Here is the Chicago area weather radar, for your information and amusement. Let's hope it has less green on it later this evening.
Tonight is Carlos Zambrano no-hitter statue giveaway night. Check out this eBay auction for the statues, posted many hours before the gates even opened.
Z isn't pitching tonight, but he's the subject of another item here, too. Remember the story that Z was supposed to have LASIK eye surgery? (I don't think he ever did.) Maybe he shouldn't -- Braves catcher Brian McCann, who had LASIK a couple of years ago, is having trouble with his vision. In fairness, I myself had LASIK in 1998 and have not had any problems with vision; I think Greg Maddux had this surgery too. They do tell you when you have it, that in about 1-2% of cases there can be blurred vision problems, especially at night, which would definitely affect a baseball player with bright stadium lights on.
Milton Bradley is supposed to return to the lineup tonight; with the cold, wet weather, who knows if that will still be the case. That article has some nice things to say about Micah Hoffpauir:Manager Lou Piniella even batted Hoffpauir against lefties and admits "we like Micah."
"He can play both corner outfields and first base," Piniella said. "He gives us a good bat coming off the bench and at the same time he's got some power."
Personally, I have yet to be totally convinced he can handle the outfield. He hasn't embarrassed himself so far.
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Why the Reds don't try Micah Owings as a fulltime hitter is beyond me. He seems much better at hitting than pitching. He has a 5.01 career ERA in 262 innings with 36 homers allowed. As a hitter he's .322/.357/.562 (.919 OPS) in 121 at-bats with 12 doubles and 5 homers -- that would translate into a 30-homer season in 600 AB. He's 8-for-24 lifetime as a PH with 3 doubles, 1 HR and 3 walks -- that's better than his fellow Micah, Hoffpauir.
So tonight, let's hope the Cubs can hit him -- no current Cub has more than one hit off him -- and keep him from hitting.
The only Red who has more than 3 career AB against Rich Harden is Laynce Nix, who faced him in the AL -- 3-for-17. Overall Rich is 2-0, 2.92 in his only two starts vs. the Reds.
Today's game is on WGN-TV, so available to everyone with cable, and also on FSN Ohio. For other games see the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Discuss amongst yourselves.