The Cubs are taking on the Dodgers today in the latest practice game. You can watch on WGN-TV, keep track on Gameday, or listen to the MLB broadcast in Gameday Audio. The game begins at 2pm Central Time. Probably. We really can't be sure.
Cubs lineup:
Kim DeJesus' husband – RF
Asshair Burner – 2B
The Chosen One – SS
Stubbly McGee – 3B
Wyrd – CF
OMG OMG OMG REEEEEDZ 11!!1111!! LSA – LF
Beefy – C
LaHair's Eventual replacement – 1B
Crazy Eyes – P
Dodgers' Lineup:
Gwynn – DH
Ellis – 2B
Loney – 1B
Sands – LF
Uribe – 3B
Oetjen – LF
Federowicz – C
Sellers – SS
Angle – CF
Former Cub and likely current serial killer, Ted Lilly will pitch.
Then after about 3 innings, maybe we'll see some Brett Jackson, Josh Vitters, and other interesting prospects while we won't know who the hell the Dodgers are running out there because we don't care about them.
Love having Tony Gwynn lead off. Wait, it’s the younger one? Never mind.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-cubs-sign-cuban-lefthander-concepcion-to-fiveyear-deal-20120311,0,7721674.story
Self-explanatory for SK.
I have a sinking feeling that Reed Johnson is going to get way too many PA this season.
mb21 wrote:
Does Flaherty play SS? I’m still not convinced that anyone is significantly better than Darwin Barney on the roster right now. His bat sucks (and who knows what to read into his added muscle) but I still think he’s a much better defender than the defensive metrics said last year.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Yeah, he might take valuable playing time away from um… uh…
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
So long as most of those PAs are against LHP, it’s fine with me. Should be even less once Jackson is up.
@ Rice Cube:
Is that different than what was reported before? 5/6 seems like a lot less than I remember, though the Soler stuff is probably mixing up my brain.
@ ACT:
Exactly. He’ll get too many PA because the Cubs have no other options until/unless they bring up Jackson.
@ Berselius:
A few months ago it was $7MM though the official report may be that it was $6MM guaranteed with incentives.
Mercurial Outfielder wrote:
Fixed for accuracy
@ Berselius:
(dying laughing) Year Three
Lilly must be working on his curveball today.
That was not a balk? Did someone call time?
Castro working this count. More than was probably needed on some of those pitches.
This is a plate appearance I recently enjoyed. Even though it ended in a groundout.
Clubhouse cancer and irrational hotheadPassionate hardworking leader:I forgot that Captain Sideburns was the Dodgers manager
Nice range by Baker. Rizzo apparently forgot where the bag was (dying laughing)
3 groundouts for Garza. Not bad.
Garza isn’t throwing very hard today. I hope it’s just because it’s a Spring game.
Blake DeWitt, Cleanup Hitter sounds like a early ’80′s SNL sketch.
@ ACT:
Maybe today is changeup day?
Everyone must have firm lunch plans, because everyone’s taking their hacks today.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
They worked Lilly pretty well in the first
Also possible that the radar gun is a bit off.
@ Rice Cube:
Apparently today is medical product advertising day on WGN
Oops.
Bosio will be in the booth in the 4th
What happened to all the pFX data on Gameday?
BABIP hates Matt Garza.
Hopefully he’ll talk about what was up with Garza this inning
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
They only have it at two parks. The Royals one and one other.
I still think Garza throws too many strikes. He needs to work the edges more.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
In spring training they pretty much just put the “in play” ball in the middle of the plate and randomly put four green balls for each walk and three red balls for each K. You very rarely see regular season quality pitchfx in spring training games.
Garza dodged a bullet on that foul
@ Berselius:
Oooh, you’d think they would include it for all parks but I guess that stuff gets expensive.
Well there goes the shutout.
Ugh.
Whatever Garza is working on today, it’s not going well.
The changeup wasn’t working, I guess.
Berselius wrote:
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Larry?
Angle with some Cubs-esque baserunning.
Rizzo is destroying the National League.
In my video game.
@ Suburban kid:
Mercurial Outfielder wrote:
Looks like he heeded your advice.
Did pictures on the blog die again?
@ ACT:
Not quite what I had in mind.
@ Rice Cube:
I think it’s a bad link on the picture-hoster’s side. Directly evaluating it redirects to some site instead of the image.
I liked the Andy Sonnanstine-batting-for-Longo story and remember it well (dying laughing)
I’m also annoyed that he’s wearing Sosa’s number.
@ Rice Cube:
False.
@ Rice Cube:
Defense is pretty good today.
@ Rice Cube:
I’m pretty disappointed to see the derision of Sosa continue under the new regime.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
There’s just no pleasing some people.
@ ACT:
You’ve gotta have goals.
KG: Concepcion would be 9th in his Cubs prospect rankings
If the picture that isn’t showing up was posted by MO to make me look like a PS3-playing dweeb, then three cheers for the hotlink police.
(dying laughing) “The Cubs use of video now is impressive.” In 50 years the Cubs will have HD.
@ Berselius:
That’s not very complimentary to the Cubs’ system.
TOOTBLAN
TOOTBLAN
@ Suburban kid:
Your profile pic already screams PS3-playing dweeb, SK.
Dammit. The bases could’ve been loaded.
@ Berselius:
If you want to motivate Bosio use fear.
@ Berselius:
I just noticed that. Is that the North Dakota Olive Garden connoisseur?
Bosco is piling on the cliches here
Bosco not as big of a blowhard as I expected.
@ Berselius:
He’s giving it his all and conducting this interview in the right way by making the most of what he has and being committed 110%.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
He’s a warrior
I want to buy a Ford from Al Piemonte after seeing that commercial fifty times in the past hour.
@ Berselius:
Tons of heart.
WTF, was Byrd lawligagging out there?
Top ov search engine phrase for today so far: “kim dejesus breast size”
@ Berselius:
I’m going to bet large sums of money that it wasn’t Josh typing that in.
@ Berselius:
That’s a lot classier than Alien Sex Files 9. You guys are moving up in the world.
@ Berselius:
Can someone photoshop the cubs’ rotation here?
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
It’s possible that the searcher thought she was an alien. Or performed the search from a Pizza Hut.
@ GW:
Who’s your #4 and #5?
@ GW:
(dying laughing), nice one. I haven’t seen GBTS around today. Would be even better with Alvin and his phone in the background
Len waxing poetic on FanGraphs and pitch sequencing.
Todd Coffey is a much bigger guy than I remember
@ GW:
I could try it but I think GBTS or Ryno (wherever he went) would do much better.
Did Campana lose speed or something? I’m very disappointed.
No specifics on whether Garza was working on anything. He told Muskat he just had a bad day
DeWitt stayed because he wouldn’t have gotten the full $1.1MM anywhere else.
Ooh ooh, maybe Paul Sullivan will let us know who his target is this season.
@ Rice Cube:
I bet I can guess the race…
Why bother giving out your twitter addy if you’re just going to block people anyway, mini-douche?
frysredjacket wrote:
It’s greater than his diminutive size.
@ Rice Cube:
Fair enough.
Berselius wrote:
Not sure if anyone answered this year, but yes. He’s been playing SS for the O’s in camp. He’s not going to beat JJ Hardy for starting time, but could get a bench spot.
Berselius wrote:
2nd is short funny asian man. Someone trying to hunt down RC. (dying laughing)
@ GW:
repeating shit that’s already been said
@ mb21:
Racist.
@ Berselius:
What the fuck is going on?
cubs.com headline: Sveum best man for both Cubs and friend
Are the Cubs getting married? Hopefully it’s the Yankees so we can talk about the Cubs sexy new partner.
@ frysredjacket:
(dying laughing)
@ mb21:
I’m not that short. I have proof that I am taller than Tony Campana.
@ Suburban kid:
The WGN feed cut out for a few minutes in the top of the 9th
@ Berselius:
The action was so good they had to cut it short.
http://www.chicagonow.com/cubs-den/2012/03/jim-callis-talks-cubs-prospects-on-the-score/
@ Berselius:
He’s out of his gourd about SZczczczczczczczurururururur’s power potential.
Here ya go GW:
I assumed Garza, Dempster and Maholm had spots and just threw in Travis Wood and Volstad as the #4 and #5.
@ Rice Cube:
(dying laughing) Well done
White dudes with afros are always good for a few laughs.
(dying laughing) RC, great job. Now you just have to put Alvin in the background.
@ mb21:
I’ll let GBTS do that, that’s his thing (dying laughing)
@ Rice Cube:
awesome
I’m not very good with matching skintones so sorry that Dempster and Maholm look like they got charbroiled.
@ Rice Cube:
I don’t know which is which (dying laughing). I was noticing that now that I’m actually getting to see them play, the interesting new players are mostly bland looking white guys that kind of run together (Volstad Wood Maholm Lahair Stewart Dejesus Jackson Rizzo Vitters Szczur Clevinger). I guess what I’m saying is all us whiteys look alike.
At least we know they’ll all Play the Game the Right Way.
@ rattier:
That’s funny. I noticed the same thing on Saturday. I didn’t get to see them on Friday or today, but they all looked the same.
I came across Tango’s twitter account online and was wondering who the 5 people he followed were. I wasn’t surprised at the Expos and Poz, but Jessica Alba? Never would have guessed that. Ever.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120311&content_id=27191122&vkey=news_la&c_id=la&partnerId=rss_la
@ mb21:
with the way he drools over kristi dosh? not that surprising
@ GW:
If he followed 50 or 100 I wouldn’t be either, but of the 5, one of them is Alba. To me that’s just weird. You set up a twitter account and you’re looking for some people to follow. Let’s see. The Expos. Poz. One or two others. Alba. Weird.
I went to a place called “Extra Innings” on Saturday which is an indoor batting cage/pitching cage. You can rent a big net/cage and have a machine pitch or pitch yourself. I learned two very important things today. One, I’m 31 and completely out of shape. Two, that I have so much respect for MLB hitters. We had the speed set at 30 for my 8 year old nephew and after watching him, he needs serious work. So i got in there and was roping the ball. Told my bro to put it up to 45 and still, roping the shit out of the ball. Turned it up full blast to a blistering 60 and I couldn’t even catch up to it. I’m sitting there complaining because this machine was very inconsistent and would pitch some high, some low. I couldn’t even imagine stepping into the box facing 90+ heat and breaking balls. I felt completely useless. So it’s off to the gym to get in shape and spend some more time in the cages.
Thought I’d share.
/Cool Story bro’d
@ Mucker:
(dying laughing) Or you could just wait 5 years at which point you’ll realize you’re too old to care whether or not you can hit 60 mph heat. Getting in shape is always a good thing of course, but hitting baseballs doesn’t get any easier. Or so I’ve found.
I honestly don’t know how these guys do it. They make it look so easy. We talk about players sucking, but they’re infinitely better than we are. If we saw them taking BP somewhere we’d be in awe. It’s only that we see a Koyie Hill next to a Geovany Soto that we think Hill sucks. As bad at MLB as Hill was, he was still in the top 1% of all those who play baseball in one way or another.
Occupy Koyie Hill!
New post
http://www.obstructedview.net/news-and-rumors/its-going-to-be-an-even-longer-season-for-the-ticket-brokers.html