This week on the podcast, the Crack Technical Staff and I talk all-star selections, good players that bad teams out to trade, and everything in between. Specifically:

The Brewers signed C.C. Sabathia

Inspiring the Cubs to follow up with Rich Harden

The Pirates might like to send Jack Wilson to the Dodgers,

While the Reds may still think they’re in it.

Even though it’s clear that HAIRSTON SHOULD GO!

The Cubs represent in the All Star Game Roster

While the Reds represent in the List of Guys who Lied About Being Drafted in the 30th round.

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Boxscore

Aaron “Lemon” Harang had another crappy start for the Reds, allowing 6 runs in 4 1/3 innings. More telling than anything, though, was his 7 walks. Ouch. He has had mainly bad outings since his relief work in the extra innings game on May 25. Perhaps a start off is in order.

The Cubs, bouyed by the announcement of the Rich Harden trade, dropped 7 runs on the Reds to cakewalk to a victory.

The loss dropped the Reds into a tie for first place of the second half of the division with the Pirates. If only that placing garnered a playoff spot.

The red-hot family made it out to Cincinnati this weekend to take in a Reds Heads event and a game at the ballpark. Jay Bruce was signing autographs for the kids in the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum. Bruce was nice, but our son didn’t have much to say. He must have been nervous; he usually never shuts up (he got that from me).
And since they required the CTS and I to each buy a year-long pass to go through the doors with our 7-year old, we now can have our run of the place. And it’s only a scant 150 miles away!

The Reds were playing the Nationals that evening.

So, of course, the Magic Man was hanging with his homeys. It must be nice to chill with teammates who didn’t file a grievance over receiving you.

The first 30,000 adults through the doors got a free mesh Griffey jersey in the camo colors. How the outfielders could see each other is beyond me. In Griffey’s case, at least you didn’t have to worry about him straying too far from right field.

Bruce survived the autograph session to suit up for the game. Like most of the offense, Bruce wasn’t doing much. He was 0-for-5 on the night in one of the most boring games in history. It was tough to get to the end of the sixth inning when they played our Love Your Reds video. Of course, it got more interesting after that, but we had to bail anyway to get home at a reasonable hour. Even so, we didn’t roll in until 1:30 a.m.

Gapper was in attendance to liven up the scene, in full camo as well. If you’re familiar with the antics of the Gapper, you know that occasionally he’ll show up with no shirt on but instead wearing tighty whiteys. I guess it’s supposed to be scandalously funny for the kids, but since most of the time he doesn’t wear any variety of clothing at all from the waist down, it actually more decent to don the jockeys.

The CTS was taking the photos. Can you tell?

A day after the Brewers traded for ace C.C. Sabathia, the Cubs made their own move. And for once, it doesn’t look like GM Jim Hendry screwed things up.

A’s starter Rich Harden, he of the 5-1 record with a 2.34 ERA, is now a Cub. And all Chicago had to give up was mostly players they didn’t want anyway.

Going to the A’s are Matt Murton, Sean Gallagher, Eric Patterson, and Josh Donaldson. Murton had bobbed up and down the last couple of years, and despite his great head of red hair, he really hadn’t done anything to prove he belonged in the big leagues. Getting rid of Gallagher removes the logjam of Seans that the club’s had a problem with. Patterson is Corey’s brother, so you know he can’t have much more than suck in his DNA. And Donaldson is a minor leaguer.

Coming to the Cubs along with Harden is reliever Chad Gaudin, who’s been average throughout his career.

While he’s no Wayne Krivsky, Hendry’s made his fair share of bad trades. Steve Trachsel and Juan Pierre immediately come to mind. However, he’s balanced that with his trades for Aramis Ramirez and Derrek Lee, although anyone could have fleeced David Littlefield out of Ramirez. Still, this one seems to fall closer into that latter category.

It took Hendry until the midway point of the season, but he finally fixed the rotation. We’ll have to see if he did it in enough time.

Despite early-season predictions of the Central again being the weakest division in the National League, that hasn’t been the case in the first half, especially judging by the number of players representin’ the NLC.

Led largely by Chicago not sucking for a change, 7 Cubs were placed on the team. Geovany Soto, Kosuke Fukudome, and Alfonso Soriano were all voted on as starters, although Soriano is injured and probably won’t play.

Lance Berkman and Ryan Braun round out the other fan-voted starters from the Central. Not bad for last year’s weakest division. 5 of the 8 starting spots. And there’s a great chance that either Edinson Volquez–the Reds token star–or Carlos Zambrano will start the game.

How the pathetic have risen.