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Given home court and health, I think the Bulls can beat any team in the East in a 7-game series. Agree. I fully expect them to win a minumum of 1 series. I guess I'd consider that "doing damage". They're sitting at 5 right now. I don't think it's reasonable to assume home court at this point. They have home court right now because they have a better record than the 4th seed Toronto, and they are closer to the 3 seed than losing that home court advantage over the Raptors.

Yes, yes, and yes... no, no and no. 1) You're essentially saying that Prior is better than Miller (when healthy). I agree. However, that should have no bearing on how he is treated. Why is it okay to give up on Prior and/or badmouth him because he is better (and/or more important to the team's success)? I don't get that. 2) I would think this should have the opposite effect. I think of Prior fondly because of what he did in 2003 (and 2004 which everyone seems to disregard). Therefore I'm almost inclined to give him more slack, not less. 3) Miller pitched better than Prior in one appearance. A Spring Training appearance at that. I have no idea why this should matter, at all. 1) Everything Prior does is magnified because he was so good. Miller is under the radar-if he's terrible, the club will quietly release him and nobody will care. Many people put the hopes of the club on Prior's shoulders, and unfair or not if he doesn't deliver he's going to be criticized for it. When Prior goes to the mound, it's big news-if he pitches well, then everyone will rejoice. If he pitches poorly, people look for something to blame. When you're a star, you get too much credit when things are going well and too much blame when things are going poorly-Prior got the credit, and now he's getting the blame. 2)I sort of covered it in 1-Prior's "star" status in the city of Chicago adds expectations that are not being met right now, and that leads to criticism. 3) It's not only one appearance-Miller showed signs at the end of last year, and then again the other day that he has a chance of being an effective major league pitcher again. Prior was worse last year than Miller, and he was worse the other day-when he does pitch effectively even for one appearance, public opinion will start to turn. 4)Here's a 4th point-Prior's injury status has been lied about so many times saying that he's healthy or day to day that nobody believes anything about his health anymore. When they have lied to you again and again, you start to believe that they are not telling the truth until you see the evidence for yourself-Prior hasn't shown that evidence yet. They may have lied about Miller as well last year, but nobody remembers that because by the time Miller was supposed to come back anyway the Cubs were so far out of it that nobody cared and many people were not watching the team.

Until Prior proves otherwise he's going to have his doubters. Which is pretty much everyone outside the org. And yet Miller doesn't get the same treatment, IMO. I certainly have my doubts about Prior's chances, but I'm not going to put much emphasis on one spring training appearance. Miller gets a little more of a free pass for 3 reasons 1) He's not as highly regarded as Prior is-so his gain or loss is not as much of a change to the Cubs season, therefore there is less intrigue about if he is healthy or not. 2)He didn't have his success with the Cubs, and didn't get hurt with the Cubs-Prior's injuries have put a lot of pain into Cubs fans who remember 03 and how well he pitched, and so there is an inherent emotional reaction at this point to think that he always will be hurt the way he has been. Miller is just a rehabbing pitcher who doesn't bring up those same sorts of emotional reactions. 3)Miller went out and pitched at least somewhat effectively his first appearance in ST-Prior didn't. Edit: BTW, I'm not writing Prior off yet-I'm just trying to explain why Miller gets a little more slack than Prior does with most people.

Yeah me too. But worry not, the weekend is coming, and as the season draws near, more games will be on TV. Not good enough. Basketball has soured on me over the past 5-10 years so I need a sports fix now. well, hockey is the best sport on ice. in a narrow decision over curling :D

Well, if Miller wants to be a starter only that only leaves 2 ways that Wuertz can be replaced in the bullpen 1) 11 pitchers-possible, but still unlikely even with Piniella's comments. The person who wins that 5th starters job will likely still be somewhat shaky on health, and so they'll want that 12th pitcher. 2)Another minor leaguer beats him out. This is possible, but probably only possible if Wuertz cannot get into many games in ST with the injury and another arm is impressing the coaches. If this happens, it could always be corrected pretty early in the season if that arm falters whatsoever and Wuertz is ready. I think the only thing holding Wuertz back is his own arm now-if he can't show what he can do during ST, another arm could step up and take the job for now.

Oh, it'd definitely true-Samardzija is not nearly ready yet. His offspeed stuff still has to be developed because he can't be a 1 pitch pitcher for long. There were just so many different stories about his fastball-I think the fastball that all of us are hearing now that he has is better than could ever be hoped for. Most of us thought that he'd average 92-93, and to hear that he's pitching over 95 with regularity is quite a good jump.

He struck 1 out today. He also has broken at least 4 bats already in 3 innings of work.

I wouldn't think Prior's done if he can't regain his velocity, but I do think he'd have to re-invent himself a little bit. Wade would be a little bit closer in this regard-Wade showed pitches (including his fastball) that had great lateral movement to them when he was up at the end of last season. That allowed him to fool hitters and get such a high strikeout total. Prior when he was dominant had a straighter fastball that the movement was really more of an explosion-that pop at the end that had people behind it. A loss in velocity would be much more devastating to a guy like that than one with lateral movement. I do think Prior could overcome that, but he would have to rework some of his pitches and really learn not to depend on his fastball as he did in the past. I think Prior could possibly have a future in the league without the velocity, but I think Miller would be a better ML pitcher this year throwing 90 or less than Prior would.

If you prorate 8 runs in 6 innings, you get 972 runs on the year. I'll take that in the NL. umm, that cant be right. ETA: 12 x 162 = how many runs cubs are on pace for = 1944 Yeah, but the original poster only wanted the offense to be half as good, which is why he divided the number in half :D

Our top 7 starting hitters have each been on base at least twice today now (and Theriot has been on once). Great job!

The 4th seed could end up playing the 3rd best team in the conference, actually. For instance, let's say the top eight records in the eastern conference end up in the following order, from best to worst: Pistons Cavs Bulls Wizards Heat Raptors Pacers Magic The seeds would looks like: 1. Pistons 2. Cavs 5. Bulls 3. Wizards 6. Heat 4. Raptors 7. Pacers 8. Magic That's true-that's usually a pretty unlikely scenario (that one division would have the best 3 teams in the conference) but I guess it could happen this year.

MLB's box score has Samardzija pitching both innings-it says that he is batting in the 7 slot, and that Perez is playing 2B batting in the 9 spot.

It is-at this rate the game will take 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Theriot didn't ground into a DP..... he hit a scorching liner to the first baseman, who doubled off DeRosa. Thanks for the correction-I guess I should have figured that out when it was 3 unassisted. That makes me feel better.

Ouch-Theriot with a tough day so far-0-2 including grounding into a DP and an error-anybody worrying that the hit he took in the first where the trainer came out was more than he said it was?

DeRosa is drawing a LOT of walks this spring it seems like. That's exactly what I was thinking-that's his 4th walk in ST I believe.

already done-Jones took care of the single.

Team hitting for the cycle in the 1st inning! Very nice.

I doubt it. Jones is just as mediocre as Lieber, only he's not a pitcher so he's not going to be valued as much. Nobody is going to be giving up top prospects for Jones. Plus Jones' contract is not the most appealing. I still think Hendry overpaid for him and we are likely to see his numbers revert back to career norms unless Lou platoons him in which case we have an expensive platoon player. If he returns closer to his career norms, his contract will be in line with most right fielders-not to mention that his career norms were largely due to him playing in the Metrodome, where he had much better away than home numbers for most of his career. If he stays at where he was last year or even close to that, his contract will be a bargain.

What defines a good conference tourney? Interesting matchups? Great Games? Bubble madness? Elimination games (loser misses the NCAA?)? There's so much that goes into a conference tournament that it's hard to say what is the best without the criteria to judge it by. low/middle seeds that have a chance to win. No clear cut favorite. Teams jockeying for NCAA tourney seeding (if not getting in period). Etc. Ah, well I'm biased, but I like the Big 10 tourney this year if that's the case. Any of the top 7 teams could win and I wouldn't be surprised (and possibly 8 if Michigan gets hot). The quarterfinals could have Mich vs Ohio State, who just played a thriller last Saturday and could do so again, Iowa-Purdue, which is a great even matchup that Iowa needs to win the tournament and Purdue needs to secure their spot, Wisconsin-Mich State, who have played two thrillers in the past 3 weeks, and IU-Illinois, which has this sudden even better rivalry going and Illinois probably needs it to get into the tournament. Because of how the bracket is going to have matchups, the Big 10 tournament is going to be unbelievable, and I don't think the top seeds have that much of an advantage over everyone else. Lowest seed in Big 10 = Penn State Lowest seed in Big East = UConn It's not the fault of the Big 10's tourney that the Big East tourney doesn't let everyone participate-that takes away part of the allure when everyone is not there. If you want to do a fair comparison, you should lop off 25% of the Big 10 tourney field as well (3 participants), and say that the comparison is Lowest seed in Big 10-Michigan Lowest seed in Big East-UConn my point is that the Big East has 12 teams with winning records participating in their tourney. Even if you prorated the Big 10 that wouldn't be true In conference or total records? total. nice to see DePaul rachet it up here. Down 1 with 3:30 to go in the half Well, if you pro-rated the Big 10 down to 8 teams (which would be the same conversion rate as the Big East) then you have: Worst Record: Big 10-Iowa-17-13 2nd worst-Michigan-20-11 Big East-St. John's-16-14 2nd worst-Connecticut-17-13. It really doesn't matter anyway-they are both awesome tournaments.

I don't think Guzman would get a spot over Marquis regardless of how the two were pitching in ST-certainly not when Marquis is also looking very good so far in ST.

What defines a good conference tourney? Interesting matchups? Great Games? Bubble madness? Elimination games (loser misses the NCAA?)? There's so much that goes into a conference tournament that it's hard to say what is the best without the criteria to judge it by. low/middle seeds that have a chance to win. No clear cut favorite. Teams jockeying for NCAA tourney seeding (if not getting in period). Etc. Ah, well I'm biased, but I like the Big 10 tourney this year if that's the case. Any of the top 7 teams could win and I wouldn't be surprised (and possibly 8 if Michigan gets hot). The quarterfinals could have Mich vs Ohio State, who just played a thriller last Saturday and could do so again, Iowa-Purdue, which is a great even matchup that Iowa needs to win the tournament and Purdue needs to secure their spot, Wisconsin-Mich State, who have played two thrillers in the past 3 weeks, and IU-Illinois, which has this sudden even better rivalry going and Illinois probably needs it to get into the tournament. Because of how the bracket is going to have matchups, the Big 10 tournament is going to be unbelievable, and I don't think the top seeds have that much of an advantage over everyone else. Lowest seed in Big 10 = Penn State Lowest seed in Big East = UConn It's not the fault of the Big 10's tourney that the Big East tourney doesn't let everyone participate-that takes away part of the allure when everyone is not there. If you want to do a fair comparison, you should lop off 25% of the Big 10 tourney field as well (3 participants), and say that the comparison is Lowest seed in Big 10-Michigan Lowest seed in Big East-UConn my point is that the Big East has 12 teams with winning records participating in their tourney. Even if you prorated the Big 10 that wouldn't be true In conference or total records?

What defines a good conference tourney? Interesting matchups? Great Games? Bubble madness? Elimination games (loser misses the NCAA?)? There's so much that goes into a conference tournament that it's hard to say what is the best without the criteria to judge it by. low/middle seeds that have a chance to win. No clear cut favorite. Teams jockeying for NCAA tourney seeding (if not getting in period). Etc. Ah, well I'm biased, but I like the Big 10 tourney this year if that's the case. Any of the top 7 teams could win and I wouldn't be surprised (and possibly 8 if Michigan gets hot). The quarterfinals could have Mich vs Ohio State, who just played a thriller last Saturday and could do so again, Iowa-Purdue, which is a great even matchup that Iowa needs to win the tournament and Purdue needs to secure their spot, Wisconsin-Mich State, who have played two thrillers in the past 3 weeks, and IU-Illinois, which has this sudden even better rivalry going and Illinois probably needs it to get into the tournament. Because of how the bracket is going to have matchups, the Big 10 tournament is going to be unbelievable, and I don't think the top seeds have that much of an advantage over everyone else. Lowest seed in Big 10 = Penn State Lowest seed in Big East = UConn It's not the fault of the Big 10's tourney that the Big East tourney doesn't let everyone participate-that takes away part of the allure when everyone is not there. If you want to do a fair comparison, you should lop off 25% of the Big 10 tourney field as well (3 participants), and say that the comparison is Lowest seed in Big 10-Michigan Lowest seed in Big East-UConn

I wouldn't worry about complicating the situation. Personally I think you have to include Marquis into that group and admit you're really looking to fill both the 4th and 5th spots. Marquis is pretty much guaranteed a spot right now, but insurance against another disaster by him could be handy. Lieber could be the most stable pitcher in that group. My biggest concern would be about the offense, however. Jones is hardly irreplacable, but you'd better be really certain that Pie is ready to produce similar numbers as him. And I'm not sure you can be. I'd consider such a move under a few conditions: Pie looks great. Soriano can't handle center. The back end of the rotation remains in doubt. If Pie doesn't look ready, you can't move Jones. Even if he is ready, there's no reason to as long as Soriano can handle center. You bring in Lieber, and Wuertz is almost guaranteed a spot in Iowa to start the season. If Prior and Miller are both healthy, Wuertz is in Iowa and Miller has to be released or traded somehow. I don't see the upside to justify those potential problems. You're banking a guy as insurance in case 5 people cannot fill 2 spots (and the Cubs have more people like Sean Marshall who could fill the spot in a pinch if none of those people could do the job at the given time). That doesn't seem particularly helpful to me when the more likely situation is that you've given up a trade asset and had to release or demote equally talented pitchers.

Assuming for a moment that Jones would need to be traded, I would only do it for Lieber if he was already being shipped off somewhere else. The last thing the Cubs need is another starting pitcher right now-Prior then Miller then Cotts then Guzman for the 5th starter-it's not really great insurance to think about a scenario where they all are ineffective. The talk is already about what to do with Miller if Prior is healthy because there is seemingly no spot in the bullpen-another pitcher would just complicate matters even further.