FanHouse KevinHart

As has been covered ad nauseum, the Cubs fell colossally short of expectations in 2009's first half. Since the All-Star break, the Cubs have won four straight games and begun to resemble last year's bunch in several ways. The biggest sign of positivity was Alfonso Soriano hitting home runs in consecutive games, but there was more. Mike Fontenot looked like the '08 version instead of the slapper we've seen for the past six weeks. Aramis Ramirez hit his first home run since returning from a season-altering shoulder injury. Kevin Gregg continued to outperform Kerry Wood -- whom he replaced as closer. Rich Harden looked unhittable.

Of course, we have to throw a gigantic asterisk next to the above paragraph. The Cubs were playing the Washington Nationals -- a team on pace to go 46-116.

Everything seemed to be going swimmingly for the Cubs. They were coming off of three wins in four games against the Brewers over the weekend, which threw the Brewers into some turmoil, and the Cardinals just received word that Mark DeRosa will head to the DL with a wrist injury.

The other shoe dropped Tuesday afternoon, though, when the Cubs learned that Ryan Dempster will miss his scheduled start and several more after breaking his toe leaping out of the dugout celebrating the Cubs' win over Milwaukee on Sunday. Dempster says he's going to miss his next three starts (two before the All-Star break and one after) but the Cubs' trainer says he could miss up to a month, which would probably mean another start or two after that.

We haven't even completed two full weeks of the Major League Baseball season yet, but the (arguably) best rivalry in the National League is already giving us a taste of what an exciting race the NL Central could be this year. With all due respect to the Reds, Astros, Brewers and Pirates, and with all due disclaimers about how long the baseball season is, it seems blatantly obvious the two best teams in the division are the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals.

For the past three days, the two teams have put on an entertaining show for anyone fortunate enough to be watching. Each game went down the wire, with both teams showing a flair for the dramatic.

As baseball's offseason slogs along at a molasses-like pace, the Jake Peavy-to-Cubs rumors just won't die. Whether it's actual reality or just pure conjecture at this point is hard to tell.

For now, Peavy and each front office remain pretty quiet. And all we're left doing is speculating.

Yet we do know a few things that still make the deal a logical one.

Remember all the craze for Homer Bailey last year? It's weird because you rarely hear the hype on him anymore, and he's only 22. The Reds obviously think they tried to bring him aboard too early in his professional career last season, because they are running out the likes of Matt Belisle and Josh Fogg instead of letting Bailey take his lumps in the show. It makes sense, I mean, he had only 64 career minor league starts before this season.

So far this year he's been about the same command-wise as last year in the minors. In 66 2/3 innings he's struck out 54 and walked 29. The walks were the problem in the bigs last year, so the Reds would still like them to come down some more. His ERA (4.05) and WHIP (1.38) are far from impressive, either.

Verdict: I'd still stash him for help come mid-July on. He'll get things figured out soon and once the Reds realize they are out of race they'll start running out their future rotation. Rank him behind sure-things like Max Scherzer and ahead of injury risk gambles like Curt Schilling.

After the jump we'll check out a few others currently toiling in the minors.

As your faithful NL Central blogger here at FanHouse, I'd probably be smart to just title a draft named "Ben Sheets Returns!" and fill out the first paragraph with phrases like: "Ben Sheets returned to the mound tonight after ____ days on the sideline with a _______ injury. The Brewers were certainly happy to see their ace, as they ______________." I haven't done that yet. As far as you know ...

Ben Sheets returned to the mound tonight after missing a start with a triceps injury. The Brewers were probably happy to see him pitch against the Cubsl, but they probably weren't happy with how their oft-injured ace pitched tonight . He walked seven (7!) batters in five innings. Still, that was enough for the Brewers because they pounded Jason Marquis and Kevin Hart and built up a lead (10-7) that even Eric Gagne couldn't blow.

Mike Cameron also made his season debut in this one and it went considerably better than Sheets' return, as he went 3-for-5, drove in two, and scored twice. In fact, the entire Brewers' outfield came alive in this one, to the tune of 8 hits (three for Corey Hart, two for Ryan Braun), three doubles (one for everyone), five RBIs, and five runs scored. That's gotta be something the Brewers would like to see a whole lot more of this year.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

The season is still very young, but the Cubs look very good. Two rookies -- right fielder Kosuke Fukudome and catcher Geovany Soto -- have them looking more like a 90-win team than the 85-win version that won the NL Central last year.

Fukudome arrived with great fanfare, hitting a game-tying three-run home run in the ninth inning on Opening Day at Wrigley Field. Soto, though less heralded, has been even better than Fukudome. He has more home runs and RBI than his Japanese counterpart, as well as a higher batting average and slugging percentage.

Chicago manager Lou Piniella, speaking with reporters before Friday night's game against the Nationals, made no secret of who he would pick for NL Rookie of the Year if it ends up coming down to Fukudome and Soto (and even though that's a long way off, it's a very real possibility.)

"I don't consider Fukudome a rookie. I didn't really consider Ichiro a rookie when I was in Seattle either," said Piniella. "It'd be like sending Alex Rodriguez to play in Japan and having him win Rookie of the Year over there. ... [Fukudome's] a seasoned professional baseball player."

At least, that's what one Cal fan thought when word leaked out that college football's confused Pinocchio had committed to their school.

Too bad several coaches went on the record claiming he wasn't even a D-I talent. I don't mean to berate the kid here, I'm simply using coaches' evaluations to contrast with how excitable fans can get a commit that nobody had heard of and say things like:

*Kaboom!*

And:

Yes I have seem him play. He's pretty good. Has college size, good skills. Good addition for Cal.

And:

Sounds like a great young man with D1 size and attitude! Players from the rural areas don't get the stars from the recruiting services, but the right ones sure can play......hello Ryan O'Callahan, who'll be playing on Super Bowl Sunday.

We're confused

You really need to read the entire article, but the story boils down to as follows:

An offensive lineman from Nevada named Kevin Hart committed to California Friday, staging a big announcing ceremony in front of his entire high school. Problem is, Cal apparently hasn't offered the kid or even contacted him.

"The Cal staff has had no contact whatsoever with Coach Hodges or Hart, and that they have not visited him; nor has Hart been on a recruiting trip to any school," recruiting Web site rivals.com reported.

Now, law enforcement is involved (fraud, we presume?) in investigating what happened. Further muddying the waters, Hart claims to have visited Oklahoma State, even though Rivals.com says he has yet to make an official visit anywhere. Hart also claims to have spoken extensively with Cal's coach Jeff Tedford, another of his handful of claims in dispute.

Looks like either the kid's got an active imagination or someone took him for a ride.

The Nevada Interscholastic Athletics Association is looking into the matter as well, and executive director Eddie Bonine told the Gazette-Journal, "It could be that someone was impersonating those schools."

Unfortunately things remain unclear because law enforcement isn't talking, the NCAA prohibits schools from speaking about recruits and his coach can only elaborate so much on what happened.

(H/T: EDSBS)