Well, at least the road trip is finally over. Mine and the Rockies'. Neither Jeff Francis nor Marcos Carvajal had their best stuff as the Cubs returned to .500 at Colorado's expense. At least Preston Wilson is heating up and J.D. Closser finally managed to hit himself a homer. Luis Gonzalez is making a bid for Aaron Miles' job, nudging his average up to .306 with a 2-for-5, 3-RBI game. Todd Helton avoided going hitless-for-Chicago by the narrowest of margins. Clint Barmes still looks lost out there. No one on the Rockies, with the possible exception of Jamey Wright, will be sorry to return to relatively friendly confines of Coors Field.

Driving back from Chicago afforded me the opportunity to retrieve most of my baseball reference library from my parents' basement. Maybe I will be able to track down the Eddy Garabito info I promised earlier now. I also have my extensive collection of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" literature with me at last. We'll see how I'm able to incorporate that.

Aha, here we go! From John Sickels' Prospect Book, 2003 edition, written when Garabito was in the Orioles' system: "He has little power or untapped offensive upside that I can see, but he does decently with the glove and can swipe a base, 25th man material." And the Watcher's Guide Volume 1 notes that Nicholas Brendon (Xander) played baseball at California's College of the Canyon and intended to try his luck in the pros until a broken arm detoured him into acting. Now that's some research.