The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Khalil Greene fractured his hand punching a storage chest on Wednesday night after racking up his 100th strikeout on the season.

Greene fractures hand, may be out for season

Greene, who during this past offseason was a favored target among several BCBers to replace Theriot at shortstop, has compiled an astoundingly awful season line of .213 / .260 / .339.

"I don't know how to put into words the frustration level, how difficult this year has been," Greene said. "For me to do that, it's certainly not commonplace."

I received MLB 08: The Show yesterday and had a chance to play a few games, one exhibition and two rivalry games.  Here are my initial thoughts.

The look of the game and gameplay itself is overall very similar to MLB 07.  

There are slight changes with a few specific players' stances (for example, David Ortiz' batting stance is significantly different), there are some new behaviors (for instance, after a batter strikes out), and a few new views.  

Also, FWIW, when the catcher drops a third strike, there's a new pause while the batter looks to see if the ball was dropped before taking off to first.

One new feature is the "rob home run" defensive maneuver, whereby one can theoretically press a button at the correct time to jump and rob the opposing team of a dinger.  I did not have occasion to try this out yet.

Pitching seemed occasionally a bit more difficult, especially with Zambrano, as 4SFBs tended to be harder to control.  On the other hand, I found it very difficult to hit off of Josh Beckett.  Ted Lilly pitched well for me, as did Marmol and Wood.

One serious issue that I encountered occurred after the second rivalry series game, when the game froze on the final menu.  Neither controller worked, and so I had to turn off the game without saving.  As the rivalry had been split 1-1, we'll need to start a new rivalry series.  Pretty serious bug, especially if it happens with any regularity.

In terms of the Cubs roster, the default starting nine is, I believe:

Soriano LF
Pie CF
Lee 1B
Ramirez 3B
DeRosa RF
Soto C
Theriot SS
Fontenot 2B
P

Murton is on the bench -- I switched him to RF and put DeRosa at 2B.

Apparently Fukudome needs to play one MLB regular season game before he can be in the game, which was a big surprise to me considering that they show him in the preview videos.  Apparently this will be updated shortly after the start of the season.

Overall, I was underwhelmed a bit.  Most of the changes in exhibition and rivalry mode, which are the only modes I use regularly, are fairly trivial.

I imagine with teams such as the Tigers, which experienced significant roster changes over the off-season, this game is a little more exciting than last year's.

I still have more exploring to do, but frankly I was hoping for a little more from MLB 08.

Has anyone else tried it out yet?  Thoughts?

One of the alleged insiders on OriolesHangout.com has posted some new rumors in regard to the possible Brian Roberts trade.  Take this with a pillar of salt.

"My understanding is the talks are way more serious then the media is picking up on. My prediction- The Cubs will get him soon."

Q: Think PGA will sign off on it?????
A: I sure do!!!

Q: Same cast of characters we keep hearing for BRob?
A: Not all of the same names.

Q: I'm wondering if we are trading with the Cubs if we get back some players who we will not have to put on the 40 man roster.

A: Most likely would get players that wouldn't be on our 40 man.

The specific posts start here:

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59240&page=12

Discuss.

In Carrie Muskat's latest article, she indicates that the Cubs have seven candidates for the starting rotation.

She quotes Lou Piniella, who says, "Obviously, you're going to have [Carlos] Zambrano out there and [Ted] Lilly and [Rich] Hill.

Muskat then names the other candidates, writing, "Ryan Dempster, Jason Marquis, Jon Lieber and Sean Marshall are competing for the remaining two openings."

My question: What about Sean Gallagher?  Does his omission as a starting pitcher candidate have any possible significance w/r/t potential trades, or am I reading too much into this when there a simpler explanation?

Here's the article in question:

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080214&content_id=2373474&vkey=spt2008new s&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

According to mlbtraderumors.com, the Astros are looking to pick up a center fielder.  

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2007/10/astros-interest.html

It's not completely clear if that means the Astros will move Hunter Pence to right and let go of Luke Scott or if they would deal Pence.

For the sake of argument, suppose they would entertain trades for Pence.  Here are his numbers from 2007, in which he played an injury-limited number of 108 games:

.322/.360/.539, 19 HR, 69 RBI

On the plus side, he's young (24 years old) and hits for average and power.

On the negative side, he's a righty and all reports indicate that the Cubs are looking for a lefty outfielder.  Also, it would mean trading within the division.  And finally, again he may or may not be available.

Thoughts?

While the playoffs are on our minds now, many of us have wondered over the past few months about the status of Angel Guzman.  Guzman was placed on the 15-day DL on June 6, then transferred to the 60-day DL on August 3.

Bruce Levine allegedly reported several weeks ago that Angel Guzman would have Tommy John Surgery and would miss all of 2008.  I did not see any corroborating reports, however, until today's Cubs.com Notes, which contains this nugget:

"Angel Guzman underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, and will spend the offseason rehabbing in Arizona at the Cubs facility. ..."

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071002&content_id=2246644&vkey=news_chc&a mp;fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Standings has been mentioned in passing as a Cubs-friendly bar in New York City.  I recently visited Standings, and I wanted to give a brief review and also draw your attention to a special Cubs event there this Friday, August 24.

Standings, located in the East Village at 43 East 7th Street, is a smallish sports bar featuring 8 flat-screen HD TVs and Extra Innings as well as a nice selection of great draft beers.  On the night I visited (after a Cubs day game), each screen showed a different MLB game.  I was able to talk at length both with a bartender and with the owner, both of whom were very friendly.  I was told that the largest contingent of Standings regulars are Boston Red Sox fans, followed by Cubs and Mets fans.  Among the baseball memorabilia adorning the walls and bathroom were several prominent Cubs items.

The bar features occasional special events.  The night I visited was termed "Extreme Beer Night" and featured several strong beers, several of which were Belgian, as well as free Vlaamse Frites.  Although small, the bar was not particularly crowded, and my friends and I were able to watch the whole array of real-time baseball comfortably.

This coming Friday, August 24th, Standings will hold a "Chicagoland Blowout," starting at 6pm.  The bar will have four different Goose Island brews on tap and free pizza.  At 9:40pm, the Cubs game versus the Diamondbacks will be shown.  As bad luck would have it, I'll be out of town that night, but I encourage any of you fellow NYC BCBers to pay Standings a visit.

So, I have an exposed brick wall in my living room.  I recently had the idea of making it seem like a bit of the Wrigley outfield wall, replete with Boston ivy and a yellow "368" sign (it'd probably behoove me not to paint directly on the wall but rather paint specifically cut wood, for example).

Anyways, my query is: have any of you embarked on a similar project, and if so, do you have recommendation or suggestions to proffer?  (Perhaps I should mention that it is an apartment and shared with two roommates, neither of whom are Cubs fans, but one of whom is a baseball fanatic; both are receptive to the idea.)

I presume I shouldn't let the ivy just grow on the walls -- perhaps some sort of lattice or something?  Or is there an alternative, organic or synthetic, that would give the impression of ivy without the hassle?