vance_the_cubs_fan

I hope he hangs around long enough for me to see him pitch in Mississippi this year.

He'll like Cuetto so much that he'll run him out there for 120 pitch outings on a consistent basis.

I hope this is sarcasm. I wrote that he's a better leadoff man, which i stand by. Soriano's obviously the better hitter. How is he a better lead-off man. Even if we assume that there's actually a position of "lead-off", I still don't see how Theriot fits any better. If the job of the lead-off man is limited to getting on base, Soriano does that better than Theriot. 2007 OBP Soriano:337 Theriot: 326 From the lead-off spot, Theriot has a career line of 261 .312 .460. From the lead-off spot, Soriano has a career line of .304 .344 .570 So other than just conjecture or gut feeling how is Theriot better than Soriano whether it be lead-off, clean-up, or where ever you want them in the line-up?

I hope this is sarcasm.

His numbers have him somewhere in the middle, so neither hot nor cold.

I'm not sold on Uribe as an improvement over Theriot. In 2007, Uribe's OPS+ was 74; Theriot was 72. In 2006, Uribe had an OPS+ of 73, and in 2005 it was 85. He might be an improvement, but it isn't a significant enough to warrant making a trade for him. Trading for Uribe would be a trade for a player who is very equal in value, yet derives his value by a different type of player than Theriot. I'd pass.

Link.

Does Craig have a shot at making the bigs because if he doesn't, I'm putting Fox there for 50 or so games. From consensus projections at BCB Craig is projected at 329/421/750 while Fox is 314/429/743. Basically a push. And from The Baseball Cube Jake Fox has exactly 1 game at 3B in his minor league career. This sounds like it makes as much sense as the year they sent Craig back to Daytona to learn catcher. That one game must have been last May in Mississippi, because he played there during one game that I was there.

1. Carlos Zambrano. 9 IP, 1.00 ERA, 7H, 8 K. Carlos has started strong and kept his mouth shut this year. Hopefully he doesn't punch anyone this year. 2. Carlos Marmol. 5 IP, 0 R, 5 K, 2 H, 2BB. Marmol looks to be the front runner for Cubs closer. 3. Carmen Pignatiello. 4.1 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 1 K. The Cubs could use another lefty in the pen, and with numbers like these, Piggy could be it. Now, who is sucking so far. 1. Bob Howry. 5.1 IP, 8 R, 11.57 ERA, 13 H, 1 BB. Howry had been mentioned as a closer candidate. Way to show up for the challenge, Bob. 2. Neal Cotts. 3.2 IP, 5 R, 12.27 ERA. I think we can safely assume that Cotts sucks. 3. Scott Eyre. 4.1 IP, 7 R, 9.82 ERA. Eyre is pitching like the senior citizens he's living with. 4. Shinjo Takatsu. 4.2 IP, 5 R, 9.64. For an NRI, numbers like that get you released....oh yeah. That happened today.

Tanner needs a spot somewhere.

Shouldn't Sam "May Day" Malone be on the team?

Fox is the only one surprising here. I figured he had hit well enough to stick around a little longer.

talk about having a pain in the ass

Link. Link

There's not enough info here. What price am I paying for Roberts? This is like asking do I want to drive a Mercedes or a Chevy Cavalier. If the price is right, I'll take the Mercedes. However, I might not be able to afford the Mercedes, so the Cavalier fits into my range. I think Roberts helps the team more, but I don't want to pay what has been the rumored price. (Gallagher, Cedeno, + others). Crisp I'm not as interested in, but if I can do that deal with Marquis and a throw-in, sure. If it cost a useful player, probably not.

I'd like to see Fox take some grounders at third. I know he played some third at AA last year.

It was a facetious comment.

Cedeno isn't inspiring much confidence this spring. I'm all for DeRosa as the second baseman, but as things stand who's the back-up CF? I think there's going to have to be a move of some kind.

Cedeno and Cintron sounds redundant, to me. They're the same guy. But I also realize Cedeno has no options. So, I guess I think one of them gets traded. I'm assuming Cedeno is kept partly because they'll use him to back-up CF. As it stands, we have no one really to do that on the roster. I expect some sort of trade to rectify that before the season begins.

1. Alex Rodriguez 2. Albert Pujols 3. Hanley Ramirez 4. Jose Reyes 5. Ryan Braun 6. David Wright 7. Chase Utley 8. Jimmy Rollins 9. Miguel Cabrera 10. Johan Santana 11. Matt Holliday 12. Ryan Howard 13. Grady Sizemore 14. Prince Fielder 15. Jake Peavy 16. Troy Tulowitzki 17. Victor Martinez 18. Carl Crawford 19. Alfonso Soriano 20. David Ortiz 21. Carlos Beltran 22. Brandon Webb 23. Vlad Guerrero 24. Ichiro 25. Derrek Lee 26. Russell Martin 27. Joe Mauer 28. Brandon Phillips 29. Brian Roberts 30. BJ Upton 31. Derek Jeter 32. Corey Hart 33. Josh Beckett 34. Manny Ramirez 35. Dan Haren 36. Robinson Cano 37. Justin Verlander 38. Erik Bedard 39. Aramis Ramirez 40. Cole Hamels 41. Larry Wayne "Chipper" Jones 42. Adam Dunn 43. Mark Teixeira 44. CC Sabathia 45. Carlos Lee 46. Lance Berkman 47. Roy Halladay 48. Carlos Zambrano 49. Scott Kazmir 50. Francisco Liriano 51. John Smoltz 52. John Lackey 53. Chris Young (the outfielder) 54. Curtis Granderson 55. Brian McCann 56. Ian Kinsler 57. Magglio Ordonez 58. Jorge Posad 59. Khalil Greene 60. Carlos Guillen 61. Garrett Atkins 62. Felix Hernandez 63. Aaron Rowand 64. Geovany Soto 65. Chris Young (the weirdly proportioned pitcher) 66. Roy Oswalt 67. Aaron Harang 68. Ryan Zimmerman 69. Carlos Pena 70. Joe Nathan 71. Matt Kemp 72. Francisco Rodriguez 73. Dan Uggla 74. Gary Sheffield 75. Jonathan Paplebon 76. Daisuke Matsuzaka 77. Hunter Pence 78. Tim Lincecum 79. Rich Hill 80. Nick Markakis 81. Rickie Weeks 82. Kosuke Fukudome 83. Kenji Johjima 84. Fausto Carmona 85. JJ Putz 86. Takashi Saito 87. Jose Valverde 88. Todd Helton 89. Javier Vazquez 90. Nick Swisher 91. James Shields 92. Miguel Tejada 93. Brad Hawpe 94. Hideki Matsui 95. Travis Hafner 96. Edgar Renteria 97. Alex Rios 98. JJ Hardy 99. Chone Figgins 100. Billy Wagner 101. Joba Chamberlain 102. A.J. Burnett- picking for IMB 103. Bobby Abreu 104. Shane Victorino 105. Mariano Rivera 106. Placido Polanco 107. Kevin Kouzmanoff 108. Jason Bay 109. Josh Hamilton 110. Brad Penny 111. Michael Young 112. Torii Hunter 113. Adrian Gonzalez 114. Matt Cain 115. Eric Byrnes (IMB) 116. Huston Street 117. Adrian Beltre 118. Howie Kendrick 119. Brett Myers 120. Andruw Jones 121. Justin Morneau 122. Bobby Jenks 123. Ben Sheets 124. John Maine 125. Matt Capps 126. Delmon Young 127. Pedro Martinez 128. Francisco Cordero 129. Rich Harden 130. JI....JIM THOME 131. Tim Hudson 132. Adam Wainwright 133. Paul Konerko 134. Kelly Johnson 135. Ted Lilly 136. Yovani Gallardo 137. Joakim Soria 138. Rafael Soriano 139. Yunel Escobar 140. BJ Ryan 141. Trevor Hoffman 142. Pat Burrell 143. Josh Fields 144. Chad Billingsley 145. Kerry Wood 146. Jeff Kent 147. Jermaine Dye

Well, we're almost 2 weeks into the spring games, so here's a little bit of who's not and who's not. So, starting with hitters, here we go. Hot: Matt Murton. 367/424/433 : Too bad for Matt, the best he can hope for is a spot as the fourth outfielder. Of course, this performance could be boosting his trade value some. Felix Pie. .321/406/607 : Until going down with a bad nut, Pie has jumped out to a big lead in the CF competition. Micah Haufpauir. 444/448/741 . One day while reminicing about his days in the minor leagues, Haufpauir can tell the single A guys about his great spring of 2008. Too bad for Micah, but Adam Greenberg likely will have more career days in the show than he will. Mike Fontenot .308/400/538. Little Mikey is trying to make Jim Hendry forget about Brian Roberts. Too bad for Fontenot, but his lack of versatilty still will have him on the outside looking in when camp closes. Fukudome.300/517/500 The Cubs Japanese import is giving fans something to be excited about. Aramis Ramirez. .429/556/714. Ramirez hasn't played much, but when he has he has hit. and the hottest... Daryle Ward. 692/692/1385 . Try to take a walk sometimes, Mr. Ward. And now the not so hot... Ronny Cedeno. .190/227/238 . Memo to Ronny. This isn't the way to win a job. Henry Blanco. 167/167/167. Abysmal, Hank. Derrek Lee. 143/296/190. Good thing it's still March

I hope I don't ever have to have surgery on my nuts.

My guess the bench is Murton (if he's not traded), Blanco, Cedeno, Ward, and Cintron.

Don't the Dodgers have an AYCE section in their outfield? Speaking of that, how are those seats?

Micah is a likeable guy and has had decent minor league production. I just don't see him getting much of a chance in Chicago. If a corner OF/IF were needed, I think Fox is ahead of him in that department. I would like to see him get a shot, but the Cubs aren't likely the right team for that to happen.