In the midst of the seemingly hourly updates on a possible Jake Peavy trade (they're getting almost as tiresome as the discussion last year of the deal for Brian Roberts that never happened), I thought it would be useful to post a list of some of Jim Hendry's best deals since he became general manager in July 2002:

• December 4, 2002: sent Todd Hundley and Chad Hermansen to the Dodgers for Mark Grudzielanek and Eric Karros
• July 23, 2003: sent Jose Hernandez, Bobby Hill and Matt Bruback to the Pirates for Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez
• November 25, 2003: sent Hee Seop Choi and Mike Nannini to the Marlins for Derrek Lee
• July 8, 2008: sent Eric Patterson, Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton and Josh Donaldson to the A's for Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin

Now, answer this question honestly: how many of those deals did we hear a single peep about before they happened?

The correct answer is "None", because they all seemingly happened out of nowhere, unexpected either for the player acquired (did anyone really think D-Lee was coming here? He was rumored to be headed to the Orioles, among others), or for the idea that they'd happen at all (how many of us thought Todd Hundley's deal was dumpable?). My point is this: it seems the more we hear about a potential Cub trade, the less likely it is to happen. And I suspect that's what is going on with the Peavy rumors: all smoke, no fire. Peavy will either become a Brave, or go to some other team that hasn't even meen mentioned, but not become a Cub. I believe Jim Hendry is working hard on potential deals, but this isn't one of them. (Granted, that a couple of the deals mentioned above were salary dumps, but Hendry still had to become aware of them and offer the right players, otherwise they might have gone elsewhere.)

Just before the Hendry era, remember the Fred McGriff deal? That one dragged out for three weeks before McGriff decided -- magnanimous soul that he was -- to drag himself away from his family in Tampa to help the Cubs' push to the NL Central title in 2001, which ultimately failed. McGriff's numbers were decent in Chicago, but his attitude sucked. Fortunately, the Cubs gave up very little for him (infielder Jason Smith, who has played for five teams since leaving the Cubs and has a .221 lifetime BA to show for it).

So be a little patient, at least. The open free agent season doesn't start till Friday. I have faith in Jim Hendry -- who has made many excellent moves in the last two years -- to put the right pieces on the field for 2009.

A couple of things that flew under the radar yesterday:

• Geovany Soto says Henry Blanco will be back:

  Soto said he talked to Blanco recently and expects the free agent backup to return to the Cubs, who declined their $3 million option on him in hopes of re-signing him for less. "He wants 100 percent to come back and doesn't want to go nowhere [else]," Soto said.

• Guess who's interested in Bob Howry? The Giants, who have made a cottage industry out of signing the oldest players they can possibly find. The only criticism Brian Sabean probably has about Howry is that, at 35, he's not old enough for the geriatric Giants.

A few headlines to fill your day till tonight's game:

• Barry Rozner on Rich Harden:

  ... keeping him on the field has been something of a mystery, and so far the Cubs have solved it with a mixture of extra rest and short pitch counts.

  If that continues, if Harden can stay on the mound and throw the way he's capable, it's simply hard to imagine this Cubs team falling short of the World Series.

• Are lineup changes coming? Will Kosuke Fukudome be benched? And why is Fukudome struggling? Here are some of the possible reasons:

  "Japanese players train notoriously hard, but this is a longer season than he's used to," said ESPN analyst Orestes Destrade, a former major-league first baseman who played five seasons for Japan's Seibu Lions. "There is more travel in the major leagues, and farther travel. It's more grueling than in Japan, where the cities are closer together and you take [high-speed trains] between cities. Your body wears down.

  "Throw in the fact that there's been a lot of attention and hype surrounding him all season long, and you can see how he might break down. As stoic as Japanese players are, it still affects you. He's going through a funk, and a couple days off might help."

  This could also explain something we've been discussing here over the last few days -- why Japanese players seem to improve after their first full season in the USA. Maybe it takes that long to adjust.
• Gordon Edes at Yahoo profiles Jeff Samardzija.
• Ryan Theriot answers questions.
• Cubs in power rankings: ESPN #1, but Phil Rogers #2. Must be those negative numbers Rogers had for the Cubs this past off-season.
• Non-Cub news of interest: Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria suffered a broken wrist after being hit by a pitch last Thursday, and may miss a month. So ... what do the Rays do to replace his bat? Sign Kenny Lofton or even Barry Bonds? Or, possibly trade for Tampa-area native Gary Sheffield? Stay tuned. The Rays set a franchise record on Sunday with their 71st win, breaking the mark set in 2004 when Lou Piniella was their manager.

That ought to keep you all busy till game time. Have at it.

If I had told you, last June 16, when the Cubs were five games under .500, 6 1/2 games out of first place, and Carlos Zambrano threw a complete game in a 1-0 loss to the Padres at Wrigley Field (the same game in which Derrek Lee and Chris Young had their famous fight), that the Cubs' next complete game would be thrown by Ryan Dempster, almost exactly a year later, and it would put the team eighteen games over .500... well, you'd have put me away. (The Cubs, incidentally, are 96-65 since that game, a record that precisely matches what they did in their 1984 NL East title campaign.)

The Cubs' last complete game in a victory was thrown by Jason Marquis, also by 1-0, a shutout of the Pirates at Wrigley Field on May 9, 2007, where the only run was provided courtesy of a leadoff home run by... Alfonso Soriano.

And that is where we pick up the story of last night's 7-2 Cubs win over the Braves, because despite the terrific pitching of Dempster -- who threw a 119-pitch gem, striking out 11 and walking none -- most thoughts this morning are with Alfonso Soriano, who got hit by a Jeff Bennett pitch in his second at-bat and broke the fourth metacarpal on his left hand, sidelining him for up to six weeks. (Further discussion of this injury on this site: here and here.

This began the discussion in our group in the bleachers last night of who might replace him, ranging from Kenny Lofton (he'd ask for too much money, and would he go away quietly after six weeks?), Barry Bonds (NO! for many different reasons), and even Sammy Sosa (um, no, also). This team is resilient and will survive this loss. Soriano is maddening at times, with his occasional dropped fly balls and wind-whipping whiffs, but there is no doubt he can carry a team for weeks at a time, which he did during the mid-May homestand and last September.

The Cubs will likely recall Micah Hoffpauir, which they were probably going to do anyway with the upcoming trip to AL (read: DH) cities Toronto and Tampa. The Iowa Cubs were in Memphis last night -- whether a call was made already and Hoffpauir got a flight out early this morning, I don't yet know. The team was going to send Kevin Hart down after today's game with the DH coming up, so that likely means two I-Cubs are coming with the team on the road trip. Will it be Matt Murton, who could start in LF? Will it be Eric Patterson, who can play several positions and hits lefthanded? It could, I suppose, be someone like Josh Kroeger, who also hits lefthanded and could play left field and who, unlike Murton, has actually shown some power at Iowa this year (.483 SLG to Murton's .395), and Lou seems to crave lefthanded power. Kroeger, however, is not on the 40-man roster and it's full right now, so someone would have to be let go (why is Jake Fox still on the 40-man?). Or how about... Felix Pie?

My suspicion is that the Cubs will fill from within for now -- they could, from time to time, as they did last night, put Mike Fontenot at 2B and Mark DeRosa in LF, which also happened ten times when Soriano was out with his leg problems in April (the Cubs went 8-4 with DeRosa as their starting LF). They could also play Reed Johnson in LF with Jim Edmonds in CF, if necessary.

This is, and has been, a tough and always ready team -- they looked sharp last night in coming right at Atlanta starter Jeff Bennett, scoring seemingly at will in the first three innings, the big blow being Kosuke Fukudome's first-inning three-run homer, which was difficult to see from where we were sitting into the glare of the early-evening sun still shining brightly onto the right-field bleachers. At the time, too, the wind was blowing in -- it had shifted off the lake in the wake of an area of rain that had drifted north of the ballpark and dropped the temperature about 15 degrees. Later the wind shifted back to the south, blowing out; this might have helped the two-run HR that Braves backup catcher Corky Miller pinch-hit off Dempster in the seventh (how unlikely was that? Miller came into the game 2-for-32 this year and is a .185 lifetime hitter in 308 AB scattered across eight seasons with four teams).

Signs spotted last night: a big yellow sign reading "WE ♥ SORIANO" -- after his injury the resourceful group who had it got out a marker, put a circle with a line through it over the ♥, and wrote "DAROSA" on the back. Also spotted, a young woman holding up a sign reading "CSN I'M 18 TODAY" and her friend next to her with one that had an arrow pointing to her and reading "FONTENOT: SHE'S FINALLY LEGAL!" Truth be told, both these women looked older than Fontenot does.

Fun, right? Isn't that what this season has been? The Cubs will miss Alfonso Soriano, but they'll be just fine. That's the method of the 2008 Cubs. Hats off to Ryan Dempster this morning. He threw a great game and gave the bullpen the night off, which they sorely needed. Let's sweep this series today.

Kosuke Fukudome just misses a Brian McCann foul ball in the 2nd

Alfonso Soriano hit by Jeff Bennett's pitch (note ball on ground)

Mike Fontenot, running for Soriano, scores

Jim Edmonds catches Yunel Escobar's fly ball in the 8th

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