Viva Las Vegas!

The Cubs have officially broken camp in Arizona and will travel this weekend to play Seattle in Las Vegas.  The lineup is set, the 25 man roster is ready, and we have our starting pitcher.  All the talk, all the hype, all the money, it all comes down to one day; April 2 when the Cubs start their season in Cincinnati.  This is the lineup Lou has penciled in;

1. Alfonso Soriano, CF
2. Matt Murton, LF
3. Derrek Lee, 1B
4. Aramis Ramirez, 3B
5. Jacque Jones, RF
6. Michael Barrett, C
7. Mark DeRosa, 2B
8. Cesar Izturis, SS
9. Carlos Zambrano, P 

No big surprises here.  Murton has earned his spot on the team and will bat second.  The biggest problem is the lack of left handed hitters.  With the way Cliff Floyd has played the outfield this spring, I hope he isn’t in too many games.  I know he has a left handed bat, but that guy has been brutal. 

The rotation is also set; Zambrano, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis, Rich Hill, and Wade Miller.  Zambrano will start on opening day.  The bullpen includes closer Ryan Dempster, set up men Scott Eyre, Bob Howry, Will Ohman, Michael Wuertz, and designated long men Neal Cotts and Angel Guzman.

The bench includes backup catcher Henry Blanco, backup shortstop Ronny Cedeno, back up outfielder Cliff Floyd, and back up infielders/outfielders Ryan Theriot and Daryle Ward.

Not on the Roster

There are a few guys I would have liked to have seen on the team who didn’t make the cut.  The team optioned outfielders Felix Pie and Angel Pagan and pitcher Rocky Cherry to Triple-A Iowa.  I am not a Cliff Floyd fan and I would have rather kept Pagan.  He is a switch hitter with a lot of speed. Pie played fantastic defense, swung the bat well, and showed his quickness.   Cherry had the most successful spring training, but didn’t make the team.  I can’t wait until they call these guys up in September.  The one person who also didn’t make the cut, and didn’t deserve to is Mark Prior.  As I said over a month ago, Prior will make his start in Iowa.  And it’s about time someone made a rational decision on this issue.  Pinella chose Miller over Prior because Miller pitched better than Prior.  Prior is going to have to prove he belongs on the team, and the only way to do that is to get him on some kind of routine.  Prior obviously wasn’t happy;

"I’m not going down that road," he said. "I’m under their control until I’m not under their control. It’s up to them whether they want me. I’m just an employee.  Look, I’m a controlled player.  There’s nothing I can do with what their decisions are, so I’m not going to sit there and fight it. I don’t really have a whole lot of control, and until you get in a position where you have any leverage, then maybe you can argue and try to find out what other options there are.  When there are no other options and they’ve made a decision, you accept it and move on. I’m going to play ball."
He also had some smart *** comments about making the Triple A allstar team.  You know what’s funny about Prior and Wood?  They don’t realize that in the real world, if someone was unable to perform at their job like these two yahoos, they wouldn’t continue to collect multimillion dollar paychecks.  I’m glad someone finally had the balls to put both of these guys in their place.

Coaching Staff

I have had nothing but high praise for the whole coaching staff.  I have seen more improvement out of these players in one spring then I did during the whole Dusty era.  First base coach and excatcher Matt Sinatro has been working on defese with Michael Barrett.  Bench coach Alan Trammel has been working hard with Ronnie Cedeno.  Third base coach Mike Quade has been trying to turn Alfonso Soriano into a centerfielder.  Gerald Perry has taught the team to take some pitches and work the count.  Coach Ivan DeJesus has been drilling the pitchers on a regular basis.

"He’s really been working a lot on bunting, push bunting, just making sure we get our bunts down consistently," pitcher Rich Hill said. "He pulls us to the back field, and we’ll have 20 bunts one side, 20 bunts the other side, and do it again and do it again until we consistently get it down until it becomes second nature. That’s the way it feels just because of the time we’ve spent in Spring Training."

Heck, I have even seen Aramis Ramirez hustling.  This is what I call coaching.

Predictions

I have seen the Cubs picked anywhere from first place to fourth place.  Me personally, I think they will finish in first.  I think they have more depth then anyone else in the Central.  Houston and St.Louis didn’t do enough to improve and lost a lot of key guys.  Cinnci and Milwaukee look better, but they still have weaknesses, and god help us if we finish behind Pittsburg again!  Especially with the money that was spent.

Problems

Yes the Cubs also have their share of problems.  I remain skeptical about the outfield defense.  As I said before, I would rather have Soriano play left, Pie play center, and Jones play right.  Oh well.  I am also worried about the spring performances of Neal Cotts and Michael Wuertz.  I hope Dempster regains his 05 form.  I don’t want to see Floyd complain about playing time.  The pitching staff is going to be key.  The  starters need to keep us in ballgames and give us innings.  The bullpen cannot be overused, since Dusty did that last year.  Finally, the biggest concern is Zambrano’s contract.  Hendry usually finished these things last minute, but I will say it again;

The Cubs do not want the Zambrano contract circus screwing up this season.  Get this done and we have a chance.  The deadline is quickly approaching.

All and All

All and all, this should be a much more pleasant season of baseball than last year. It will be more exciting, there should be more fundamentally sound baseball, and their are some fun storylines and characters on this team.

I hope you enjoy this season as much as I am planning on and keep coming back for all your Cubs news and use the comments section to sound off!

GO Cubs!