Stunning of the Bulls

Let's play a game called Which Statistic From Game 3 Most Offends You as a Bulls Fan?

A) The Bulls lost by 21, and trailed by as many as 34
B) The Bulls shot just 37% from the field
C) The Bulls turned it over 22 times
D) The Celtics had 16 steals, including six by man-beast "Big Baby" Davis
E) The Celtics were 12-21 from the three-point line
F) all of the above

The Bulls were dominated from the start in Thursday's 107-86 pounding by the Celtics. If you only had one word to describe their performance? Sloppy. They looked unfocused and unprepared, a very different team than the one we saw in Boston. The Celtics wrested home court advantage back with the victory, and Game 4 is now a must-win for the Bulls.

What a dump
Rarely has there been a purer example of a salary dump than the Cubs' trade of Jason Marquis to the Rockies this past offseason.

The return on that trade--reliever Luis Vizcaino--was officially DFA'd (designated for assignment) Thursday after Hendry was unable to trade him. If Vizcaino signs elsewhere for the league minimum salary, the Cubs will eat $3.6 million. Add in the $875K they sent to Colorado as part of the trade, and the Cubs will have essentially paid $4.475 million instead of Marquis' $9.875 million salary.

So the final math looks like this: $5 million in the coffers, one less starting pitcher. That, my friends, is a salary dump.

Cubs notes
-Just what any sane person would have predicted on the heels of a three-game winning streak: the Cubs scored a total of one run in two games against the Reds, and consequently lost their first series of the year.

-The red hot Cardinals (10-3 in their last 13) swept the Mets, upping their record to 11-5. The matchups for this weekend's series in St. Louis will be:

Dempster vs. Wainwright
Marshall vs. Walters
Harden vs. Wellemeyer

Hopefully, facing the "W"s of the Cardinals will result in some "W"s for the Cubs.

-Soriano has a 10-game hitting streak.

-Milton Bradley will sit until he's completely healthy (is that an oxymoron?), and will bat sixth when he returns. I'm not sure if that means Fontenot will move up to five, or if the lineup will look more like Thursday's, with Theriot moving up to two, followed by Fukudome, Lee, Ramirez and then Bradley. I prefer the latter--Theriot's a good fit in the two spot. It's unfortunate that injuries and struggles at the plate have quickly eroded the lefty-righty balance Piniella was seeking when we traded for Bradley.

Did you know ...
-Carlos Quentin leads the majors with seven home runs.

-Oakland has hit just four home runs; Texas leads the league with 27.

-This is completely inconsequential, but I can't help myself: I saw on the interweb today that a no-hitter was thrown on this date in 1946. The pitcher who threw it was named Ed Head. Ed Head. I just thought you should be aware of the fact that there was once a person with the name Ed Head.