Here's a picture of the top of page D4 in today's Washington Post. If the picture is a little fuzzy, the photo is of widow and daughters of President Keli McGregor, who died unexpected last week.

Below that? A quote from Dave Trembley, who says:

"Heartbreak does not do justice to what's gone on here."

That's quite kind of him to speak of McGregor like that. Except he wasn't. He was talking about something much more heartbreaking - the Orioles 3-16 record.

Nice job by the Post in juxtaposing those; I'm sure Trembley appreciates it.

I hope that keeps things in perspective for McGregor's widow and daughters.

Len and Bob said it. The TBS guys certainly noticed. Carrie Muskat Tweeted it. Three times.

During Sunday's blowout of the Brewers, two Cubs - Tyler Colvin and Kosuke Fukudome - were a triple short of the cycle.

Like most everyone before them, they failed. But that didn't stop the Twitter machine and TV box from repeatedly spitting out the phrase "Triple short of the cycle. Triple short of the cycle. Triple short of the cycle" - as if it were likely to happen with the next swing of the mighty Tyler's bat. Not to mention Fukudome.

This has long been a pet peeve of mine (this blog even once sought to ban the phrase), though I'm not sure why. It's merely a statement of fact. Fukudome and Colvin indeed were a triple short of the cycle. Perhaps it's the lack of context in which it is said.

Whatever the reason and given my seeming irrational annoyance with the phrase, the Wrigleyville23 research team looked into just how common - or rare - it is for a batter to be a triple short of the cycle.

In short: Not very.

(click "read more" for full article)

How bad has the Cubs bullpen been?

Starting pitchers: 37 earned runs in 122.1 innings (after Opening Day: 29 runs in 121 innings)

Relief pitchers: 32 earned runs in 52.2 innings

That said, things aren't all bad. The Cubs just completed a road series sweep, the offense scored some runs, and they've played more than twice as many games on the road as at home - and are 9-10.

MLB Trade Rumors suggests the Reds may have trouble working Aroldis Chapman into the rotation, even though the rotation is a train wreck:

Unfortunately for Cincinnati, working Chapman into the rotation may be difficult. Aaron Harang and Bronson Arroyo are making $12.5MM and $11MM, respectively. Homer Bailey is out of options. It's possible to option Johnny Cueto back to Triple-A, but despite his 5.73 ERA on the season, he's actually been their second-best starter. Mike Leake, their fifth starter, is the only one of the bunch who has shown any success this season.

So Harang and Arroyo make too much money to be relievers?

That's ridiculous. Highly paid setup men are all the rage in the NL Central these days, with the Cubs and Carlos Zambrano ($18 million) and the Brewers and Jeff Suppan ($12.5 million) serving as trailblazers for this emerging trend.

That would be some feat to have three seven eight-figure salaried pitchers in middle relief in one division.

Ted Lilly has a perfectly reasonable explanation for trying to steal a base during a rehab assignment game:

"Trying to steal second," he said.

Why?

"Because they teach you when you're going into a base and there's a play at the base, they teach you to slide, instead of standing up," he said.

Why would a rehabbing pitcher do that?

"Because I was trying to steal a base," he said. "I was trying to get a run for the team, so the team can score more runs, and our team could score more runs than the other team. Because if we that, then we'll win."

(click "read more" for full article)

According to my Twitter machine, Jeff Samardzija is moving back to Iowa to make the AAA bullpen 33 percent worse.

We were interviewed by Brew Crew Ball to preview the Cubs-Brewers series.

The carnage is here.

Dallas Braden, who yelled at Alex Rodriguez for jogging across the pitchers mound to return to first base after a foul ball, seems to be a bit of the finicky sort:

"The long and short of it is it's pretty much baseball etiquette. He should probably take a note from his captain over there," Braden said, referring to Yankees leader Derek Jeter, "because you don't run across the pitcher's mound in between an inning or during the game. I was just dumbfounded that he would let that slip his mind."

"I was just trying to convey to him that I was still out there, that ball's in my hand and that's my pitcher's mound. If he wants to run across the pitcher's mound, tell him to go do laps in the bullpen," he said. ...

Upon returning to the dugout, Braden remained very cross:

Braden threw his glove against a wall in the Oakland dugout and kicked a stack of cups.

In short, Braden doesn't like people in his work space. It makes him very, very angry. Sort of like this guy:

(click "read more" for full article)

Just when I thought it was a bad idea to send Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen, this comes across my Google machine from Phil Rogers:

There's no doubt the Cubs need more arms — plural — in their bullpen, and they have needed them pronto. But this move could blow up on so many fronts that I almost don't know where to start.

For one, it's based on a theory that they have a surplus of starting pitchers. This will be valid truly only if Ted Lilly returns from shoulder surgery looking like the guy who went 44-26 over the last three years. It's too early to know what fairly can be expected from him.

(click "read more" for full article)

Have a disastrous bullpen and need to convert a starter into an eighth inning guy to come in and pitch an inning three or four times a week?

Who better than Carlos Zambrano, who has struggled mightily early in games this year before settling down in later innings.

Zambrano has a 15.75 ERA in first innings this year (and 13.50 ERA in second innings and 12.00 ERA in third innings)? That's compared to a 0.00 ERA in innings four through seven.

In short, Zambrano is at his worst in first innings, so the Cubs have decided to pitch him one inning at a time. Shrewd.

(Yes, it's a very, very small sample size and the reverse of 2009 numbers, but we felt like taking a cheap shot.)