The Cubs and their ace finally agree to terms on a new contract worth $91.5 million over 5 years with a player option for a 6th year at $19.25 million. Apparently the biggest hurdle in negotiations was the no-trade clause that Big Z and his agent insisted upon. Thankfully Jim Hendry and the Cubs relented. They lock up their best pitcher and the only major question mark for the next few years.

The Cubs also knocked off the Cardinals Friday to get back into a first place tie.

I come home from a week away to find that the Cubs have lost 6 out of their last 10 and even more costly than that, they’ve lost their starting left fielder. But Alfonso Soriano isn’t just the starting left fielder, he’s also their offensive leader. He leads the team in home runs with 18, and has been a catalyst all season for the offense. The Cubs have history of losing their offensive leader, and it hasn’t turned out well. When Derrek Lee broke his wrist last year, the Cubs went in the tank. Hopefully that won’t happen this year. The Cubs dropped the first 3 games after Soriano went down with the torn quadriceps muscle, but have rebounded and won the last 2 games heading into Saturday’s game with Colorado.

The Cubs are reportedly close to acquiring Scott Podsednik in a waiver-wire deal with the Chicago White Sox. This would ease the pain a little, but Scotty Pods isn’t the same player he was when he helped the White Sox win the World Series in 2005. He’s had injuries, and has struggled when he was healthy. He definitely would bring energy to the ballclub as well as a bonafide leadoff hitter.

On August 1st, the Cubs are in first place. It’s a tie with Milwaukee, and they’re only minute percentage points away, but they’re still in first place. And after the start of the season that the Cubs had, I’m sure they’ll take it.

As recently as June 23rd the Cubs were 8 1/2 games behind the upstart Brewers. As badly as the Cubs started this season, the Brewers were the opposite. The hottest team in the first 2 months of the season was the Milwaukee Brewers. A lot of pundits claimed that this was the changing of the guard, and that the Brewers had arrived. I didn’t see Ruth play or anything, but I’ve been following baseball for most of my life. I knew that a team like the Brewers was going to falter. This wasn’t the vaunted Yankees who had bought the best team in the league. The 2007 Brewers are a very young team that has enough veteran pitching to make them dangerous. That was the case early in the year. Injuries, slumps, youth and a long season all combine for knocking teams that don’t belong in the playoffs out of the playoffs.

I’m sure you’re thinking of the Cardinals last year (I know Will is). Shudder to think that I am too, but I have to say that they were a solid team, and the Detroit threw up all over themselves (or more accurately the pitchers mound). So maybe the better team doesn’t always win, but I do know that over an 162 game schedule, the better teams prevail. So that’s how I knew that the Brewers were doomed. They’re not a great team. Sure, they could line up a few wins, get back into first place and cause Lou and the Cubs some headaches, but when it’s all said and done, Prince Fielder and the “Brew Crew” are going to be chillaxing when October rolls around. Just in time for Oktoberfest.

Onto the Cubs. They have a long long way to go to be competitive with the likes of the newly-fortified Braves and even the injury-ravaged Mets, not to mention whomever comes out of the West. The bullpen needs help and people need to stay healthy. I like the rotation. Who wouldn’t like a playoff rotation that had Zambrano going twice and fillerup with Lilly and Marquis. Now I’ll grant you that Lilly and Marquis are not Peavy, Young, Maddux and Wells, but they’re also not too different from Smoltz, Hudson, and James in Atlanta, or Maine, Perez, and Glavine on the Mets. So in the National League I think the Cubs staff shapes up pretty well. I’ll hold off on talking about how they might compare to the top AL staffs until we get a little further down the line.

Congratulations Cubs, Lou, Jim Hendry and all Cubs fans. The team took a little while to get on track but it’s nice to see how far they’ve come.

The Chicago Bears filled the hole that was left by Tank Johnson and his arsenal of weapons. They acquired DT Darwin Walker for a conditional 5th round pick. Walker has played his seven previous seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. Over that time he’s racked up 27.5 sacks. That kind of production will definitely help the Bears interior line.

He has a lot of years behind him so he isn’t a long term solution at DT, but he does bring the Bears some veteran leadership with a pedigree that Lovie’s defense will really be able to use. Defensive tackle is the most important position in the Tampa Two defense (remember Warren Sapp). Darwin Walker and Tommie Harris will work well in this system.

One peculiarity of this deal is that it runs through 2011 which would have Walker as a Bear when he is 34. Of course defensive tackles can be productive when they get older, but I think that’s more the exception than the rule.