Little Slide Rooter

That's been the Cubs problem for the past several years now. Bam.

I can't help but notice Adrian Cardenas' line of .318/.292/.727. How can his OBP be that much lower than his avg?

Perhaps the conference call will be a pleasant distraction from the game.

On the bright side, it appears as though Maholm eventually got out of the top of the 1st.

It will be nice to have a lot of good baseball to follow this season. Just not at the big league level.

Struck may not have been as stellar ad he was last time but still with a respectable line: 6 IP 6 H 2 ER 2 BB 5 K

Well Maholms Cubs career is certainly off to a rocky start. Did Aramis even steal a base in his 8+ seasons as a Cub? Good thing I have plenty of DVRd shows to catch up on once the tot goes to bed.

TT will likely continue to curse the day Bryan LaHair joined the Cubs organization even as he's handed his World Series MVP trophy.

If it were a larger market team, I wouldn't have a problem, but for the Reds to be tying up this much money in guys who will likely be deep into decline well before their contracts are up isn't wise, imo. It's good PR and will provide some roster security in for the next few years, but unless they just discovered a gold mine under GABP, it's foolhardy. They're just in a win now mode. They'll be expensive, but they'll have a nice core of Votto, Phillips, and Bruce for at least the next 5 year. Elite free agents are getting harder to come by these days so a team like the Reds won't be able to outbid the big market guys when they do come along. Works for me. By 2017, The Brewers and Reds cores will be hitting the tail end of their prime, The Astros and Pirates will likely still be the Astros and Pirates, so the divison will come down to the Cubs and Cardinals as the good lord intended.

I dig the gal next to Sveum in the yearbook photo. Looks kind of like Jennifer Morrison.

I would have to change the amount of games, but other than that I suppose it's workable.

Well I did have to do my research on Sorianos kids, but wasn't able to come up with Juniors actual age, and typing on an I Phone key pad adds a bit of time too. Fund fact: Alfonso Soriano and his wife Isis have 6 kids: Alisis, Angeline, Alisha, Allen, Angel, and Of course, Alfonso Jr. All As. Crazy right, because Alfonso starts with an A too. Perhaps he should have signed with Oakland, amiright?

Ugh. Have to wonder if it's mental rut as a result of being sent down after almost 3 seasons in the big leagues.

That's my biggest concern - that we do everything right up to the point that we need that elite FA, and he's not there. And that leaves us with overpaying for the best FA available or not quite being good enough for another season (or more). I'm quite certain if Alfonso Soriano Jr. is the best available FA, we'll wind up trading for somebody better. Isn't Alfonso Soriano Jr. like 8? If we're not ready to contend by the time he's ready, let alone hits free agency we're in big trouble. What if he decides he doesn't even like baseball? Then what. There's Milton Bradleys kid, but he might refuse to sign with the Cubs on account of still being emotionally scarred from the racist taunts from Cubs fans.

There are some Red Sox fans at the door who would like a word with you. If they're the same ones who still want Trey McNutt because Carpenter broke I suggest you keep it dead bolted.

Iowa lineup: 1. Campana 2. Jackson 3. Valbuena 4. Rizzo 5. Wright 6. Cardenas 7. Lalli 8. Vitters 9. Wells Interested as to why Vitters is batting 8th.

I'd give him twice that. He might prefer sign with The Marlins. I hear Ozzie thinks highly of him.

I keep having this nightmare scenario play through my head: 2012: We were too bad last season to make it worth adding a big-time contract. 2013: Ditto 2014: We almost made it to .500, but there's only a couple of impact players on the market, and the Dodgers and Yankees went to insane numbers on them and we should be thankful we didn't try to match that. 2015: Attendance has been down the last few years because of all the awful teams, and we still don't have the cable megadeal like those big market teams, so we have to be prudent. And/or the current management team proves as smart as we all hope/think they are, succesfully build from within, and enter the free agency season "one player away!" And the best player on the free agent market is . . . Alfonso Soriano II. That would be a bit different though, because we'd have a lot of cheap, young talent on the team when we added Soriano II. Plus this front office would never add a player with those type of flaws and demanding contract. Really, the more elite young players are extended early on, the more expensive those that make it to free agency are going to get, and eventually, we're going to dust off the check book. Looking over baseballs elite teams, The Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, Rangers, and recently, The Tigers each one built their current team through a combination of home grown talent and external aquistions be they through trade or free agency. The Rays are the only one of the top teams that went almost strictly through their own system. Even the Brewers, who produced Braun, Fielder, Hart, Gallardo, and Weeks from their system in like a 3 year period weren't any good until they started mortgaging their future. The bottom line is that when the time comes, we're going to need to start spending and/or trading prospects, and I doubt that this is something that the FO isn't very much aware of. What they're seemingly doing is startting with guys like Castro, Jackson, Rizzo, and hopefully Garza, and maybe Castillo and Vitters and perhaps Soler. They're supplementing them, as someone said in another thread, by throwing more stuff like Shark, Stewart, Volstad, LaHair, Wood, Maholm, Cardenas, etc. at the wall and hoping some stick, and when the smoke clears in 2-3 years we'll have a pretty good idea where we'll need to concentrate our free agent money instead of blindly jumping on the shinyest toy available, and by then their should be a lot of money availble.

tack on an additonal 15 for spring training in which each impressed.

Their comments indicate it'll be more like a half-year. With his clock already ticking, if Rizzo keeps doing what he's doing, he could very well find himself up sooner than later, which is why I'd very much like to see LaHair log some innings in the outfield, assuming that he keeps doing what he's doing. In fact, we could call him up now and have some sort of CF/RF platoon of Byrd, DeJesus, and LaHair, obviously with LaHair strictly in RF when he plays. Byrd, Johnson, DeWitt, and Baker are all even more expendable at that point. It's a tough call when you have this kid slugging away in AAA but the interim 1st baseman is carrying his own weight, which brings me to the next question: if Brett Jackson stays hot in Iowa, and Marlon Byrd continues to struggle will they entertain the idea of bringing him up? I know it's just 4 games, but they've seemingly been entertaining the fact of moving or even benching Byrd in favor of Jackson since day 1, so Byrd isn't doing himself any favors with his slow start.

On the plus side, it likely eliminates a potential strong competitor from the Soler sweepstakes.

Assuming Vitters is the third, he sat one of the games this weekend. If we're talking important Cubs prospects, Castillo should be in the "big" group as well. Im also high on Cardenas for no reason other than his former status as a top prospect. Campana's had a hit in every game too, though there's nothing big about Tony.

LaHair is going to be good and Rizzo's just not going to give a freak and pistolwhip him and take the job anyway in June. Can either one player corner outfield? If LaHair wants to stick in MLB on the Cubs roster he better figure it out. Rizzo isn't being moved off of 1B for Brian [expletive] LaHair. just wait till the all star break when he's hitting .280 with 21 HR and a .360 OBP and he's Brian [EXPLETIVE] LaHair If LaHair can do what he's done offensively since coming to the organization, I'd love to see if he can play a capable outfield considering the options.

I always wondered what it was like to have a slugging 1st base prospect that wasn't pushing 30.

On a less sexy note, Cardenas has a 2B and a 3B.