Practice Game Recap

Paul Maholm had a good outing, striking out six over five innings and allowing no runs. Carlos Marmol also pitched a scoreless inning in his first outing since having an MRI on his neck for a hand problem. Castro drew his first walk of the spring.

Is there a Cubs game today?

The Cubs travel to the Reds at 3 pm CT. Len and Mick have the call, and Matt Garza will take the mound for the Cubs.

Is there baseball that counts tomorrow?

Indeed, the Mariners and the A's kick off the season in Japan tomorrow morning,

Will I be able to watch it?

Sure, if you feel like getting up at 5 AM (3 AM on the west coast, where these teams are from). And only if you live in the Seattle area, or bought MLB.TV.  From what I've seen no one is airing the game in the Bay Area. It's nice for MLB to work on its relationship with Japan, but based on the marketing of the games here it's like it wants everyone else to forget about it. I've seen plenty of ads for the Cardinals-Marlins game next wednesday on ESPN which are being trumpeted as the season opener.

Burn of the day

Kerry Wood:

It only took you guys a week to notice I wasn’t out there. You guys are right on top of it.

Former Cub Brandon Guyer is mixed up in this Matt Bush mess

The car that Matt Bush was driving in his drunken hit-and-run belonged to Brandon Guyer. If the police can determine if Guyer knew Bush's license was suspended, he may also face criminal charges. The 72-year old motorcyclist that Bush hit (and ran over his head) has become unresponsive. Andrew Friedman has stated that Bush will never play for the Rays again. Hopefully he'll be playing in the Florida Penal League for a long time.

It's all sunshine and rainbows for Dale Sveum

Multiple players are lauding Dale Sveum for his spring, saying that he managed to stress fundamentals without making it boring.

Media beating the trade Marlon Byrd drum, bullpen news

As far as I can tell, after Buster Olney made an offhand remark about a comment on someone else's blog about Marlon Byrd being a good fit for the Braves, suddenly Marlon Byrd is being "shopped around".  According to Gordo the Cubs have talked to the Nationals and Braves about a Byrd trade, and alluded to the vague "we could have a trade" before opening day quote that Hoyer gave last week. Trading Byrd would clear the way for top prospect Brett Jackson, who Sveum thinks is more than ready for the big leagues. They'll trade Byrd for the right package but I think these trade offers are being instigated by other teams.

Gordo also said that Shawn Camp is expected to make the pen, and it looks like he canceled out Sveum's endoresment of Coleman late last week. Right now it looks like it will be Marmol, Wood, Dolis, Russell, Camp, Wells, and one of Coleman, Castillo, Maine, and less likely Parker or de la Cruz.

Pic of the day

An appropriate response to Tim's excellent post yesterday about ESPN punching bag Steve Bartman. Leave him alone, assholes.

DirectTV might lose WGN

TribCo and DirectTV are still hammering out their tv contract, with a deadline at the end of the month. If they can't reach an agreement WGN would be pulled from the lineup, as well as proramming from a few other Trib-owned stations (Mets, Phillies). Even more importantly you local Chicagoites would lose access to The Vampire Diaries via DirecTV. Won't TribCo think of the children?