It begins.... Spring Training pics.

[Banedon]

Some weird photographer they had, Jeff put the ball near your lips, Dae-Eun rub the glove on your cheek

 

http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/p/sp/getty/63/fullj.e16f0ef30646495cb75f987459b13983/e16f0ef30646495cb75f987459b13983-getty-140084577.jpg

 

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they wanted to somehow show the flag on his glove. It's a weird pose, but at least somewhat understandable with that goal in mind.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Pure pig's anus.

 

http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/p/sp/getty/02/fullj.7954802544f55119819b1e519d2c08ed/7954802544f55119819b1e519d2c08ed-getty-140085111.jpg

 

he looks quite creepy in the picture, dirt lip and all. It all screams out hurry up, I have a junior varsity voleyball game to catch.

[Guest]

You don't have to cheer for LaHair to be awful, he does it all by himself.

[Sammy Sofa]

I've never "cheered against" a Cubs player in my life. What a stupid thing to do.

 

What if late in a lost year the team was auditioning a guy who was clearly lacking for a role on the following year's team? Or if a scrappy but terrible vet was getting too much playing time and blocking a better, younger player? I have to say I've rooted against Cubs players in such scenarios, but only because I thought their short term failure would serve the mid-long term interests of the team.

 

Even then I'm not rooting against them. I'm "rooting against" the stupid decision, but when it's time for the game I just want to see the team to win.

[KingCubsFan]

I've never "cheered against" a Cubs player in my life. What a stupid thing to do.

 

What if late in a lost year the team was auditioning a guy who was clearly lacking for a role on the following year's team? Or if a scrappy but terrible vet was getting too much playing time and blocking a better, younger player? I have to say I've rooted against Cubs players in such scenarios, but only because I thought their short term failure would serve the mid-long term interests of the team.

 

Even then I'm not rooting against them. I'm "rooting against" the stupid decision, but when it's time for the game I just want to see the team to win.

That was hard to do with the old management. You knew they'd take a small sample size and justify bringing the player back/giving him a major role. With Theo, you know they won't use trade Rizzo for a veteran starter if LaHair puts up an .850 OPS during the first two months of the season.

[Sammy Sofa]

I've never "cheered against" a Cubs player in my life. What a stupid thing to do.

 

What if late in a lost year the team was auditioning a guy who was clearly lacking for a role on the following year's team? Or if a scrappy but terrible vet was getting too much playing time and blocking a better, younger player? I have to say I've rooted against Cubs players in such scenarios, but only because I thought their short term failure would serve the mid-long term interests of the team.

 

Even then I'm not rooting against them. I'm "rooting against" the stupid decision, but when it's time for the game I just want to see the team to win.

That was hard to do with the old management. You knew they'd take a small sample size and justify bringing the player back/giving him a major role. With Theo, you know they won't use trade Rizzo for a veteran starter if LaHair puts up an .850 OPS during the first two months of the season.

 

Right; also, in the Hendry days, if they were dumb enough to make the decision in the first place odds are they weren't going to stop on a dime and reverse it because a player had a bad stretch. There are plenty of players that I wish weren't on the team in the first place, but once they're there I'm going to root for them to produce and help the team win, even if I'm expecting them to fail.

[seanimal]

i have no problem admitting that there have been cubs players i actively rooted against, and i'm not going to let some toolbox try to thought-police me out of it either. if you can't get joy out of trying to predict which side of the field juan-for-five pierre is going to ground out to, you ain't alive.

[javy knows my name]

i have no problem admitting that there have been cubs players i actively rooted against, and i'm not going to let some toolbox try to thought-police me out of it either. if you can't get joy out of trying to predict which side of the field juan-for-five pierre is going to ground out to, you ain't alive.

 

Yep. And if you weren't cheering against Theriot toward the end there, I get to call you a liar.

[Guest]

i have no problem admitting that there have been cubs players i actively rooted against, and i'm not going to let some toolbox try to thought-police me out of it either. if you can't get joy out of trying to predict which side of the field juan-for-five pierre is going to ground out to, you ain't alive.

 

predicting failure /= rooting against

 

i predicted failure all the time for guys like theriot, paul bako, hank white, juan pierre, glendon rusch, etc.

 

that doesn't mean i was pissed when they succeeded or happy when they failed, though. if you were (while they were on the Cubs), that's kinda weird.

[jersey cubs fan]

i have no problem admitting that there have been cubs players i actively rooted against, and i'm not going to let some toolbox try to thought-police me out of it either. if you can't get joy out of trying to predict which side of the field juan-for-five pierre is going to ground out to, you ain't alive.

 

predicting failure /= rooting against

 

i predicted failure all the time for guys like theriot, paul bako, hank white, juan pierre, glendon rusch, etc.

 

that doesn't mean i was pissed when they succeeded or happy when they failed, though. if you were (while they were on the Cubs), that's kinda weird.

 

There's nothing weird about it. Personally I do it as a sort of hedge. My preference is for the victory at any time, but if something bad happens I take solace that the piece of crap who screwed up is a piece of crap I want gone and hope that his failures will lead to his dismissal. I don't have it in me to stand and cheer against a Cubs player during their at bat/outing, but I can think in my head how easy it would be to accept their inevitable failures.

[TruffleShuffle]

there were definitely times i wanted guys to fail, like jason kendall so that soto could get his much-deserved shot, or john grabow so that he'd just go away and the cubs would call up someone who at least had some chance of being good in the future. it pretty much requires that the cubs are being complete morons by keeping a mediocre veteran in place over a more talented young player. and usually it only happens when the cubs are lousy and out of contention.

[Brian]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they wanted to somehow show the flag on his glove. It's a weird pose, but at least somewhat understandable with that goal in mind.

 

They got that with this much cooler looking one

 

http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/p/sp/getty/c6/fullj.0629ede00e05ba94ea0a514efedf48f2/0629ede00e05ba94ea0a514efedf48f2-getty-140084578.jpg

[Brian]

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1VmtabCTuHc/T0xJEbvcL7I/AAAAAAAAAs4/k3ac1R8TtkA/s1600/LaHair.jpg

 

I think we could give LaHair DuBois' old "The Creature" moniker

[Sammy Sofa]

i have no problem admitting that there have been cubs players i actively rooted against, and i'm not going to let some toolbox try to thought-police me out of it either. if you can't get joy out of trying to predict which side of the field juan-for-five pierre is going to ground out to, you ain't alive.

 

predicting failure /= rooting against

 

i predicted failure all the time for guys like theriot, paul bako, hank white, juan pierre, glendon rusch, etc.

 

that doesn't mean i was pissed when they succeeded or happy when they failed, though. if you were (while they were on the Cubs), that's kinda weird.

 

There's nothing weird about it. Personally I do it as a sort of hedge. My preference is for the victory at any time, but if something bad happens I take solace that the piece of crap who screwed up is a piece of crap I want gone and hope that his failures will lead to his dismissal. I don't have it in me to stand and cheer against a Cubs player during their at bat/outing, but I can think in my head how easy it would be to accept their inevitable failures.

 

This is pretty much my take on it; there's been plenty of players I've disliked and have wanted off the team (or never on it in the first place) and where I EXPECT them to fail, but I HOPE that they don't in the context of that particular game or at bat or whatever. The times where they succeeded, hey, great, that's fun to see. The times where they failed, however, that was what was expected.

[Sammy Sofa]

i have no problem admitting that there have been cubs players i actively rooted against, and i'm not going to let some toolbox try to thought-police me out of it either. if you can't get joy out of trying to predict which side of the field juan-for-five pierre is going to ground out to, you ain't alive.

 

Uh, what if he DARES you to admit it, man? That's some heavy [expletive].

 

And yeah, we're all going to take shots at players we don't like and realize suck; I mocked Colvin constantly when he was on the Cubs, but those times he came through with some monster homers based out of an obviously unsustainable power surge-drive OPS it was a "[expletive] YEAH!"-moment that I enjoyed. I'm not going to sit there and sulk and hate it when a player I think stinks does something good for the team I'm pulling for.

[Banedon]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they wanted to somehow show the flag on his glove. It's a weird pose, but at least somewhat understandable with that goal in mind.

 

They got that with this much cooler looking one

 

Definitely better. Agreed.

 

But it hides his face, so I still understand the thought process behind the other pic.

[Guest]

Not sure where to put random spring training tidbits...and so as not to go WSR's by posting them in the Theo compensation thread, I'll post this here.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-samardzija-making-strong-push-for-starting-role-20120301,0,4138275.story

 

MESA, Ariz. -- Jeff Samardzija has impressed Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum in the early going and has a good shot at making the starting rotation.

 

“That’s going to be the million dollar question in spring training,” Sveum said Thursday. “Against live hitters today he threw the heck out of the ball and had great command, which he has every time. It’s going to be an interesting decision come later this month.”

 

That's good to hear.

[Little Slide Rooter]

@BleacherNation: #Cubs: Darwin Barney is Growing on Dale Sveum and Other Bullets http://t.co/901cCSPy

 

With this and the bunt tourney, I'm beginning to think that Dale Sveum is going to become everything people feared that Ryne Sandberg would be, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Welcome to Dale Ball.

[Tracer Bullet]

i have no problem admitting that there have been cubs players i actively rooted against, and i'm not going to let some toolbox try to thought-police me out of it either. if you can't get joy out of trying to predict which side of the field juan-for-five pierre is going to ground out to, you ain't alive.

 

predicting failure /= rooting against

 

i predicted failure all the time for guys like theriot, paul bako, hank white, juan pierre, glendon rusch, etc.

 

that doesn't mean i was pissed when they succeeded or happy when they failed, though. if you were (while they were on the Cubs), that's kinda weird.

 

There's nothing weird about it. Personally I do it as a sort of hedge. My preference is for the victory at any time, but if something bad happens I take solace that the piece of crap who screwed up is a piece of crap I want gone and hope that his failures will lead to his dismissal. I don't have it in me to stand and cheer against a Cubs player during their at bat/outing, but I can think in my head how easy it would be to accept their inevitable failures.

 

There's plenty of opportunity to root for some terrible player to fail. I don't think any of us would have rooted against Theriot if he were up with the go-ahead on base with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th. But I certainly wasn't cheering for him to for 4/4 with 4 weak singles every day from April to July in 2009 (too lazy to look up his last season with the Cubs, so I guessed).

[apete6]

@BleacherNation: #Cubs: Darwin Barney is Growing on Dale Sveum and Other Bullets http://t.co/901cCSPy

 

With this and the bunt tourney, I'm beginning to think that Dale Sveum is going to become everything people feared that Ryne Sandberg would be, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Welcome to Dale Ball.

 

You know what else grows on people, FUNGUS! They're about the same thing. Can't wait until we actually have some real players on this team and a .300 hitting no power, no OBP glove monster isn't worthy of discussing unless we're talking about 25th men.

[Guest]

@BleacherNation: #Cubs: Darwin Barney is Growing on Dale Sveum and Other Bullets http://t.co/901cCSPy

 

With this and the bunt tourney, I'm beginning to think that Dale Sveum is going to become everything people feared that Ryne Sandberg would be, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Welcome to Dale Ball.

 

You know what else grows on people, FUNGUS! They're about the same thing. Can't wait until we actually have some real players on this team and a .300 hitting no power, no OBP glove monster isn't worthy of discussing unless we're talking about 25th men.

 

a .300 hitting glove monster as the 25th man?

 

must be a pretty damn good team.

 

 

fwiw, i'd gladly start darwin barney everyday if he could actually be expected to hit .300 (something like his pre-all star .304/.334/.374 clip). with his glove, he'd be a reasonably valuable player.

 

problem is, i don't really think he can do that.

[Guest]

Darwin Barney is my favorite and I love him and hope he's a Cub forever.

[mookie]

Congratulations on your first step.

[Sammy Sofa]

Did you know that LaHair is french for "the hair?"

[MWV]

Hot, intrasquad action begins.

 

Lineups, stolen from BN:

 

Team A, for which Travis Wood will start:

 

1. Alfonso Soriano, LF

 

2. Ian Stewart, 3B

 

3. Starlin Castro, SS

 

4. Bryan LaHair, 1B

 

5. Marlon Byrd, CF

 

6. David DeJesus, RF

 

7. Blake Lalli, C

 

8. Darwin Barney, 2B

 

9. Blake DeWitt, DH

Team B, for which Randy Wells will start:

 

1. Brett Jackson, CF

 

2. Matt Szczur, RF

 

3. Jeff Baker, 2B

 

4. Anthony Rizzo, 1B

 

5. Reed Johnson, LF

 

6. Josh Vitters, 3B

 

7. Junior Lake, SS

 

8. Michael Brenly, C

 

9. Tony Campana, DH