While I'm still very anti-Marquis for the long haul, that was a very well pitched and much needed start from him.

Successful road trip. Coming into it we'd all have taken 4-3.

In case no one saw, the three names Peter Gammons brought up for possible SP acquisitions were AJ Burnett, Randy Wolf, and Gil Meche. I'd take any of the three over Marquis in a heartbeat.

Thats my boy, Jason!!

Told you guys to keep faith and sip the cool-aid!!!

Yes!!The coming off day is really needed as the team did well for the dreaded West-Coast trip.

Hey, when is the next CCO Podcast gonna be out? My PSP needs some Cubbie goodness!

I think with all of the success the team has had early on, some things have gotten distorted in how they are viewed.....

1) Cubs are awful on the road. Well, true they are not very good on the road. But, has anyone looked at all of the road records? There are only TWO National League teams with winning road records...and one of those just occurred this weekend. Philly holds the best spot thanks to their sweep of a very good home team Atlanta Braves. But their record is only 18-13. The only other winning record is the Cardinals at 17-14. The rest of the teams are under .500 beginning with Houston at 16-21, and the Giants at 15-16. The Marlins are 14-15 and our Cubs are 14-16. So we are only just a few games back from what the league is doing. The Braves are a prime example of playing poorly on the road with an anemic 7-21 record. Now THAT is playing awful. Hope it continues in Chicago.

It's the same trend in the American League with only ONE team over .500 and ONE at .500. The Angels play very well on the road and are 21-12. Good thing they play so well on the road because they are not very dominating at home. (18-13). The crosstown White Sox are at .500 with a 17-17 record. Everyone else is under .500 including the Red Sox who are tied with the Cubbies for the most wins overall. In fact the Red Sox are 14-20 on the road as compared to 26-6 at home. Sound familiar??

So all in all I think we need to back off the panic that the Cubs cannot win on the road. Seems to be the trend of baseball.

Next is how awful Jason marquis is. I'll admit I'm not his number one fan, but ESPN had an interesting stat tonight. Jason is 3-0 in his last 5 starts and has allowed 3 runs or fewer in each of them. he hasn't been perfect by any means...like to squeeze one more inning out of him...but then again if we consider him the number 4 or 5 guy, many times they only go 5 or 6 innings...which is what he is doing. He has had three games where he walked 5 guys. That has to change. But he also only lost one of those games.

In 2 June games he is 2-0 with a 2.38 ERA. As mentioned he is 3-0 in his last 5 starts. He hasnt allowed a homerun in his last 3 games. He hasnt allowed more than one homerun in any game that he did give one up.

In his 12 starts this year he has given up 3 or fewer runs in 8 of those 12. Thats not too bad. In those other 4 he gave up 4 runs twice and 5 runs twice.

His record is 4-3 with 5 No Decisions. In those 5 no decisions the Cubs are 3-2 and should be 4-1. One of the losses was a blown save in Pittsburgh by Kerry in the 9th. And the one game that the Cubs lost, Jason pitched 7 innings and only gave up 2 runs! So the Cubs are 7-5 in games pitched by Jason, and should be 8-4 counting that game the save was blown. Thats not bad. Your tail end rotation guys are not generally going to eat up innings, their job is to keep you in ballgames and give the team a chance to win. Thats what is happening.

He basically had three bad starts and they all came in a row when he lost to Milwukee, St Louis and San Diego in a row giving up 5 runs to both Milwaukee and St. Louis and 4 to San Diego. Take those starts away and he has only given up more than 3 runs once this year and that was his first start and a game that the Cubs won. All pitchers will have a few stinkers, Carlos just had a clunker in LA andit wasnt his first. And he's the ACE.

In fact here's a comparison between Carlos and Jason....Carlos is 8-2 with 4 No Decisions. In those 4 no decisions the Cubs are 1-3. (Like Jason's record, this also includes one blown save by Kerry) So when the ace Zambrano picthes the Cubs are 9-5. Call it 10-4 if you account for the blown save. As mentioned if you account for the blown save for Jason the team is 8-4 in his games.

So either way, the Cubs have the same amount of losses when Carlos or Jason picthes....and only two more wins for Carlos...which is because he has pitched two more games.

Jason has had 4 games that he allowed 4 or more runs. Carlos has allowed 4 or more 3 times. Just one fewer. Also, Carlos allowed 7 runs in LA. Jason's high is 5.

What this shows is that Marquis may not put up the flashy numbers like Carlos, but he is not the staff ace either. He sure is holding his own for a number 4-5 man in the rotation.

I think Cub fans need to enjoy what we have going and not look at everything so negatively. Let's embrace the team and support every one of them as we look for out first championship team in 100 years!!

Nice game by Marquis, real nice.

Joe: Recognizing the need for an upgrade isn't looking negatively, it's being realistic. Marquis has proven to be a horrifying second half pitcher in his career and he didn't even start off this year with his usual fast start. Team that with the fact that we were counting on much more from Rich Hill and you have to realize we need another front line starter for the long haul. I'm not negative. I love the team and completely agree with what you said about the road record. I was thinking the same thing all week. The Cubs aren't a "bad" road team, relatively speaking.

But when you are hoping for a championship and not just a playoff appearance, you have to admit things like "Marquis isn't the answer in the rotation and we'd be much better suited with an AJ Burnett in that spot."

Things that made yesterday a good day for the faithful:

1. The Cubs Won

2. Marquis pitched like a 7 million dollar pitcher although Lou seemed to still have a short leash in the 7th given his pitch count.

3. Unless I missed it, I actually got to watch the entire ESPN broadcast without Joe Morgan reffering once to Albert Pujhols. That has to be some kind of record.

4. Morgan actually gave the Cubs some love, not much, but some. Again a new league record. (Is it obvious yet I can't stand Joe Morgan?)

5. Dusty had a clip on the radio here in Cincy this morning about he thinks he has the talent to make a run in the second half and make the Wild Card. That just made me laugh.

One word to describe Kerry Wood...dominant!

He has turned into the most intimidating closer in the National league.

I really feel that he could give Gagne's scoreless inning streak a run if he continues to have good control to the 9th inning leadoff man.

I like Kerry as much as the next guy (even have his signed jeresey hanging in my office) and think he's been great this year, but he has a long way to go before he becomes as "intimidating" as Billy Wagner.

What would it take to pick-up Wolf and Maddux from SD? ... from what I've read the Maddux thing isn't going to happen so I suppose I'm dreaming, but it would be pretty cool to see him come back to Chicago. Wolf/Maddux would be a better 4/5 combination than Marquis/Gallagher.

I would much rather have Gallagher then Randy Wolfe. Dude the grass is always greener.

David and Jim...Let's compromise and add Wolfe if we don't have the ability to get someone better. Wolfe and Gallagher matches well with others' lower order combos.

Show...Several of us agree with you that the Cubs are likely to lose a critical short series in September or October if we don't another shut-down starter.

Not much talk about Edmonds lately. Maybe we're all holding our breath. What a plus it would be if he could hit .280 and drive in 50 runs the rest of the way.

Ryan...My take is that the Reds will go 46-35 in the second half. There's a whole lot of young talent in Phillips, Votto, Bruce, Keppinger, Volquez, Cueto and Bailey. Add in guys like Griffey, Dunn, Harang, Cordero and Arroyo, and the Reds can do some damage. Maybe you are looking at poor defense and Dusty's issues, but the Reds have talent.

JimK,

Yes, they have those guys, but they have Dusty!!!!!