Wandy Rodriguez has put himself together a nice little career. He's pretty much forgotten on the recent sucky Astro teams. I've been thinking of him as "that lousy guy in Houston who always seems to beat the Cubs." but he is actually much better.

Welp, worst record in baseball now. With LaHair finally cooling off, this is one putrid looking lineup.

But he's definitely a guy who always seems to beat the Cubs, Cabbage, even when the Cubs have been competitive. I don't like their chances of avoiding nine straight losses.

Cubs season HR pace: 113
Starlin Castro NL dWAR rank: t2 (Barney is also t2)
Bryan LaHair MLB OPS+ rank (minimum 3.1 PA/team game): 5
Ian Stewart MLB OPS+ rank: t155, out of 177 official qualifiers
Ryan Dempster MLB ERA+ rank (minimum 1 IP/team game): 14
Paul Maholm MLB ERA+ rank: t99, out of 117 official qualifiers
Team defensive efficiency (NL rank): .711 (3)

Anyway, another homer for Rizzo this afternoon, giving him 16 on the season now.

Wandy Rodriguez is the new Ben Sheets.

Edit function isn't working.

I looked it up on BBRef, and he's 5-6 against the Cubs in 19 starts. Sure doesn't seem like he'd have lost more games than he won.

Boy the Cubs and Astros evidently draw fans to the Juice Box. They use to sell out this series.

I am not sure if that homerun was actually fair.

Hopefully this will be last game for Koyie Hill. Clevinger caught last night in Iowa.

I am not sure if that homerun was actually fair.

The left-field replay that they showed sure was odd. I couldn't tell where the camera actually was at that angle, but it made it look foul.

But the Astros didn't raise a peep about it, so I assume it was good.

Hopefully this will be last game for Koyie Hill. Clevinger caught last night in Iowa.

The official site has a story about how excited Blake Lalli's family is to see him this weekend in Pittsburgh. Awkward.

The official site has a story about how excited Blake Lalli's family is to see him this weekend in Pittsburgh. Awkward

I find it odd the Hill is getting all the playing time. We already know we he can (or really can not) do. But in the whole scheme of things, Hill is just another black hole in a lineup full of them.

I find it odd the Hill is getting all the playing time. We already know we he can (or really can not) do. But in the whole scheme of things, Hill is just another black hole in a lineup full of them.

I'd feel stronger about this if the situation was anything like the Hill-Castillo situation last season, where Castillo was a guy with actual potential to be someone in the majors. But Lalli is not a guy like that - his upside is something like being the next Koyie Hill, only probably without the major-league caliber defense.

My motives Brian are entirely selfish-I just don't want to see Koyie ####### Hill batting ever again in a Cubs uniform. Its like having a nightmare that I'd wake up tomorrow next to my ex-wife. Didn't I just I escape this?

My motives Brian are entirely selfish-I just don't want to see Koyie ####### Hill batting ever again in a Cubs uniform. Its like having a nightmare that I'd wake up tomorrow next to my ex-wife. Didn't I just I escape this?

Ha ha, believe me, I get it. I'll confess that the first emotion I felt when I saw that he had been reacquired was actual anger.

But the difference is that this time Hill will be gone as soon as 2 of their 3 real catchers are healthy again, and maybe as soon as just one is healthy.

(As an aside, wrt to the Muskat's Lalli story at the official site: I have no idea where Muskat stands with this front office. In the past, I would have assumed that a story like the Lalli one was a signal that the team was planning to keep Lalli when Clevenger comes back and DFA Hill. But now I don't know what to think.)

Hey look, Soriano actually cut off a ball in the gap before it could get to the wall. It almost killed him, but he did it!

DeJesus and Barney try to kill each other. And Soriano looked damn funny on that play. I was sure either he or Carlos Lee were going to pull a hammy the way they were huffing and puffing.

I'm back to thinking this team will lose 100 games.

Just 100 Walks? You're an optimist.

Never underestimate the futility of the Cubs.

I was thinking they need to give Joe Mather more at-bats, and I realized that if the answer was Joe Mather, I don't want to know what the question is.

Second straight good start the Cubs are about to throw away. How much longer can they go without bringing up Rizzo?

Too bad, I thought that ball was headed for the gap.

Second straight good start the Cubs are about to throw away. How much longer can they go without bringing up Rizzo?

You think they are missing their window of opportunity for the playoffs this year by not having Rizzo up?

How much longer can they go without bringing up Rizzo?

This upcoming Pittsburgh series really would be perfect. On the road, a good ballpark for lefty power hitters, tough pitching staff but a couple of righties in the first two games. Then they come home against the Padres, who have a pretty average staff themselves, before heading back out on the road. There, they have three games against the Giants before going to Milwaukee to face their horrible staff, and then Minnesota where they'll need the DH.

That looks like it sets up pretty well to me. Maybe it'll happen tomorrow if the front office gets bored during the off-day.