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Monday meanderings: Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum said Sunday right-hander Matt Garza would be pitching Monday — for the Cubs at Arizona. Which would indicate any trade involving Garza is not quite finalized or the Cubs are hoping Garza will continue to pitch well and increase his trade value or Sveum doesn’t have a clue what’s going on. Or a combination of any of the aforementioned.
You weren’t expecting a photo of Matt Garza, were you?
* Yes, the Garza trade has been a more prolonged process than the Royal Labor in England for the former Kate Middleton and her husband, Prince William.
* All this Garza stuff continues after reports by some media folks that he would not be pitching for the Cubs this week. Which shows what the media know.
* Meanwhile the Cubs lost to the Colorado Rockies 4-3 Sunday in Denver. Future Hall of Famers (well, in some Cubs fans’ dreams) Starlin Castro (who went 4-for-5 to raise his batting average to .247) and Anthony Rizzo (who was 1-for-4 with a home run to raise his batting average to .244) were the hitting heroes. Center fielder Junior Lake, who entered the game 4-for-7 in his Cubs career, went 1-for-5 to lower his batting average to .417. He committed his second error in three games. Meaning he has more errors than extra-base hits. Meaning all this is so Cub-like about the Cub players fans like.
* Cubs left fielder Alfonso Soriano was caught stealing for the fifth time in 15 tries this season. Not quite the rate of success a team would like. But far better than two Arizona Diamondbacks: Gerardo Parra has been caught nine times in 15 attempts, and Martin Prado has been caught five times with one stolen base to his credit.
* For a winning ballclub, how about the White Sox? OK, how about the White Sox for a day. They did defeat the visiting Atlanta Braves 3-1, as left fielder Casper Wells robbed former Cub Reed Johnson of a game-tying, two-run homer in the eighth inning (when you’re batting .182, as Wells is, you better be able to do something to help your team). The Sox have a two-game winning streak. Which, for them, is a major accomplishment in a 39-56 season.
* Speaking of winning ballclubs (the real kind), the Detroit Tigers open a four-game series against the Sox on Monday at U.S. Cellular Field. Meaning a Sox sweep would leave the Tigers a mere nine games ahead of the last-place Sox in the American League Central. Ah, optimism. So much more fun than reality usually is.
* Sox right fielder Alex Rios went 2-for-4 with a run batted in to raise his batting average to .277 and his trade value (not necessarily in that order of importance to the Sox front office and/or disgrunted fans).
* Speaking of Rios, he and Alexei Ramirez have been caught stealing six times and successful 20 times.
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