The Waiver Trade Deadline is Here and Other Bullets

I’m on the road today, starting around lunch, heading to Chicago. There will be normal posting this morning, and then the Pre-Gamin’, but I probably won’t be around much in the afternoon. Obviously if news breaks – it is the waiver trade deadline, after all – I’ll be all over it.

  •  Jon Heyman continues to stump for Alfonso Soriano, correctly noting that Soriano has gone from “overpaid” to “underrated.” (Well, I mean, he’s still overpaid, but that’s no longer the “label.”) Barring a last second shocker, Soriano isn’t going anywhere today, despite his great season, which came with a game-winning hit yesterday.
  • In case you forgot what today’s “waiver trade deadline” is all about, here’s your refresher. There isn’t much in the way of rumors, so I’m tentatively expecting a quiet day. Most of the Cubs’ tradable pieces are gone, and the only two guys of note who could plausibly be dealt today are Soriano and Carlos Marmol. I expect both to still be Cubs tomorrow.
  • Dale Sveum told the media yesterday that, because of his struggles, and because of Luis Valbuena’s hot streak, we’re going to be seeing less of Josh Vitters at third base for now. “I’ll still mix and match,” Sveum said. “We might see Valbuena there a little bit more. But we still want to evaluate. Just kind of want to let Vitters kick back and see what happens. You’re trying to evaluate and win at the same time. We’re having trouble scoring runs, period. Valbuena is getting on base, swinging the bat really well, and the defense comes into play …. Obviously we have shifted gears a little bit because we’re just not getting [anything] out of that position. A guy who hasn’t struck out much is striking out quite a bit and not making contact.”
  • Sahadev Sharma looks at those struggles of Vitters’, and notes, in particular, he’s striking out far more often now than he has in the minors.
  • Sveum called yesterday’s win one of the Cubs’ best of the year. It’s a small pool to select from, but, yeah, it’s right up there, easily.
  • Danny Knobler says the “strong speculation” around baseball is that Roger Clemens, after making his next appearance for the Sugar Land Skeeters on September 7, will join the Houston Astros, and possibly pitch on September 12 … against the Cubs. Please, please, please, baseball gods, let this happen. And then please, please, please, baseball gods, let the Cubs absolutely destroy him.
  • Luis Valbuena was happy he was finally assigned that error at third base the other night, which preserved Darwin Barney’s errorless streak. He said he felt from the beginning that it was a ball he should have caught, and a clean throw.
  • The MLBullets at BCB are about, among other things, the Clemens ridiculousness.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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