Practice Game(s) Recap
Dempster went six innings against the Rangers, allowing 2 runs on four hits and 2 walks and striking out three. Marmol had a scoreless 2/3 of the inning before leaving the game with some sort of hand injury. It was chalked up to cramps but he's getting an MRI anyway. The Cubs scored two runs on either side of a Blake DeWitt triple but were otherwise unable to generate much offense against Neftali Feliz and the Rangers.
Against the A's, Rodrigo Lopez continued his quietly good spring with 5 innings of one-run ball, with four strikeouts. I think he has a good chance to stick around as the long man in the pen given Sonnanstine's and Wood's troubles this spring. Tony Campana had 4 hits, including the Cubs only extra base hit of the day (a double).
Is there a Cubs game today?
No.
Opening Day Starter speculation
ESPN's Doug Padilla thinks that things are moving in a Ryan Dempster direction for the opening day gig. Sveum will most likely make an officially official announcement on Friday. The ESPN guys continue to be under the impression that Maholm has been fighting for a job on the roster, but now believe that his job is safe.
Tempering expectations for Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart missed a few games with a minor quad injury, but a more concerning bit of news is that his wrist isn't completely healed (and might never be):
“It stinks to say, but I’ve kind of got to the point where I have some nagging stuff that’s probably going to linger for a while with my wrist,” Stewart said. “That’s why I always have heat or ice on my wrist. That’s just a thing that’s going to be there.”
That wrist problem (and a hamstring injury) was a big part of his crummy 2010.
Rafael Dolis profile
John at Cubs Den has a nice profile of Rafael Dolis, who will probably take over the closer role from Marmol at some point in the next few years.
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Video of the day
Inspired by technical comment tangent I recently enjoyed
bubblesdachimp wrote:
Sources also report that the sun will rise in the east that day
Page is such a badass guitar player.
josh wrote:
Simpson’d.
@ Mish:
Have the Rolling Stones killed
Mish wrote:
@ Mish:
Yeah, some of their songs were ripoffs of blues music, but what Jimmy did with them was uniquely his own. But just his technical ability is outstanding.
@ josh:
Oh I agree, Page is one of my 2-3 favorite guitarists. That line just has always stuck with me. (dying laughing)
I can’t really get into Zep after ‘Houses of the Holy’. Physical Graffiti has too much filler for me (although I love ‘In My Time of Dying’ and ‘Ten Years Gone’), and Page’s live playing was way too sloppy for my tastes. Also the setlists on the live shows were way too repetitive. you can only sit through a 40 minute version of Moby Dick so many times.
However that Royal Albert Hall Concert in January 1970 is probably one of the best shows I’ve ever heard. That’s where Page pulled ‘We’re Gonna Groove’ from and put all the overdubs on for the ‘Coda’ album.
I have never understood why we teach kids that Robin Hood was a hero and not a villain. He seems like kinda a dick to me stealing peoples money and giving it to the poor.
I also love the first 3-4 Genesis albums with Phil Collins (up until ‘Duke’ probably), so take my opinion with a grain of salt.
What I like in page is less the virtuosity-Jeff Beck, for instance, is a better technician but less interesting to listen to IMHO-and more the imagination and almost-sloppy aggressiveness.
Plant, on the other hand, has been a better and more interesting singer solo than with Zep, IMHO. When he says “does anybody remember laughter?” here in that silly high voice, my response is always, “yeah buddy, and I’m laughing at you.”
also, Led Zep’s lasting contribution to the great tradition of ripping off black singers has less to do with musical appropriation than some folks (like the Stones) and more to do with just blatantly not giving songwriting credits & therefore publishing royalties to folks like Willie Dixon, who sued their asses and won. OTOH, they did give Memphis Minnie a 1/5 credit on their version of “When the Levee Breaks” which is a totally radical rearrangment & bears little resemblance to her tune at all.
@ AB:
I listened to Invisible Touch relentlessly as a kid, but that’s pretty much all I know about Genesis.
@ Urk:
I gotta admit you guys know way more about Led Zeppelin than I do.
GBTS ——> Washington DC for the summer.
Any and all recommendations for neighborhoods to live that are easily accessible to the Metro Red line would be greatly appreciated. I get a modest housing subsidy, so cost isn’t an overwhelming concern.
@ AB:
I like a lot of Physical Graffiti but there’s definitely some filler there. For Zep, the stuff around 68-70 is just ourtrageous-so much raw energy on stuff that just got ponderous later. I ran into a version of the Eddie Cochran song “C’mon Everybody” by Zep from 1970s the other day just dicking around on youtube- totally rocked.
We have our morning tangent of the day! I’m just a fan; being one of the younger folks here, I came to LZ well after their hayday. I really only know bits and pieces about their history; the music is all I know. And I generally love it. I do agree that Moby Dick gets old, as do some other songs in a live setting. But I still love them.
@ AB:
As a record collector and obscuro-rock head I am required to say that I like the Peter Gabriel era Genesis better than the other stuff. The only problem is that I’ve never gotten around to listening to any of it except for The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway which I thought was ok but can’t really remember anything about.
/Rock Crit Cred’d
@ GBTS:
You know if you start working for the federal gubmint we can no longer be (Facebook/OV) friends, right? (dying laughing)
@ Mish:
Yeah, I don’t really know shit about their live stuff. I have music ADD. I like to constantly find new music.
Mish wrote:
I grew up with Zep, dropped them like a hot potato when I embraced punk rock and then came back to them in the mid-80s like a lot of punks. By the time my first decent punk band called it quits in 1988 we were ending our sets with an abridged version of “When The Levee Breaks.” It was not ironic.
bubblesdachimp wrote:
Chris Carpenter —————> out indefinitely
And, I think I just outed myself as one fo the older folks here.
@ Urk:
Yeah see, most of this happened before I was born. (dying laughing) And considering I picked up Zeppelin from my peers (who were also generally oblivious to their history), the Simpsons line I mentioned above might actually have been the first time I heard about Page’s thievery.
bubblesdachimp wrote:
Would he be less of a dick if he stole from the poor and gave it to the rich? Oh wait, that’s already happening.
@ Berselius:
Chris Carpenter or The Other Chris Carpenter?
@ Urk:
I went through a simliar cycle in the late ’80s, except that I was 9.
@ Berselius:
Which one? (dying laughing)
Mish wrote:
The good one
mb21 wrote:
(dying laughing) so true.
I liked LZ when I was younger, but I don’t think I’ve listened to them in 10 or 15 years. They remind me of Rush. Some great songs, but too many of them sound the same for my liking.
@ Mish:
I know. I’ve never considered Robinhood a hero, but if the worst thing a person does is steal from the rich and give to the poor then we’ll have a better society than we have today. I don’t condone it. I’d prefer nobody steals from others, but if you are going to steal, take it from the rich and distribute it to the poor. For that matter, just take back what the rich have already stolen from the poor.
@ mb21:
I just cherry pick the good ones and ignore the rest. Ah the digital age.
@ Mish:
Don’t tell him you’re working for a federal agency.
*Gasp* But why else would you be moving to Washington?
It’s for a pornography store. I’m going to sell pornography.
Heh heh. I would have never thought of that.
Don’t worry Mish, I will have no authority/influence over any criminal laws, specifically drug laws. (dying laughing)
@ GBTS:
I live in DC how much you want to spend/ where you commuting to?
Also MB,
the rich are not stealing from the poor.
@ GBTS:
I could tell you plenty about the western exurbs, but that doesn’t do you any good. My main advice would be “don’t live there” anyway (dying laughing)
josh wrote:
In my teens my favorite reading material for a while was Creem magazine, which had this totally ridiculous Clash vs. Led Zep thing going in the letters coloumn. totally funny over-the-top musical tribalism. that whole magazine was pretty great in the late 70s-early 80s.
One of the struggles of my life for a while was reconciling myself to having conversations with people who were born after London Calling came out. Then I had to teach classes filled with people born the same year that Nevermind was released. Its hard out there for a geriatric punk.
@ mb21:
bubblesdachimp wrote:
In what world do you live in?
@ GBTS:
(dying laughing)
@ Urk:
You’ll be happy to know I was born several months before London Calling came out.
mb21 wrote:
One where the rich write the dictionaries. Or tax codes.
@ josh:
I like it when I can listen to entire sets and with LZ they all just sound the same to me after awhile. I admit the early stuff is a lot better, but give an LZ bootleg and I’ll listen to it once. I may not even listen to all of it. Give a Dead bootleg and I’ll listen to it over and over and over.
its not stealing from the poor MD its just trickle up economics
Hard to believe there’s trade interest in Blake DeWitt. I wonder what C+ prospect they could get for him.
Berselius wrote:
Berselius wrote:
Urk wrote:
That’s exactly how I feel. The 69-70 shows are simply amazing and few bands can touch their energy and how tight the sound was. Page’s guitar was literally blistering.
@ mb21:
I mean, I don’t agree with stealing from anyone, but yeah, one might be less morally appalling than the other. (dying laughing)
mb21 wrote:
GBTS wrote:
Actually, it might be to my benefit if you did. (dying laughing)
Led Zeppelin and trickle-up economics. This blog has everything!
There’s even some baseball thrown in there, I see.
josh wrote:
Steve Hackett is quite an underated guitar player, he was doing finger tapping in the early 70s, and combined alot of classical and jazz techniques into his playing. Of course he left the band in 77 a couple albums after Gabriel did before they went pop. “Dancing with the Moonlight Knight’ is a pretty good capsule of all his techniques. He actually performed sitting down alot of times.
Rice Cube wrote:
That’s something we’ll have to remedy, now isn’t it?
@ Berselius:
I wonder if that was the same pitch type that hit the batter before he was pulled.
@ bubblesdachimp:
Commuting to the Rockville stop on the red line. Ideally I’d like to spend around $1200/month. Looking for a an interesting, safe area that’s walking distance from the metro.
I’m glad Walgreen’s read your suggestion, Mish.
http://now.msn.com/living/0320-walgreens-fake-vagina.aspx
AB wrote:
False, I bet.
@ Aisle424:
Feels like fucking a flashlight.
@ GBTS:
True, if you’re Jimmie Page.
There’s a story someone, can’t remember who, tells of SRV in a studio session playing hard (he played super thick strings) that he split his finger open. His solution was to cut a chunk of skin of his toe, super glue it into the cut, and resume playing.
Mish wrote:
Exactly. Just like stealing food because you’re starving is much less appalling than stealing food because you don’t want to pay for it.
@ GBTS:
Adams Morgan / Dupont circle is the happening neighborhood, from what I hear. It’s on the red line. Might be too yuppified now though. I know grad students at UMD who lived in Silver Spring.
mb21 wrote:
Ahem.
@ GBTS:
Don’t tell me what to do
@ josh:
Josh I heard that too. But I always heard that SRV used super glue to close all his callous. Not necessarily use skin from his toes. Talk about a man who loved to play. That guitar was like another limb for him. I’ve never seen anybody play with that much raw passion and emotion. That man was brilliant.
@ Mucker:
He’s one of the few people that I sometimes get sad about being gone, even though it’s been years since he died and I never even knew about him when he was alive. Kind of weird.
I wonder how many people are getting viruses on their computer today from visiting The Book Blog. Every page I load is attempting to add a virus, but that specific virus only affects Windows computers so it doesn’t bother me that much. Still, take the site down until you get that shit fixed.
@ mb21:
Heh. Glad I just get my Book posts from my RSS reader.
@ Mish:
I’d be careful there too. Mine says it failed to load so I’m guessing the rss feed has been compromised in some way.
@ mb21:
I don’t believe in viruses. Can’t shake hands with a virus. You keep your science off of my computer.
@ GBTS:
You could do dupont. Tons of hipsters and homosexuals but it is a fun area to go out.
The reason i mention the first two is because if i didnt then one could be confused when they got there.
Mucker wrote:
I’ve actually used super glue on the fingertips of my right hand (playing bass) to get through a set. I hadn’t been playing much and was washing dishes for a living when a band reunion came up and I had to play 30 songs with non-calloused fingertips. Went to the superglue after trying to duct tape my fingers, which made me an even shittier bass player than I was.
Superglue would be the only thing I had in common with SRV, who I agree was a brilliant, passionate player and a real loss. Its sad that he died when he was just getting his shit together.
@ Urk:
Yeah, that made it all the more tragic, that he had just gotten clean. He just seemed like a genuinely good guy. I’m probably projecting, but everything I’ve read about him seems to agree.
I wish I had a gig to have stories about. Once in college, at talent night, I got drunk and played an original blues song I wrote. People started clapping and because I didn’t have a backup band, their shitty clapping threw me off and I stopped playing.
josh wrote:
Yeah, that’s funny because I never knew about him either until well after he died. My uncle has a piece of the helicopter from the accident. Did you know that Clapton was on that chopper but he gave his seat to SRV?
Urk wrote:
Yeah, he was pretty wasted for the majority of his life and his last couple of apperances and especially the show he did on “Austin City Limits” like 2 months before his death are pure perfection.
Ruh roh…Joakim Soria —> probably TJS
@ josh:
(dying laughing)
That’s funny. I got hammered just one time while playing in my band and I was fucking putrid on the guitar. I told myself I would never play drunk again.
@ Mucker:
I did know about Clapton. The way I understand it virtually everyone else that was killed was in Clapton’s band. I’ve seen that ACL show, and it was awesome.
@ Mucker:
I’m what you might call socially awkward. I decided the best way to cure that was to do talent night. The drinking was because I was nervous. I wouldn’t describe myself as too drunk. A couple of shots of Jack in a 20-year-old drunk.
Tebow ———> Jets
Sean Payton ———-> 1 yr suspension
Actually, I never drank before my senior year of college. So drinking itself was also part of my plan to stop being socially awkward. It was a 3-pronged approach (I also joined a fraternity).
@ Berselius:
Damn! I didn’t even know he was being implicated. Any other suspensions from that whole deal?
@ josh:
8 games for Mickey Loomis, Saints also lost two second round picks. six figure fines all around too
Me and Urk are pretty much the same in our LZ-liking, old age, punk/Clash, Creem-reading aspects.
Led Zeppelin at the Chicago Stadium was my second concert, and it was impossibly great.
Two and half years later, I was at my local record store waiting for the delivery van to bring the first copies of London Calling.
@ josh:
I was hammered. I’ve played buzzed before which was fine. But hammered was complete shit. I was totally embarrassed. I was trying to sober up as much as possible during sets.
I actually didn’t start drinking until after I graduated HS. But I was smoking weed since sophmore year.
@ Berselius:
Wow. Losing draft picks and their head coach. I’ve never heard of anything like that.
So then what happened to Gregg Williams?
@ Mucker:
Never did that either. More lack of opportunity (see: socially awkward).
Gregg Williams also suspended indefinitely
josh wrote:
Hey, the NFL cares about safety. Now let’s get back to negotiating for an 18 game season.
@ Mucker:
I done heard he was suspended indefinitely. The NFL doesn’t fuck around.
@ Berselius:
And pretending to care about concussions.
Wow, that’s crazy. I’m of the opinion that the NFL has recently gone through a pussification of sorts regarding their contact rules and shit but I’m all for keeping the game clean. You don’t need guys out there purposely trying to end somebody’s career.
@ Berselius:
Sounds like another labor battle waiting to happen. I’m sure players aren’t too thrilled about another game in which they can get seriously injured in.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/21/the-lake-elsinore-storm-would-like-to-trade-for-tim-tebow/
@ Rice Cube:
Just tell him the goal is to hit it right to the defender, and let his ability take over from there.
Berselius wrote:
bubbles ————> Jets fan
@ jtsunami:
So, do the Jets get to apply for tax-exempt status now?
@ jtsunami:
Are sure the NFL is televised in whatever world bubbles lives in?
Don’t you think Brees is the winner here? Can’t he just wait till the last minute and take the new GM to the cleaners for all the money he wants?
Yes I have been reading this site since ACB and waited until something completely non Cubs to comment (dying laughing)
@ mb21:
Only the games on FOX.
@ Akabari:
Surprised something non-Cubs hadn’t come up before that made you want to comment. (dying laughing)
As for your question, I have no idea. Someone who pays attention to the NFL probably has an answer for that.
@ Rice Cube:
FOX doesn’t broadcast in other worlds. I’m pretty sure they don’t even broadcast in his home country.
@ mb21:
I’m not that well versed in cooking polymerization or Led Zeppelin to comment on those either (dying laughing)
@ Akabari:
Maybe, but they’ve been in deadlock for a little while, and it seems like people probably saw this discipline coming. Plus, don’t the Saints have exclusive rights to negotiate?
@ jtsunami:
Bubbles will not be a jets fan but he will be a tebow fan
@ bubblesdachimp:
(dying laughing)
Bubbles, we need to have a beer when I get there and talk about nothing except baseball.
Akabari wrote:
I’m not sure what you mean here
@ Berselius:
I mean if the GM is suspended, and the two sides are REALLY as far apart as “reports” say (and of course taking them with a boulder sized grain of salt) he could probably sit out a week or two of camp and everyone would be screaming to just settle the dispute with the replacement GM, whoever he is.
It’d be a dick move, yeah. But possible.
josh wrote:
I was up at that last show at Alpine Valley and it was pretty excellent. We actually contemplated leaving during Clapton’s set because it was all late-era solo stuff and frankly kinda blew.
SRV was awesome, tho. He ended his set by kicking his guitar all over the stage for what seemed like about two minutes, and somehow even that sounded good. Also: everything monogrammed. I think the guy must’ve had about 100 sets of vinyl lettering in his garage with the S, R, and V missing…
@ Akabari:
For what it’s worth, he could have just as easily done the same thing with the original GM.
Point taken.
Vincent Crabbe ————–> 2 years in prison
http://www.avclub.com/articles/that-guy-who-played-the-harry-potter-bully-just-go,71194/
@ Berselius:
I knew he could do great things in Slytherin House.
I haven’t been a big Clapton fan since his early stuff, but one of the few NA meetings I’ve gone to since living in Kansas was shortly after I moved here. I was in KC and felt the urge to use so stopped by an NA meeting. I go in and there’s Eric Clapton sitting there.
/cool story bro
mb21 wrote:
This was a pretty good mashup.
Whats the difference between a young boy and vial of cocaine?
Clapton would never drop cocaine out of a window
@ GBTS:
I am down to go to a Nats cubs game!!!!
I will go to all them..
Or just grab a beer. And talk about the bizness.
And tebow.
and the SEC
And survivor
AND the WWE
And DMB
nothing else though
Interesting. I think he’s putting more stock in defensive metrics than I’d be comfortable, but it’s nice seeing a point of view on Soriano that doesn’t involve torches and angry villagers.
http://chicagosidesports.com/in-soriano-we-trust/
@ Aisle424:
The only thing I’d add is that Theo has flat out laughed his ass off at UZR so whatever metric he’s using it’s not one available to the public (if he’s using one at all for that matter).
But it is nice to see someone write something about Soriano that doesn’t make you want to throw up.
bubblesdachimp wrote:
Shut me right up.
@ uncle dave:
I read an interview with Jimmy Vaughan where they asked him some question about Stevie putting his initials on stuff, and he got kind of angry and claimed that Stevie stole that from him. It was probably mock indignation, but the tone was a little tense. Maybe because Jimmy has been living under his younger brother’s shadow for his entire life.
mb21 wrote:
We can add that to the list for Colin’s tumblr of FO-type laughing at UZR
@ Akabari:
In my limited corporate America experience it seems like a mistake to presume that the assistant GM isn’t just as good if not a better negotiator than the actual GM (or that the assistant GM wouldn’t have been the one doing the deal in the first place, while the GM took all the credit).
@ mb21:
I’m sure that sabermetric teams have much better defensive metrics than you can find on Fangraphs. They have access to more data, as well as a strong economic incentive.
@ josh:
If it makes him feel any better, I still own “Hot Number” on vinyl.
email, gbts
The comicbook version of what RC said:
new shit: http://www.obstructedview.net/news-and-rumors/discredited-draft-review.html