CUBZ99

Quade made decision to let Cashner start. http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/breaking/cbsports-quade-my-call-to-leave-silva-off-cubs-roster--20110327,0,1458272.story \ Count me in on the Quade fan club. =D>

Not sure how you're expecting Ramirez to get better if he's only getting like 90 PA at best if things go as they should. Isn't the biggest knock on Ramirez his defense?

Apparently Silva will be the first pitcher to come out of the pen today. Seems to indicate that he is losing the #5 starter battle.

This sucks for the Brewers.

You are far more optimistic than I am. I expect Looper or Silva to be named 5th starter. I hope you are right about Cashner though.

His ground ball splits were very good again. 6 GB - 1FB. I think that with the state of the team, he hasn't done anything that should take him out of the #5 starter's spot. I would be sick if the Cubs decided to give the spot to Silva, or another pitcher like Looper or Wellemeyer that has no future with the team. This is the perfect year to put Cashner at the back of the rotation and let him figure things out.

Interesting to read the article and see that last year one of Kim's friends correctly stated the signing bonus as $850K instead of the reported $1.2MM. I think it was recently confirmed that it was in fact $850K. Any idea of why the Cubs would report it is as higher?

Watching him pitch during the game that he blew the other day, it was frustrating to see how much movement he was getting on his pitches and the fact that hitters were still squaring up on the ball.

Yikes! Did anybody else see Phil Rogers tweets this afternoon regarding the Cubs and Rangers trade talks. First this gem. And if that wasn't bad enough about 30 mins ago he tweeted. I hope he has no inside info and it is merely ridiculous speculation.

I agree that Hendry shouldn't go after Young, but DeWitt is playing himself out of any job with the Cubs. I wouldn't be surprised to see Barney and Ojeda make the club out of ST and DeWitt being sent to AAA (if he has any options left). His defense is terrible, and if he is not going to hit he really has no value.

I agree that Cubs management and general people likely find Wells to be very fluky and I can understand where that thought is coming from - I considered him that after his first year as well. Heck, I wanted to deal Wells for Heath Bell midway through his first season as a major leaguer. The reason he's seen as a fluke is that he's a little old (28 now, 29 sometime this year) to be entering his third MLB season and he had pretty mediocre minor league stats. However, what they're overlooking is that he started his minor league career as a catcher, explaining his older age relative to his experience. He's also now thrown as many quality major league innings as he has mediocre minor league seasons. We have enough of a sample size to say he'll at least be solid at the ML level, while that's a pretty big gamble with a guy like Coleman. Also, because he began as a catcher in the minors, his arm will have less wear on it than a normal 28 year old, meaning he'll likely be productive for longer than most pitchers. Is he a future all-star stud? No, but he's also too good to cast off for anybody short of the elite players in the system (Cashner, JJax, McNutt, etc). It is possible that they knew he needed some motivation and wanted to push him. Regardless, I don't think he was in any real danger of losing a rotation spot.

Bruce Levine shouldn't tease us like that.

They were earned despite the Colvin error? Colvin's error only allowed a runner to take an extra base.

I know it is only spring training, but to date the Cubs continue to look terrible. Lots of errors, terrible pitching, can't hit, and on and on.... At least with today's game Cashner should have a pretty decent chance to takes Silva's spot in the rotation.

Vitters has been very consistent throughout the minors, he struggles immediately after getting promoted and then mashes. Based on every other season he has been in the minors he will start in AA until he starts hitting well and then will finish the rest of the year in AAA. I hope that he follows that pattern again this year and the Cubs continue to promote him. With Ramirez having another option year, Vitters has two years to show them that he is the 3b of the future.

Has McNutt pitched in a game yet this spring?

I'm guessing that based upon Quade's comments so far this spring and the organizations overall feelings about Silva that he won't be with the team when the season starts.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/80930-gain-pounds-muscle-months/ This article disagrees with you.

Jackson had a terrible second half of the season last year. I don't know if he was battling an injury or whether or not the short move to the bullpen had an effect on him, but he was pitching pretty good until the half way point, when the wheels fell off.

I like to think that, but they're basically giving the starting RF spot to Colvin this year over Fukudome. What make you think that they won't do that next year over Byrd? I just hope Colvin just bombs as a starter, but does well as a "spot starter/4th OF" role that it'll make Hendry think "Ok, he's not starter material anymore." But I don't think that'll happened cuz Hendry LOVE those types of guys... (Colvin/Jacque Jones/Burnitz) It always seem like they're starting for the Cubs when they should be the 4th OF. WTF ?? You hope Colvin bombs as a starter so you can be right ?? What a ridiculous thing to post. What a ridiculous thing to take from that post. Read the [expletive] again I hope Colvin continues to post .800+ OPS and provides cheap production during his cheap years. And if Jackson hits in AAA like he hit in AA, I wouldn't mind at all if the Cubs traded Byrd while his trade value is still high.

What stat do you prefer?

Of course not, why should they? I'm just saying that the rhetoric doesn't always match that feeling. The vitriol towards Colvin stems from the organization seemingly insisting he's likely to be more than a 4th/5th OF. Why couldn't he be? He provided a .816 OPS at league minimum salary last year. Meanwhile, Fukudome provided a .809 OPS at $14MM. Colvin is exactly the type of player that we should be hoping the Cubs give a chance to. He is also exactly the type of player that we should be hoping succeeds. If Colvin can continue to provide a 800+ OPS in RF at a cheap price, that leaves more money for the organization to spend on other needs.

Interesting, Maddux was pushing for Garza trade. :-k

I don't typically agree with Barry Rozner, but I think he hit the nail on the head his opinion piece today. He basically argues that the blame for this trade should fall on the Ricketts if it doesn't pan out. The Ricketts should have known by the end of the year that the Cubs payroll was bloated with some bad contracts and had the perfect opportunity to clean house and rebuild. Instead they talked rebuilding, but kept all of the same people running the organization. Hendry has one last shot to salvage his job and the team, and the disaster he created. Selfishly, I like the move and hope that it at least makes the team competitive this year. Ricketts has already stated that the budget for the minor leagues would be higher, so lets hope he sticks to his word.