cubsfan26

Harden strikes out the side!

This is a really sad story, I remember watching Adenhart pitch against the Cubs in spring training a few weeks ago. He looked pretty good, and had a good career ahead of him. It's always a sad story when a 22 year dies, but the fact that he pitched so well last night and was probably really happy. Makes me feel like this is even more tragic for some reason.

I had a feeling Guzman would look alot better once he got out of Arizona. I remember him struggling in spring 07 to, and once the season started he pitched very well.

You beat me to it. Stupid. Why pull the superior defender when you could move him to his natural position? Reporters asked Lou that the other night. He said Milton is a good outfielder and he won't be replacing him for defense. After some of the mistakes Fukudome made in CF towards the end of spring. I think Lou is little nervous about Fukudome defense in CF. But if he starts to do well I'm sure Lou will keep him in there.

Yeah he's pretty cocky, and kinda knows he's a good hitter. He knows he will start to get hits at some point.

Wow Dusty Baker would hate Milton Bradley. He would be yelling at him to swing the bat after his first AB.

Tonights line-up is Soriano, Fukudome, Lee, Bradley, Ramirez, Fontenot, Theriot, and Hill.

Yeah he was really good the first four innings, giving up just one hit and walking just one(I believe). He wasn't nearly as effective in the 5th and 6th inning, but he held the Astros two runs in those innings, so overall it was a good performance. I seen him pitch pretty much this same game a bunch of times last year. So far he looks very simliar to 08 Dempster.

Crappy game but no big deal. Lets not forget we started 0-2 last year. As long as we keep pitching well we will win alot of games once the bats wake up.

He might bat if we get to the second spot in the line-up. Miles is at SS so he needs to stay in the game now.

Cotts shows flashes of the 05 Cotts here and there. His problem last year was doing it consistently. He could be really good one game and totally suck the next game.

Nope it's the second game of the season in a tie game(and he pitched last night). If it was a bigger game or we had the lead then he would come in the game.

Wandy Rodriguez splits the last two years 2008 2.99 era Home 4.34 era Road 2007 2.94 era Home 6.37 era Road In 05 and 06 he was equally crappy at home and on the road though. So hopefully the Cubs can stop his success at home tonight.

Is this your guess or is this the real lineup? Real line-up I got it from the Suntimes as well.

Tonights line-up Soriano, Theriot, Lee, Bradley, Ramirez, Johnson, Soto, Fontenot, Dempster.

Cubs win!

Keep in mind last year Harden only gave us 12 starts, and we won 97 games. Yes we went 9-3 in Harden 12 starts, but before we got Harden we were also in 1st place with a 4 plus game lead. Before we got Harden, we got a 4.85 era from Lieber, Gallagher and Hill in 16 starts. So even if Harden has say a 2.50 era in 10-11 starts starts this season, as long as we find a replacement who can give us 4.90-5 era in 18-20 starts we will be fine. Personally I'll start being overally concerned with Harden, when he pitches poorly in the regular season with no velocity. But as of now he's scheduled to pitch Friday, and I'm expecting a good Harden performance.

Even Adam Wainwright is a bit of a questionmark. Yes when he's been on the mound he's been very good. But when you look back the last 4 years. He's really only been a healthy starting pitcher in 2007. Last year he missed time, in 06 he was a reliever, and had health issues in the minors as well. You can pick about any team and a bunch of question marks. But in all honestly the Cubs probably have the least amount of question marks in the NL Central. Thats why there heavily favored to win the division, even with some younger players having a bigger role and a few injury risk guys on the team.

I think we've gotten the better of Billy Beane trades in the past. This is probably the first time he got the better of us as far as I can recall. You could make an argument that he got the better end of the Bowen/Blevins for Kendall trade. But otherwise I can't think of any offhand. Even that is somewhat debatable, when you consider Kendall got us a draft pick that ended up being Ryan Flaherty. So it really was Kendall/Flaherty for Blevins/Bowen. Jerry Blevins looks like a solid LH specialist, but I think Flaherty is gonna a pretty good everyday player in the future but thats just my opinion. Plus Kendall gave us a few solid offensive months from the catcher postion, until Soto took over.

I don't really like this move, lets just hope Patton is the real deal.

Yeah, he might have to sign a minor league deal with some team, and make his way back to the majors. I could see the Padres or Orioles picking him up with there rotation issues. David Patton better be the real deal. If he's the next Rocky Cherry or Carmen Pignatiello and we end up sending him back to the Rockies by end of April or May this move could really suck. Lets just hope we don't have major rotation depth issues, and Gaudin is pitching well for someone else. Because if Patton ends up sucking and that happens, then this move could be a major mistake.

Guzman and Patton get the final two roster spots. Chad Gaudin was released and Jeff Samardzija was sent to Triple A. The Cubs will have to pay 1.6m of Gaudin 09 salary. I guess the Cubs couldn't find a taker for Gaudin, unless they paid almost all of his salary. I'm not a fan of releasing Gaudin at all, hopefully that move doesn't come back to haunt us. His stock really dropped though, with him struggling so bad late last season and this spring.

I'm not really worried about the rotation yet. Sure Lilly might get off to a slow start, like he did last year. But I still don't think he will be anywere near as bad as last year. Overall I think Lilly will still end up being one of our most consistent pitchers. Dempster looks like he's picked up right were he was last year. So I'm not worried about him sucking. I don't think he will be as good, but I still expect a good sub 3.60-3.70 era season from him. Zambrano will still be Zambrano(has shown no signs of shoulder problems this spring), the only question will be is. Will he pitched like an ace for six months like he did in 03-06, or for four months like he's the last two years. It would be great if he could avoid having 7 era months, that inflat his era totals. I'm also confident Marshall will get off to a strong start, especially in the cold weather. I'm more worried about late August and September with him. Hopefully Lou will be able to skip his spot in the rotation here and there to keep him fresh, and stop him from wearing down late in the year, simliar to Marquis last year. Rich Harden is always a concern, but as long as he takes the mound I'm not overally concerned. But thats probably because even when he's been hurt in the past, he usually always has pitched pretty good when he's been on the mound. I know he's been horrible the last two spring starts, but alot of his issues have been poor location(especially with his change up). If he gets his location right, he will still be pretty darn good even if he's not throwing in the mid 90s. I also think his velocity might improve after a few starts, simliar to Lilly last year. He just needs to avoid being on the DL, for a long period of time.

Gaudin had another crappy game again today. The guy can't even have one decent game, every game he pitches lately he gives up at least 1-3 runs. The Cubs should just try to send him to Triple A, and hope nobody claims him and his 2m salary. I don't see anyway he's on the team on opening day now, with him struggling so bad.

I wouldn't mind Lamb on a minor league deal. But I'm sure thats the only deal he could get right now. There's nothing wrong with having him in Iowa if there's a injury at 1b or 3rd.