Strangely optimistic

[Laura]

I'm not there yet ... but I can see a glimmer of light through the tunnel, so that's improvement!

 

It's nice not having the crushing dread of Dusty negating almost any improvement one could hope for in past spring trainings. I'm not sure what to expect out of Lou quite yet, but I'm encouraged that he seems to have assembled a competent coaching staff and that he was so gung-ho at serving as team recruiter during the off-season.

[CubmanPi]

The fresh start for some reason always makes me optimistic. It's baseball's own New Year's resolution. We all know that 90 percent of the people who start new diets on the first of the year have fallen off of them by the first of February, and a large chunk of people who are optimistic about their teams right now are going to be disappointed and off the bandwagon no later than the start of August. This is just the time of year when everyone gets to believe that things will be different for them this year.

 

Of course, this is also the time of year when people remember it's been a hundred years since the Cubs began their most recent run as WS champs. I hate this team.

[CubinNY]

I don't know about "strangely" but I am "cautiously" optimistic.

[Amazing_Grace]

I'm 50/50 on this year's team. There are plenty of reasons to be optimistic. Piniella is saying all the right things. People are arriving in ST healthy. We have some promising young players that can make an impact this season. The team's offense should be much improved and the pitching staff could be also.

 

There are still a lot of things that can go wrong and reasons to be pessimistic too. The team's OBP could be only slightly better than last year. Floyd may suck up most of Murton's at-bats without being any more productive. We have a full season of Cesar Izturis to look forward to, possibly as an out machine in the 2 spot. There's a good chance Marquis's contract will end up being the worst the Cubs have handed out since Todd Hundley, and there's an equally good chance that contract will keep him in the rotation all year despite his blocking more productive young players.

 

I think there's certainly a lot more hope than last year, and the longer the offseason has gone, the more optimistic I've gotten, but still, the Cubs were really really really bad last year, and it's tough to go from worst to first.