Pitchers And Catchers Report

[Coldneck]

I was once sued by an attorney named Richard Head. He has a brother named Harry. I shit you not. Both are attorneys here in Louisville.

[Addison]

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/funny.gif[/img]

[Addison]

I say yes, dump Alf from the lead off spot. I couldn't care less if he wines about it. Try Fonte... sounds good to me.

[veryzer]

in the spirit of gayness (not gaiety) i think hard dicken is way to go.

[Clapp]

Shark's about to be on CSN

[ruby23]

<!--quoteo(post=18828:date=Feb 18 2009, 05:49 PM:name=Clapp)-->QUOTE (Clapp @ Feb 18 2009, 05:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->Shark's about to be on CSN<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I bet he looks/talks like a moron.

[Clapp]

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->The Cubs don't have much room in their payroll budget for 2009, but that might not stop general manager Jim Hendry from trying to add an infielder by the end of camp if they don't see enough depth and versatility in Mike Fontenot and Aaron Miles.

The way the roster projects, manager Lou Piniella could open the season with only one true infielder on his bench, depending on which player is starting at second base that day.

<b>That assumes first baseman/ outfielder Micah Hoffpauir makes the roster, as Piniella said Monday he expects</b>, and Joey Gathright is kept as a fifth outfielder behind the corner starters and the center-field platoon of Kosuke Fukudome and Reed Johnson.

Piniella said he can't remember managing a team without at least two backup infielders.

''If that's an ingredient that we definitely feel we need, Jim and I have talked about it,'' Piniella said. ''That's one area, when these games start here and in Florida, that our scouts will be looking at.''

<b>For now, Piniella sees Fontenot and Miles sharing second base, with Miles acting as shortstop Ryan Theriot's primary backup and Fontenot the primary backup for third baseman Aramis Ramirez.</b>

The third-base question might be the biggest. Fontenot, who played some third in the minors, said, ''I feel comfortable over there.'' But he'll have to make Piniella feel comfortable, too.
<b>
Piniella said he hopes to use Miles and Fontenot enough to get 400 or more at-bats for each</b>.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->A few days after saying he expects left-hander Sean Marshall to win the fifth-starter job, Piniella called highly regarded right-hander Jeff Samardzija ''probably sixth on the depth chart.''

''I don't want to discourage him because obviously he can make that jump,'' Piniella said.

If Samardzija still is sixth among the starters at the end of camp, that doesn't necessarily mean he'll make the team as the long reliever on call to spell Rich Harden. More likely, the Cubs would send him to Class AAA Iowa to start every fifth day.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Link(Sun-Times)

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->April has been Soriano's lost month in the regular season since he signed with the Cubs. In 2007, he hit no home runs in April after hitting 46 the year before for the Washington Nationals, and he missed five games with a hamstring injury. He got off to a .175 start last year before a calf injury put him on the disabled list in mid-April.

This time around?

''A hundred percent different,'' he said. ''Totally different.''

That's how his fitness level feels coming into spring training -- 100 percent different than any other spring of his career.

For the first time, Soriano began preparing for the season before February. He and teammate Aramis Ramirez checked into the Cubs' Dominican Republic academy in January and spent a month working out and practicing.

Teammates and team officials have talked about how fit both players seem and how sharp they have looked on the field, especially Wednesday.

''If I knew I would feel that good, I would have been doing that for two years,'' said Soriano, 32, whose creeping age and struggles with leg injuries the last two seasons were part of the motivation.

During the first five years of his career with the New York Yankees, Soriano said he wouldn't leave the Dominican Republic for Florida to start working out until the first of February.

When he got traded to Texas, with spring training farther away in Arizona, he didn't show until the reporting date -- similar to his first two years in Chicago.

''Now what happened to me the last two years with the Cubs, I had to have a new plan,'' he said.

It was something he and Ramirez decided to do after talking for much of the early part of the offseason, and it could pay off in a big way for the Cubs, who turned over about one-third of the roster after their 97-win season ended with a crushing postseason. Good starts by Ramirez -- whose .268 career average in April is his worst for any month -- and Soriano could go a long way toward a smooth transition.

Ramirez said he worked especially on his lower body at the academy, with an eye toward avoiding some of the nagging injuries that have sidelined him for a week or two at a time in recent years.

He said he feels the difference. But Soriano seems far more enthused about the difference he feels.

''Before, on the second day in practice in spring training, I cannot even walk with the pain I have,'' he said of the sore muscles. ''I had that in the Dominican the first week, but after that it's great.'<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Link(Sun-Times)

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->It's never too early to dream about a fantasy lineup at Clark and Addison, so when Alfonso Soriano was asked Wednesday about the possibility of the Cubs signing free agent Manny Ramirez, his ears perked up.

"Here?" he said. "Manny Ramirez? He's the greatest hitter in baseball right now. Any team that gets him would be lucky."

Of course, the likelihood of that happening is slim and none.

Ramirez is seeking a multiyear contract worth about $25 million annually and, like most other teams other than the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cubs have shown absolutely no interest in bringing the enigmatic slugger to town.

Then there's one other little problem—where would Ramirez play in an outfield manned by Soriano in left and Milton Bradley in right?

"The lineup would look good," Aramis Ramirez said. "But that's almost impossible. We already have three starting outfielders."

That's where Soriano comes in. After three years in left field, Soriano would have to move back to his old position, second base, where he began his major-league career before moving to left with Washington in 2006.

It would be a defensive downgrade and a return to the unbalanced lineup the Cubs took such great pains to revise this off-season.

Would Soriano agree to a switch at this point in his career?

"Sure, why not?" he replied. "Our lineup with Manny? Man, it would be kind of like a Yankees lineup."

Manager Lou Piniella could leave Soriano in the leadoff spot, inserting the clutch-hitting Manny Ramirez in the No. 3 hole in front of Bradley, Aramis Ramirez, Derrek Lee and Geovany Soto.

"Sori is OK with going to second?" Aramis Ramirez said. "Who wouldn't to have Manny Ramirez in their lineup? We already have a good lineup, but if we added him—it would be awesome. But it's a long shot."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->"You know what else we'll do?" Ryan Dempster said. "We'll trade for Grady Sizemore, and then get Albert Pujols and put him at backup catcher. Then we'll have an unbelievable lineup one through nine.

"We can even have Pujols just for the games we need a DH."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif[/img] Link(Tribune)

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->"I'm not worried about home runs at all," Lee said. "I'm going to try to have good at-bats. Home runs are a byproduct of taking a good swing. Last year, I don't think I took good swings in the second half so, therefore, no home runs. I think when you start worrying about home runs, that's when you really don't hit them."

Cubs manager Lou Piniella would like to see more. He wasn't in Chicago when Lee had his stellar season in '05, when Lee won the National League batting title and set a career high in homers.

"Derrek is a good, pure hitter and he makes good contact," Piniella said. "He needs to get the ball in the air a little more to hit more home runs. He hits a lot of balls hard on the ground and on the line. To hit more home runs, he needs to elevate the ball more. He's got the power and bat speed to do it. I don't have an answer on why [he dropped off]. I would think that wrist injury he had hasn't helped the situation."

Lee fractured his wrist in a freak collision in 2006 but has maintained that hasn't been the problem. He showed up in camp looking trim and strong, and Piniella predicted a big year.

"Derrek's elevated in the past," Piniella said. "He's done it. Which means, basically, he doesn't have to change his mechanics or his hitting style much. It's getting back to that."

Lee admits that last season he was a little "pull conscious" and his timing was off. He was catching the ball in front of the plate too much.

"I have to work on going back to my strengths and staying up the middle and just try to hit the ball hard," he said.

Actually, he did hit the ball hard last season. And often, right at infielders when runners were on base, which resulted in 27 double plays.

"He rolled over and when you roll over, you usually smother the ball into the ground," Piniella said. "He's one of our main guys here. He's a team leader, he's a wonderful person, a heck of a ballplayer. He's a couple years removed from that wrist injury, so hopefully, he'll get back to that 35, 40 number he hit a few years ago. He really looks good."

<b>While Piniella tries to figure out who goes where in the middle of the order, Lee appears set in the No. 3 spot.

"I don't see too many reasons to change too many things," Piniella said.</b>

Just the nomenclature. Home runs were not the problem last season, Lee said.

"I just wasn't getting hits," he said, "so then you start trying stuff. I just got out of whack. It's a grind every day. In the second half, I just never found a groove."<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Link(Cubs.com)

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->Jake Fox, a converted catcher who moved to the outfield, has been working out at third base, where the Cubs are looking for a backup for Aramis Ramirez.

"I watched him," Piniella said. "I'll watch him some more."

Fox is a proven hitter in the minors, but can't find a spot where he's not challenged on defense.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Link(Tribune)

[Brock]

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->Piniella said he hopes to use <b>Miles</b> and Fontenot enough to get <b>400 or more at-bats</b> for each.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Fuck. That.

[HTC]

I love Dempster.

[Runnys]

<!--quoteo(post=18945:date=Feb 19 2009, 06:42 AM:name=Brock)-->QUOTE (Brock @ Feb 19 2009, 06:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE <!--quotec-->Piniella said he hopes to use <b>Miles</b> and Fontenot enough to get <b>400 or more at-bats</b> for each.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Fuck. That.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Why is that a bad thing? Fontenot killed the ball last year and Miles was a .300 hitter. As long as they play average to good defensively I really don't see it as a big deal. Miles is the same kind of hitter that Theriot is.

[Scarey]

<!--quoteo(post=18949:date=Feb 19 2009, 08:07 AM:name=Runnys)-->QUOTE (Runnys @ Feb 19 2009, 08:07 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=18945:date=Feb 19 2009, 06:42 AM:name=Brock)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Brock @ Feb 19 2009, 06:42 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec--><!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE <!--quotec-->Piniella said he hopes to use <b>Miles</b> and Fontenot enough to get <b>400 or more at-bats</b> for each.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Fuck. That.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Why is that a bad thing? Fontenot killed the ball last year and Miles was a .300 hitter. As long as they play average to good defensively I really don't see it as a big deal. Miles is the same kind of hitter that Theriot is.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Last year was the first time in his career that he hit over .300, I don't think that qualifies him as a ".300 hitter". Also, his career OBP is .329. I'm not too thrilled about Miles getting more ABs than he has to, especially if he's getting starts at SS where he's VERY limited.

[Tailgater]

[Jody]

Z looks like he has lost some weight and Amarmis' chin strap looks bad ass.

[BT]

<!--quoteo-->QUOTE <!--quotec-->Last year was the first time in his career that he hit over .300, I don't think that qualifies him as a ".300 hitter".<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I disagree. Sometimes all it takes is doing something once, and suddenly you are a lifetime member of that club. For instance, I've only molested ONE child in my life, now suddenly, I'm a child molester.

Weird.

[veryzer]

derosa was pretty shitty before he came to cubs.