Chicago

Lou Piniella is home.

Sweet Lou, the manager of the Chicago Cubs and four other teams since 1986, has called it a career, and what a career it was.

Piniella ranks 14th on the all-time wins list for managers, he’s been a three-time manager of the year, and he won the World Series as manager of the Cincinnati Reds in 1990.

For the past week, the Chicago White Sox made no secret that they wanted Manny Ramirez to be their DH for the remainder of the season.

After some waiver formalities and some back and forth, yesterday they finally made it happen.

The White Sox acquired Ramirez yesterday on a straight waiver claim from the Los Angeles Dodgers. The White Sox will pay the remaining $3.8 million left on Manny’s contract.

It's official.

Manny Ramirez and the nearly $4 million left on his contract are heading to the South Side of Chicago to finish the season out for the White Sox.

Manny, of course, will play his first game for the White Sox against his former team, our Cleveland Indians.

It's unclear whether or not Manny will play tonight or debut tomorrow for the White Sox, but either way, it could prove to be an interesting conglomeration of personalities.

The Chicago White Sox announced Monday afternoon that Manny Ramirez had been claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers and will join the team Tuesday in Cleveland.

The White Sox will be responsible for paying $3.825 million of Ramirez's contract this season.

With three trips to the DL this season and the inability to play defense, Ramirez will most likely slide immediately into the DH spot, which has been a black hole for the White Sox thanks to Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay.

In 2003, the Boston Red Sox put Manny Ramirez on waivers. They had enough of his antics and were displeased with his eyesore of a contract. He was still in the heart of his career, slugging 40 homers and driving in 130 annually at that time. But the team didn’t want him in their clubhouse anymore. They willed anyone to take him off their hands.

As the White Sox have hit a bump in the road, their arch nemesis, the Minnesota Twins, has been surging.

With less than a week left until September, the White Sox find themselves 3.5 games behind the Twins in the AL Central race.

Already, the articles have been flowing, calling the White Sox done. The tombstone has been placed and all but the official date of elimination etched in.

Geovany Soto made a solid statement his 2008 rookie season, slugging his way to a .371 wOBA, third among Major League catchers (Brian McCann and Joe Mauer).

He also tied for the Major League lead among catchers with 23 home runs.

Soto followed his impressive rookie campaign with a pretty severe sophomore slump, much to the chagrin of Cubs fans and potential fantasy owners predicting him to repeat or build upon his first season. 

In a move that was slightly surprising, Derrek Lee was traded to the Braves on Wednesday.

It wasn't really a surprise that the Cubs wanted to trade him. After all, they did try to make a swap with the Angels involving the veteran first baseman not too long ago.

The Giants and Cubs had a little unfinished business to attend to before they matched up Wednesday night in San Francisco. With the owner's meetings getting underway in Minneapolis, Jim Hendry and Brian Sabean completed a trade that they reportedly began talking about as the trade deadline was approaching.

The Cubs placed Geovany Soto and Derrek Lee on the 15-day disabled list and the bereavement list, respectively, on Tuesday. In their stead will be 23-year-old Welington Castillo and 30-year-old Micah Hoffpauir from Triple-A Iowa.