Two More Pink Slips

Three losses in a row, not good.  I know it is only spring training, I know the Cubs have a couple of key pieces missing, but even so, you want to establish a prescence, an attitude, before the season starts.  From the beginning, the day started bad.  Before the game even started, Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano was scratched from the lineup  after suffering a non-displaced fracture of the tip of his right middle finger during an early drill Sunday.

"It’s not bad — it’s two or three days," Soriano said. "I’ll be back."

Cubs trainers said that it will be three to five days before Soriano is back. Then Lou Pinella apologized to Jason Marquis for lashing out at him yesterday;

"First of all, I’m going to apologize.  I didn’t handle that situation well. I overreacted to it after the ballgame we didn’t play particularly well in.

I can understand why a player feels that way, and we’ll leave it at that. The whole thing is I wasn’t expecting it and it sort of surprised me. I should’ve handled it better and I apologize.  I overreacted to it.  I’m human and when I’m wrong, I admit I’m wrong. I should’ve handled the situation differently. I recognized it after I said it, but what can you do? On the way home, I said I stuck my foot in my mouth. I had already stuck it, so what do you do?"

What can you do?  Stick to your guns Lou, that’s what you can do. You were right at being angry at Marquis for saying that he would rather be traded then sent to the bullpen.  You were right when you said you are giving him a chance to compete for the spot.  What makes Marquis so special that he automatically gets one of the spots?  I liked your first answer Lou, not the media friendly version.  Cubs fans were supporting you initial comments.  That’s what Cubs fans love about you and what we hated about Dusty.  You are honest and tell it like it is.  You don’t just give people jobs, you make them compete.  Don’t go changing just cause the media enjoyed hearing a truthful answer.

Anyway, back to the game.  Another stinker with the Cubs leaving more men on base, subpar pitching performances, and even a baserunning goof.  Ted Lilly was the starter, and looked mediocre.  A big concern is how Cubs pitchers continue to struggle to hold runners on.  The Giants had six stolen bases on the day, four of them off of Lilly.  Now granted, one was a double steal with two outs that Lilly wasn’t paying attention to the runners, but still, you can’t let these guys run wild.  Eugenio Velez stole three bases on the day.  Lilly went two innings, gave up one run, walked a batter, and hit another.  He just looked really tight.  Juan Mateo, who missed all of 2007 with a strained right shoulder, pitched one inning of scoreless ball, as Jose Ceda, who looked much better this time out.  With the game tied 1-1, Pinella brought in lefty Neal Cotts.  Cotts, who was dominant in the White Sox’s 2005 World Series season, has completely lost it.  I don’t know what happened to the guy, but mentally he’s lost his mojo.  He has no more marbles down below.  Cotts gave up five runs on three hits and three walks over two-thirds of an inning.  It couldn’t have gone any worse.  Two of those runs were hit off of Jose Ascanio, who came in to try and get out of a bases loaded jam that Cotts got in.  Scott McClain hit a duck snort to score two-runs.  Then, in the seventh, Shingo Takatsu gave up a two run bomb on one of his stupid loopy pitches.  Seriously, Cotts has lost it and Takatsu doesn’t fool anyone with his weird motiion.  These guys should just go play in the developmental league.  Neither will be with the big league club when they break from camp.  So far I have cut four guys off the roster, you can disagree with me if you like, but Ihave given pink slips to;  Esmailin Caridad, Neal Cotts, Les Walrond, and Shingo Takatsu.

As far as offense is concerned, the Cubs continued to not hit in the clutch, make stupid plays to end rallies, and miss opportunities.  Eric Patterson had a single and a double, and Felix Pie went 1-3 with a home run.  Fukudome and Lee both were hitless, although Fukudome reached base on what was scored an error but I felt was a hit.  Andres Torres, who played a bit with the Tigers and Rangers also hit a home run.  Unfortunately, Soto and Pie both made baserunning mistakes.  Pie actually got caught on the fake look to third-throw to first play. 

Trade Front

There has been no recent news on the Brian Roberts trade, and rumor has it that the Cubs offered Matt Murton for Coco Crisp of the Red Sox, but that the Red Sox weren’t interested. After all, it was the Red Sox who threw Murton in when the Nomar Garciaparra trade went down.  Me, personally, I just want to give Pie a chance to work through this.  Pie will get nothing more from playing in the minors.  He has proven that he can destroy minor league pitching.  He needs to work through this and he can only do that by playing everyday.  Look, if it doens’t work out, I’m sure there will be players that the Cubs could trade for later.  I just hope that the Cubs can get things together tomorrow against Seattle.   Jon Lieber will make his first start since returning to the Cubs and Sean Marshall will follow. Let’s get it going guys.

Go Cubs!