram again (double). It could have and should have been more -- Z had attempted a sacrifice bunt after Reed Johnson led off the inning with a single, and replays showed that Z was safe after Cueto double-clutched. (It wasn't even close; 1B umpire Eric Cooper must have taken his eyes off the play.)

But that last is nitpicking. This isn't: we hope Carlos Marmol isn't hurt. He got the first two outs in the 9th easily, including one on a spectacular stop by D-Lee on Paul Bako's grounder past 1B, but appeared to have been spiked. He took a few warmup tosses and stayed in the game, getting the second out (a fly ball from PH Corey Patterson, who was roundly booed), but then on a similar play to Bako's, Jay Bruce was ruled safe (that one, unlike the one on Z, appeared to be a correct call). Then Marmol fell apart, throwing a wild pitch and walking the bases loaded, forcing Lou to summon Kerry Wood to finish it off.

Which he did, running the club record at Wrigley Field to -- how many more superlatives can you find? I can't -- an absolutely stunning 35-10, the best home winning percentage in baseball in a year when many teams have played exceptionally well at home.

Finally, after his news conference welcoming him to Chicago, new Cub Rich Harden (who will start on Saturday vs. the Giants, despite the headline on Bruce Miles' article that says "No word yet on Harden's first start") came out to left field to throw a few pitches in front of Larry Rothschild and a couple of his teammates:

Photo by Tim Shockley. As Tim said in his email: "We told him to take it easy and not throw so hard..." Amen. (Click on photo to open a larger version in a new browser window)

Finally, the Cubs picked up a game on both Milwaukee and St. Louis -- the Cardinals lost Mark Mulder again after 16 pitches, and the Brewers lost a pitching matchup (Ben Sheets vs. Glendon Rusch) that "on paper" was a no-brainer for them. But that's why they play the games. Today's pregame thread will be up at 11:30 am CDT.

The Cubs beat the Reds 7-3 last night, but I know all any Cubs fan wants to discuss this morning is the Cubs' acquisition of Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A's, which was announced a couple of hours before game time.

So. What do I think? I haven't changed my mind. There's no doubt that Rich Harden has a great arm and can be one of the most dominant pitchers in the game -- when he's healthy, which he hasn't been since 2004, the only year he's spent an entire year in a major league rotation without spending some time on the DL. If he can avoid getting hurt, the Cubs have countered Milwaukee's acquisition of CC Sabathia -- though Jim Hendry says it wasn't a counter-move, that he's been after Harden for several weeks, and I believe him -- and in addition, strengthened their bullpen with Gaudin, who has a good arm and familiarity with Lou Piniella (he pitched for Piniella in Tampa). I want to stop here briefly to point out the hypocrisy of Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti, who yesterday practically begged Hendry to make this deal rightfreakingnow, and then today, after Hendry actually did so, raised the injury caution flag.

Hey, Jay! Got whiplash from turning this around so quickly?

At the ballpark, news of the deal spread by buzz -- overheard cellphone calls, then checks ourselves to confirm the rumors. BCB reader BartlettBob, sitting with us, let me use his iPhone to take a look at BCB, where one particular person was ecstatic, with many of the rest of you expressing happiness, but also caution due to the injury risk. And then the Cubs did something that I don't think I've ever seen before in a situation like this -- they posted news of the deal on the scoreboard and made a PA announcement, which was met with a loud ovation. (And my apologies to BCB reader aisle 209 -- with all the commotion regarding the trade, I never did get a chance to stop by your seat last night.)

These aren't the old Cubs, indeed.

Of the players sent to Oakland, in my mind the only one who might make enough of an impact to make the Cubs lament losing him is Sean Gallagher, who will move right into the A's rotation, and who has a chance to be a good starting pitcher for a long time. It should be mentioned that Harden is only four years older than Gallagher and is under the Cubs' control through the end of 2009. If healthy, this makes a deal where the Cubs have a slightly older and far better starter in exchange for a young guy who might get better -- but that's far from certain. Farewell to Matt Murton, vilified by some, loved by others, who never had much of a chance to play with the Cubs. He'll get it in Oakland, and good luck to him. I was never fond of Eric Patterson, who could play several positions, none of them well, and seemed to have all the baseball smarts of his brother. As for Josh Donaldson, many here loved the choice when he was picked a year ago, but he was struggling in the Midwest League and with the emergence of Geovany Soto, he is far from major-league ready.

Good job, Jim Hendry. And stay healthy, Rich Harden. (And don't forget the added benefit of getting someone who can speak Canadian with Ryan Dempster.)

This raises the question: which pitcher goes? The Cubs shipped a hitter and a pitcher (Gallagher and Murton) off the roster and added two pitchers. They won't carry 13 pitchers -- so who's gone? It may be, at long last, time to DFA Jason Marquis.

Now, before the salivating masses yell "DFA!!!1!!1!", let me remind you what "DFA" actually means. "Designated for assignment" means the club has ten days to do something with the player, and maybe the Cubs can take those ten days and make a trade involving Marquis, even if they have to eat a fair portion of Marquis' deal for 2009. It'd be worth it, because Harden is under contract for a reasonable price for next year. We'll find out something later today after it's announced whether Harden will start Friday or Saturday -- he was scheduled to start for the A's on Friday vs. the Angels (a start Gallagher will make now), and Friday was to be Marquis' turn. We await developments.

Tuesday's trade wasn't the first between Hendry and A's general manager Billy Beane, and the history between the GMs aided completion of the six-player deal.

"We hashed out a lot of names over the last few weeks," Hendry said. "[Beane] is blunt, honest, he tries to trade talent for talent. We got what we wanted, and I'll be rooting like heck for those guys [the Cubs traded]."

In one of Hendry's first deals as Cubs GM, he got Mark Bellhorn from Oakland for Adam Morrissey. Last year, Hendry got Jason Kendall for Rob Bowen.

Mark Bellhorn was acquired on November 27, 2001 -- and that deal was made by Andy MacPhail, who was GM until July 5, 2002. Hendry did make a deal with Beane before last year -- he engineered the deal in which Michael Barrett was traded from Montreal to Oakland and then to the Cubs in exchange for Damian Miller at the end of the 2003 season. You're welcome, Toni, for the correction.

This trade reminds me of the Rick Sutcliffe deal in 1984 -- the Cubs gave up someone, Joe Carter, who was destined for stardom and who became a World Series hero. Sutcliffe led the Cubs to their first postseason play in 39 years and won the Cy Young Award; the 96 wins the '84 Cubs had is the most in the last 63 years. They didn't make the World Series, of course, but that wasn't Sutcliffe's fault. This deal has the chance to take us farther, to the Promised Land. Let it be so.

Oh, yes, there was a game last night, too. Well, Ryan Dempster became the Cubs' first 10-game winner, and except for the 4th inning where he got wild and walked four, allowing his only run, he threw a solid game. The Cubs hitters waited out Aaron Harang to the tune of seven bases on balls, and timely HR from Mike Fontenot (a 400-foot blast with no wind) and Geovany Soto put the game away early. There were also fine defensive plays from Jim Edmonds and Aramis Ramirez. The only sour note was a shaky 9th inning from Bob Howry, which forced Lou to get Michael Wuertz throwing with two out. Even the booing of Dusty Baker when he came out to make a pitching change was muted. We've moved on. The Rich Harden Era begins later this week -- Harden, who wore uniform #40 with the A's (the same number as Sutcliffe, for you numerologists), will undoubtedly get it gifted to him by its current wearer, pitching coach Larry Rothschild (who has worn three different numbers as a Cub coach, #40, #41, and #47).

So the Cubs match the Brewers' raise. Wouldn't it be fun to see Harden and Sabathia match up in Milwaukee later this month? Could happen. What a great ride this season has been, and it's barely into the second half. Fasten your seat belts, the best is yet to come.

Jim Edmonds makes a diving catch of Jerry Hairston's fly ball

Mike Fontenot sliding into 2nd after his 6th inning double

Aramis Ramirez catching Brandon Phillips' popup in the 8th inning, with Ryan Theriot right there to help, and Mike Fontenot wondering, "What's going on over there?"

Jay Bruce strikes out to end the game

Click on photos to open a larger version in a new browser window. All photos by David Sameshima