Illini Iceman

Won't take them long to put the glasses on if he succeeds. Won't take them long to boo the crap out of him if he falters. If Gregg isn't lights out in the first two weeks of the season and blows a save or two he will probably get booed every time he is on the field at Wrigley. That will put pressure on Piniella to put Marmol into the closers role for the rest of the season. We will then have our "educated" home fans to blame for not having these two guys in the right roles as they are now.

If deleting a player includes deleting his salary obligation then Miles is an odd choice because as a back up infielder making relatively low salary the overall impact he would have on the team versus whatever middle infield replacement the Cubs get plus what improvements they are able to make with the saved payroll dollars would be minimal. To me it would be Fukudome. I don't think he is the worst player on the team but the Cubs could most easily replace his production and getting the salary flexibility back from wiping out his contract would give them the opportunity to make a major upgrade somewhere else. Lee and Soriano are other options, but I think both are better bets to produce high quality offensive numbers in the next couple years and therefore more likely to "earn" their 2009 and 2010 salaries versus whoever the Cubs could get to replace them with the dollars saved.

I think Lee will be more useful to the Cubs if Lou sits him at least once a week against a good RH starter. First of all he won't be striking out or grounding to short on sliders on the outside corner, secondly at his age the rest will do him good. They should try to plan for him to start about 120 games in the regular season. I think the overall combination of Lee for 120 games and Hoff for 42 will provide better total production than Lee for 152 games and Hoff for 10.

The Cubs are already going to have to lose either Patton or Guzman if they keep Gaudin and Vizcaino. Keeping Fox means they have to give up one more of those guys since the Cubs don't have the option of sending any of them to AAA. Lou can say whatever he wants about the best guys making the team but Hendry still will have some say if keeping certain guys means the Cubs losing others from the organization (especially if they are guys the team owes significant money to like Gaudin and Vizcaino). Fox has had a nice spring but I don't think he has been dominant enough that he has forced the Cubs to put him on the opening day roster. Fox will most likely take the AAA assignment with the promise they will look for a chance to either get him up to Chicago or or send him to another team if he is successful down there.

Gathright is going to make the team.

If they are close I feel pretty confident that the Cubs will go with Bako. It is almost an automatic that if Hill doesn't make the team he would take a AAA assignment, so the risk of picking Bako is very low. If he sucks for a month they just release him and bring Hill up from AAA to replace him. I am not as sure that Bako would agree to go to the minors. He would likely accept the release and either hope to get a job somewhere else or just retire. Overall it seems pretty inconsequential to me either way. I would probably go with Bako, but most because after seeing Hill against MLB pitching in 2007 I have my doubts he can hit at this level. I think Bako's floor is higher than Hill's.

Update on Veal: http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090323&content_id=4052230&vkey=news_pit&fext=.jsp&c_id=pit

You really think Jeremy Papelbon has a big future with the organization? His mid-80's fastball may let him get by against A and AA hitters but I have my doubts he will be able to consistently get out big league hitters with his stuff. Hopefully he proves me wrong, but as of now I have the feeling that if his last name wasn't Papelbon he wouldn't really be on many people's radar.

Paul Sullivan suggests that Shark may be sent down while Guzman makes the team. I do think the Cubs don't want to lose him for nothing, so they might try to keep him or show that he's healthy in order to increase his trade value. Plus Shark hasn't really pitched very well this spring so he isn't really forcing their hand as far as making them want him on the major league roster. The Cubs are better off with him and Atkins starting at AAA so they have two options to choose from when/if they need a spot start and Gaudin might not be stretched out enough. It is just going to be tricky with their options situation determining who can be sent down in order to make room to bring up someone to start. If they start with Marmol, Gregg, Cotts, Guzman, Heilman, Patton and Gaudin they have no one that can be sent down to AAA without clearing waivers.

They should just cut Vizcaino loose. It is bad to pay a guy $4M not to pitch for you, but it is even worse to pay him $4M to suck and possibly cost you games plus cause you to lose another player. Patton and Guz should make the 25 man roster. We will lose either one if they don't make the team. I have to believe that either could do as well as Vizcaino and both have better upside. Worst case if one of them flame out we can bring back Shark, Ascanio, Wells or Hart and I would think between those options we could easily cover the 7th spot out of the bullpen.

Quoted for hilarity and for Truthiness: "Did you know, Jerry, that generations of Chicago kids have grown up not realizing that quarterback ratings go higher than 70.0? You see them in parks and backyards across the region emulating their heroes by throwing wobbly passes and practicing hand-offs." God, is that ever the truth. I only really started following the team closely at the beginning of the Harbaugh era, and it has been mediocrity at QB the entire time. You'd think at some point Angelo would at least blindly stumble his way into acquiring a good QB, but no. I'm trying to think of another team that has spent the last 20 years without having had a good-great QB at any point during, but I am having a hard time. Quit complaining. I grew up in the Bob Avellini era.

If Koyie Hill has a dog he is probably kicking it right now.

I heard them talking to a guy from the Padres organization about a week ago on XM and they said he has been throwing bullpen sessions and Prior said everything felt "really good" and that they hoped to get him pitching to live batters "soon" and were still feeling like he would be able to contribute to the team this year. Pretty much the same thing everyone has heard about Prior before in past seasons. Obviously he is going to need to pitch in some actual games where he has to let it loose and try to get batters out before anyone really believes he may finally be close to getting ready. Seems like he always makes it through the bullpen and side sessions and then at some point soon after that starts feeling "discomfort" and has to start shutting it down. At this point I really don't care one way or the other about him, but it seems like a long shot that he would actually be able to come back and be effective. Is there any precedent for a pitcher being out as long as Prior has and then coming back and having success?

For some reason I have a feeling today is going to be crazy with a bunch of upsets. Arizona State knocking off Syracuse in the early game would set the tone nicely.

Hey you know being a #1 seed earns you that home court edge.........wait Nova is a 3 seed? Nevermind. lol I really don't care for the increased regionalization they put into the brackets the last few years. It is pretty sad when even a #8 seed gets to play close to home (Ohio State)...I think that privilege should be reserved for the top 4 teams. Yeah but you have to accept it going in. The NCAA is trying to cut travel costs, so there are going to be scenarios where a #3 seed plays in their home city, etc. It sucks but its going to happen. Not the same becuase they were a 1 seed but last year UCLA got to open up in Anaheim, and the year before as a 2 seed they opened up in Sacramento. Now they have to play Nova in Philly. I would be interested in finding out how much they are actually saving on travel costs. For every team like Villanova that plays close to home there is a team like UCLA that still travels cross country. Heck, Illinois and Western Kentucky both had to travel to Portland to play a "South" region game. How did that save travel costs? Unless you do strict region games - making the Pac-10, Mountain West, WCC, BW, etc. teams play each other in brackets - for the four regions, you're going to have a couple teams per four-team pod that have to travel. It's better to have to teams travel a long ways than three or four. It's better to have UConn, Chattanooga, BYU and Texas A&M play their West region games in Philadelphia than in a true West site like LA, Portland or Sacramento (though I know LA and Sac aren't available options this year). I haven't really taken the time to study it, but in your example you are right that the "West" regional pod in Philly of UConn, Chattanooga, BYU and Texas A&M saved some travel. UConn and Chattanooga definitely less, Texas A&M maybe about equal and BYU more than if it were in a true West coast site. However, then you have the "South" regional pod in Portland of Gonzaga, Akron, Illinois and Western Kentucky. In that case 3 of the 4 actually travel more than if it was a South site like Atlanta. Maybe it would come out better if every single pod is considered (again, personally not sure one way or the other), but it does create some wierd situations where teams actually have to travel more than if they were just left in the correct region for their games.

Hey you know being a #1 seed earns you that home court edge.........wait Nova is a 3 seed? Nevermind. lol I really don't care for the increased regionalization they put into the brackets the last few years. It is pretty sad when even a #8 seed gets to play close to home (Ohio State)...I think that privilege should be reserved for the top 4 teams. Yeah but you have to accept it going in. The NCAA is trying to cut travel costs, so there are going to be scenarios where a #3 seed plays in their home city, etc. It sucks but its going to happen. Not the same becuase they were a 1 seed but last year UCLA got to open up in Anaheim, and the year before as a 2 seed they opened up in Sacramento. Now they have to play Nova in Philly. I would be interested in finding out how much they are actually saving on travel costs. For every team like Villanova that plays close to home there is a team like UCLA that still travels cross country. Heck, Illinois and Western Kentucky both had to travel to Portland to play a "South" region game. How did that save travel costs?

I am guessing "no".

no I am amazed that of all the sources of information on the internet and in newspapers and television in Florida that you chose the social forum in NSBB to find out if Illinois won a basketball game.

Didn't he strike out Billy Crystal in ST last year? What a jerk. Paul Maholm

OK - well that is the one thing that bracket doesn't have then!!

Not sure what you mean by coverage maps but if this bracket is crazy it has so much information. http://www.czabe.com/images/2009_NCAA_Basketball_Tournament_GARGANTUBRACKET11X8.pdf

I'd like to see Penn State get in and Arizona left out, hope you're not watching Sports Center, Digger campaigning against all things Big Ten. Yet, sucking off Arizona - man, I loathe Arizona. It is kind of a wierd situation, because while I think that Penn State probably deserves to get it I do have to agree it is somewhat ridiculous that 8 of 11 Big Ten teams make the tournament. My guess right now is that teams like Creighton and St. Mary's will get in before the eighth Big Ten team.

The NIT in the early rounds seems to put emphasis setting up "interesting" matchups that will actually draw crowds and generate good revenue. They don't seem to care too much if that means putting two of the better teams up against each other if it is a good regional matchup. Probably one of the best games I ever attended was a 1983 NIT game between DePaul and Northwestern. Those teams probably had no logical reason to play in the early rounds based on seedings but there was no way the NIT was passing up that gate. I am pretty sure the Rosemont Horizon (that's what it was called back them) was sold out.

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090314&content_id=3989416&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

I think Penn State is out based on what has happened in the conference tourneys the last couple days. Don't see there being room for both them and Minnesota from the Big 10.