Aramis Ramirez has informed Dominican officials that he is going to skip the WBC. Adrian Beltre had already been named their starting 3B anyway. Glad to have him at Spring Training.

Having Ramirez skip the WBC and stay healthy is huge. I think he is the most important hitter in the lineup. Without him, there isn't anything to protect DLee. Lineup of Pierre, Walker, Lee, Ramirez, Jones, Barrett, Murton, and Cedeno is sick.

My thoughts exactly.

Pre-season game next Sunday is on WGN.

I was wondering when the first one was going to be. thanks for the info.

We should be able to get 5 spring games on TV.

All 162 regular season games will be televised in the Chicago area. WGN TV will televise 72 games, Comcast SportsNet will carry 72 games (including eight on Comcast SportsNet Plus) and WCIU will televise eight. Two games are currently scheduled for ESPN and eight for the Fox Network.

It's a bummer that all of the Houston series will be Mon-Wed. The good thing for me is that I work shift work so I'll be off some of those days. But it'll be tougher for other to get out to MMP.

34 days until opening day.

More on Opening Day...

The Reds have pretty much already decided that Aaron Harang will be their starter. He's definitely not a number 1 pitcher in most rotations but I think he could potentially be a good 2 or 3. He had a low ERA last year but was stuck on a bad team. Here's a line on him from the tribune.

quote:

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The 27-year-old Harang, a 6-foot-7-inch, 270-pound right-hander, was 11-13 with a 3.83 earned run average for the Reds last season. Harang is 3-0 lifetime with a 3.68 ERA in four starts against the Cubs.

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[EDIT] When I say he had a low ERA I say that with his record in mind.


[This message has been edited by bluestainedivy (edited 2/27/2006 12:43p).]

To follow through on the discussion from a few days ago, this is from the Trib...

quote:

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The only bullpen certainties this spring are Ryan Dempster, Bob Howry, Scott Eyre and Scott Williamson. That leaves Michael Wuertz, Will Ohman, Roberto Novoa, Todd Wellemeyer and several other candidates to fight for the two remaining spots, three if the Cubs go with a 12-man staff.

Manager Dusty Baker said no one, outside of the four veterans, is assured of making the team out of camp.

Considering Kerry Wood and Wade Miller are due to return from their shoulder injuries sometime in the first month or two, the margin for error for the young Cubs relievers is slim, even if they make the club out of spring training.

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I read that as well. I find it comforting to see those guys competing for one or two spots. Even though they aren't big name guys I have confidence that they can get the job done. If we have a solid bullpen and a solid rotation then we are in excellent shape. The NL is weak and even though I don't too much confidence in the Cubbies reports like this give me more hope.

blue, do you know why Scott Williamson has one of the guaranteed spots? I assume it's money. I would think Ohman would be more of a sure thing.

My guess is because Williamson is older and has proven himself over many seasons, where Ohman is still relatively young. Related to that, I'm sure, is that Williamson wouldn't go down to Iowa. He would either need to make the team or be released.

I would agree with Old Style. Experience would probably give Williamson the upper hand although I wouldn't necessarily think that he's a lock. Scott, in my opinion did well last season minus a couple of bad outings. Ohman on the other hand...I don't have much confidence in him and I think he was asking for a lot in contract negotiations. His numbers were better last year but in my mind he's still unproven. My feelings may just be left-over from 2004.

W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV SVO IP H R ER HR BB SO
2005 2 2 2.91 69 0 0 0 0 3 43.1 32 14 14 6 24 45
Career 3 3 4.17 86 0 0 0 0 3 58.1 50 27 27 8 34 59


I really hope that Eyre and Howry are all that they are talked up to be. I've gathered that the Chicago press is excited about them but every one else is tentative on giving Hendry the thumbs up on those acquisitions. Seems to me that ultimately the success of the pitching staff between the starters and Dempster will for the most part fall on their shoulders. We gave them both a nice deal to bring them over. We need them to deliver on their part. I believe that the bullpen could play the largest role in deciding the personality of our ball club. We pretty much know where our offense will be minus Murton and Cedeno.

I definitely need to do some more research on the different pitchers vying for the one or two spots.

Good thing we didn't take the bait last year on Troy Percival. It seemed like a no-brainer at the time for the Cubs to sign him but I guess Hendry knew what he was doing by letting the Tigers sign him to a 2 year-$12 million contract. Did you see where he cleaned out his locker and left Tigers camp yesterday due to injury?

Sun-Times is reporting that Scott Williamson might be on the trading block. He had a 5+ ERA (9 ER in 14 IP) but also had 23 K's and only 6 walks. If we can get someone good for him I'm not against it but I think he could be solid this year (barring injury of course). If we did trade him I don't know what we would look for in return.

One other thing that I failed to throw into my previous comment about our bullpen is that when Wood or Miller gets back both Williams and Rusch are guaranteed to be relievers if they aren't traded. It's more likely that Williams would be traded.

I would imagine the Hendry is still trying to move Todd Walker. Packaging Williamson or one of the other relievers with him wouldn't surprise me. But again, what are they going to get in return for those guys?

33 days between now and opening day.

Looks like I wasn't the only one questioning Williamson's guaranteed spot.

Word from wgn radio this morning is that they're trying to shore up their bench to give another option opposite Mabry. They'd also certainly try to restock their double A talent with all the trades they've made in the last year. Going from 1st to 15th in farm system rankings in 3 years is pretty ridiculous.

Anyone else nervous about Cedeno's bat over a full season?

The other option besides Mabry will most probably end up being Grissom.

...I don't know about Cedeno. I hope he can at least stay consistent. We don't need any power men in the lineup. We just need a guy who can hit for a decent average and stay on base for the buys behind him even if he is batting lower in the order. I, personally, don't expect big things but I think he can have an impact.

[This message has been edited by bluestainedivy (edited 2/28/2006 12:59p).]

quote:

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Anyone else nervous about Cedeno's bat over a full season?

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Not me. I don't expect him to light up the NL, but I anticipate him pulling his weight. He did very well over the Winter. Besides, he will most likely hit in the 8 hole. He's in the majors for his defense, not his stick. Anything he gives us there is gravy.

And I have to disagree with ivy. I think we do need another power bat in this line-up. Look at what teams have done with 3 big power hitter in a row in the order. That can cause a lot of damage. Right now, we only have Lee and Ramirez. Murton, Barrett and Jones might add some pop, but I think we need a bigger threat in there.

As long as you suggest we don't resign Sammy for the extra bat. Those mailbag questions on the Cubs site about resigning him are a little ridiculous.

Good Lord, no. I wouldn't even take Moist Hands back even if he wanted to play for free.

Although I don't disagree with you Old Style, I think timely hitting and sound fundamentals offensively will be better for us...For example, after Paul Konerko's 40 HRs and Jermaine Dye's 31, Everett and Crede had 23 and 22 respectively for the sox. For our part I think Murton and Jones can easily hit in the 20s. We just don't need the strikeouts that come with a slugger. For a long time that has been our biggest problem, not getting productive outs.

quote:

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We just don't need the strikeouts that come with a slugger. For a long time that has been our biggest problem, not getting productive outs.

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I agree. I guess I was drunk when I posted thinking we could find a power hitter who actually knows how to hit, as well.

Sammy's biggest problem was he never figured out that when there are 2 outs and a runner in scoring position, he doesn't need to try hit the ball 450+ feet. The last 2 years he was with the team I would leave the room when he came up in those circumstances cause I already knew what was going to happen and I couldn't stand to see it again.

1 more day until 1st Spring Training game!

From the Q&A on the Cubs' site:

quote:

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If Matt Murton can provide a 20-homer season and Jacque Jones adds 30, will the Cubs have enough power to lead the National League in home runs?
-- Nick R., Maryville, Tenn.

The Cubs would rather lead the National League in wins, pitching and defense than home runs.

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Stupid question, stupid answer.

I'm interested in seeing how Jaque Jones will do this year. I tried to find something on the internet that showed the Twins' most commonly used batting order. I was only able to find the lineup from certain games but from what I saw Minnesota had a weak offense. Torii Hunter was hurt much of the year and they really didn't have a star outside him.

Jones led the team in Runs(74), HR(23), K(120), and was second in Games played, ABs, RBIs, BBs. He also ranked high on the list in AVG, OBP, SLG and OPS but I didn't include those since the Twins really seemed to have gotten bit by the injury bug.

I would hope that Jaque would do a lot better in our lineup which will have a little more pop. It seems likely that he should. Heopfully his working with Tony Gwynn will also help him cut down on his strike outs...I wonder how he'll do batting behind Lee and Aramis.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/teams/min/stats/bycategory?cat=Batting&type=0&year=season_2005&qualified=0&sort=25

[This message has been edited by bluestainedivy (edited 3/1/2006 12:42p).]

Woody and Miller are said to be ahead of schedule. Wood threw 20 pitches of the mound yesterday.

32 days.

Good to hear about Wade Miller. If he can get healthy and log 150 innings as a #5, that would be a steal. When he's healthy, he can be unhitable.

I had heard that Hendry was going to talk with Lee's agent about an extension sometime (maybe tomorrow). Has anyone heard anything else on that? Maybe outside of Z he may be the most important piece of our puzzle.



Check out Pie's helmet, I think he stole it from RoboCop.

31 days.

After reading posts from you guys/TCR/BCB the last few months, it seems as if there is a sense of quiet optimism which people are afraid to speak...Discuss

Eternal optimism....that's what makes Cubs fans what they are

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Check out "Texas A&M & Baseball In No Particular Order"
at tamu-and-baseball.com

I've never seen a helmet like that. Is that what people are going to start using?

HMFIC, starting about August 15 every year, Cubs fans' motto is always "wait until next year". Until then, we think we're winning the world series this year.