The Braves will not be able to re-sign both Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux. Should the Cubs go after the one-time bruin?

They have a surfeit of pitching talent, but with Lieber questionable after a season-ending arm surgery this year, it would be nice to have a veteran presence to anchor the starting staff. But really, it doesn’t make sense. Maddux already makes $13 million and will probably want more, plus a long-term contract, which at 36 is of course a gamble.

Maddux had some back trouble this year that could be a sign of health troubles just beginning, though he’s been healthy throughout his entire career. Additionally, he does not depend on “stuff” to get by, but natural movement on his pitches. Today we see pitchers like Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens who continue pitching very well into their late 30s. If anyone else could do it, Maddux could.

With that signing, the Cubs would instantly have one of the best starting staffs in the major leagues: Maddux, Lieber, Wood, Prior and Clement. Then promising youngsters Zambrano and Cruz could anchor the bullpen and Bere could be traded for another middle reliever. But this is probably just wishful thinking. The Cubs need a third baseman (cuando?) and a solid left-handed middle reliever.

It would be cool, though, to have him finish his career here. The Cubs could be the Braves of this decade. They’ve got the young pitching talent, and if Choi, Patterson and Hill are what they’re supposed to be …

Any hint that Bonds would be haunted by playoff performances past should by now be thoroughly extinguished. First, he went 2-for-3 with a home run and two runs scored in the Giants’ thrilling game five win over the Braves (poor, poor Braves). Then yesterday the Cardinals made the mistake of pitching to Bonds instead of loading the bases and he made them pay by hitting a bases-clearing triple. Awesome.

But Benito Santiago is a key too. In addition to being the most patient hitter in baseball today, Bonds is the most pitched-around hitter in baseball today. Which means No. 5 hitter Santiago has to come through. And he did last night.

Let’s face it. The Cardinals have the better team, as did the Braves. This is all about who can perform in the playoffs. Rueter wasn’t great, but he was good enough, and Nen once again closed it out in the ninth. Enough home runs from Santiago, Bell and others not expected to turn the tide for the Giants and they could very well sneak into the World Series.

I just hope that Lofton’s outburst didn’t give the Cardinals even more ganas, as if they’re not playing for Darryl Kile and Jack Buck already. But no matter how energized the Cards are, they can’t win if their starting pitchers throw the way Morris did last night. Woody Williams could be a turning point in this series. If he’s really healthy and he can go toe-to-toe with Giants ace Jason Schmidt, then we’re looking at a wide open 1-1 series instead of an almost sure-thing 2-0 Giants lead going back to San Francisco.

As for the Angels, they did what they needed to do, which was get out to an early lead over the Twins and take the mammoth crowd out of the game. They only needed to win one in Minnesota, and they got it. On the other hand, the Twins probably feel they only need to win one in Anaheim, because no team can beat them in games six and seven of a series in the Metrodome.

Which reminds me. My dad and I went to see Bruce Springsteen in Milwaukee last week. It was a very good show, as one would expect from one of the great live performers of all time. My brief impression was that Bruce was much more attentive to his songs from “The Rising” than to the older material. Not that he gave “Badlands” or “Born to Run” short shrift, exactly, but I sensed that he wasn’t as interested in them as he was in the new stuff. Only natural, I suppose.

And I must compliment Bruce on the fact that even though we had terrible seats (way up, behind the stage), the acoustics were flawless and the huge video screens helped bring you into the show a little bit more. I don’t know if I’d make the drive again to see Springsteen, but it was cool to see a legend in person.

As with their show at Old Town a couple of years back, Iris DeMent made up for a lackluster opening set by doing a fine job on her duets with John Prine. While DeMent is blessed with a singularly interesting hillbilly-meets-hobo voice, she’s not much of a songwriter.

Aside from “Let the Mystery Be.” “Mama’s Opry” and a couple of other tunes, most of her songs, plodded along with little of interest melodically or lyrically.

John Prine’s songs, of course, sparkle with whimsy and heart. From old chestnuts like “Fish and Whistle” to haunting ’90s tunes like “Lake Marie,” Prine covered the gamut during his nearly two-hour show at the Symphony Center. Prine’s voice, always a gravelly thing, is even shakier now that he is two years on from surgery to remove a cancer from his throat.

But though he struggled to hit some of the notes on his own songs, the pauses he took to catch his breath made already haunting songs like “Angel From Montgomery” and “Hello in There” into devastating timepieces.

I felt lucky to be there. It’s hard to tell how much longer Prine can tour like this, with two young kids (who for a portion of the show were visible to the side of the stage) at home.But I was there last night, and I was very glad I was.

Phil Rogers says Bobby Valentine or Art Howe would be best to manage the Cubs, but I just don’t see why anyone with half a brain would want to come to the Cubs. A former Met manager in Chicago? Shudder.

And why on Earth are the Giants even thinking of letting Dusty Baker go (even if that means simply not offering him the kind of money he wants)? I just don’t get it.

That seems to the be the lesson of the division series. The A’s, understandably, went with a three-man rotation and it cost them. The Braves also started game-one pitcher Tom Glavine on three days’ rest and he got rocked again by the Giants. How will Milwood do on three days’ rest? It’s one thing if you’re like the D-Backs and have only Schilling and Johnson, and you know those guys are so great that they’ll win no matter how little rest they have.

But otherwise, why risk it? Especially when you could play as many as 19 games in the post-season? Going with a three-man rotation seems like a waste. Instead, it would be wiser to go with the four-man rotation and keep the No. 5 starter in the bullpen for long relief if the No. 4 starter really struggles. That’s the way to tighten up for these playoff series, not by running exhausted pitchers out to the mount to throw on three days’ rest.

And they did us all the favor of not dragging it out until the seventh game of the World Series like last year. The difference was simple: pitching. Anaheim hit .376 and averaged almost eight runs a game. And in crucial eighth-inning situations, Torre could not go to Rivera because of his arm troubles this year. The Angels are a great story, but so are the Twins.

First they defied Bud Selig, who wanted to contract them. Then they defied their owner, Carl Pohlad, who badly wants to sell them. And now they defied the odds, by beating a team with the best 1-2-3 starters in the major leagues and an A.L. record 20-game win streak this year. Odds should once again go against the Twins, though now they have the home-field advantage. The Angels are clearly the stronger team and also feel they have destiny on their side.

Now this kind of bursts my bubble, since I no longer have to root based on who has the best chance of beating the Yankees. So I can, without hesitation, root for the Giants to beat the Braves in game five (a tough task) and take on the Cardinals. Barry’s finally come through with a couple of home runs, though once again he’s been pretty much a non-factor, as those dingers came late in games in which the Giants trailed by large margins.

While we’re on the topic of these division series, the A’s and Yankees upsets illustrates one of the problems with the Wild Card. The first problem is that the division series are so rarely even close to competitive. But the second is that, in such a short series, it’s much too easy for a team to come in and beat a superior opponent just because one or two pitchers had a bad outing or someone got hot at the plate.

This is not to say that the Twins and Angels didn’t win fair and square — they did. And the “better team” doesn’t always win in the playoffs. But a five-game series is really not a good test of which team is better. If major-league baseball insists on having a division series and a wild card, the series should be seven games.

Reports are that the Cubs may be eyeing Buck Showalter and that Bobby Valentine wouldn’t mind coming to Chicago.

Both of these big names may toy with coming to Chicago and even interview for the job, but it’s hard to believe that either one will wind up here. The Cubs have a lot of young talent (Prior, Patterson, Hill, Choi, Zambrano, et. al.) combined with veterans (Sosa, Alou, Lieber) and will take a couple of years to really grow into a pennant-contending team, if ever. I don’t think Showalter or Valentine wants to step into that kind of situation, unless they feel they can turn around the team overnight.

And, after this year, both Hendry and MacPhail must be feeling pressure to improve the team immediately or lose their jobs.

In a way, it’s easy to know who to root for this postseason — anyone but the Yankees. But arranging your rooting interests around hating the Yankees isn’t as easy as it sounds. Sure, I know to root for the A’s because they have a much better shot of beating the Yanks in the ALCS, but what about the National League?

I’d like to root for the D-Backs because they proved last year they could crush Yankee dreams, but they are too banged up this year to really make a run at it. Their starting pitching (after Schilling and Johnson) is even weaker than it was last year, and Byung Hyung-Kim shows no signs of being more consistent or reliable than last fall.

So then I should root for the Cardinals against the Diamondbacks, right? Well, no, because the Cardinals are actually good enough to beat the Braves, who with their pitching really should have the best shot at beating the Yankees from the N.L. With starter Woody Williams now out for the first round and potentially for the rest of the postseason and closer Jason Isringhausen fragile, it’s hard to believe that the Cardinals could compete with the Yanks when it comes to pitching.

Hopefully, the Angels will do us all a favor and get rid of the Yanks in the first round. That would be oh, so sweet. Now — who will win? The A’s and Braves have to be seen as the favorites because of their outstanding pitching, the best in their respective leagues. The Yankees find ways to win, though, as they did in the 8th inning of Tuesday night’s game against the Angels.

And the Braves find ways to lose before getting to the Series. I’d love to see the Giants win, and I’d especially love for Barry to have a good playoff run. The Cardinals’ lineup may be formidable enough to carry
them all the way, though their lefty-dominated order would definitely suffer against the A’s Mulder and Zito, not to mention the Yankees’ Pettitte and Wells.

For now, I’m picking the A’s to win the American League and the Cardinals to win the National League. The Braves are already down 1-0 in their series and the Cardinals are oh, so hot. As are the Giants, but Ortiz, Schmidt, et. al. cannot contain the Cardinal bats. But the Cardinals won’t be able to hit against the A’s, who will win it all. (I think. For now. At this moment. We’ll see.) It should be fun!

What I didn’t miss: Having to watch the Cubs lose games like this. 9-1. Ugh.

Poor, poor Steve Smyth.

The guy has absolutely nothing. He gets rocked every time out. His first start? Against the San Francisco Giants. Could you imagine the third batter you face in your major-league debut being Barry Bonds. Yikes.