CUBZ99

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-070228cubs,1,3398838.story?coll=cs-home-headlines He is not "already injured" he is coming off surgery in October and the staff wants to give him an additional week. No need to create a story that isn't true man! So being hurt and unable to play is not considered "being injured"? Sorry, you can phrase it in a way that pleases you. The fact is that Floyd is going to miss at least the first week of games due to physical ailments and apparently is unable to run. Considering Floyd's past I would say that is not a good thing. Edit: Cubs.com has a story saying that Floyd is being held back by the coaches and doesn't have any pain. Could be the case of Sullivan making it sound worse than it is. Guess we will have to wait and see.

One week into spring training and Cliff Floyd is already injured. I think Murton is going to get a majority of the playing time in LF by default. http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-070228cubs,1,3398838.story?coll=cs-home-headlines

Cuban is a billionare for a reason, I'm sure this was just his first offer, to get discussions started.

It seems to me that this is true but they will start him at Daytona with a quick promotion to AA if he has any kind of success. I'm wondering if Pawalek will get the midseason promotion to Daytona. That would get him back on schedule. Is Pawalek in camp yet? It will be interesting to see what type of shape he is in this year. I am hoping that he comes to ST ready to go and that somehow regains his lost velocity.

Sounds better than some of the other names we have been hearing lately.

Bruce - as always, your awesome. Lou seems like he is going to be an easy person to root for. Can't wait for tomorrow and baseball to begin.

If the CBA allows for such a maneuver, what would be the basis for their greivance? The article doesn't say. My guess is that arbitration must be entered into with good faith. The PA could argue he's only being released because he won his hearing. They might argue if the Padres didn't want to take the risk of losing arbitration they should never have offered. I'm not sure of the nuiances of the CBA, but my guess is it would revolve around a "good faith" clause. I don't buy the good faith argument. Clearly the CBA has an out clause for exactly this situation. It is not like Walker is going to walk away empty handed. He is going to get 1/6 of his salary without having to do a thing.

I like news like this! Keep that deep rotation competition going! Great news in regards to Gallagher, other reports from AZ had Gallagher as not looking too great. To be fair to those other reports, they were based on Gallagher's first day or two in the big league camp. I'm sure as he got his feet wet, he started doing his thing. Good point. Still glad to see that Gallagher is starting to impress.

At this point though, if he's actually pitching, it's hard to maintain the "there's something wrong" idea. There doesn't seem to be much of a secret going on. We're not hearing that he's being held out and we don't know why. He's not in an undisclosed location. His past history is troublesome, no doubt. But as long as he's pitching, I can't help but think that the "June at the earliest" timeframe is just not very likely. If he doesn't feel good after his first start, skips his next and gets some weird schedule, all bets are off. But Prior pitching at this point is completely different than past seasons. There's pitching and then there's pitching. Yes, it's early and I may be wrong but I don't think that I am. IMO you'll see a difference from what you expect from Mark Prior and he'll be a shell of what he once was and he won't have that extra umph he once had. The June is a target date so the Cubs will be able to decide on how to fix their rotation and the time they will give Prior to regain himself. Has Bruce commented on how he has thrown yet? Bruce has, so have Will Carroll and independent bloggers. All said he looked impressive. You can judge next Monday, Cuse. But I think your specific concern (not ready till June) isn't valid, because it assumes he's quite a few steps behind the other pitchers. Wasn't there some talk last week from Rothschild that Prior's velocity is still off? I'm interested to know what looking "impressive" means. Does it mean that he is on the mound throwing like all of the rest of the pitching staff, or does it mean that he is throwing 93-95 with good movement and command?

Jason Marquis for starters. So your position is that Hendry, prior to signing Marquis, has shown a pattern of overpaying starting pitchers because he signed Marquis? :? Hendry has shown a clear pattern of overpaying for mediocrity in the past. I don't understand how you can try and defend the signing of Marquis by saying he usually doesn't overpay for starters. If you believe that he does overpay for starters, please feel free to cite some examples. I can't recall a starter that he vastly overpaid for, prior to this year.

Jason Marquis for starters. So your position is that Hendry, prior to signing Marquis, has shown a pattern of overpaying starting pitchers because he signed Marquis? :?

Paying a high salary does not necessarily mean the player is "bigger salaried." You can't justify paying Marquis 3/21 because he is now making $7 million a year. Would the Neifi Perez contract have been better had he paid more? By the way, there was no competition on that one either. But kudos to JH for getting out of that one in year 1. There is a big difference between signing a $2M backup shortstop and a starting pitcher. For bench players, Hendry has some times paid a premium because of his affection for a player (i.e. Blanco, Neifi). I can't however name too many everyday players or starting pitchers that Hendry has severely overpaid for.

I like news like this! Keep that deep rotation competition going! Great news in regards to Gallagher, other reports from AZ had Gallagher as not looking too great.

Partially because he took significantly less than some other pretty crappy pitchers. Partially because there just wasn't any talk about him going elsewhere. It's pretty clear there wasn't a big bidding war for him. I don't see how it's a stretch to say that. I doubt Hendry would sign Marquis for the price he did if there was no market for him. There is really no evidence one way or the other what exactly Marquis' market really was. It just doesn't fit Hendry's MO to go out and sign a guy like Marquis for $7M a year if there was no competition. Generally, with bigger salaried players Hendry is a bargain basement type of shopper.

All I hear is Sox talk. zzzzzzz

Not the best of news on Gallagher.

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/272130,CST-SPT-cubnt25.article Lets Hope that it is nothing serious.

Other than the people implying that Aramis was lazy, out of shape and unfocused, earning the disrespect of his teamates, and maintaining the ire of the fans by signing a fat contract and showing up "late" (whihc turned out to be on time", you're right. No one said anything critical. Other than that. I saw one comment that he looked out of shape-which is a common thing said about at least a few players on the team all the time on this board (including in the last week)-nobody jumped all over them. I didn't really see the other implications you're talking about-the only other comment that could be seen as remotely critical of Aramis is that people wouldn't be impressed by him if he showed up late-he didn't, and the person even said that he really just wanted to know who was there/and wasn't there and was not turning against Aramis in any way. I guess I just didn't read the same implications into things that some others did. Maybe you just skipped it, or maybe people edited it, but there was much more negative Aramis commentary then you are leading people to believe. I think much of the argument regarded the hypothetical "if he was late", which was premature and unwarranted,.

we don't know if his teammates care, and it's really inconsequential if some fans care. he's paid to hit, not show up early or look like he's really trying. baseball is not really a game of effort so much as it's a game of skill and focus. maybe he should have plastic surgery to look like grudz, then people would like him. Now we are just getting the point of see who can make the most ridiculous statement in order to get off the subject.

What kind of crap? Jesus Christ, it's as if people who question the diety that is Aramis Ramirez are completely idiotic for mentioning that it doesn't look good that he's the only one who doesn't show up early. Am I saying that he's an ass for not showing up early? No. Am I saying that I like him less for not showing up early? No, in fact he's one of my favorite Cubs. Am I saying that it doesn't look good? Yes. And it doesn't. He signs a fat contract (at a discount, yes, but still fat) and he's the last to arrive to ST. That's not the way to win over the fans that got on him last year. how does it look bad if he's not late, yet? that's the confusing thing about all of this. and using your own "real-world" logic, if you're scheduled to work at 8am on monday, does it look bad if you show up at 8am on monday, what would you accomplish by showing up at 8am on sunday? If everyone else in my entire office... everyone... comes in and works on Sunday and I don't? Yeah, it's not going to look good. It'll look like I'm the slacker. When everyone else is coming in early and I just show up when I have to be there, it looks bad for me. How is this so hard to understand? Why should anyone care? If he does his job as well or better than the others, who cares if they showed up sooner? What it looks like isn't the point, it's that people are making a big deal out of it. It's [expletive]. If ARam has a .900+ OPS next year, I could care less if he shows up for ST at all. I for one am just grateful he's going to be on the Cubs at all, and I'm still stunned he didn't go to Anaheim, where he could have had it better in so many ways. If people want to have coronaries because ARam didn't show up early, more power to them. But they look like tools. The problem is that teammates and fans do care. You may not care subjectively, but his coming to Spring Training possibly late may just add more fuel to the idea that he is lackidasical or doesn't care. Seems like we are all getting ahead of ourselves, when we aren't even sure whether he showed up on time or not.

Looks like it's the new Sun-Times beat writer for the Cubs, Gordon Wittenmyer. last year he covered the twins. on xm homeplate the other day he pretty much said he doesnt know anything about the cubs That makes me feel better about the guy. I'll wait until he learns a little bit about the Cubs before I give up on him. If he saw Rich Hill pitch, he'd probably be singing a different tune. how does that make you feel better about him? it makes me think he's an incompetent moron who is incapable of any research whatsoever. Wow, this guy is taking a beating. His other articles this spring have been pretty good and his conjecture that Hill could end up as the long man, is not that far fetched. Almost every beat writer so far has reported that the 4th and 5th spot in the rotation are open, and the battle is between Prior, Hill, Miller, and Marshall, with Hill having an edge. If Miller, Prior out pitch him in Spring Training it is possible that Hill may be the long man. Doesn't mean that it is necessarily fair to Hill or the right move, but it is no more far fetched than some of the other stories that have been printed.

Cubs.com is reporting that Wade Miller is fully healthy also, and feels like he is throwing the ball the best he has thrown it in 2+ years.

I'm hoping that he gets to pitch during one of the Televised spring training games, so we can see what type of stuff he has.

Lets see how he performs before making bold statements like that. If he reverts back to his sub 4.00 ERA form, $7MM a year will be a bargain, if he puts up a 6.00 ERA it was a horrible signing.

Honestly, some people are emotional about things like this and some are not. I'm not particularly worried because it's normal for a guy that's coming off an injury to take longer than the guys that have been healthy. I really don't think it's just a NSBB or Cubs.com thing but an individual one. The writer of the Sun Times article thought that it was important enough to include it into his article. Maybe it was a statement in passing, or maybe the writer found it significant somehow. Considering Mark Prior's health issues, any reports regarding his progress are relevant, not just the positive ones.