Spring Fatigue: Cubs 4, Dodgers 5

After today's 5-4 Cubs loss to the Dodgers, I took a look at the schedule... there are 28 games remaining before anything is played that's meaningful, and it's not even mid-March, and I'm champing at the bit for hearing, watching and seeing baseball that means something.

So can you imagine what the players are feeling? Most players and coaches and managers already felt spring training was too long before this year, when there are seven weeks' worth of games.

Sure, Bud Selig will tell me to watch the WBC if I want to see "meaningful" games, and I suppose I'll watch some, but that doesn't have the same meaning that the major league regular season does to me, and to all of us.

We're not even at the point where we've seen any semblance of a regular season lineup, as Lou keeps experimenting with combinations (that Aaron Miles leading off thing didn't look too good today, did it, although he did draw a walk and drove in a run with a groundout). Milton Bradley went 1-for-2 before leaving for Brad Snyder -- and Snyder, though he won't make the major league team, has shown enough in the few games so far that he might, if he has a good year at Iowa, be in line for either a September callup or be there in case of injury.

Ryan Dempster had a shaky first inning, but then settled down and gave up only one hit in the next two, and that was wiped out on a caught-stealing. Koyie Hill threw out two runners trying to swipe bases today. Cub defense cut down other runners on the basepaths today, including a throw-out at the plate of Chin-Lung Hu by Ryan Theriot on what was likely an ill-advised attempt to score on an infield grounder -- or, maybe it was an attempt, during a meaningless game, to see whether that was worth doing or not.

Other Cubs pitchers did fine today, except Jeff Stevens, who faced seven batters and retired only two of them, and gave up what turned out to be the game-winning hit, a two-run double to Delwyn Young.

So the Cubs, after starting the spring 4-0, are now 5-6, and while ST records don't mean anything, it would be nice to get a few wins just ... well, just for the sake of winning. The attendance of 12,913, just short of capacity, gives an indication that the Cubs should start drawing the near-full house crowds that are the norm in Mesa. The six-game average is now 9,446, and that will likely go up on Sunday when the Rangers visit Mesa. Incidentally, the "WBC Team" that will play the Cubs next Thursday will be either Japan or South Korea, the two Asian pool teams that will be coming to the USA for the second round. If it's Japan, Cubs fans will get to see Kosuke Fukudome play against them.

Notes: Here is a good summary of all the various choices the Cubs have left for the 25-man roster. One of those choices will probably NOT be Mike Stanton, but here's an interesting piece on Stanton and the 43 major league parks he's played in.

Tomorrow, Carlos Zambrano will face the Brewers' Jeff Suppan when the Cubs travel to the Brew Crew's home park in Maryvale. There's radio available, through WTMJ, the Brewers' station.