Pitching decisions...

From the Gordo twitter -
Lou and Hendry met this AM: Final pitching decisions to go into weekend. 4 for 2 spots: Samardzija, Gaudin, Patton, Guzman

So, let's look.

Samardzija - started to hiccup just a bit late last year. Has had a less-than-impressive Spring. It's decision time - make him a reliever, which he did well for the bulk of his playing time last year, or move him to starter in which case means going to IA.
Gaudin - The Dark Horse better art of the Harden deal last year. Frankly hasn't impressed me yet, some good outings, some bad outings. Out of options - no way in hell he clears waivers and hasn't missed a bat all spring...But...keep him for now.
Patton - Pretty much unhittable this spring, but if there's one thing spring teaches us, it's that you have to read between a lot of lines to figure out what'll happen up north. However if you don't keep him, you lose him...
Guzman - Has never impressed me, at all. Not that he's not good. I'm sure he's a decent reliever, but just not needed right now.

Props for Kapper

Very enjoyable show tonight by our good friend David Kaplan on the 'GN. Basically he contacted gms and beat reporters of other NL Central and get the low down.

My favorite highlight was Doug Melvin, up north. When asked, what is your biggest strength, Mel's reply was something to the effect of:

We have 9 really good players that can all play 150 games easily.

Umm...just so we're clear - you're the GM of a baseball franchise, and your greatest strength is your ability to field a complete team?

And you guys wonder why you can't win...

Is Rickie Weeks one of those starters?

Anywho, once again props to Kapper for a very enjoyable show tonight.

Closers up!

Well, well well. No ego stroking coming out of camp this spring. Kevin Gregg is your closer, winning out against Carlos "Dutch flubber" Marmol. I was actually rather hoping this would happen for a couple of reasons. Now, Gregg gets a short leash, with Marmol ready to step in if needed. And Marmol can actually go back to doing what he did so insanely well last year and that's closing the door in the 7th and 8th innings.

Yes, we know Marmol was "supposed" to be the next great closer. But for now he's the best bullpen man in baseball, including closers and Carlos, you're just gonna have to settle for that.

"His mediocre spring numbers and WBC struggles weren't a factor, he said."

Uh huh...

670 The Score's Tournament of Bad

From my limited understanding, here's what I believe the Tournament of Bad is: A list of 64 bad things face off against each other NCAA March Madness style. People vote which is worse, winner moves on, etc. Here are the Cubs entries -

Ronnie Woo Woo, Cubs Playoff Baseball, Ron Santo's Hairpiece

Cubs Playoff Baseball was knocked of in the second round being extremely bad, but not as bad as "The View" - ok, no argument there. Ron Santo's Hairpiece looks to make its exit against the same program in this round. Ronnie Woo Woo is still holding strong in round 3, having beaten "Boneless, Skinless chicken breast" and "Sarah Palin" and while that would be a close matchup, yes Ronnie is worse. Woo Woo could take this thing all the way, needing to beat out only DePaul Basketball to advance to the final four.

Having said that, my personal favorites in this tournament -
"The Creepy Relationship Between Billy Ray and Miley Cyrus" (still alive)
"The misuse of their, there and they're" - although they could've included sooooo many other words (still alive)
"Joaquin Phoenix - The Rapper (eliminated in the first round)

Irony of the day

From http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2009/03/cubsd-add-restaurant-may-move-from-mesa.html

"The Cubs might leave Mesa as a spring training homeafter 2012. Kenney said the Cubs need a more modern and expanded facility, especially for their year-round baseball operations, and have been talking with cities in Florida."

Umm....does Krane know where the Cubs play during the regular season?

OMC on the web.

So here's how you can find me elsewhere on the web, if you care enough :)
I'll update this with more links as they become available.

Twitter - http://twitter.com/oneminutecubs
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1488293531&ref=profile

No, no, no

I swear to everything holy, I will take a baseball bat to anyone who thinks of another way to break this curse. In the latest dose of stupidity, on an international scale no less, you know what - just read. It's so incredibly inane, I can't bring myself to say it - http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1476588,CST-NWS-cubs14.article

This is blowing up the Bartman ball, this is bringing a goat to opening day, this is eating goat burgers, and this is bringing a Greek Orthodox priest to the first game of the 2008 playoffs. This is acknowledging the curse as anything but what it is - a stupid little fairy tale we tell our kids get them to go to bed.

Talk about the curse, joke about it, acknowledge it all you want, but don't try to break it, because trying to break it only makes it stronger. The ONLY way, ONLY way ONLY WAY to break it is to win. Period, done, end of list.

Nothing to worry about?

So I'm listeing to WSCR Zach Z, and he's going on and on about how this is the best spring trianing and we have nothing to worry aobut and blah blah, and I'm thinking to myself - we have more holes than last year! Let's talk aobut a few things -

A. A closer that can't close out the Dutch
B. A starting pitcher who can't be relied on for over 80 pitches, maybe 25 times.
C. No full time second baseman with all due respect to Fontenot.
D. A Right Fielder who played 20 games in RF last year - this is not a knock on his defense. This is a knock on his health.
E. No backup for Aramis Ramirez.

Three Words - two-thousand-four. everyone was sitting pretty back then thinking we had it made....for a minute anyway...

2009 Roster

On twitter, I've been doing one roster member per day as a countdown to Spring training. I'll compile them all into here:

Roster #1- Carlos Zambrano - Being this crazy never looked this good. Scary when he's on. Scarrier when he's off.
Roster #2 - Aramis Ramirez - Mr. Clutch in the regular season needs a freakin' tennis racket in the post season.
Roster #3 - Carlos Marmol - Can't close against the Dutch, but I'm sure he'll do fine against the Cardinals and Brewers
Roster #4 - Ryan Dempster - #3 starter had a #1 year, due mostly to the fact that he twists his hand unnaturally and he's Canadian.
Roster #5 - Ted Lilly - Was supposed to not suck. Was supposed to eat innings. Then he goes and wins 34 games over two years. How dare he?
Roster #6 - Mike Fontenot - Your 2009 starting 2nd baseman. He's mini-me with a mega-bat.
Roster #7 - Reed Johnson - Platooning once again. Don't bunt to Longoria again - ever - and we'll be ok...
Roster #8 - Alfonso Soriano - He's going to lead off. Get over it. He can't hit a beachball if he doesn't. Theriot can lead off after him.
Roster #9 - Milton Bradley - More than 20 games in RF would be nice. Remember there's no wussy DH over here...
Roster #10 - Derrek Lee - He's a solid leader, both in the clubhouse and in double plays. No longer a #3 hitter - more like 5 or 6.
Roster #11 - Micah Hoffpauir - The Hoff. That's right. The Hoff. Got a problem with that?
Roster #12 - Kevin Gregg - Your new Kerry Wood, only not. Your new closer, only not. Your dominant setup guy, only not... Who is this guy??
Roster #13 - Rich Harden - Devestating stuff. The best pitcher in baseball - 20 pitches at a time.
Roster #14 - Kosuke Fukudome - probably won't suck as bad as he did last year...As Tom Seleck said "It's not a srump!"
Roster #15 - Neal Cotts - At this point the only lefty option out of the bullpen. Which is exactly the only reason he has a job...
Roster #16 - Geovany Soto - His dad gave him a catcher's mask when he was 3 and said "Shut up and wear it". Go dad....
Roster #17 - Aaron Miles - He's like a bargain basement Mark DeRosa wannabe who costs half the price - you get what you pay for...
Roster #18 - Ryan Theriot - The Riot! On-Base fiend. Thinks he's a lot faster than he actually is. If he can up the steal rate....scary...
Roster #19 - Koyie Hill - Gets his hand cut off and still catches 95 mph heaters. Frickin' hard core baby...Frickin' hard core...
Roster #20 - Joey Gathright - The new Felix Pie. Will come in handy if we need to steal a base or, you know, jump over a BMW...
Roster #21 - Sean Marshall - Should be the primary lefty bullpen option, but then Peavy should be wearing blue pinstripes...Cest La Vie
Roster #22 - Luis Vizcaino - You better not suck as bad as I think you're gonig to.
Roster #23 - Aaron Heilman - Traded twice during the offseason. So good, 2 teams wanted him.Wait.That also means 2 teams didn't want him.
Roster #24 - Angel Guzman - Keeping things warm for Samardzija or Hart until Piniella realizes just had bad this guy is..
Roster #25 - David Patton - Never pitched above A-ball? You'll fit right in. Welcome to the Cubs.

Closer Marmol can't seem to close...

Ok, so I didn't hear about the FIRST time the Dominican Republic managed to blow a game to the Netherlands, but the second time, it seems it was our little boy, I'm pitching, no I'm not, yes I am Marmol blowing the savge. Against the Dutch. All due respect to our European brothers and sisters, but the Royals have more talent on their team than the Netherlands, led by their fearless leader Randall "The-Sausage-King-of-wait-is-he-really-Dutch?" Simon.
Granted there was an error in the inning, but umm does this not scare the living Bejesus out of anyone else? Am I alone here?

I'd love to say "Suddenly, letting Kerry Wood walk doesn't seem like such a great idea," except, it's not SUDDENLY.

I sure hope Gregg can close...

minute...

The beginning of the end

Great...First Facebook, which is BTW a joke in case you haven't figured that one out yet...Now, yes, I've taken the twitter plunge. Although I have yet to figure out a use for this riduculous service. Gordon "I'm Jaques Jones's prison B$^&" Wittlessmeyer not too bad on it, but i'm not sure I have it in me...

We'll see where it goes. About the only place I can see this going is my posts here getting shorter...

https://twitter.com/onetwittedcubs

What Milton wants...

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1461426,CST-SPT-cub05.article

''I'll take the asking about my health [over] asking about my character or the person I am,'' Bradley said. ''I can live with that.''

hehehe....really.. because quad-man, that's EXACTLY what people will be talking aobut. Not that you're moody-spice, but the fact that you're not playing. Like at all. There is no DH in the NL, sparky, so let's not get hurt shall we? Or believe me, talking about the fact that you're ape-sh%^ crazy will seem like a honeymoon.

We've had our injuries - Prior, Wood, Corey Patterson, D-Lee, Soriano. You're just next in line, but this is the first time we ever signed a free agent straight to the DL and we're not the leat surprised...

Another new feature for OMC

We're calling this one - new rules in baseball. Just some ideas that might make the game more enjoyable or at least less distasteful to some.

Here's the first -
Speaking of Bobby Cros

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/03/SPBU167P8F.DTL
"I was hoping to be Oakland's shortstop, and that's obviously not in their plans," he said. "I've enjoyed it here, but the best thing for me is to go somewhere I can be an everyday shortstop. They've made up their minds, and I just hope they can give me the opportunity to move on."

Now, here's Bobby's numbers - AVG/OPG/SLG

2008 - .237/.296/.349
Career - .239/.306/.380

Now here's the rule -

You waive your right to ask for/demand a trade if you suck. You want to be traded? Be tradable.

Not another Bobby....

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/04/SP07168C7A.DTL

Shortstop Bobby Crosby becomes the A's backup middle infielder with the Cabrera acquisition, but there could be some interest in him before the spring is over - including from the Cubs, according to one source. One of Chicago's top scouts was watching Tuesday's game and is known to have been a fan of Crosby in the past.

Why? Is he left handed???

Facebook

A lot of folks recently have been bugging me to get on Face book. I continuously tell them "You're lucky I have a blog..." but fine. I'm on face book. You'll find me under "OMC Smith". I tried One Minute Cubs, and they wouldn't allow it...Go figure...

So, if it floats your boat, friend me, finger me, poke me, tickle my Elmo. I'll probably do crap there less than I do here. Actually, I'm curious if there's a way to simul-post both places...yes, I'm that lazy...

Have a minute on me...