Cubswin11

I thought there was an article before ST, maybe during the Cubs Convention that said that Lou plans on carrying 11 pitchers and 14 position players. Found it: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090217&content_id=3841016&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Yeah I don't get the thinking here, 2@45 is more than a fair offer, especially with the 2nd year being a player option incase the market is better next year for him. I for one wouldn't be sad if Manny is sitting at home on opening day.

It might not have been technically the offseason but Lohse signed his 4@41 deal in October, that could end up being bad.

Yeah I am watching that game on MLBTV and DeRosa looks like he put on a few lbs. Muscle or fat? It was hard to tell because the feed is pretty pixelated, but he def. looked bigger could have just been a crappy feed. But he looked 10-15lbs. heavier from about the thighs up. I would guess muscle, he doesn't seem like a guy who would let himself go and add that kind of weight without intending to do it. He looks the same to me. I'm watching on TV. Yeah I just watched that AB, for whatever reason he looked bigger in his first ab, but I just switched to it quickly to see him hit and run to first but yeah he is the same. Anyways I think we are really going to miss him...

What kind of stuff does Atkins have? Sounds like his numbers were real solid last year, any chance he can push for the #5 spot?

Mixed bag results for Shark, didn't seem like he had great command a lot of first pitch balls and deeper counts, he did get a ground ball when he needed one with the bases loaded. Likely didn't hurt any chances of getting the #5 spot but he probably didn't help himself either.

Yeah I am watching that game on MLBTV and DeRosa looks like he put on a few lbs. Muscle or fat? It was hard to tell because the feed is pretty pixelated, but he def. looked bigger could have just been a crappy feed. But he looked 10-15lbs. heavier from about the thighs up. I would guess muscle, he doesn't seem like a guy who would let himself go and add that kind of weight without intending to do it.

Yeah I am watching that game on MLBTV and DeRosa looks like he put on a few lbs.

Bases loaded nobody out with Dewitt up, doesn't sound like Shark has the best stuff today.

Samardzija into some trouble here 1st and 3rd nobody out, good chance to prove something here.

Cubs already in midseason form, bases loaded nobody out and get 1 run on a GIDP.

1,2,3 inning Flyout (Pierre), Lineout (Asmus), and Strikeout (Ethier)

Johnson with a great diving catch it sounds like, Samardzija isn't going to last long as a starter if he's giving up rockets to Brad Freakin Asmus.

Goodell is taking a 20% pay cut, time for Selig to take his. Hopefully he starts to get some public pressure/media pressure to take a pay cut or give some back. But considering this is the guy who was the commish during the steroid era, yet he feels he shouldn't get any blame, he will likely give himself a 20% raise.

While we certainly don't have guys that could jump into the top 10 outside of Vitters I could see Cashner, Jackson, or Flaherty taking big jumps (top 50 or better) if they have successful years.

I really didn't have that excitement I've had the last 2-3 years going into today, but this morning it hit me and now I am pumped. Only got one class today, an exam at 9, and then it's Cubbie time. CHICAGO CUBS BASEBALL IS ON THE AIR!!!

So now that Z is pitching in the WBC, is it possible he pitches in like 1 or 2 ST games? If he is already being skipped the first time around, for whatever reason, he probably won't pitch with the Cubs until after the WBC is over.

I know they are harder to get now, but I would think it would be fairly easy for Eyre to get a loan to cover expenses for a month or two while his assets are frozen. He has a guaranteed contract from a MLB team to use as collateral and a bank should jump at an opportunity to give out a loan they know will get payed back and make 5%+ on. That's probably worst case scenario I am sure the Phillies can advance him a few checks or a couple guys on the team could pool together a few thousand for the guy.

Didn't Hart start to throw the cutter back in 07? Isn't that why he showed a little improvement, from being a journeyman minor leaguer to a fringe ML bullpen pitcher?

Marmol's not pitching. http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090223&content_id=3870242&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

I haven't heard anyone say he isn't expected to be ready, so that would mean they are expecting him to be ready to go.

Is Edmonds available or has he retired? If he's open to going there, I believe I would take a shot at him over Anderson. Has Edmonds officially retired? Or is he waiting to see if someone will offer him something?

Better signing than Griffey for the Braves IMO. I think he will be, or at least is more likely to be, more productive than Griffey this year.

fixed re-fixed I know a lot of this is probably tongue in cheek, but the irrational Aaron Miles hatred that has been building around here lately is silly. Yes, he is just a reserve type middle infielder without a lot of power. But he shouldn't be in baseball? They guy hit .317 last year with a .355 OBP in 379 AB's. If a guy that can do that doesn't even belong in baseball there should be a lot of 22 man rosters. He sure belongs to be in a baseball at least as much or more than Ronny Cedeno who was the Cubs' utility infielder last season and I assume will be on the Mariners roster this year. I'm going to go out on a limb and say all of us are mad that DeRosa was traded. We don't want Miles at 2nd, we want DeRosa. but fontenot will get the majority of the time there, so that makes me happy because i'm excited to see what he can do full-time. and bradley should bat third because he'll get more pa's there and the more pa's he gets, the better. The problem with that thinking is that if Fontenot struggles early Lou will probably have a pretty short leash on him and he will probably go to the "vet" Miles pretty quickly and it would have to take a lot for Miles to lose the job back to Fontenot after that because it's alright for a "vet" to struggle and play below average but if a young player struggles early they are benched for good and not allowed to go through growing pains. I could see a similar situation for Fontenot that Pie went through last season. With such emphasis on "balance" this offseason I don't see Lou putting Bradley 3rd with a righty in Soriano leading off and a Lefty/SH batting 2nd. Bradley best "balances" our lineup hitting 4th.

Only $3.4 guaranteed with another 4.6 in incentives. How bad does the Miles signing look now?