Ted Lilly

According to MLB Network, the Dodgers have acquired Ted Lilly & Ryan Theriot from the Cubs for Blake DeWitt and minor league pitchers Brett Wallach & Kyle Smit.

With only one full day remaining before the non-waiver trade deadline, and 60 games left to be played on their schedule, the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves trailing the division leading San Diego Padres by a full seven games, and are seeing their chances of returning to the playoffs gradually disappear.

Even the line for the lone wild card spot is becoming quite crowded, and yet the Dodgers continue to push on and hope that solid play down the stretch will elevate them in the standings.

All of Dodgertown is hoping that the offense finds a spark, and General Manager Ned Colletti has alre

The MLB trade deadline is almost exactly three days away, and so far the only acquisition the Dodgers have made is the re-acquisition of veteran infielder Juan Castro on Tuesday. Castro will be making his third tour with the Dodgers, and many analysts see Castro's addition in many different ways.

Castro may be trade bait, or he may be insurance should the Dodgers move other veterans such as Jamey Carroll, Ronnie Belliard, and/or Garret Anderson.

Even though the Dodgers have been quiet so far, it may be the calm before the Ned Colletti storm.

We sit just two weeks in front of the Major League Baseball non-waiver trade deadline, which occurs on July 31. Already, we have seen one ace (Cliff Lee) get dealt to a new team, and there are several more arms that could be traded before 4:00 pm on the 31st.

And tonight, all of those pitchers are on the mound for their current teams. Could this be the last starts for their respective clubs? Will these starts act as auditions? Only time will tell.

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Hello, class. If you remember, last week we talked about the basics of Sabermetric principles and how they look at stats differently than most people and value lesser used stats over more traditionally viewed numbers like ERA and batting average.

With the Mets having lost the Cliff Lee sweepstakes, they still are in need of another starting pitcher. Losing the last two games to the Braves and falling to five games out of first place and two back in the wild card race have made this need even more obvious.

Here we are just a few days away from the month of July where the sun isn't the only thing that will be burning hot.

We've talked about a lot of rumors over the last few weeks but there could be a few new names added to the fire.

A quick look at last week's Fantasy Baseball top performing and least owned players on the waiver wire. Jonathan Niese and Ted Lilly throw a 1 hitter. Aubrey Huff and Gaby Sanchez's hit 2 bingers each. Can they really keep it up for another week? Check out who's a Must or a Bust.

BATTERS

This article was originally published at The Daily Cub.  Visit TheDailyCub.com for more original Chicago Cubs coverage.

One week ago the Cubs were 13-13, coming off of a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks and looked to be back on track to get the most out of their team this season.

All was well in Wrigleyville.

Despite their early-season struggles, the Chicago Cubs have plenty of reasons not to be afraid just yet. From the revamped minor league system, to a smarter Jim Hendry, to the twenty-fifth man on the roster (and the fortieth in September), the Cubs organization and their ever-loyal fans have no reason to worry about the 2010 season.

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