Both Chicago teams are tumbling which is unfortunate as there was a lot of promise and hope in that city just a few weeks ago. The Cubbies spent a large part of the first half in first place and the White Sox traded for some promising help as they had become a factor in the AL West. But the Cubs are now a .500 team (46-46) even though Sammy Sosa is now back slammin' those homers (he had two today to give him 17 for the season).

The Cubs will live and die by how well their starting pitching performs and their big two, Prior and Wood, have been good, great and bad. They are just not consistently either good or better. And Chicago's other starters are not fairing much better.

The White Sox on the other hand, have stopped hitting. They were pounding the ball, trade for two AllStars (past) and now can't hit. Paul Konerko is the American League's Pat Burrell (Burrell did hit a homer tonight) and is batting .194 which doesn't help.


The top sluggers in the game are all getting hot at the same time. Sosa has hit eight homers in the last two weeks. Ken Griffey, Jr. has hit a homer in four straight games and Bonds has gone on an unbelievable tear. Too bad these best of the best won't be at the HomeRun Derby.


The big story of the day though is the Florida Marlins who continued their winning ways by coming from behind to beat the Expos today. The Marlins are now only four and a half game out of the wildcard race and declared themselves as a contender by trading young talent for Ugueth (what kind of name is that?) Urbina. What a great pickup as Urbina leads the AL in saves and has 200 lifetime. The Marlins don't plan to close him which I think is a mistake. Having Urbina setup Brandon Looper is like having the opening act of a rock concert finish the show instead of start it. Urbina is the proven pro and should save the games.

The trade, either way, has to please the Marlins' fans as the team is showing a strong desire to win instead of trading away all of their top players in cost cutting measures. I was down there for three weeks and can testify that the Marlins are a fun team to watch right now. Pudge Rodriguez is getting hot. Lowell hit another homer tonight and Lee is hitting well. They will be fun to track from here on out.

The trade was also brilliant in another way. Since they traded for Urbina so early, they can see if he can help them win now. If they don't win and fall back again, it's still early and trading him is still possible. Very smart.