Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals Preview, Friday 7/27, 1:20 CT - Bleed Cubbie Blue

Ready for another 1400-plus comment thread on Ryan Dempster? Here's where we stand this morning:

All that talk about the Cubs’ position of strength in a seller’s market a few weeks ago has been buried in a flurry of moves and market changes â€" along with one big smackdown by Ryan Dempster.

The Cubs still expect to make trades for younger players, but moving the one guy the new front office is most intent on trading â€" Dempster â€" by Tuesday’s non-waiver deadline is forcing more work and ingenuity. Various reports suggest efforts ranging from the difficult (multiteam trade) to the absurd (keeping him and making a $12.3 million qualifying contract offer to assure an extra draft pick if he declines).

Four more days. Will Dempster -- and Matt Garza -- still be Cubs when the team takes the field Tuesday night against the Pirates?

Do you even want to discuss today's game against the Cardinals? (I think I know the answer to that one.) Have at it.

Cubs lineup:

DeJesus CF, Castro SS, Rizzo 1B, Soriano LF, LaHair RF, Soto C, Barney 2B, Valbuena 3B, Wood P

Cardinals lineup was not available at the time I wrote this post. Check the BCB Twitter feed for the St. Louis lineup.

Today's Starting Pitchers

Travis Wood Cubs vs. Lance Lynn Cardinals 4-5 W-L 12-4 4.33 ERA 3.10 52 SO 120 28 BB 39 12 HR 10 vs. StL -- vs. Cubs

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A pitcher not named Ryan Dempster will start for the Cubs this afternoon.

This game is a pitching rematch of last Sunday in St. Louis. As you can see by looking at that boxscore, Travis Wood wasn't very good that day (although he did take one for the team by sticking around for six innings, giving up six runs and two home runs), and Lance Lynn was quite good indeed. Will today be any different? Probably not. Wood has a higher ERA at home than on the road; Lynn's been better on the road than in St. Louis. Clearly... you know the rest.

Today's game is on CSN Chicago.

Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva El Birdos.

Today's first pitch thread will post at 1:20 p.m. CDT and the overflows at 2:20, 3:20 and 4:05 p.m. CDT. If you need more overflows due to extra innings or rain delays, post them in the fanshot section.

Discuss amongst yourselves.