Monday, February 25, 2008

Cubs News, Notes, and Rumors.

-Mark Derosa went back to Chicago and is not expected to be there for long. Derosa was sent to the hospital yesterday due to an irregular heartbeat but all seems well, because he is expected to be back on the field by the end of the week, I am glad he is fine and happy he will be back on the field soon!

- SI.com's Jon Heyman says a Roberts to Chicago trade still has a little life, and the Orioles are scouting Cubs' players. Meanwhile Jason Churchill wrote a few days ago that the O's may require Felix Pie or Tyler Colvin instead of the Cubs' apparent offer of Ronny Cedeno, Sean Gallagher, and Kevin Hart. Churchill says the O's are also high on Eric Patterson.

-Lou Piniella has been very complimentary about Matt Murton's swing over the past two days.

-Eric Patterson has spent most of his time with the outfielders this spring.

- It is official, Ryan Dempster will start the Cactus League opener next Thursday against the San Francisco Giants. "'Z' said he didn't want it any more," Dempster said, jokingly, about Zambrano.

- Fukudome hit some ball out of the ballpark today. He is looking better and better at the plate!

- It seems Petrick and Ceda are Lou's favorites to get the final right handed spot in the pen. Lou also like Cotts a lot but I really don't. He may surprise me though.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ceda can throw some nasty pitches, but i dont see him making the jump to the big league pen. I am LOVING are bullpen though with wood howry and marmol pitches the 789 not in any particular order. plus you got the extremely underrated wuertz and scott eyre is pretty decent as a lefty. We just need one more lefty and i dont know if that can be Cotts or not. Im thinking it will be pignatello.

Unknown said...

I agree with glacier. Our bullpen is pretty impressive. Its definitely going to shorten the games to 6 innings if we got the lead. And as the regulars know... I've been asking for a legit #2 starter if we are going to make it to the WS... but its most likely not going to happen until the trade deadline... and until then we should be able to get by with Marquis, Demp, and Lieber considering how they only need to go 5 or 6 innings with keeping us in the ballgame.

And the fact that we got kids like Hart, Ceda, Ascanio, etc waiting in the wings... definitely got depth.

Which kind of surprises me that Hendry has been rumored to reject a Roberts trade that includes Ceda. I mean of course if we can pull off the deal without including him, more power to us. But strictly from a depth standpoint... I would say our relief kid arms are more expendable than trading our SP kids.

Nick I Cub Fan said...

And if Marshall isn't traded he could end up in the bullpen. The good news is this year we have alot of pitchers to pick from.

Anonymous said...

chicagosports.com blog lists Thurs starting line up. Thing that stuck out most was no Soriano. Theriot will lead off and play SS... Murt in LF further down the line up. I know its only Spring... but interesting none the less. Trying to showcase Murt for a trade maybe?

Cintron will start at 2B... so we'll get a "look" at him. I say "look" cause it wont be on tv.

Anonymous said...

I'm kinda surprised that Z "doesn't want it." doesn't he have quite an ego/competitive spirit that he really wants to continue to be the opening day starter? seems like, for him, its #1 or nothing. what do you all think? Jimbo

Anonymous said...

See i agree that its ok to deal some of our bullpen depth. But In no way do i want the cubs to overpay for roberts and having ceda gallagher and cedeno for him is way overpaying. The orioles are really pissing me off with this. I really like gallagher and i really like ceda but i would rather trade gallagher first.

Joe i agree if we had a good number 2 i would LOVE our chances to go to WS i think it would definitley make us a top 3 team in NL. It would be great to have a good number 2 behind z and then have lilly 3 and hill 4. I think if lilly and hill were our 3-4 our team would have a preety sick rotation. Luckily next year there is some good free agents. Im hoping for Sabathia personally.