Thinking Brooms

It looks like the Mark Prior matchup for Thursday just got easier. The Astros' Wade Miller, who was scheduled to start, went on the disabled list after Tuesday night's game with a bad right shoulder. Jeff Kent also could be DL bound after gimping into second last night with a probably pulled hamstring. A win today over Clemens and Prior could put the Cubs in line for seventh consecutive win over the Astros. And THAT would make the Astros an even .500 team.

And THAT could put Beltran back on the market.

Doing the Box Step

OK. We're all agreed that Korey Patterson is hitting the ball better.

Are we also agreed that he's still plenty stupid? He gets erased on the bases so often he needs to be clapped out at the end of each series.

And he's such a dynamite fielder.

This guy is going to cost this team at least as much as he brings them. But at least he's not the 100% pure whirlpool of badness he was before. He's now two steps forward, two steps back.