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Open Thread: Cubs vs. Padres, Saturday 6/16, 12:05 CT

Today is BCB Day in the bleachers -- between the tickets I have to distribute, and those of you who have told me you have your own, we should have about 12-15 BCB'ers in the LF corner today.

Actual NL Central standings as of this morning, with runs scored/allowed:

Team W L RS RA Milwaukee 37 30 305 296 CUBS 31 35 304 274 St. Louis 28 36 261 346 Pittsburgh 29 38 281 328 Houston 28 39 274 312 Cincinnati 26 42 309 349
Pythagorean NL Central standings as of this morning, with runs scored/allowed:
Team W L RS RA CUBS 36 30 304 274 Milwaukee 34 33 305 296 Houston 30 37 274 312 Cincinnati 30 38 309 349 Pittsburgh 29 38 281 328 St. Louis 24 40 261 346
For whatever it's worth.
Today's Starting Pitchers
Carlos Zambrano
C. Zambrano
Cubs
vs. Chris Young
C. Young
Padres
7-5 W-L 6-3
4.89 ERA 2.34
68 SO 68
38 BB 31
14 HR 3
vs. SD -- vs. Cubs
And you couldn't find a pitching matchup with a bigger contrast than this one: excitable boy from Venezuela faces calm and collected Princeton graduate.

In his last four starts, Z is 3-1 with a 3.29 ERA in 27.1 IP (almost 7 IP per start), and 7 BB and 25 K, with only 2 HR allowed. That's much more like the Z we've known as a dominant starter in the NL over the last four seasons. And that includes the Barrett Meltdown Game.

Chris Young has become one of the best starters in baseball. He's 1-0 lifetime vs. the Cubs in three starts, and got a no-decision in a game the Cubs won in San Diego on May 24. Think the Pirates, who drafted him, are sorry they traded him for Matt Herges? Or the Expos/Nats might regret sending him away for Einar Diaz and a minor leaguer? Or the Rangers sending him AND Adrian Gonzalez to SD for Akinori Otsuka, Adam Eaton and a minor leaguer? OK, that last one wasn't horrible for Texas, but I think they'd probably rather have Gonzalez and Young back. Think about those deals the next time you bitch about Jim Hendry.

Since the Cubs are not being featured on Fox-TV today, the game will get national distribution on WGN. I had yesterday's game listed on CSN -- that was on the original schedules; I think it wound up on WGN because they were due an extra telecast after the one they lost from the April 11 snowout. Today's game (and others) are also at the Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2006 version)

Discuss amongst yourselves.