You've gotta respect the Cubs blogs that devote a lot of time to Spring Training, like Bleed Cubbie Blue.  Those guys obviously are passionate about the team.  We haven't spent a lot of time talking about Spring Training here at GROTA, though, partly because we're looking ahead to the games that matter, and partly because they don't mean a whole heck of a lot.

For example - in his debut with the Cubs, Carlos Silva got hammered, and everybody panicked the way they do when bad things go worse.  But it's Spring Training, and as much as we shouldn't worry about Silva's 10.80 ERA, we should also not worry about Carlos Zambrano's 9.00 ERA (and I don't think anybody is), or Tom Diamond's 0.00 ERA.  I learned a long time ago that Spring Training isn't a fair predictor of success or failure.

That said, there are some players trying like hell to get jobs who have done fantastically, or horribly.  Tyler Colvin is batting .520, although he's basically cock-blocked by Fukudome for the time being.  Mike Fontenot, who some thought would get DFA'd this winter, leads the charge to get a second shot at second base with his .500 AVG and 8 RBI in 19 at bats.  Chad Tracy, who may or may not crack the team, is cracking the bat right now by batting .353.  Your favorite and mine, Kevin Millar, is batting .600 in 8 games and looks like a sure bet to wedge his way into the roster.

Pitching wise, everybody is getting smacked around with a few notable exceptions.  Sean Marshall (2.57 ERA in 7.0 IP), Andrew Cashner (1.80 ERA in 5.0 IP), Ryan Dempster (0.00 ERA in 5.0 IP), James Russell (0.00 ERA in 4.2 IP), Esmailin Caridad (0.00 ERA in 4.1 IP), the aforementioned Diamond (0.00 ERA in 4.1 IP), Carlos Marmol (2.25 ERA in 4.0 IP), John Gaub (2.70 ERA in 3.1 IP), and Justin Berg (3.00 ERA in 3.0 IP) are the best arms on the pitching staff so far.

And yet...
For those who are new to the blog, or new to actively following the Cubs in general, I can only offer this one piece of advice during Spring Training: believe nothing.  It's all a huge work.  (In other words, the stories are manufactured, blown out of proportion, and not particularly believable.)

We will always see the Resurgent Veteran story.  Player X has had a few down years as of late, but in a last effort bid to hang on he has worked extra hard, is healthier than he's ever been, and thinks he'll have a great year.

We will also always see the Prospect Done Good story.  Player Y is young, but brimming with talent.  Let's watch with excitement as he storms the field, wields the bat, and gives us something to be excited about now and for years to come.

We will also always see the Rag-Tag Team Comes Together story.  Sure, all these guys have had issues in the past, but they are playing well together, they are enjoying each other's company, and they're even hanging out together outside of the ballpark!

These tales are as perennial as the grass.  Don't buy into them.  We won't really know a thing about this team, really, until they're one or two months in, faced with unexpected injuries and disastrous personnel issues.  Until then it's a Sunday at the Carnival.  Fun, exciting, but disconnected from reality.

As we build steam toward Spring Training, Cub fans are already wondering if '10 will be another lost cause almost before it even starts.  Well, I've done some searching, and not even a kick-ass sportsbook like Belmont has started laying the odds on the upcoming season, but perhaps we should consider the following facts:

• Alfonso Soriano is not over-the-hill yet, is coming back from knee surgery, and cannot possibly duplicate the crappy down-year he had in '09
• Cheer up, Rob, Geo Soto is apparently fit and fantastic
• Aramis Ramirez aught to be healthier
• Derrek Lee is in a contract season
• Milton Bradley is gone
• Dude.  Seriously.  Milton Bradley is gone.
• The rotation remains blessed, the bullpen aught to be decent, and the offense might actually surprise us and be hole-free
• Did the surprise team of '09, St. Louis, get any better?
• Did any team in the Central get better?

If those facts are indeed true -- and for the most part they can't be contested -- then the Cubs just might surprise us by making another run for it.  I don't know that I'd predict them to be World Series champs -- or even NL Central ones -- but there's no reason to assume they'll do worse.  As amazing as '08 was in terms of career years and offensive production, '09 was almost an all-round unmitigated offensive disaster.  It'll be better in '10.  You can bet on it.

In honor of the recent free agent minor league acquisition of Kevin Millar, AJ EMailed me with a suggestion of republishing an article from 2008.  I will be doing so now, verbatim, about the value (or lack-thereof) of Kevin Millar

Recently in the Shout Box, Keith wondered why Al Yellon seems to
have a man crush on Kevin Millar.  Were you to mosey on over to Bleed Cubbie Blue,
you would read the following sentence: "I would still like to see the
Cubs sign Kevin Millar to back up LF, RF and 1B... and to be that
clubhouse presence that was missing, somehow, during the disastrous
2008 postseason."

Now, I'm not Al Yellon - obviously, because I permit links to and
discussions about other Cubs blogs, even though to do so apparently
threatens to eat into my readership and ad revenue somehow - but his
desire for Millar is obviously based on more than a clinical review of
the numbers.  It's about a call into question regarding the intangibles
of baseball.

Let's take a close look at Kevin Millar. 
The first thing we might notice is that the dude will be 37 next year. 
After that, we might encounter that he batted .234 with a .323 OBP and
a .394 slugging percentage, although he did hit 20 homeruns and walk 71
times last year.

Going beyond that, we also find that, while Yellon wants Millar to
serve as a backup to 1B, LF, and RF, the guy has played a grand
whopping total of 3 games in the outfield in the past 3 years.

In other words, Millar's not going to win you games with his bat or
with his glove.  I guess that he must have a high leadership score or
something, I don't know.  Similar to Kyle's Scrappy White Player
Factor, maybe there would be a way to clinically determine a player's
Leadership Factor Score.

Some things that could go into calculating the score ...

Number of times player has had sex with a teammate's wife/girlfriend/sister/mother/daughter. 
A promiscuous player is perhaps well respected by certain elements of
any clubhouse (like Mickey Mantle, who was a legendary skirt chaser),
but if he risks crossing a line, it could negatively effect how he is
seen by his teammates.  If Lee Dershipman, our hypothetical example,
caves in at a moment of weakness and nails every piece of tail in a
teammate's immediate family, then he's going to lose Leadership Cred.

Points are assigned based on a scale of 1-10.  If Lee has nailed a
teammate's wife, daughter (if she is under 18, multiply this loss x5
for every year she is underage), mother, or girlfriend, he loses 10
points.  He loses 5 points for a teammate's sister - which can be
regained x2 if he winds up marrying her and 3 points for a cousin (1
point if the cousin is distant).  If Lee sleeps with a teammate's
mother but then goes on to marry her, it's still creepy and upsetting
and he loses an additional 10 points.  All losses are cumulative, so if
Lee bangs the teammate's wife on Monday, girlfriend on Tuesday, sister
on Wednesday, mother on Thursday, daughter on Friday, and a cousin on
Saturday, he loses 53 points over the span of the week.  If he has them
all in one epic love-making session, multiply the losses x10.

Times a player has injured himself making a game saving play. There's
nothing a teammate respects more than when a player will throw his body
into a brick wall to make a game-changing catch.  10 points for each
catch that result in a minor injury, 5 points if it just looks painful,
and 20 points if the player has to go on the DL.  Additional points get
tallied if:

• Lee Dershipman has never been caught watching his own highlights by
  a teammate.  Nobody likes a narcissist.  -10 points if he gets caught,
  +10 points if he doesn't get caught.
• Lee makes the bone-crushing catch during a contract year.  Points
  are doubled if the injury occurs before July, because he has basically
  sacrificed his season - and shaved millions off his potential contract
  offers - in the name of winning.  Up to +40 points for this one.
• Lee brags constantly about his catch to the media and others.  -10,
  unless said bragging lands him some trim, at which point it becomes +5

Times a player has delivered a game-winning hit. +2 points
for every successful game-winning hit, but -1 point for each time he
fails.  There is also an additional cumulative effect to this
calculation.  If Lee wins 2 games in 2 tries, he gets his score of +4,
but winning them consecutively adds a multiplier of x2.  If he goes 4
for 4 in game-winning situations, Lee Dershipman scores +8 points x4,
for a total of 32 points.  Similarly, if Lee goes down swinging
multiple times in a row, those failures culminate as well.  So, if he
goes 0 for 5 in a row in clutch situations, he doesn't lose 5 points,
he loses 5 points x5, or 25 total.

Gives a rousing speech to his teammates. This is a tricky category because it can be used too often, but probably has to
be done occasionally in order to deliver enough leadership points to
make a real difference.  If Lee gives a rousing speech to his teammates
while they are suffering through a losing streak and they are inspired
to win, he gains +10 points.  However, if Lee gives these little
speeches too often, they begin to lose their potency, even if the team
keeps winning - 7 points for the second one, 5 for the third, 3 for the
fourth, -1 for the fifth, -3 for the sixth, and so-on.

If Lee gives a rousing speech but the team loses, there is no
negative effect to his score.  However, if they get blown out, he
receives a -5, and if they lose because he makes an error or fails to
deliver a clutch hit, he receives a -10.

If Lee is more of a quiet leader type, and only gives one of these
speeches per season, he gains +25 points should his team win.  Also,
all points are doubled if he wins the game for his team with either his
glove or bat.

There are other minor factors that would go into the Leadership Factor Score.  I'll outline some of them via bullet point:

• Is the first one out in a bench clearing brawl +5
• Is the last one out in a bench clearing brawl -5
• Takes a rookie under his wing +5, cumulative
• Maintains a kangaroo court in the clubhouse +5
• Yells at the manager in front of his team if the skipper is stepping over the lines +5
• Yells at the skipper in private if he is stepping over the line +10
• Never stands up for his teammates - 10 per situation
• Has won a World Championship, +0 (sorry, any idiot can win a World Series)
• Doesn't talk about his salary in the clubhouse or during a game +10
• Talks excessively about his salary -10
• Talks to the media, but only to take the blame for losses or to humbly discuss his successes +5 per time
• Talks to the media excessively -10 per time

I'm sure there are others we can include as well, but what is
certain is this - no fan of baseball can accurately calculate these
numbers.  It would take an impartial player in the clubhouse to observe
and log all of the relevant factors toward the LFS.

But is this Kevin Millar?  Does he have such a high LFS that
it makes up for his poor production, his lack of defensive skill, and
his age?  I dunno, are we having this conversation because he was the
one who coined the term "idiots" and said "cowboy up" to the Red Sox
during their '04 drive?

Regardless of what Millar's LFS is, I would have to argue that it's
just a smidgen overrated.  I mean, yes, I'm the same guy who wrote
recently about the Cubs not having that guy on their team, which spurned a debate at Another Cubs Blog, but I've never suggested - nor would I - that that guy should be an over-the-hill hack like Kevin Millar.  If the Cubs even need that guy, then he should be somebody who can actually hit the ball and play regularly.

Besides, for some reason I think I've heard stories about what an unmitigated douchebag Millar is.

So, Keith, to answer your question, Al Yellon is caving in to the
worst kind of overthinking fan mentality.  He's subscribing to the
magic bullet - or, in this case, magic baseball bat - theory that one
player of a certain type can make all the difference in a season.  I
don't know if Yellon took this point of view 10 years ago, but it's the
same sort of thing as proclaiming that 1998 19-game winner Kevin Tapani
"knows how to win" because he did it so often that year, despite
posting a 4.85 ERA.  I guess Tapani must've immediately forgotten "how
to win," though, because he went on to lose 15 more games than he won
over the next 3 years (his record was 6-12, 8-12, and 9-14 each of
those years).

If Kevin Millar "knows how to win," if he has that intangible,
leadership quality the Cubs so desperately lacked these past two years,
if he swings a hefty, magic baseball bat, then how did the Orioles lose damn close to 100 games?

So much for leadership.

Or: Looking Forward to the Past

It's hard to believe, but this will be the sixth season of Cubs baseball covered by the rambunctious writers of GROTA.  In the time that we've been blogging, we've seen the Cubs organization pillaged by the poor management of Dusty Baker and Andy MacPhail, we've watched the thunderbolt-tossing arms of Kerry Wood and Mark Prior disintegrate in a cloud of overuse and abuse, and we've seen Jim Hendry rebuild the team atop a pile of assets that have turned from liquid to toxic.  In other words, it's been a long, tumultuous, exciting ride that is still lacking in a satisfying payoff. 

While we obviously cannot predict where the Cubs go next -- although a swirling pit of mediocrity isn't a harsh assumption -- I'd like to tell you a bit of what may be in store for GROTA.

Firstly, we're developing a new skin design for the blog.  In case you aren't familiar with our skins, the standard Green Scoreboard skin is one of more than half a dozen.  If you're a member of the website, you can log in, change the look (and some of them are pretty sweet), and even participate in our Shout Box.  Check out that feature if you already haven't.

Of course, that may become a moot point as we are weighing several offers to join various sports networks.  Up til now, GROTA has been fiercely independent, but becoming one with a network is an increasingly enticing consideration. 

If we do actually network-up, we may introduce a readers forum.  Such a thing would require moderators.  If there's a chance I'd recognize you as being a contributor to GROTA and you think that's something you might be interested in doing, drop me a line. 

Speaking of contributors to GROTA, I'd like to thank our writers for all their hard work.  Rob and AJ in particular have been picking up the slack, especially since a good chunk of our team moved on to bigger things or retired from blogging (Jason is a new father with a time-consuming job, leaving him with just enough spare time to lose his mind and Byron is an ass-kickin' workin' man), while Kyle has left our hallowed blog for the halls of the Chicago Tribune, where he slaves over the sports desk.  And let's not forget that Colin is now writing for Baseball Prospectus while still-goat-riding AJ is working his ass off for a magazine in Tampa.  In other words, maybe it's a coincidence, but GROTA writers seem to get good jobs writing.  We're rather proud of that fact.

Last year, as a way of proving to ourselves that it could be done by a simple blog, we covered every single game of the season.  We wrote Series Previews, GameCasts, and Game Recaps.  It's a hugely time-consuming commitment that requires the participation of responsible people and will probably not be duplicated for the 2010 season.  However, if you are a writer with a demonstratable body of work and would be receptive to exposing your skills to the large audience GROTA commands, EMail me at kjsevans (at) gmail (dot) com.  If we can get people who'd be interested in sharing the responsibility, we'll continue the tradition (and we'll even pay you an insulting sum of money in the process).  

Here's the story so far...

After years of Andy MacPhail serving as a mediocre steersman, Jim Hendry is elevated to the GMship in 2002.  Since then, he has guided the Cubs to three playoff berths -- the same as the total number of playoff appearances over a previous span of about 18 years -- through making some timely trades and smashing the piggy bank on some over-priced, over-aged free agents.  

In the past three years, Hendry has deeply invested in Alfonso Soriano (to the tune of about 18 million a year), Carlos Zambrano (also to the tune of about 18 million a year), Aramis Ramirez (more than 16 million in 2009), Derrek Lee (13 million in 2009), Ted Lilly (13 million in '09), Kosuke Fukudome (12.5 million in 2009), Ryan Dempster (9 million in 2009, probably 12 million in 2010), and Milton Bradley (8 million in 2009).

Every single one of those guys has spent time injured, or under-performing, or both.  Hendry responsibly dumped the troubled headcase Bradley (for troubled headcase Carlos Silva, who's making even more money), but he's still looking at roughly $100 million dedicated toward 7 players, all but one of whom are over the age of 30, and many of whom we cannot expect to give the team a full season of honest effort.

So finally, after years of harping, the Cubs have given their fans an expensive team, but we never thought it would be done in such a costly manner.  As Rob has said, the 2010 Cubs, as they are assembled, does not look like a championship team.  They do not have money to improve with, they do not have much to trade with, and fans are now left waiting for their expensive veterans to come off the payroll one broke-down body at a time.

Oh, and let's not forget that after years of waiting, the Cubs finally completed their sale to Tom Ricketts a few months back.  Ricketts swept in and essentially promised to change nothing, which is a bit troublesome considering that the Cubs haven't won a championship in 101 years now. 

I for one am not expecting Ricketts to become a Steinbrenner and push forth a $200 million Cubs team -- although it would be kinda cool -- but I was hopeful that he'd make a few sweeping changes.  Such as:

• Fire Jim Hendry.  C'mon, the guy has had 8 years to make the organization effectively better.  How long does he have to do this before we realize he doesn't have the answers?
• Reinvest in the farm system.  Has Ricketts done anything -- or even implied he'd do anything -- to change the same-old same-old?
• Anything.  Has Ricketts done anything at all besides lay out his new Wrigley Field office?  C'mon!

Sure, it's only been two months.  But two months will quickly turn into several which will quickly bleed into years ... I don't think Ricketts can so quickly change everything, but the guy had about ten months to plan his moves out before the sale was completed and you would think he could have done something to convey to us that things will get better.  But, apparently not.

What then, is in store for the Cubs? 

I've been writing for a while now that it is unfair to expect a team -- even the Yankees -- to be playoff bound every single year.  But what should be expected of an organization of Chicago's caliber is that they will always be in position to compete.  They should enter every season with the expectation of a first place finish and a playoff berth -- just like the Red Sox, Yankees, Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants, and Angels do (any year when those teams suck it comes as a surprise).  That's not what's happening, though.

Instead, the Cubs are entering the season knowing full-well that too much money is invested in too few players -- many of whom will not be coming off the books any time soon.  Therefore, they can not be expected to compete.  Therefore, they are letting us down.

Welcome to 2010, same as 2009, same as 1997, same as 1986.

Sometimes Cub fans embarrass me.  Actually this is pretty typical -- if you are a Cub fan, no matter how idiotic you may act, sooner or later you'll encounter some other Cub fan who makes your face burn an embarrassing shade of red, leaving you to apologize to the non-Cub-fans around you.  "We're not all like that.  That guy's nuts."

Every once in a while, Goat Reader Madisoncubaholic goes a little loony and posts a few rants in the ShoutBox.  The most recent embarrassment: Look at that. Outfielders that can run, hit and catch the ball. Making
contact not just swinging for the fence everytime. Sorry-ass-ano go to
hell!  Oh wait I forgot he can carry a team. (For three weeks) Post-season not so much. Sabbathia as big if not bigger than Zambrano. One is an ace
showing up in a big game the other is an ass who never won a playoff
game  Bitter? Yes ! Jealous ? Yes ! Call in the air strike on Wrigley. Let's just nuke it and start all over.

Fantastic.  Other blogs would probably ban Madisoncubunatic, but not ours.  Look at it this way -- had I not read those compelling words, I might not be blogging this morning!

Let's address the issues rationally:

The first: Alfonso Soriano is a piece of crap who cannot hit in the playoffs and is defensively terrible.  Also, we shall belittle him by claiming that his typical end-season appearance of having been successful stems from 3 weeks of tremendous productivity.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. 

Soriano is not a Gold Glover, never will be.  But before he spent an entire season hampered by a knee injury that required he be shut down and surgeoned -- and what ever happened to respecting and liking a player who'll compete while injured, even if the results aren't what we were hoping for* -- he had a plus arm in the outfield which more than made up for poor defensive mechanics.  Still, I'll agree that somebody should convince him to use both hands out there.

(*This is like criticizing Willis Reed because, sure, he scored the first 4 points of that game but his defense was atrocious, he refused to hustle up and down the court, and he didn't score again that night!  Hey, douchebag, maybe appreciate whatever production you get from your dramatically injured star player!)

Second, it is mathematically impossible to have a shitty season, but to turn out looking like gold based on three weeks of production.  The reality of it is that he's usually pretty good, with flashes of legendary brilliance, who often plays three or four weeks of totally mediocre baseball a year. 

Third, and this is a point I want to make to all Cub fans who seem to feel otherwise: "clutch" -- and post season performances in general -- is subjective.  We're watching an anti-clutch, can't-perform multi-katrillionaire light it up for the Yankees right now.  This is a guy who was 7 for his last 34 in the playoffs before this year, with 1 double, 1 homer, and 1 RBI over those three appearances.  Now they're cleverly calling A-Rod "Mr. Clutch."  It's about as likely that Aramis Ramirez or, yes, even Alfonso Soriano will someday, at some point, hit the crap out of the ball in October.

Second point - Carlos Zambrano sucks compared to CC Sabathia, who's a big game pitcher.

Let's ignore that Sabathia's career ERA in the playoffs -- including this season, in which he has indeed been dominant -- is 5.45 and, including his 2 wins this season, his record is 4-3.  (Actually this further supports my take that even shitty post season players can look golden once or twice in their careers.)

I guess Madisoncubunatic wants Carlos to not only keep his team in the game -- which he's done the last two playoff appearances he's made -- but he also expects Carlos to supply all the offense -- since the Cubs offense was dead the last two times he's pitched -- and he wants Carlos to prevent the defense from having bungling errors.  Or have we already forgotten the way Theriot, Ramirez, Lee, and yes, Mark DeRosa all failed to do their jobs and field cleanly during that exceedingly forgettable Cubs-Dodgers game last year?

So, more sour grapes for Madison?  Of course.  Crazed rantings that humiliate sane Cub fans?  Certainly.

But it's October.  We're bored.  There's nothing going on.  I think we could also characterize this as expected. 

Aha!  Just when you thought we'd shirked our duties in the last game of the season, here finally is the belated Game Recap.  Just look the other way and forget that Yarbage missed the GameCast.

So.  Ryan Dempster became the only Cub to pitch 200 innings in his final outing of the season -- he didn't toss all 200 in one go, though, but lasted 5 innings -- while striking out 10.  Dempster finishes the first of four seasons with 11 wins, 9 losses, and a 3.65 ERA.  For comparison's sake, the five pitchers above Dempster in ERA and four of the five pitchers below him all have more wins, which is my way of saying that on a team with a more reliable offense, he wins 15 all day long.  I still think that by the time year four rolls around, Dempster's going to have Cub fans contemplating suicide, but that's a ways away.

But Ryan didn't have his best stuff -- despite 10 strikeouts -- and so the Cubs lost to Arizona, dropping to 83 wins to finish the season. 

Way back in March, I was convinced that they'd win about 17 more than they did.  I didn't know that Chicago's offense would be non-existent, that their pitching would be erratic and often-injured, and that their manager would be clueless to fix the problems.  I thought that they would walk an easy path into the playoffs, where they would be unbeatable. 

I thought a lot of things.  In case you haven't noticed yet, I'm actually kind of stupid.

Anyway, I'm over this "wait 'til next year" crap.  It grates me to see it, to hear it, to think it.  So instead, I'll say this: if you have daddy issues, resulting in a chip on your shoulder the size of Omaha, and if you are inclined to get confrontational with coaches, umpires, and fans, then you probably shouldn't play in Chicago.  Just a heads up for the future.

Oh, and White Sox suck.

Maybe knowing that he was down to the last hundred yards of the marathon, Randy Wells decided it was okay to give it all he had left.  Whatever the reason, Wells pitched 7 solid innings of 3-hit, 1-walk, 10-strikeout baseball to punctuate the end of his season.  Very fittingly, Jason Stark wrote an article today in which he presumptively awarded the NL Rookie of the Year trophy to Chris Coghlan.  Runners up included J.A. Happ, Tommy Hanson, Garrett Jones, Andrew McCutchen, and Casey McGehee.  Wells didn't even receive an honorary mention.

For the record, his worn-down showing in September definitely would have played against him anyway, but no matter what the outcome I doubt Wells will get serious contention from the voters.  But he finishes the season with a 12-10 record, a 3.05 ERA, and with 46 walks to 104 strikeouts.  His only pitching rival, J.A. Happ, who I promise you will blow Wells away in the voting, is 12-4, with a 2.85 ERA, and with 55 walks to 118 strikeouts.  Then again, Happ's younger.

Anyway, on top of Wells and his last gasping breath of a pitching performance, the Cubs managed 8 hits and 5 walks -- which they parlayed into 5 runs.  Geo Soto is desperately trying to get his AVG over .220 -- he went 2 for 2 with 2 walks and 2 RBI (if only he'd raised his average to .222 today).  I think it's safe to say, on this late date, that Soto proved without a doubt to be the lost cause Rob said he was way back in May ... but next season is a new story.

Speaking of next season, it can't get here soon enough.  But tomorrow is the last of this year.  We'll have the preview and recap and, mercifully, it'll be over.

Daniel Cabrera (0-5, 6.07 ERA) vs. Randy Wells (11-10, 3.18 ERA)

Story Lines

Randy Wells' rotation spot for next season is pretty secure, I would guess, but I'm sure he would like to end the year with a better than .500 record.

The Cubs, by the looks of it, looked terrible yesterday. Thank goodness, I didn't see anything.

Who's Hot

The Twins - Don't look now, but they are just 1 game back of the Tigers.

Who's Not

GMs - The Blue Jays and the Padres both made changes. Maybe the Cubs can get Doc H from the Jays?

Conclusions

Just two games left.

In a game of stunning mediocrity and epic defeat, the Cubs were handed their 77nd loss of the season yesterday against an Arizona team that sucks golf balls through garden hoses.  Still, in a series that matters none, these things are bound to happen.

The Cubs pitcher was Tom Gorzelanny, who is in rotation audition mode until next April.  He didn't do much to help his cause, serving up 7 runs in 3 innings of work, but nobody's going to remember how badly he got his ass kicked once March rolls around.

He was relieved by a team of pitchers who all proceeded to bumble their way through the game, except for Berg and Grabow who both only allowed hits but held the 'backs at bay. 

Offensively, the most impressive thing to happen was that Kosuke Fukudome walked 3 times.  That's how you can tell that it was a meh-diocre day. 

Today's game is an early one, for which I am sure we are all excited to watch.  Right?  Amiright?