We enter the final week of spring training today; final roster decisions will be made Tuesday or Wednesday.
This is the Cubs' only spring meeting with the Mariners, who they will meet in interleague play in Seattle on June 22, 23 and 24. Since I know you'll ask about [name redacted], information about this player's status for today's game can be found in this article on the Mariners' website.
Gordo in the Sun-Times has an interesting article on Cubs who are musicians and how that helps them deal with the stress of major league baseball.
And, the commissioner's office has now stepped in to help get a new Cubs spring training deal done:
"They've been here for so long and it's important that they're here," Selig said. "They have a great history here. They're important to the state of Arizona. Times are tough now and municipalities and states and everything are struggling, but we just let the process -- and I'll be blunt about it -- we let it get out of hand. That's when I called all parties and said go home and rest and we'll take it from here and get it done."
From what I hear, this is exactly right. A deal will get done that will work for everyone involved: the city of Mesa, Maricopa County, the state of Arizona, the Cubs and the rest of the Cactus League. Good news.
All Ryan's for starting pitchers today: Ryan Dempster for the Cubs, Ryan Rowland-Smith for the Mariners.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today. There's radio & TV available, but it's all Seattle -- FSN Northwest and KIRO radio.
As usual, the first pitch thread will post at 3 pm CDT, and the overflow thread at 4:15 pm CDT.
Discuss amongst yourselves.