Two days after St. Patrick's Day, two nice young men named Sean will both throw for the Cubs in the same game -- the one at Maryvale. Sean Gallagher will start; Sean Marshall, making his spring debut, will follow.
Meanwhile, the fifth-starter derby continues in Mesa, with Wade Miller going. It appears Miller has the inside track at this writing -- but who knows after today, with Mark Prior still "in the mix" given his scheduled start against the Padres on Thursday.
See today's headline diary for all today's news, the biggest of which is that further roster cuts will be announced after today's games. Today is the last split-squad date on the spring schedule, which means that more playing time will be needed for those who are actually going to make the 25-man roster.
Media for today's games -- MLB.TV for the Maryvale game. Yes, that's it. No audio whatsoever. If you live in the Milwaukee area or within reach of its cable systems or you have one of those old-fashioned tower roof antennas, the game is being televised there on WMLW, broadcast channel 41.
For everyone else:
MLB.com Gameday for the Mariners game at Mesa
MLB.com Gameday for the Brewers game at Maryvale
Lineups, as always courtesy of Bruce Miles, are as follows:
At Mesa:
Soriano, CF
Theriot, 2B
Lee, 1B
Ramirez, 3B
Barrett, C
Floyd, LF
Coats, RF
Izturis, SS
Miller, P
At Maryvale:
Pie, RF
DeRosa, 2B
Jones, CF
Ward, 1B
Murton, LF
Cedeno, SS
Perez, 3B
Blanco, C
Gallagher, P
Finally, when I was visiting Jim, the D'backs blogger, and his wife, they told me of a Cubs fan named Jeff Byer who hand-makes bracelets with a Cubs logo, and then pennies from various years which are significant in Cubs history (one, for example, has 1908, 1945, 1984, 1989, 1998 and 2003 pennies, among others). If you're interested in buying one, or just seeing what they look like, here's a page Chris created on her Trash City site for them. Yes, it really is called "Trash City", and here's her description of the business:
It's interesting stuff -- and the bracelets are at least worth looking at. Have fun.
Discuss amongst yourselves.