Catching up

No one told me that the All-Star Break wasn't a full week.

To bring Siberian Baseball back up to speed, here's a nice catch all post to put the train back on the tracks.

* Jason Kendall is the newest North Sider and many Cub fans who have seen games since 2003 are wondering why.

Phil Rogers wrote a short piece asking Cub fans to just trust the scouts on this one - which is pretty funny when you consider he's coming over from the Moneyball A's, which preach numbers over scouts' hunches - but you can't ignore declining numbers for a catcher.

From that story:

Kendall, acquired by the Cubs on Monday night from Oakland, has a great pedigree, impressive career numbers and more name recognition than Koyie Hill, Rob Bowen and Geovany Soto. But he also has a .226 batting average, a .261 on-base percentage and a 20 percent ratio throwing out base stealers.

OK, Phil, I'm with you - but only because the "Old catcher! Old catcher!" song was being sung for Pudge Rodriguez before his resurgence in Detroit.

* It's official, the Phillies are the, say it with me: Worst. Team. Ever.

The Cardinals beat the Phils for loss number 10,000 on Sunday night. Ouch.

But cheer up Cub fans:

Next on the losing list: the Braves, with 9,681 defeats. It took them stints in three cities (Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta) to reach that total. Not even those lovable losers, the Chicago Cubs, come close at 9,425.

* And finally, Scott Boras is causing a problem in Boston, questioning Daisuke Matsuzaka's pitch counts.

We all are, Boras. We all are.

I'll be back to get this thing moving in earnest soon, but as I mentioned at the mothership, it's a hectic week for me.

Keep your fingers crossed - if something good happens tonight, it'll be sooner versus later. Plus, there's always the embarrassing pre-season picks report card still to cover.

It'll go a long way to explaining why I have no future in the Vegas sportsbooks.

(Image from MLB.com)