FanHouse Chicago

It's hard to imagine a better way to kick off the mad dash to baseball's trade deadline than with the Brewers and Cubs pulling trades for big-name pitchers within two days of each other. Of course, those moves raise a pretty big question: who's the favorite to win the division now? Let's break it down.

Definitely not favorites: Pirates, Astros, and Reds. The Reds are young and exciting but at least a year away, the Pirates seem to be meandering down the right road but they're still way down the path in the wrong direction, and the Astros are a disaster area.

The Cardinals: This team perplexes me. By all accounts they shouldn't be very good, and yet they've still got the second best record in the NL and are ahead of the Brewers in the Wild Card standings. They probably won't join in the arms race with the Cubs and Brewers, but they get Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter back from the DL in pretty short fashion. Still, they're short on offense besides Albert Pujols and Ryan Ludwick, it's hard to know what to expect out of Carpenter after missing most of a season and a half, and Kyle Lohse is a prime candidate to turn into a pumpkin.

Goodnight, sweet prince.

Who knew Pablo Ozuna was such a favorite son? The White Sox are shedding more than one tear over the designation of utilityman Ozuna, who sent to the minors to make room for the return of the considerably more valuable Paul Konerko. Even Jose Contreras is sad. Awww:

Yet, there stood pitcher Jose Contreras, hours before his team's 8-7, 13-inning marathon win at Kauffman Stadium, looking like he had just received a thunderous body blow and there wasn't enough air in the room for him to take a breath. [...] He wasn't as upset as his manager.

''[Bleep] Jose Contreras,'' Guillen said. ''Nobody in this organization is more upset or sad than Ozzie Guillen. Nobody. If some of the players didn't like the move, well, it's easy to do. Just tell Ozuna to stay here and get them to get the [bleep] out of here and go to the minor leagues.''

Yeah, [bleep] you, Jose! Ozzie Guillen is way, way sadder than you are! In the pursuit of empathy, Ozzie Guillen will never be outdone!

Among White Sox fans, the empathy returns have been far more varied. Ozuna is a fan favorite, but so is Paul Konerko; if you have to pick one, that balding World Series-winning slugger wins every time.

There is to be no more speculation, no more rumor.

Joe Gibbs Racing and Tony Stewart jointly announced today that they will splitting after the season's final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November to allow Stewart to move to greener pastures in 2009, ideally owning his own Sprint Cup team.

And no, the "greener pastures" line is not a sideswipe at Stewart's -- uh -- robust figure.

From the release:

"We've had a lot of success with Tony in our 12 years here at Joe Gibbs Racing," said J.D. Gibbs, president of JGR. "While this moment is bittersweet, we're parting on good terms and we know that each of us has benefited greatly from the other.

"We grew to two teams in the Sprint Cup Series with Tony and The Home Depot in 1999, and two championships and 32 wins followed. While our time together is coming to an end, we know there's still a lot of racing left this season and we plan to make the most of it. On behalf of everyone at JGR, we're proud of everything we've accomplished together with Tony and we wish him the best in pursuing his dream of NASCAR team ownership."

You know, it's one thing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. to leave a race team, but when Tony Stewart leaves a race team that he's won two championships with, a crew chief in Greg Zippidelli that he is extremely close with, and an owner who has stuck by him through everything, that's a big deal.

It's been a wild week in the world of baseball, as Milwaukee has fired the first warning shot by trading their top prospect and others for CC Sabathia. The Cubs swiftly responded by prying away Rich Harden from the Oakland Athletics.

Some of you may be confused, some of you may be hurt, but for most of you, your heads are spinning. That's okay. Because the MLB 'Haus is here to help make sense of it all. AOL Baseball Editor Andrew Johnson and I are here to chat about not only Sabathia and Harden, but anything you want about the world of baseball ... whether it be the Mets putting up a touchdown on Tim Lincecum, the Braves signing Julian Tavarez, Barry Bonds ... anything you want. Won't you join us at 1PM ET?

It was a night of knockout soccer that saw three games go to extra time, two games go to penalty kicks, and one famous Mexican lose his temper and get sent off. By the time the smoke cleared, the glass slipper still fit for two USL First Division clubs, who had advanced to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals.

Why isn't this competition on TV again?

The Charleston Battery obliterated FC Dallas, 3-1, at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, TX, scoring before an after an hour-long lightning delay in the first half and shutting down all but one meaningless strike in the 93rd minute. Meanwhile, the Seattle Sounders fought the Kansas City Wizards to a 0-0 draw and advanced 6-5 on penalties, thanks in part to a 12-save performance by Sounders goalkeeper Chris Eylander, who also saved two PKs to help Seattle advance.

Meanwhile, USL Second Division club Crystal Palace Baltimore pushed the defending Open Cup champion New England Revolution to penalties, but lost the shootout, 5-3. In Boyds, MD, Cuauhtémoc Blanco and Mark Burch were shown red cards in extra time, while Bryan Namoff scored the winner in the 99th minute to push D.C. United past the Chicago Fire, 2-1.

As Watson noted earlier, there has been a fairly decent seismic shift in the National League Arms Race, what with the Cubs acquiring Rich Harden only 24 hours after the Brewers picked up CC Sabathia. And just like it affects real baseball, the trade does some things for fantasy owners as well. So, why not look at the four biggest names in the trade?

Rich Harden, SP -- I've said it once, and I'll say it again: sell high on Harden. Billy Beane rarely gets suckered and this deal kind of looks like one of those times, no? Which makes me think "ruh-roh" with regard to Harden's health. Especially when you remember that during his next to last start in an Oakland uni, he was barely topping 90 mph. But his move to one of the most offensively potent teams and a World Series contender should boost his value in theory, making him a prime sell.

Chicago's Wrigley Field has been known to have its fair share of Cubs fans that aren't exactly sober in the stands, so is it at all surprising that a NASCAR Sprint Cup race car sponsored by none other than Jim Beam is lining up to support the effort to save Wrigley's name?

Nah, just a little humorous.

Robby Gordon's No. 7 Jim Beam Dodge is helping out the cause during this Saturday night's LifeLock 400 at Chicagoland Speedway by running the "Save Our Ballpark's Name" web site on his hood. That site, www.saveourname.com, is running a petition of Chicago and otherwise baseball fans who want nothing more than for Wrigley Field to stay Wrigley field.

The baseball gem's name, built in 1916, has come under fire by owner Sam Zell. Zell, who owns Tribune Broadcasting wants to help eliminate the company's debt by selling off the naming rights to the field.

Gordon's hood comes on the heels of Jim Beam placing a new billboard near the stadium advocating the petition and the "Save Our Name" drive.

If nothing else, it's a good way for Gordon -- the other Gordon in NASCAR -- to pick up some fans this weekend as he competes in Chicago, where the NASCAR fan base isn't exactly huge.

Just days after the Brewers made a splash by trading for CC Sabathia, the Cubs countered by acquiring an ace of their own, picking up Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin from the A's in exchange for Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, Matt Murton, minor leaguer Josh Donaldson and ... wait, that's it? Whoa. Advantage: Cubs.

Harden is obviously a huge injury risk, but no one can dispute that he's one of the most dominant pitchers in the game when healthy. In 13 starts he's been one of the best in the AL this year, posting a 2.34 ERA (1.14 WHIP) while averaging better than 10.7 strikeouts per nine.

And while Gaudin is clearly an afterthought, he's not all that bad himself, capable of eating innings from the bullpen or starting rotation.

What did it cost Chicago? Some intriguing prospects, sure, but absolutely nothing in terms of players capable of helping the Cubs win today.

Perhaps you saw Gordon Wittenmyer's Cubs' notebook in the Chicago Sun-Times today and were expecting some kind of FanHouse commentary on Jim Hendry's, "How can I panic about the CC Sabathia trade if I'm already crazy?" statement. I was kind of thinking of trying to work that into a post, but that was before the second item in the notebook hit my eyeballs:

After Derrek Lee spotted a bug in his locker Saturday in St. Louis, [Sean] Gallagher ate it for an undisclosed sum of cash -- to the disgust and delight of Lee and teammate Reed Johnson.

Sean Gallagher eats bugs ... now that's a scoop! Still, the little blurb in the notebook now leaves me with more questions than answers. What kind of bug was it? How much money do you have to pay a guy that makes $350,000 a year to eat a bug? Is this some kind of rookie hazing? Will Gallagher continue to eat bugs if it helps him break out of his recent slump? What else will Sean Gallagher do for cash? Wait ... don't answer that last one.

The real question now is whether or not the light-hearted, bug-eating atmosphere will continue now that the Cubs appear to have a genuine division race on their hands. The Cubs might claim otherwise, but it kind of seems like they've been on cruise control for a month now. They can't really afford to keep that up now that the Brewers have made their move.

D.C. United and the Chicago Fire meet tonight in the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals, one month after their testy match in Toyota Park in which three red cards were given and Luciano Emilio got a surprise goal in stoppage time to lift 9-man D.C. to a 2-1 win.

If you want to watch this rematch, though, you'll have to go to the Maryland SoccerPlex in Boyds and buy a ticket. By all accounts, this match will not air on TV or online. Neither will tonight's New England Revolution v. Crystal Palace Baltimore match, providing further proof that the U.S. Open Cup -- a competition in which the winner receives a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League, no less -- is truly the most disrespected competition in American soccer.

The other two quarterfinal matches at least have online video feeds. FC Dallas v. Charleston Battery will be shown on MLSLive at 8:30 PM ET, while Seattle fans log on to USLLive get a free glimpse of their future MLS club's home when the USL-1 Seattle Sounders face the Kansas City Wizards at Qwest Field at 10:00 PM ET. Let's hope the groundskeepers actually try to cover up the gridiron lines this year.