Calling all pitchers and catchers...

Spring time is here again! Or at least the baseball season has started up for the 2005 season. Hopefully this new year doesn't bring another season that makes me want to commit suicide at the end of it, but we'll see. Pitchers and Catchers finally reported to camp today while the other lazier players don't report until Feb. 21st. As camp opens the two main questions for the Cubbies next season come from their pitching staff; Is Glendon Rusch going to be able to handle the 5th starter slot or will he turn into the man who led the league in losses during the 2002 season? Who is going to close on this team? There really aren't two any more important questions to answer, with the latter being the most vital.

Rusch pitched well in spot duty last year, but he has only had one decent season before last (2000) when his team went to the World Series, and he didn't start for them in the playoffs. If the Cubs make it that far this season he definently will not start barring multiple injuries, but how effective will he really be. It is possible that Rusch just had the lightbulb turn on last season, but he was 29 and that doesn't seem like a logical solution to that question. I really think that last season was an aberration of his career numbers and the Cubs will eventually have to look towards another source for a 5th starter, or only have him start when necessary ala Shawn Estes in 2003. It must be noted that according to baseball-reference.com one of the closest starters in pure numbers to Rusch historically was Cub immortal Shawn Kealoha Boskie, and we all know how he good turned out to be(minus a decent year in relief).

As the closer goes this team will go in 2005. The bullpen choked away a lot of games last season and apparently Hendry thought that addition by subtraction was the best method of re-tooling it for next season. He dumped malcontents in Farnsworth and Kent Mercker while not adding any of the big name relievers out there this offseason. He is apparently still hot on the trail of Jorge Julio, but God knows why he is still doing that as Jorge Julio is the Latin translation of Kyle Farnsworth. Hendry seems to have given the preliminary lead for closing to Ryan Dempster, who has never closed before in his career. Even Dempster seemed a little surprised at Hendry's insinuated announcement saying at the Cub Convention that, " Apparently I won the lottery and they just gave it to me." The other x-factor is 2003 closer and polish king Joe Borowski coming back at full strength. Reporting to camp today he said that he was 100% and that "Feeling better has put the smile back on my face and im able to do everything I was before." Borowski was noticeably slower with his fastball last year, which wasn't that fast to begin with, and wound up being put on the self in June with a partially torn rotator cuff. Instead of having surgery last year to fix the problem he elected to rest it and then rehab the injury over the winter. He says that the rest seems to have fixed the problem, but no one will know for sure till he starts pitching in some Arizona league games, which begin March 4th.

There are two things that bother me about this team right now besides these problems. One, the team has no feared hitter on the team anymore. Two, the media keeps asking where 75 HR's and 180 innings are going to come from now that Moises, Sosa, and the weasel Matty Clement have departed.

I say the team has no feared hitter in this respect, there is no one in the lineup that opposing pitchers consciously have to think, 'don't throw a bad pitch to this guy.' Sosa used to be this guy until 2002 and during stretches of the 2003 and 2004 seasons, but now there is no-one on the roster that makes the opposing pitcher weak in the knees. Aramis Ramirez may develop into one of these hitters eventually, maybe even during this season, but I see this as a problem during the upcoming season.

As for the deal the media is making for the departures of Alou, Clement, and Sosa and how they team will replace them, even Mark Prior is into this game saying the other day, "Thats the scary thing, we lost an awful lot. I mean you're talking about 40 homers in left, 30-plus in right and close to 200 innings on the mound. When you look at the numbers, you don't know if you can replace them." I think this is a giant example of the media trying to make something out of nothing when there are other things that could be discussed. Like how the team speed, defense and chemistry will be improved next season. Or how about bashing the Cubs for putting a rotating sign behind home plate LESS THAN ONE YEAR after the team said they will not deface the walls of Wrigley with advertising. Or how about making a bigger deal about the closer situation, because the losses of these other players will not be a problem. Sure Clement was the best pitcher on the team during a couple of stretches last season, but he failed miserably at the end of the year when they needed him most - getting roughed up/injured in three of his last four starts (not making it out of the 3rd twice) while not making a start the last two weeks of the season. Will his 180 innings last year be missed, yes. But how about this, if Woodie and Prior stay healthy next season, and giving them a conservative 200 innings each while being healthy, that makes up 140 of those 180 missing innings right there. Not a problem in my point of view. And as bad as Jeremy Burnitz is going to be, combined with whoever hits lefties in his place and the new LF they will probably make up about 40 of those 75 HR's, at least. Sure the team will have less power, but in Hairston playing LF they will produce more runs and he will create more RBI opportunities for the guys batting behind him.


He got how much money...

The Twinkies avoided salary arbitration with Cy Young winner Johan Santana the other day signing him to a 4yr/$40 million deal, which would eclipse the first two year he could have been eligible for free agency. Santana started for a full season for the first time last season, after splitting time between starting and the 'pen the previous two seasons. If Santana got $40 after only one full season of starting, I would hate to see what the Cubs will have to pay Prior in two years if he continues to pitch at his 2002/2003 rate.


Happy Trails to you...

R.I.P National Hockey League, 1917-2005, We hardly knew thee.



A-Fresh-a Pepp-a....

In a surprisingly disgusting twist to the fate of the infamous 'Bartman Ball', Harry Caray's restaurant, which purchased the ball at auction for $113,824 a little over a year ago and subsequently blew the ball up on TV, has decided to take the remains of the ball and serve them to customers. That's right, for a limited time (Feb. 20-24) you can celebrate the 7th anniversary of Harry's death by ordering spaghetti sauce which will have the balls remains in it. At both the Downtown and Rosemont locations the cooks are going to soak the ball remains in Budwiser and other 'curse-ending' ingredients and put the specialty in their sauce. Personally these kind of antics are turning me against this restaurant because in all reality they are probably perpetuating our teams losing ways, but I guess some people will enjoy it. They say they got the idea from suggestions that customers sent them on what to do with the ball. I don't know what's more disgusting, the fact that someone came up with the idea of seriously eating the ball or that the restaurant saved the ball from a year ago and had this planned eating of a year-0ld blown up ball.