Derrek Lee was receiving treatment for a back injury incurred in a freak accident in the clubhouse before Wednesday’s game against Texas in Surprise.

“He was eating before the game and the chair just collapsed on him,” manager Lou Piniella said. “That’s why we got him out of there after three innings.”

Piniella said Lee was fine and would be back in the starting lineup Friday. Piniella’s back is also ailing, and he decided to skip the two-hour trip to Tucson for the Cubs’ game at Arizona. Alan Trammell will manage the team instead.

Obviously this isn’t a huge injury, but it sure isn’t a good sign when your star first basemen has the same back strength as his 66 year old manager.  Other Cubs notable injuries this spring?  Here’s the list:

Angel Guzman – Shoulder surgery
Ted Lilly – Shoulder surgery
Aramis Ramirez – Sore arm
Alfonso Soriano – Vagina
Xavier Nady – Elbow
Jeff Gray – Groin

He seems like a good guy and has an understanding of how this game works: If you don’t perform, it doesn’t matter what kind of person you are, the fans will get frustrated with you. Obviously the most disconcerting thing here is his sense that the organization “hung him out to dry”. He makes a good point. If he was really playing through injuries, where were Lovie, Jerry, or anyone else saying that he was hurt? I mean for the most part we knew he wasn’t 100%, but without knowing more we understandably just thought he wasn’t as good as he used to be.

I’m not sure what this says about the Bears organization or Tommie Harris, but its definitely not positive.

h/t: Mouthpiece Sports

Rose thinks there is something else afoot, and he intends to act on that tonight versus the Lakers:

Rose made a vow to a group of reporters after Wednesday’s practice at USC that he wouldn’t cut his hair until he gets on track.

“We’re winning, so I don’t care anything about my game. But if we weren’t winning, I’m playing terrible. I’m not going to the hole like I used to. It seems to me that I’m not that aggressive. But it’s going to change (Thursday night against the Lakers).”

“This has to be the first time in my whole life that I’m not being aggressive,” Rose said. “The injury definitely had something to do with it. But I have to fight through it.

Okay, Derrick.  Hopefully you will have a haircut by tomorrow night.  Anyways, here is where you could make an argument to blame Vinny.  Let’s assume that Rose is injured, but that injury is not the main problem.  Instead lets say the problem is mental and Rose has just been too timid.  If that is the case, then why didn’t Vinny sit him down and tell him to be more aggressive a couple weeks ago?  That is literally a coach’s job.  That being said, I am inclined to believe that Rose’s injury plays a far greater role than he will admit, and Vinny is just being cautious with his young superstar.

On the other hand, if Rose is all of a sudden aggressive tonight against the Lakers, that is going to reflect poorly on Vinny Del Crapo.

Cubs Injury Issues: Now Zambrano gets scratched with back problems.  It’s been a season-long injury issue with this team, with Fukudome and Theriot being the only real iron-men on the team.  How are the Cubs supposed to live up to the potential of their ridiculous payroll when none of the big money spent is even taking the field on a regular basis?  Can we blame the trainers? Or Hendry for signing a team full of players made from glass?

Richard Dent Gets Screwed: It’s a real shame that this kind of thing happens.  Richard Dent is one of the greatest defensive ends in the history of the game.  He dominated the position on what was the best defense of all time.  Be it journalists, or veteran’s committees, or whatever, the selection processes for professional halls of fame needs to be amended to actually let in hall of famers.  Dent had 137.5 sacks and was the Super Bowl XX MVP.  He created more turnovers and havoc in the backfield than any end in NFL history.  Why he didn’t get in the Hall is beyond me.

Broncos Fans Boo Orton: Broncos fans really suck.  I mean they are just terrible.  Apparently Orton got booed for having a bad practice.  Not a bad game or series of practices; one bad practice.  Gee I wonder why Cutler wanted out of Denver.

Kevin Gregg is Still Having a Better Season Than Kerry Wood: Even though he blew 2 saves last weekend, his numbers are still far better than Woody’s this year.  Gregg and the entire bullpen has just been overworked and needs some time to rest their arms.  Unfortunately that may or may not happen.

Obama Almost Wore a Cardinals Jersey: I really want to like this guy.  I do.  He says all the right things to make me believe he can turn this country around and he has pretty good handles on the hardwood.  Then he stalls on health care, makes some terrible appointments, continues many of the old failed policies of the last administration, wears a White Sox jacket, and now this.  Apparently he almost wore a Cardinal’s jersey at the All-Star game.  That would have literally lost my vote right there (not to mention make me vomit in my mouth a little bit).  Thank god he didn’t do it.

Hoffpauir Sent Down, Soto Called Up: It’s a numbers game, I get that, but why do the Cubs have to send down Hoffpauir?  Although his average has slipped a bit since he gets less consistent playing time, he still has the power numbers to be an effective left-handed option off the bench.  I mean do we need Scott Baker, Mike Fontenot, Andres Blanco, and Aaron Miles on the squad?  How about send Aaron Miles down, that guy sucks and everyone knows it.

Bulls Save Some Money on Tim Thomas: The Bulls bought out Tim Thomas’s contract which was worth 6.4 million but they only paid 4.8 million.  Every little bit of cap space helps.  I’m still wondering who will shoot the 3 on this team though.

Ben Wallace Returns To Detroit: Just kidding, even I don’t give a shit about this.

I Just Don’t Like Matt Holliday, Why Do I Need a Reason?: Either Mozeliak, LaRussa, or Holliday himself sold his soul so that Holliday, who had been hitting just .276 with 8 home runs before the break, all of a sudden is hitting .525 with 4 home runs since being acquired by the Cards.  I hate that whole team, and Holliday is no exception.  I’m sure he’ll do some classless Cardinal-like thing soon enough (that organization is character poison) to give me a good reason to hate him, but in the meantime I just don’t like him and I have no good reason.

Fine, Gordon Beckham is Good, But At Least I Was Right About Carlos Quentin Being a Fluke: The title says it all.  I was skeptical about both Beckham and Quentin this winter after every Sox fan I talked to told me Quentin was the second coming and Beckham will be great.  Quentin is not the second coming.  Don’t you find it odd he didn’t come up to the majors until he was 27?  And don’t even start with the “he’s been injured” crap.  If anything that just means he is injury-prone, proving me correct that last year was a fluke.  Props to Beckham though, that kid is filthy.

Marlins Little “Goat” Stunt Not Appreciated By Sweet Lou: Who cares Lou?  If the goat and the curse are all bullshit, then it doesn’t matter.  I’m sure you get sick of that stuff, but getting mad about it only brings more attention to the idiots who mock the Cubs.  I never thought I would say this, but Lou needs to just shut up about this stuff.  No one would have even batted an eye if he didn’t get all worked up about it.

The Return of Fire Joe Morgan: My favorite sports blog of all time will be returning (sort of) for one day.  On September 16, the old crew from FJM consisting of Dak, Ken Tremendous, and Junior will be running Deadspin for a day.  Hopefully it inspires them to start writing FJM again, but either way it should be fun.

Some White Sox Fans Might Be Actually Retarded: Not to be too rude, but how can you not laugh a little at how dumb some Sox fans are when you see this picture.  Did you really think Rowand was spelled “R-O-W-A-D-N”?

The “Derrick Rose Had A Rough Summer” Story is Bullshit: He didn’t have a tough summer, okay?  The two stories this is referring to are the gang sign thing and the SAT cheating thing.  Both are bullshit.  No one cares that he might have made a gang sign to a camera one time in college.  And he didn’t cheat, he was proven innocent pretty convincingly.  Here’s the real story of D-Rose’s summer: He tried out with Team USA, worked on his jumpers, and probably bought a lot of cool stuff with all his new money.  I don’t want to hear about the “cheating” or the gang signs anymore, okay mainstream media?

Tom Gorzelanny Can Pitch, and He Looks Like Sloth from the Goonies: So he probably isn’t as good as he was in his start for the Cubs, but to be honest all we need is 3-4 halfway decent starts from him until Lilly comes back.  If he pitches really well for the next couple weeks and its a tough decision whether to send him down or keep him in the rotation, that is the kind of tough decision a team wants to have.  Oh yeah, and he looks like Sloth from the Goonies.

Let’s Get Real, The Peavy Trade Probably Won’t Mean Much This Season: I know this will sound like sour grapes, but seriously, if he comes back healthy he can make 3 starts in September.  If the Sox make the playoffs, which seems less and less likely, then he can definitely be a factor.  Otherwise, this signing was for the future.  The Sox rotation will be formidable with Buerhle and Peavy at the top and Danks and Floyd at the 3 and 4 for the next few years.

Now it’s on to St. Louis for a three game series against the Cardinals.  Pujols and company are just a half game behind the Cubs for second in the division with Chris Carpenter coming back.  The Cards’ ace will pitch the middle game of the series against Ryan Dempster.

The Cubs and Cards should set up to be a great match-up being so close in the division.  The teams have exactly the same amount of runs scored and runs allowed, so I’m predicting three ties.

Really though, the Cubs are lucky to be where they are considering some of the rough times they’ve gone through thus far.  With Soto, Lee, and Bradley struggling at the dish and all missing time with injuries, the run production should have plummeted.  With Ramirez spending time on the DL it should have gotten worse.  Worse is a word that would not describe a lot of bullpens in their relation to the Cubs pen.

Injuries and slumps are more common in baseball than rotund relievers or scrawny hitters with no power for the Giants, but the Cubs have had more than their share to start the year.  Still, winning seven of ten has gotten them back to six games over .500 in a short time and with Zambrano likely to return this week a series win against the Cards would be huge.

The Bullpen Is Terrible: The Cubs bullpen so far this season has been atrocious.  While this should have been somewhat foreseeable after Hendry inexplicably let Woody walk and replaced him with (gulp) Kevin Gregg, the dropoff from last year to this year should not have been so bad.  While Marmol’s slider has still been mostly unhittable, the rest of the ‘pen has been god awful.  With no legitimate lefty, Cotts has filled the role and completely shit the bed.  There is no way that guy has gotten more than 5 outs this season.  Heilman has been okay at best, while Gregg has basically been the nightmare we thought he would be.  You know what would have been nice?  If Samardzija had actually been decent.  Without expecting much from Guzman and Patton (and they haven’t shown much, though not terrible), and Luis Vizcaino essentially kicked off the team by Lou, it doesn’t look like this problem is going to fix itself anytime soon.

Injuries: I’m just going to give you a list of Cubs who have been injured, and you tell me if missing any of these guys might be crucial to the team’s success:

Milton Bradley
Derrek Lee
Geovanny Soto
Carlos Zambrano
Chad Fox
Aramis Ramirez

Although Hoffpauir has stepped in nicely for Lee the last week or so, any team that sustains this magnitude of injuries to many of its stars is going to suffer on the field.  And suffer we have.

Lou Piniella’s Retarded Baserunning Philosophy: We always hear about how the Cubs are trying to be “more aggressive on the basepaths” from Sweet Lou.  Here’s the thing, if the aggressive baserunners are getting thrown out, then it is hurting the team.  Period.  I know a lot of you out there feel that stealing bases and being more aggressive is a good thing even if they aren’t successful all the time.  Here’s what you need to know about that instinct: it’s wrong.  The Cubs are 19/30 on stolen base attempts.  That means that if they had not attempted those 30 stolen bases, the team would actually have scored MORE runs over the course of the last 6 weeks than they did succeeding 19/30 times.  God I hate TOOTBLANs.

Slumpitis: When does a slump become cause for greater concern?  After 6 weeks of the season, that question is becoming paramount.  Derrek Lee, Milton Bradley, and Geovanny Soto (the heart of our lineup sans Ramirez) are hitting .209, .179, and .169 respectively.  All three of those guys showed up on our earlier injury list, so that could be a part of the problem.  Regardless no team that has their 3, 5 and 6 hitters combining for an average below the Mendoza line is going to be able to win any division, even one as crappy as the NL Central.

“He has been restricted from high-level activity since [Feb. 28],” team physician Brian Cole was quoted as saying. “At this point, he will undergo ‘active rest,’ meaning that he will be encouraged to challenge himself physically, and if symptoms remain minimal, he will be allowed an expeditious return to play.”

That the Bulls were going to encourage Deng to “challenge himself physically” was interpreted to mean: “Can you believe this guy? What a wimp.”

Though Morrisey is not making the same point as I am here in his article, his comments made me think.  What is the story with NBA organizations?  It’s a simple formula they use really, but it is somewhat sleazy and does it really do any good for anyone?  What I’m talking about is when an organization loses interest in one of its players and wants to deal that player.  When the player is well-liked by the fan base, as Deng is, the organization feels that they have to bring the athlete down in the eyes of the fans so there won’t be a huge backlash when they trade him.  It happens all the time.  Look at Phoenix as recently as this year.  Kerr decided that he wanted to get rid of Amare, but he knew the fans in Phoenix would be very unhappy if that happened.  So he started a campaign to dismantle Amare’s character, planting seeds of doubt in the fans about not only his play (his defense came under heavy criticism), but also his locker room presence (stories started mysteriously leaking to the press about how Amare was unhappy playing next to Shaq and how he wanted to be “the man”).  Then when Kerr tried to trade him, the city didn’t turn on the Suns as badly as they would have.

It appears the Bulls are trying to do something similar here.  They may be unhappy with Deng, but they won’t ship him out unless they can convince the city that he is a detriment to the team.  I know this all sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory, but it happens around the league all the time.

Or….the Bulls are just run by a bunch of idiots who don’t understand the implications of what they do.  I’m not ruling that option out in this case.  It’s just something to think about when it comes to professional sports franchises and the relationships they have with their talent.

With the two losses, the Hawks have now lost six of eight games and are 13 points behind Detroit in the Central and only five points ahead of Vancouver for the fourth seed in the West.

So what has the problem been for Chicago lately? In my mind the two biggest factors in the skid have been injuries and poor defense.  Injuries have slowed the Blackhawks for a while now it seems.  The first that comes to mind is Duncan Keith and his absence’s effect on the power play.  Now the Blackhawks are dealing with the loss of Khabibulin and Patrick Sharp.

The loss of Khabibulin is a big one; the goaltender was in top form before the injury and the Hawks had found a nice balance between him and Cristobal Huet.  Huet has struggled with the everyday responsibilities since Nikolai went down.  It looks like the Hawks will have their number one guy back in a week or two.

Sharp was leading the team in goals before his injury, a distinction that now belongs to captain Jonathan Toews.  Of course, when one of your top goal scorers goes out with an injury, that is going to be evident in your production. What is overlooked is the impact on the team as a whole when guys like Keith, Khabibulin, and Sharp go down.  All of the sudden guys are playing on different lines, playing more time, and feeling more pressure to produce.  Every team deals with injuries, but I think that sometimes with a young team, you’re going to feel the impact a little more.

To make matters worse, Martin Havlat got dinged up this weekend sustaining a “lower body injury.”  I love hockey for that kind of stuff.  Anyway, Havlat had been playing arguably the best hockey he has played in Chicago before the injury.  I haven’t heard anything specific, but let’s hope this is only a week or two, because that’s one guy Chicago will need down the stretch.

Even with all those guys back, the Blackhawks won’t be successful without good defense.  Pahlsson will help that from the forward spot, but it’s on the blue liners to pick it up.  There is too much talent back there to be giving up so much space that leads to so many goals.  It’s hard to say exactly what they’re doing wrong now, but they just seem a step behind where they were a month ago.

The Hawks had the day off yesterday and I’m sure they’re having a very serious practice and film session today before taking on Carolina tomorrow night at the United Center.  Lulls in the season happen and this actually isn’t a terrible time for one, but Chicago better start to turn it around, because they want to be playing their best hockey pretty soon.