Shawn Chacon will make his next start. Well, we won't be seeing an end to our offensive slump in that game. Interesting thoughts on umpiring from Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, ejected on Monday: "You can pull anybody off the street to call balls down the middle as strikes. What proves you can do it at this level is you have the ability to call strikes on the corners, at the borderlines of the strike zone. You can't take that away from the pitcher. Especially here, where a pitcher absolutely must have those corners."

Jay Witasick watches video of Albert Pujols' homer and shakes his head: "If I throw that 100 times, I don't think he would do what he did most of the time. It was an exceptional hit." Jason Jennings' name will go down in the Rockies record book, but some of us know better. News flash from the Post's crack investigative team: this Pujols guy is good. Bernie Lincicome compares and contrasts Buddy Bell's new club with is old one: "However awful the Rockies are, they do seem to like each other and take common joy in their infrequent success." He proposes we award whomever wins the series June 24-26 with a Cup of Ultimate Futility, which I think was a hidden item in Final Fantasy III. More on Bell from the News and the Post.

As we enter the second month of TGTBATB, I promise more of the same, and possibly some book reviews. I just have this sequence of Deep Space Nine novellas to complete, and then I swear I'm going to read this Tony La Russa book. As much as I admire Mr. Tony, the ultimate future of the Dominion is just more important to me right now.

Update courtesy of my TiVo: Peter Gammons said on "Baseball Tonight" last night that the Rockies will pick Luke Hochevar in the first round if they can get a deal done before the draft. And the early AL All-Star returns are in. Justin Morneau can't even crack the top five at first base? The NL numbers are released later today. Let's go Clint!