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I don’t always agree with Paul Sullivan’s take on the Cubs, but as this season has worn on I have to say that I’ve appreciated his efforts even more than I used to. His glib mailbag answers have been a salve to my Cubs depression, and the longtime Tribune/Cubs beat reporter’s recent article that makes 10 suggestions to the Ricketts family is superb. However, I take serious issue with the inane fluff that is sitting smack dab at the top of the Chicago Tribune homepage today (screenshot attached).

Why?

Why on earth would this respectable writer for a respectable paper want to publish this garbage? It’s one thing for Bradley to have to hear taunts, but now that he’s “accusing” fans, it’s never going to end. And yet, Bradley doesn’t accuse Cubs fans if you read his quote.

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UPDATE 7:45 PM: Carlos Marmol is the new Cubs closer…

It’s 1:08 AM Chicago time, and thinking about what transpired earlier tonight is extremely painful. According to a web poll from the Chicago Tribune (that’s how they break stories?), Kevin Gregg is no longer the Cubs closer. No word on who will be the new victim of the underperforming offense. My guess is Angel Guzman.

Check out this visual representation of the rage by fans after the blown lead and subsequent loss on Monday night:

That game was big.

Before signing off of Twitter, I got into a heated argument with a Cardinals fan that impersonates Fredbird, their mascot. As you may have heard in Monday’s episode (download), the Pirate Parrot (or a Pirates superfan, bless his soul) also is on Twitter. I spoke to him (it?) over the weekend. Suffice it to say that the parrot was much more congenial.

Big Z has taken a lot of flack this season, flack being the kindest word for the endless supply of criticism for the longest-tenured player on the Cubs roster. And criticism is fine…we obviously couldn’t put out new episodes of Cubscast every few days unless Sheps and I are both willing to speak our minds about the state of the team and the performances of players, etc. However, if I didn’t have a passion to see the Cubs improve this season and in the future, then the criticism would be false.

Enter WGNRadio 720’s Dave Kaplan.

Over a week ago Kaplan wrote an incidiary blog post titled Carlos Zambrano May Be the Most Overpaid Player in the Game. If you share his opinion, that’s fine, but I certainly don’t, and many other Cubs fans do not. I get that Big Z could improve as a player and person, but who in the major leagues can’t?

The fan response was such that Kaplan wrote a follow-up post titled Wow, the Zambrano Defenders are Up In Arms!. Um, yeah?

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Let’s face it — things are in shambles right now after the Cubs lost another game (and another starting pitcher to injury) yesterday before getting the heck out of Denver. Aramis Ramirez is either going to be out 3-4 games if he gets a cortizone shot, or at least two weeks if he ends up on the DL. This while the Cardinals play the likes of the Pirates and Reds. Ugh.

Even in the midst of this agony, though, there are a variety of reasons to keep cheering this team. To borrow (and slightly change) Dennis Green’s famous line, the Cubs are not who we thought they were. Still, if they do a few of the things on this list, they might end up where we thought they would…in the postseason.

1) Geovany Soto Gets Hot. Not like normal Soto hot, which is 2-4 with an RBI double on Day 1 and 1-5 with 2 K’s on Day 2. I mean he hits .400 in September and picks up the slack from Aramis Ramirez, whether Aram is in or out of the order that month. Geo should be minty fresh after all the down time he’s had this season, and if he isn’t hiding an injury he should want to be in RBI situations. The patience at the plate is good (even better if he is batting 4th or 5th), but we need Geo knocking in runs in addition to getting on base.

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If your answer is “yes,” we invite you to take our new Cubscast listener survey. Just like the team we follow, we’re gearing up for the stretch run and are looking for feedback on how to improve our podcast. Sheps and I also are looking for some honest feedback on the show in general, episode length and frequency, etc.

The survey takes about 5 minutes to complete, is 10 questions in length and is completely anonymous, unless you want to share your contact info with us.

Thanks for your feedback! It’s much appreciated.

As announced in Monday’s episode (download – mp3), the Cubscast Photo Caption Contest is back! To submit an entry, simply click on the photo below and enter your caption as a comment. Everyone is welcome to participate (even if you like DeRosa’s ’stache). First prize this week is a Cubscast Prize Pack which includes a Cubs-related book. Official Photo Caption Contest Rules.

Congrats to Rockett, the winner of this contest! Rockett’s winning caption: Ding Dong….ladies, your pizza is here…oooh….this uniform is hot…mind if I take it off…you girls are a couple of hot slices, but I brought the pepperoni….

Contest ended on Sunday August 2nd at 8 p.m. CT..

Thanks to everyone that participated! You are still welcome to add a caption, but the contest has already been decided.

Say whatever you want about Alfonso Soriano, but without the Cubs team leader in runs and strikeouts, the Cubs wouldn’t have swept the Nationals over the weekend. I haven’t held much back when talking about Soriano’s diminished speed this season, which has undoubtedly cost the Cubs some games by way of poor defense and baserunning mistakes. Furthermore I tried to make the point in a recent episode that he simply isn’t fast anymore, that he’s slow and all the footage we saw from his days as a Washington National must have been played at double speed. I’d even started thinking that the Geico cash stack could play a better left field, and was planning on mentioning that the next time it was appropriate to do so.

Then some things changed…at least for now.

We’re poised to discuss his resurgence at the plate in a new episode of Cubscast later this morning, but before I discuss it with Sheps I want to share an awesome e-mail we received from a listener in Scotland named Alex:

In regards to your Alfonso Soriano discussion from the last Cubscast, I thought I might share one or two thoughts. I moved to Scotland back in February, and have only been able to follow the day games via MLB Gameday and Cubscast. Now, having had several leg injuries of my own including tears of most every ligament in both ankles and a torn hamstring, I can understand why he would have lost speed. I was a track standout in High School. Speed is something I have always had, but after injuries I lost a lot of speed.

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