Remember yesterday when I told you the Pirates were a bad team? And some of you disagreed with me?

The Pirates are a really, really, really bad team. The Cubs smacked Pirates pitching around again today for 13 runs (this time on 18 hits and seven walks) and completed the series sweep with a 13-6 blowout of the Pirates that wasn't as close as that score.

You could point out -- and some of you did and they also did on the WGN radio postgame show -- that the Pirates are over .500 against the rest of the league. What does that say about the rest of the league? -- that'd be my argument. And this is what a good team is supposed to do against a bad one -- win nearly all the games. So far vs. the dregs of the NL Central -- the Pirates and Astros -- the Cubs are 8-1 (and 11-4 vs. the Central overall). And the Cardinals, who started out so hot, just lost two of three to the Giants, who are even worse than the Pirates.

Example of how bad the Pirates are: their pitching staff issued 19 walks to Cubs hitters in this series.

Now think about that. That's about five percent of all the walks that Cub hitters drew in the entire 2006 season (395 of them that year). Cubs hitters are taking a cue from Kosuke Fukudome (who sat today due to a minor eye problem; he'll be back tomorrow) and are being very, very patient. They have now drawn 81 walks in 18 games -- that's 4.5 walks per game, which would be 729 walks for a full season, or nearly twice as many as they did under the non-base-clogging philosophy of Dusty Baker.

It's easy, Dusty: get guys on base and a lot of them will score. A simple thing, really.

And that's what the Cubs did early and often today. Reed Johnson -- who has been a revelation in the leadoff spot and a good reason why Alfonso Soriano shouldn't ever, ever be placed back in that leadoff spot, ever (did I say ever? And the Cubs are playing better without Soriano. At this point, Alfonso, don't hurry back!) -- led off the bottom of the first with a double and scored on Ryan Theriot's single.

Theriot had four hits and a walk today. I know, I know. He's not this good. Yes, I know. He's not going to hit .340. But would any of you -- even those of you who have devoted a ton of time to statistical "proof" that Theriot can never, ever improve and that he's a terrible hitter, etc. etc. admit that maybe, possibly, he might have a career year this year? That maybe he can push his game to a higher level? I heard today that Theriot spent quite a bit of time in the weight room in the offseason. We are seeing the results already -- he's now hit five doubles in eighteen games, and the ball seems to come off his bat with much more authority than it did a year ago. When I say there are things that cannot be measured on a stat sheet, that's one of them. Stats can only tell you what has occurred, and project what might occur in the future -- not tell you with 100% certainty what will occur in the future.

At least admit that it's possible. Deal?

Almost too many kudos to go around today. Aramis Ramirez, always a slow starter, had four hits, four RBI and his fourth HR. I didn't think anyone would hit one today into the teeth of a pretty good wind off the lake, but the Pirates' Ryan Doumit hit two and came up in the 9th with the chance to hit a third, which Mike said would have been the "weirdest 3-HR game since Freddie Patek". Instead, he struck out to end the game.

More weirdness: Ryan Dempster gave up hits to the first two hitters -- then retired twelve in a row, making some good defensive plays (one thing we hadn't seen much of from Dempster, throwing one inning at a time as closer, is that he's a very good infielder), and then fell apart in the fifth, giving up three runs and making the game then close at 5-3 before striking out Adam LaRoche with the bases loaded to end the inning and qualify for his third win. The bullpen today gave up three runs in four innings, but it didn't really matter with the 13-run outburst.

I don't know -- and don't right now have time to look up -- the last time the Cubs scored 13 runs in consecutive games. Phil said to me in our seats, "The Cubs scored 13 runs in every game in this series." No, they didn't, I replied, but it took me a couple of minutes to remember that Friday's score was 3-2.

Which led me to say to Mike, "I can remember game scores from 1974, but I can't remember one from two days ago." That's pretty scary.

That's what kind of day it was, in bright April sunshine but chilly temperatures (48 degrees reported in the boxscore is probably a little lower than it really was). It was so cold that some of the 20something women sitting around us got a little loopy. One of them came up from the shade in the corner to tell her friends that she was "moving because it's too cold down there -- but you all can move into the empty seats if you want." They declined.

The Cubs are clicking on all cylinders right now, and I imagine their confidence level will be high going into the brief two-game interlude with the Mets tomorrow. They'll need that -- the Mets are a better team than the Pirates.

Finally, this morning I noted that Carol Slezak had used a term I used in a post 11 days ago -- "Fukudomania" -- and wondered where she might have seen it. Turns out Bruce Miles used it back in February. Credit where credit is due!

Click here for my scorecard

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!