The Rockies are in the middle of a bizarre sequence of games which has had them travel, beginning with the last week of spring training, from Tucson to Phoenix to Tucson to Las Vegas to Phoenix to Denver to Chicago. Today's game is the eighth of the year for both teams; after today, the Rockies don't return to Chicago and the Cubs don't visit Colorado until August. And when they leave Chicago, they head to Los Angeles... and then back to Phoenix again. That's right, two series vs. the Diamondbacks in Phoenix in April. After that they go home for a six-game homestand... and then back to the West Coast for games with the Giants and Padres.
Just in case you're ever complaining about the Cub schedule again, remember that sequence.
Baseball note of interest: former Rockies outfielder Scott Podsednik signed a minor league deal with the White Sox.
Gordon Wittenmyer writes today about Milton Bradley and how he might react to possible racial taunting from the bleachers. I know Jacque Jones experienced this, and I hope it won't happen to Bradley, who is expected to be out until Saturday with the minor groin injury he suffered in Milwaukee on Sunday. Meanwhile, Milton wants to change his image and reputation.
And if you think people around here have been proposing panic moves with only seven games played, Barry Rozner has decided to join you on the Jeff Samardzija watch, because:
Lou Piniella has little confidence in Neal Cotts at this point, so he might like to keep Sean Marshall in the bullpen.
Or at the very least, if Marshall stays in the rotation, Samardzija can serve out of the pen, where Piniella also has almost no belief in Angel Guzman or Luis Vizcaino.
Barry. Seven games. The Cubs have won five of them. Relax a little, willya? He does have some interesting comments about Joe Morgan in that column, though.
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Since Jason Marquis was a Cub the last two seasons, his last start against them was on August 18, 2006. I post that link mainly for amusement purposes; there are only three Cubs who played in that game (Aramis Ramirez, Ryan Theriot and Carlos Marmol) who are still on the team. Marquis got the win. His former teammate Derrek Lee hits him pretty hard (14-for-30, .467, 4 HR), and so does A-Ram (.429, 9-for-21, 2 HR).
Rich Harden had an outstanding first start of the year vs. the Brewers, but got no decision. This will be his first career start against Colorado.
Today's game is cable-only on CSN Chicago and FSN Rocky Mountain. Here are the rest of today's games at the MLB.com Mediacenter.
Discuss amongst yourselves.