vance_the_cubs_fan

You've got it.

Assuming everyone is healthy, I think this is likely the 25-man roster. C- Barrett 1b- Lee 2b- DeRosa SS- Izturis 3b- Ramirez LF- Murton CF- Soriano RF- Jones Rotation: Zambrano, Lilly, Prior, Hill, Marquis Bullpen: Dempster, Howry, Eyre, Wood, Ohman, Cotts, Miller Bench: Floyd, Ward, Theriot, Blanco, Cedeno or Pagan. We still have some bullpen arms like Wuertz that belong. Novoa has some experience as well there. I wouldn't be surprised to see one more trade before the season starts if everyone looks really healthy. If Wood looks like he can throw every day and Miller and Prior are healthy, I could see an arm or two moved in a deal.

Hey...look! We found our newbie!

consider it done

Jones is in camp. Link. Jones is also open to playing CF. And Lou doesn't rule out a platoon.

Great find. And wow...Wood has lost a lot of weight.

If Prior returns to 2004-2005 form, we have an excellent shot at the division. Zambrano, Prior, Lilly, Hill, Marquis/Miller would give us one of the best rotations in the league. Soriano, DeRosa, Lee, Ramirez, Jones, Murton/Floyd, Barrett, Izturis would be on par with most offenses. While this team can win without Prior, Prior pitching well makes this team enormously better. Please be healthy and good this year, Mark.

Yeah, he should formed a club with Schilling and Favre. They could call it "The Douchebags of Pro Sports." If you going to play, play. If not, then retired. Stop with this yearly "will he or won't he" bs. Would they let Jordan in that group as well?

1-1) Albert Pujols 1-2) Jose Reyes 1-3) Johan Santana 1-4) Alfonso Soriano 1-5) Alex Rodriguez 1-6) Carlos Beltran 1-7) Ryan Howard 1-8) Miguel Cabrera 1-9) Carl Crawford 1-10) Chase Utley 1-11) Derrek Lee 1-12) Chris Carpenter 2-1) David Wright 2-2) Lance Berkman 2-3) Grady Sizemore 2-4) David Ortiz 2-5) Vladimir Guerrero 2-6) Manny Ramirez 2-7) Mark Teixeira 2-8) Travis Hafner 2-9) Derek Jeter 2-10) Carlos Lee 2-11) Matt Holliday 2-12) Carlos Zambrano 3-1) Jake Peavy 3-2) Aramis Ramirez 3-3) Justin Morneau 3-4) Joe Mauer 3-5) Paul Konerko 3-6) Miguel Tejada 3-7) Jason Bay 3-8) Hanley Ramirez 3-9) Jimmy Rollins 3-10) Roy Halladay 3-11) Brandon Webb 3-12) Dan Haren 4-1) Garrett Atkins 4-2) Ichiro 4-3) Vernon Wells 4-4) Brian McCann 4-5) Roy Oswalt 4-6) Felix Hernandez 4-7) Ben Sheets 4-8) Bobby Abreu 4-9) Jeremy Bonderman 4-10) Andruw Jones 4-11) Victor Martinez 4-12) Jermaine Dye 5-1) Michael Young 5-2) Robby Cano 5-3) Rafael Furcal 5-4) Francisco Rodriguez 5-5) Bill Hall 5-6) Cole Hamels 5-7) Brian Roberts 5-8) Joe Nathan 5-9) Adam Dunn 5-10) Ryan Zimmerman 5-11) Carlos Guillen 5-12) Chone Figgins 6-1) Daisuke Matsuzaka 6-2) Jim Thome 6-3) John Lackey 6-4) B.J. Ryan 6-5) Carlos Delgado 6-6) Billy Wagner 6-7) Rocco Baldelli 6-8) Rich Hill 6-9) Troy Glaus 6-10) Justin Verlander 6-11) Aaron Harang 6-12) John Smoltz 7-1) Ian Kinsler 7-2) Johnny Damon 7-3) Mariano Rivera 7-4) Jered Weaver 7-5) Huston Street 7-6) Brett Myers 7-7) Matt Cain 7-8) Scott Kazmir 7-9) Curt Schilling 7-10) Felipe Lopez 7-11) Hideki Matsui 7-12) Nick Swisher 8-1) Bobby Jenks 8-2) Jason Schmidt 8-3) Rickie Weeks 8-4) C.C. Sabathia 8-5) Dan Uggla 8-6) Juan Pierre 8-7) JJ Putz 8-8) Randy Johnson 8-9) Howie Kendrick 8-10) Rich Harden 8-11) Prince Fielder 8-12) Michael Barrett 9-1) Brad Lidge 9-2) Chris Young 9-3) Chipper Jones 9-4) Jeff Francoeur 9-5) Pat Burrell 9-6) Scott Rolen 9-7) Erik Bedard 9-8) Gary Sheffield 9-9) Trevor Hoffman 9-10) Richie Sexson 9-11) Barry Zito 9-12) Dontrelle Willis 10-1) Todd Helton 10-2) Takashi Saito 10-3) Mike Piazza 10-4) Delmon Young 10-5) Chad Cordero 10-6) Josh Beckett 10-7) AJ Burnett 10-8) Jonathan Papelbon 10-9) Tom Gordon 10-10) Julio Lugo 10-11) Barry Bonds 10-12) Corey Patterson 11-1) Chad Tracy 11-2) JD Drew 11-3) Francisco Cordero 11-4) Ervin Santana 11-5) Chris Ray 11-6) Coco Crisp 11-7) Stephen Drew 11-8) Bronson Arroyo 11-9) Jason Giambi 11-10) Brian Fuentes 11-11) Brandon Phillips 11-12) Alex Rios 12-1) Michael Cuddyer 12-2) Jason Isringhausen 12-3) Chien-Ming Wang 12-4) John Patterson 12-5) Magglio Ordonez 12-6) Eric Gagne 12-7) Tadahito Iguchi 12-8) Ryan Freel 12-9) Torii Hunter 12-10) Frank Thomas 12-11) Kelvim Escobar 12-12) Adam LaRoche 13-1)Willy Taveras 13-2) Joel Zumaya 13-3) Raul Ibanez 13-4) Adrian Gonzalez 13-5) Scott Podsednik 13-6) Bob Wickman 13-7) Nick Markakis 13-8) Nomar Garciaparra 13-9) Mike Mussina 13-10) Brad Hawpe 13-11) Dave Bush 13-12) Russell Martin 14-1) Mark Prior 14-2) Eric Chavez 14-3) Kenji Johjima 14-4) Anthony Reyes 14-5) Ramon Hernandez 14-6) Roger Clemens 14-7) Lyle Overbay 14-8) Scott Olsen 14-9) Nate Robertson 14-10) Derek Lowe 14-11) Jonathon Broxton 14-12) Chuck James 15-1) Hank Blalock 15-2) Aubrey Huff 15-3) Jorge Posada 15-4) Chris Capuano 15-5) Javier Vazquez 15-6) Octavio Dotel 15-7) Joe Crede 15-8) Josh Willingham 15-9) Josh Barfield 15-10) Brad Penny 15-11) Ivan Rodriguez 15-12) Jhonny Peralta 16-1) Adam Wainwright 16-2) Andy Pettitte 16-3) Jose Valverde 16-4) Alex Gordon 16-5) Anibal Sanchez 16-6) Solomon Torres 16-7) Keith Foulke 16-8) Bengie Molina 16-9) Dustin Pedroia 16-10) Pedro Martinez 16-11) Moises Alou 16-12) Ryan Dempster 17-1) Ray Durham 17-2) Josh Johnson 17-3) Mike Gonzalez 17-4) Chris Young 17-5) Ted Lilly 17-6) Greg Maddux 17-7) Mark Teahen 17-8) Jon Garland 17-9) B.J. Upton 17-10) Clay Hensley 17-11) Scott Shields 17-12) Edger Renteria 18-1) Eric Byrnes 18-2) Jeff Kent 18-3) Kevin Millwood 18-4) Philip Hughes 18-5) Chad Billingsley 18-6) Jason Varitek 18-7) Tom Glavine 18-8) Freddy Sanchez 18-9) Adrian Beltre 18-10) Orlando Cabrera 18-11) Nick Johnson 18-12) Ken Griffey Jr. 19-1)Tim Hudson 19-2) Edwin Encarnacion 19-3) Todd Jones 19-4) Freddy Garcia 19-5) Jose Contreras 19-6) AJ Pierzynski 19-7) Dave Roberts 19-8) Jim Edmonds 19-9) Morgan Ensberg 19-10) Matt Garza 19-11) Jeremy Hermida 19-12) Mark Buehrle 20-1) Shane Victorino 20-2) Brian Giles 20-3) Curtis Granderson 20-4) Corey Hart 20-5) Conor Jackson 20-6) Jeremy Sowers 20-7) Joe Borowski 20-8) Kevin Youkilis 20-9) Zach Duke 20-10) Kerry Wood 20-11) Akinori Ostuka 20-12)Joel Pineiro 21-1)Taylor Tankersley

"Who's Mark Buehrle?" http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/buehrma01.shtml Apparently you missed Greg Maddux's quote from a few years ago. Link Such a great quote. Yes, it was. I can't believe a Cubs fan would miss the meaning behind that question. I can't believe you care so much if I heard it or not. I don't care. I made the comment in humor and apparently you mistook it to being a jab at your pick, when it was not. So, I showed you where it came from. It got so much press at the time from the Cubs media as well as some in national media it's surprising that a Cub fan or a White Sox fan even would not have heard of it. I could care less whether you read much or not.

You pretty much had to make that pick.

It's looking as if Clemens may finally be finished. Link. He then added this...

Peoria could have a really nice team this year. I'd be pleasantly surprised if Rundle makes it up to Peoria to start the season. But there's potentially a lot of talent on that team. Of course the source is Rogers, so there's a chance it's all BS.

I've never heard of it.

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070216/capt.azmg20202161948.cubs_spring_baseball_azmg202.jpg

Not a Cubs pic, but I liked this one of Matt Holliday and his son. http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070216/capt.azmg11202162353.aptopix_rockies_spring_baseball_azmg112.jpg

The Mets deal looks interesting. I'd want them to include Milledge though.

I'm not for trading Z. I think we'll need him if we expect to win. But that package from the Angels looks awful tempting.

DeRosa came up with the Braves as a shortstop. In 2001 at AAA he started logging significant time as a 3b. He then tried to take over at third for Chipper, when Jones had been moved to the OF. So until he arrived in Atlanta and was surpassed by Furcal, DeRosa was viewed as a SS. At that point, he made the team as a bench player and learned to play all over the diamond. In Texas, they used him in the OF to get his bat in the line-up when he was blocked by Young and Kinsler. Whether or not he still has SS range, as a minor leaguer that was his position. Theriot has logged significant minor league innings at SS as well, though he seems to have spent more or as much time at 2b. Both were listed as SS in the minors. Are they superior defensive SS? I don't think so, but I think both are capable of handling the position.

Link.

Link.

While Piniella may not have been my first choice as manager (nor my second or third for that matter), it does appear that he's no dummy. For that, I'm thankful. It also appears that he just doesn't promise jobs and is willing to look at combinations that will help the team win. I'm thankful for that as well.

Link.

According to Rogers (Link. -scroll down a ways), Lopez likely will start the season in Peoria playing for Sandberg.

I don't mind Theriot as a backup. I'm not sure he's going to be any kind of option as a starter. He's 27 so he's not exactly a "prospect", and it's rare for guys to suddenly figure it out that far into their careers. I think it's reasonable to believe he'll give us better numbers than Neifi for a fraction of the cost, but I don't think he'll be able to duplicate last seasons .412 OBP over a whole season. Does anyone else know of many guys that didn't break into the majors until age 27 that amounted to anything? Up until last season, DeRosa had never been considered anything other than a back-up either.