Back in Chicago and back to work early tomorrow morning, I won't get to see much of this televised game, maybe the first couple of innings.

Hope the rest of you can fill in the details.

• Matt Murton's headed to Iowa. Or a deal to another team -- Jim Hendry is actually well-respected among players because he does try to find another situation for someone he can't fit into the Cubs. That article also says Kevin Hart's likely made the team:

  [Lou] Piniella hasn't said anything to pitcher Kevin Hart, who also appears to have made the final 25. Hart figures he'll get on the bus with the team until he's told to get off.

  "That's a good way to look at things," Piniella said.

• TCTSNBN today says that MLB should investigate A-Rod and Magglio Ordonez for steroid use. Why? Because Jose Canseco said so. Great logic there.
• Bruce Miles says Piggy may have turned Lou's head. To which I say, "Good! He's earned the spot."

Tonight, Ted Lilly goes against Seattle's Carlos Silva. The Cubs will be the "home" team tonight and bat last. It's on radio in Chicago (WGN) and Seattle (KOMO), on WGN-TV and on MLB Audio at the MLB.com Mediacenter.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)

MESA, Arizona -- In the longest, most ridiculous game of the entire spring, the Cubs and Brewers played to a 10-10 tie in front of another sellout, 12,782, and both the Cubs and Brewers traded blown leads, errors, wild pitches, walks with the bases loaded...

And none of it means anything, because by the sixth inning -- after which eight of the 20 runs were scored -- virtually everyone who's going to be on these two rosters next Monday when they next face each other, had left the game. In fact, we were treated to the bizarre sight of the starting Brewers, dressed in suits, walking from the first base dugout to the LF corner to their waiting bus.

Of the seven Cubs pitchers, six of them will likely never see a major league mound (well, in the case of Rocky Roquet and Tim Lahey, they might, but not anytime soon). The only important appearance today was that of Sean Marshall, and quite frankly, he didn't look very good. He issued three walks (one intentional), gave up three hits (all doubles) and two runs.

Hey Lou! You out there? Carmen Pignatiello has earned the last spot in the bullpen! Send Marshall back to Iowa where he can start every fifth day and be ready in case of injury.

Micah Hoffpauir is another player whose great performance today (two home runs) earned him a trip to Des Moines, where I suspect he'll play quite a bit of outfield on the chance that it might increase his versatility as a bench player.

Alfonso Soriano and Ronny Cedeno also homered, off a number of miscellaneous Brewers minor league pitchers. Cedeno's HR landed on the net on top of the scoreboard right behind us, dropped to the ground and a kid in a Brewers Geoff Jenkins T-shirt leaped over the railing and grabbed it. Me, I got a bruised elbow out of the deal, though I don't think it'll put me on the DL.

I shouldn't complain. The sun was glorious again today. The baseball was a bit silly -- we caught Matt Murton laughing in LF after Casey McGehee (moved to catcher, presumably to increase his versatility) attempted to throw Alcides Escobar out stealing in the 10th inning. Unfortunately, neither Andres Blanco (over from the minor league camp) nor Mike Fontenot had been told about this, and neither covered second base. The resulting error put Escobar on third, where he scored on an Ed Campusano wild pitch. (Campusano has talent, but he is a long way from a major league mound.)

Same for E. J. Shanks, a sidearmer who threw the bottom of the 10th for the Brewers, gave up two hits and walked McGehee with the bases loaded to force in the tying run. And that, as they say, was that.

Today, we were joined on the lawn by BCB reader dfrancon, who had driven up just for the day from a business meeting in Tucson, and who left likely with a pretty good sunburn. Also stopping by were my friends Tom & Ginger from Chicago; Tom was nattily attired in a Cubs fez and carrying a stuffed Ryne Sandberg doll in his backpark -- you have to see this to believe it. If I can I'll get him to send a photo of it to me.

Also stopping by was BCB reader StampMe, and Mike who works at the Full Shilling -- sorry, I forgot your user name!

Thus ends the the Arizona portion of the exhibition schedule with the Cubs dead even, 14-14-2, and they are on to Las Vegas tonight (frankly, I was surprised that Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez played seven innings today). I'm heading to the airport soon, and will post a game thread for the night game at Las Vegas sometime tomorrow afternoon. The weather forecast for Monday doesn't look too good right now, but weather permitting, I will, and I know many of you will, be back at Wrigley Field on Monday. Let's play ball, for real!

Z warming up before Wednesday's game at Tempe. Photo by Al

TEMPE, Arizona -- This post would have been up a while ago except for the Tempe police.

No, I'm not in trouble. But the police directing traffic out of the parking lots at Tempe Diablo Stadium have their share of it. They cannot figure out how to direct traffic so as not to create a traffic jam. Example: if you are familiar with Tempe Diablo, the largest lot is east of the park, beyond right field (you can see that lot on TV). I was parked in that lot. I was going north when leaving, which normally would mean a right turn out of the lot, then another right on 48th St.

Nope. Got forced to go left (south), into a line of cars that was just... not... moving. Finally turned around, got forced south again, and eventually turned back north, and had to take a shortcut through a parking lot to get back on the main drag.

This took 25 minutes, and it should have taken about three.

It ALSO should have been up two hours ago, but something happened when I posted it -- NOW I hope you can see it!

End rant.

Now, on to today's 7-5 come-from-behind Cubs win over the Angels, in which Ronny Cedeno deserves some props. He singled twice, the latter of which drove in two runs and gave the Cubs the lead in their five-run sixth inning -- all five runs charged to K-Rod, Francisco Rodriguez, the Angels' fine closer, although Cedeno's hit came after K-Rod had left the game in favor of Angels career minor leaguer Von Stertzbach.

The Angels' scoreboard operator had a bit of trouble when the Cubs took the lead:

Photo by Al

Yes, according to them, 1 + 5 = 8. On zero hits. They played around with it for a while, switching it to 9, 8 and 7, finally sticking with 8 -- at least till the Cubs scored a run in the top of the 9th, at which time it correctly read "7".

Felix Pie also had three hits today, and two stolen bases, and made a fine running catch in center field. This raised his spring average to .356. Yes, I know spring numbers don't mean that much, but he's looking better as he finally must be feeling better after the -- well, you know, surgery he had earlier this month. Pie batted second today as Lou tinkered around with his lineup for various reasons, including a late scratch of Mark DeRosa due to sinusitis. We also learned today that Kosuke Fukudome may lead off vs. LHP. To which I say -- excellent idea. Dome had a double, a walk and a sac fly and threw out Robb Quinlan trying to stretch a single into a double in the Angels' three-run fourth.

Which was a good thing, because Z was off that inning. He hit a batter (Kendry Morales) and issued a walk -- and according to Ken, who was sitting behind 1B today, Z was muttering to himself after the walk to Jeff Mathis, mad at himself for giving it up. One batter later, he grooved one to Dee Brown. All told, Z wasn't horrible today, giving up only four hits and striking out five. He batted for himself -- twice -- and made good contact both times. After that, the Cubs reverted to the DH rule that is allowed in AL parks, and Matt Murton, who is clearly on the roster bubble now, came in, walked and scored, and later grounded out.

Cubs relief today was good-to-excellent. I'm still a little worried about Carlos Marmol, who walked two and allowed the Angels' last run to score. Kerry Wood then came in, to a large ovation from the Cubs fans in attendance, and slammed the door, striking out two, and today extending himself by going more than one inning.

Bob Howry and Carmen Pignatiello -- the latter, I really hope Lou likes well enough to put him on the roster -- threw uneventful innings. Piggy doesn't have an overwhelming fastball but he keeps the ball down, and perhaps could be used as a situational lefty, inducing DP balls.

BCB reader lemon20pie stopped by later in the game to say hi and we discussed various roster possibilities, including Piggy, and although one Cubs fan seated next to us kept mentioning... one certain AL East player, it's now nearly certain that TTTSNBN will not happen. Right, MPH73?

The Cubs evened-up their spring record at 14-14-1 today -- and in the games I've seen, they're 9-2-1. I've seen quite a bit of good baseball and not so much bad. We hope this carries over starting Monday.

A number of minor leaguers made the trip over (presumably they didn't get caught in traffic!), though none of them got into the game -- I spotted Jeff Samardzija (who signed a ton of autographs before the game), Jose Ceda (who is one big dude!) and Josh Donaldson in the bullpen during the game. Tim Lahey was warming up, but didn't get into the game. This article suggests that the trade scenario for Lahey ("returning" him and then getting him back as the PTBNL in the Craig Monroe deal) is still possible.

Finally, former Cubs manager Preston Gomez is in critical condition in California following a freak accident at a gas station. Thoughts and prayers to his family.

Continue reading this post »

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- The Cubs, who have won seven of their last ten (two losses, one tie), will attempt to even their spring record at 14-14 when they take on the Angels this afternoon.

Stuff of interest this morning:

• In 2000, Jay Mariotti wrote a column slamming MLB's season-opening games in Japan. That time, at least he was there (I saw him at the Tokyo Dome). This time, he's writing the same garbage from Chicago.
• Sean Marshall gets the first shot at injured Scott Eyre's bullpen slot. Bad idea, Lou. Give it to Carmen Pignatiello, who's been great this spring, and send Marshall to Iowa, where he can start every fifth day and be ready to take over if anyone gets hurt.
• I'm not into the whole "100 years" thing. But if you are, you can join Ernie Banks and others who are trying to revive a century-old group called the "West Side Rooters Social Club" (the Cubs, as most of you know, played on the West Side at Polk & Wood Streets until 1916).
• I'm not quite sure what to make of this seance which channeled former Cubs shortstop Billy Jurges. Nice writing, though.

Carlos Zambrano will face the Angels' Jered Weaver, who has had a great spring (5-0, 1.33, 14 K and only 3 BB in 20.1 IP). Weaver has to step up now that both John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar are out for the Angels.

Today's game will be on MLB Audio via the Angels' station, KLAA (and I believe once again, you can listen free), on MLB.TV, and at the MLB.com Mediacenter. Starting tomorrow, the next four games -- exhibitions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and Opening Day on Monday -- will be on WGN-TV. Monday's opener will also be on ESPN2, if you are somewhere that you don't get WGN.

MLB.com Gameday (2007 version)

MLB.com Gameday (2008 version)

PEORIA, Arizona -- Today's first inning, which lasted 42 minutes, featured two walks, eight hits including a three-run homer, an error, and nine runs scored. (Based on that pace, we should have been there for six hours.)

The other eight innings were played in a snappy two hours and eleven minutes; there were eleven more hits but only one more run scored, and at one point fifteen consecutive Padres were retired (eleven by Jason Marquis and four by Carmen Pignatiello).

All of this added up to a 7-3 Cubs win over the Padres, and Marquis, who gave up hits to three of the first five batters he faced (and the three-run homer to Adrian Gonzalez, which went a long, long, looooong way), settled down and looked really sharp until he reached a pitch count with one out in the fifth. He had just struck out Luis Rodriguez, and Lou came out to get him and I said to Jeff, sitting next to me (he had awakened long enough from his nap in the sun to watch what was going on), "Why take him out? He was on a roll!"

But, Pignatiello was sharp -- allowing only a single to Gonzalez in his 1.2 innings -- and now that Scott Eyre reported tightness in his elbow (perhaps accounting for the bad outing he had yesterday), Pignatiello has new hope of making the major league roster for Opening Day. His outing today, another solid one, certainly didn't hurt his chances any.

Greg Maddux was awful today. He really had nothing -- the first five batters he faced reached base, although his SS, Khalil Greene, did him no favors by booting Eric Patterson's ball leading off the game. Uncharacteristically, though, Maddux walked two batters in the first (Derrek Lee and Kosuke Fukudome), and when Ryan Theriot blasted a double to deep CF after two were retired, clearing the bases, the Cubs had a 6-0 lead (only one of the runs in the first and two of the seven overall was earned). Maddux left after the fourth inning, walking down the RF line to the Padres clubhouse to a large round of applause.

After that, Jessica, this site's #1 Maddux fan, who had been sitting ten rows behind the plate, came out to the LF lawn to join us. I told her, "It was your fault. He was too nervous seeing you sitting so close." She rolled her eyes.

In addition to Marquis' solid pitching performance, he also had two hits. This will likely increase his trade value, since I have heard that there's no way Rich Hill is getting sent to Iowa (even though he has an option year left). Hill has a lot of work to do on his mechanics, apparently, but his slot in the rotation is not in jeopardy.

The crowd of 12,035 at Peoria Sports Complex was one of the largest I have ever seen there, and it had to be at least half Cubs fans; they all gave a huge ovation when Kerry Wood trotted in from the bullpen to throw the 7th inning. Though not as dominant as yesterday, he threw an efficient inning, giving up a single but getting Josh Bard to end the inning on a nasty breaking ball. I presume that shortly, we'll hear that Wood has been named closer. Bob Howry, who had a shaky start to his spring, threw a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Best of all, Cubs pitchers issued only one walk today (by Tim Lahey, in the 8th inning).

Visible beyond the stands behind first base, opposite from where we were sitting on the LF lawn, was smoke from a large brush fire near Avondale, in the southwest part of the valley.

Micah Hoffpauir played right field again today, and had his first fielding chance at that position -- a routine fly ball by Paul McAnulty that he fielded routinely. Despite his great spring, I doubt he has any chance to make the 25-man roster, but if he can play even an average RF, he has a chance to become a callup if there are any injuries.

Which, of course, we hope there aren't, or that they're minimal, at least.

Finally, this article on the Cubs website chronicles the visits from various ex-Cubs on the Padres today to their former teammates (there were four in all). Here's one thing I learned from that link that I did not know before, about Michael Barrett's time with the Cubs last year:

Interesting. A full share? Pretty generous, I'd say. Till tomorrow.