FanPost

Hill 2 b 4th starter and Murton wouldn't be opposed to a trade

 Not much a surprise here, as Lou confirmed that Rich Hill Will be the Cubs 4th starter.

Piniella did reveal Saturday that Rich Hill will be no. 4 in the rotation and that he's looking for starters for the third and fifth spots. Ryan Dempster, Jason Marquis and Jon Lieber are the three main competitors, and Piniella said he's not looking at Lieber as a potential long man in the bullpen.

 Obviously this is based purely on breaking up the 2 lefties in the rotation and nothing more. To be honest though, the idea of Marquis, Lieber or Dempster pitching behind Zambrano and Lilly scares me a bit and points out the weakness in the CUbs rotation of not having a bona fide #2 behind Zambrano.

 On a team with realistic World Series aspirations, those 3 should be fighting it out for 1 spot and that would be the 5th spot (or 4th spot on CUbs) in the rotation. In that world the Cubs rotation would shape up something like this:

Zambrano
#2
Lilly
Lieber/Marquis/Dempster
Hill

I would be stoked about this upcoming season if that were the case but as it is, my attitude is  more "ehh, Cubs will be good and compete for the Division but that's it. Still won't be in the World Series with this team." Cubs needed to make another move besides Fuku to get me too excited about this season. Afterall, the goal for me as a fan every year is, nothing less than a World Series.

Don't expect too many long winning streaks with one of those 3 behind Z and Lilly and the loser at #5.

  Another great article by Bruce Miles where Matt Murton admits he's a regular on *MLBTR* and surfs the net getting all the updated rumors we all get and learning to deal with them.

 

"I've probably heard everything everybody else has heard," Murton said. "I have heard the possibility of being traded. It's something I've dealt with already. I learned it early. I was a year into professional baseball when I got traded over here. "There has been some discussion, not necessarily directly with Jim but just in general, and through those discussions was the understanding that there is a possibility I would be moved."

  And understandably admits that he wouldn't be totally oppossed to a trade

"I don't want to sit here and say I would be against being traded," he said. "Of course, you'd love to be here and be a part of things. But it is a numbers game. If an opportunity presents itself somewhere else, then I'll thank the Cubs for what they've done for me over the last few years and go forward."

  And

"The reality of it, being completely honest, I'm 26 years old," he said. "I came into baseball at the major-league level at 23. I've done pretty well, but I honestly believe I've just begun to scratch the surface. I think there's a lot more out there for me to accomplish. That being said, I think that in order to accomplish those things, I've got to get a chance to be on the field.

"The other thing we all know is that at 26 years old, if I'm on the bench for another two or three years, by the time I'm 28 or 29, I think it's a safe bet to say you'll be a bench player. So these next few years are big for me in terms of establishing myself as an everyday player. But right now, in the role I'm in, I'm going to be on the bench here in Chicago. It's something that I became accustomed to in the second half last year and started to become a little more comfortable with that role."

In other news on a slow day as we await the position players to report, It's good to see that Derosa has changed his attitude a bit about the potential of Roberts becoming a Cub, from previous comments (was going to link the diary with those quotes but can't find it) and seems to be in the right frame of mind.

 

"It's weird," DeRosa said. "It's not their job to come pat me on the back and make me feel good about which way they want to go, and it's not my job to go to them because I don't want to give them any impression that I'm concerned about it. Baseball is a business, and if they feel [Roberts] makes us a better team, then Jim's going to do it at the end of the day."

 

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