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Plenty to talk about today on an off day. Pick your talking points.
From Comcast SportsNet
- The Cubs' bid for the services of Yu Darvish fell short to the Texas Rangers. The Cubs can't afford to miss out the next time.
- Dale Sveum admits the obvious. Kevin Gregg is now the closer. What kind of odds could you have gotten on that before the season?
- And Gregg is just focused on pitching, not on whether he'll be traded.
- Starlin Castro is not a finished product.
- The team has lost patience with Ian Stewart.
- The scary injury to J.A. Happ has pitchers like Carlos Villanueva wondering how to protect themselves from a line drive.
From Cubs Den
- A look back at Kerry Wood's 20-K game, fifteen years later. Yep. Fif-teen. His 20-K game is almost old enough to drive.
- The delayed third installment of trading pieces or building blocks. The answer is the former (ASAP), as we look at veterans David DeJesus, Alfonso Soriano, and Carlos Marmol.
From Cubs.com
- The manager had some private time in the batting cage with Darwin Barney.
- Starlin Castro has come a long way in three years.
- Luis Valbuena just might be entrenched at third base.
- The team helped to fight breast cancer on "Pink Out" day.
From ESPNChicago.com
- It's apparently not that hard to go from underrated to overrated. Dale Sveum said Travis Wood is the best starting pitcher in baseball.
- Nate Schierholtz is giving the Cubs some (more) lefty power.
- (audio) Edwin Jackson joined the podcast to talk about his struggles. That seems like a stand-up thing to do, to me.
- (video) The Baseball Tonight crew talks about the state of the Cubs.
From the Chicago Tribune (register to see almost anything but videos)
- The brother of a woman who died at Wrigley Field on Sunday is grieving.
- The Cubs haven't beaten the St. Louis Cardinals in a series that mattered in ten years.
- Jed Hoyer thinks the team and its fans need to ride the ebb and flow of the season to avoid the highs and lows.
From the Chicago Sun-Times (can read a paragraph, register to read the rest)
- Welington Castillo is trying to model his game after Yadier Molina.
From the Daily Herald (registry required for all)
- The Cardinals are the model of consistency that the Cubs, well, want to model.
- Tom Ricketts says rebuilding Wrigley Field is the priority.
Today's food for thought
- Our very normal solar system isn't normal anymore.