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Speeding Up The Starter Selection Process: Cubs vs. Royals at Mesa, Monday 3/9, 3:05 CT

Today and tomorrow, Lou will have a good look at several fifth starter candidates, likely in order to cull the herd. Today, it'll be Chad Gaudin and Jeff Samardzija; tomorrow, Aaron Heilman will combine with our fourth starter, Rich Harden, who will be making his first start of the spring.

And Lou's a little impatient about the lack of hitting, too, and he may be ready to have a team meeting:

"I'm getting real close to it," Piniella said. "You can start creating good habits in spring training or you can start creating bad habits. Certainly our objective is not to win the Cactus League, but you'd like to come back with a smile every once in a while, as opposed to, 'Well, we need to do this and we need to do that.'"

Point taken, but also, Lou hasn't had anything close to a regular-season lineup to put on the field, either.

Kevin Gregg and Randy Wells will also see mound action today for the Cubs, and Brian Bannister, Luke Hochevar, Joel Peralta, and Kyle Farnsworth will see action for the Royals.

Here's today's MLB.com Mediacenter -- the game is being broadcast by KCSP, the Royals flagship. You can also find it on XM 178, if you have XM.

MLB.com Gameday

0 recs  |  306 comments

Comments

With Farnsworth slated to pitch today...

we shouldn’t have to worry about the lack of hitting.

Gaudin and Spellcheck

Interested to see how each of these guys throws today. Know that Jeff, in popular opinion here, will most likely start the season in AAA, but is there a way that Gaudin, Special K, and Jeff all fit on the roster?

I know we will be limited with roster spots, especially with Cotts, but if all three guys above are pitching well does it make sense to have them all in Chicago? Does Jeff need more time in AAA? Just trying to get a grasp on the pitching battles. Haven’t had a chance to listen to/watch many games this spring.

I think the key is Angel Guzman.

Angel is out of options and if he makes the bullpen, that most likely will put shark at AAA.

UNLESS Jim Hendry makes a trade (Vizcaino is the part that doesn’t really fit but his salary makes him difficult to trade).

Guzman

Good point on Guzman. IMHO, I don’t see Hendry making a deal before the start of the season. If that holds true, I guess it makes the most sense to start Shark in AAA.

Unless, as noted above, Vizcaino is dealt...

… it probably has to be that way. And after yesterday, I can’t see a lot of teams interested in Vizcaino.

The other option is to trade Guzman. I hate to do that, but if you get good value in return, maybe that’s the way to go.

How

has Guzman looked this spring? Outside of looking at his stats, how is he throwing the ball. I would imagine if he stinks it up they will cut ties with him. Speaking of former Cubs, I also see R Hill had an MRI done on his elbow. I also think Wood is out as well with a sore back, but is not that alarmed by it.

From what I can tell, he's been up and down.

There’s still almost a month so there’s plenty of time for everything to shake out.

I hope so

I do believe you are referring to Wood. To I wish nothing but the best.

I was talking about Guzman.

I do think Woody’s back will be fine. He seems to have some issue in ST every year, remember the hot tub incident in 2007?

I have no idea what you are talking about
The Shark conumdrum

I see Lou and Hendry possibly in a tight place with this decision.

They might be able to use him in the pen but I think the long term plan is for him to be a starter so for that he’ll probably be in Iowa.

Shark Starter

Long term, it makes perfect sense to start Shark in AAA. As you stated, and I agree, the long term goal for Shark seems to be as a starter. In that case, it makes the most sense to give him starts in AAA now and bring him up to insert into the pen at a later date.

Radio feed is up on MLB.com.

For anyone who’s interested.

Lineups per Gameday

KC
Maier, CF
Bloomquist, 2B
Costa, LF
Jacobs, 1B
Butler, DH
Gordon, 3B
Buck, C
Gload, RF
Pena, SS

Cubs
Soriano, LF
LBR, 2B
Lee, 1B
Bradley, DH
Ramirez, 3B
Hoffpauir, RF
Miles, 2B
Bako, C
Gathright, CF

Is it LBR or Miles at 2B?
no reply button?

…I think it is Miles at SS

Whoops.

Sorry, mistyped. It is Miles at SS.

While we're waiting for the game to start,

what opposing team or player has impressed you during Spring Training?

Who have you seen on another team that might be that break out player in 2009?

Good question.

Haven’t thought much about this yet, since we’ve played so many different teams once only. Well, except all those games vs. the White Sox.

You're going to ST in a couple of weeks,

which opposing team are you most interested in seeing?

One I won't get to see.

The Dodgers.

Apart from that, probably the Brewers or Indians.

I think the AL Central

is the most intriguing division in MLB. Anyone, maybe even the Royals if the stars align, can win this division.

Will you get to see the Tribes’s new stadium? I’ve heard lots about the Dodgers and Sox new ST park but very little about the Tribe’s new digs in Goodyear.

Off the top of my head...

…I recall thinking JJ Hardy has looked pretty good, unfortunately enough.

He seems to have improved every year.

I wonder if the Brewers will sign him or deal him for pitching.

Trading him makes the most sense since they have a SS they really like that could take over as soon as this season.

Or, move him to 2B and try to trade Weeks.
Not sure if Hardy would be on board for that

as shortstops are more valuable (and make more money). I would imagine it would depend on how much he likes playing for the Brewers.

As Hardy has more trade value than Weeks, and the Brewers in need of pitching depth, they’d likely trade him in the right deal. The question is, would a trade give up young MLB ready pitching for Hardy?

I don't suppose we could talk them into taking Vizcaino.
Well, they were willing to

give Gag-me another chance, so who knows?

Why not?

We don’t even need a player in return. Just take the contract.

LOL, yeah, really.

Just take him! Give us a gift card for the Marrs Cheese Castle and we’ll call it even.

I think my

arteries are still recovering from all the childhood trips to Mars Cheese Castle!!

3:06 pm

First mention of 1908 — before the first batter had even reached the plate. New record!

Well the Royals and Cubs don't really see each other that often

Makes it easy for their announcers to be lazy.

This announcer sounds really, really old.

He probably remembers 1908.

That has to be Denny Matthews.

He’s been with the Royals since day 1, 40 years ago.

Chad Gaw-dan on the mound!
lol I cringed

when I heard that.

No media guide out, yet?
He seems pretty adamant about that pronunciation, too.

He even noted its French origins.

Since Gaudin used to be in the AL,

you’d think he’s know how to pronounce his name.

Especially since...

… he made 11 career appearances vs. KC, including three starts.

I think the KC announcer

needs a better denture adhesive

Geez, I wondered what fans of other teams say about Santo
Needs better hairpiece adhesive.
everyone's announcer's have "quirks"

but we love our own!

LBR draws the walk.

He could look good in the two hole.

don't do it somebody....

please tell me wut I'm looking at.
Two-hole punch
looks like a kidney bean hole punch to me.
Yeah, is that a LOL stapler? Or a LOL three-hole punch?
no, no...

a TWO hole punch.

TWSS!

Oh, now I get it. I'm a little slow on Mondays.
Um, we just scored a run, people.

Where’s the enthusiasm?

thank you sir, can I have another!
Lee with the RBI?
Yup, doubled in Fontenot from first base.
Sweet

Glad he’s getting it past the infield, again.

no DP?
Nope, just the double.
What happened?

I have no audio and Gameday is no good.

Apparently, we're back to the ST version of gameday.
someone did something and then the other guy did something else

and then we scored a run.

Unbelievable play by play

Did you teach Pat Hughes everything he knows?

End of 1, 1-0 Cubs
3:24 pm

First mention of 1945.

Black cat's gotta be next
They may just skip '69 and go straight to '84 or '03
Double play!
holy crap

this guy is literally talking through a mouth of marbles.

Hello, Micah

“Get a big hit for me, baby.”

Since when did she work for a spanish website?

Works every time. Chilling.
Answer the cell phone, Mr. Announcer Dude
That can't be his phone.

He’s still using a rotary dial.

I thought he was using cans and string.
He has cans?

I thought he was using clay pots.

Smoke signals
telegraph

. .-. .. . . . -.. .. . .— … .. … …. - -

. .-. .. . | . . -.. .. . .— … | .. … | …. - – | ..—.. |

I give up.
It looks like you are

drunk telegraphing. That never ends well.

Yeah, that got my great, great grandfather in a lot of trouble.
at least he still

ended up with your great, great grandmother, so it couldn’t have been all that much trouble.

She's the one he was in trouble with.

And they didn’t call her “Shotgun Bessie” for nothing.

I've heard of drunk dialing

but this is taking “old school” to a level I’m uncomfortable with.

Well, at least they're advancing the runner.

Hoffpauir on third for Slappy Joe.

How did

Micah reach base?

Single, thanks to Erin, of course.
She never

ceses to impress…

Got kissed by the EA
Hoff is at it again....

another hit

And he just struck out.
Well, he just struck out, too
Soriano homered earlier.

Did you catch that?

sounds like this announcer took his headset into the toilet
Gathright slaps a single for the RBI.

And his white-hot ST continues.

Joey delivers!
Micah scores

So does Soriano!!!
Guess-hitting hack delivers!
Guess Hitting hack comes through!!!
WRONG

Announcer just said Soriano hit his first spring training home run.

INCORRECT.

Gameday thinks it's his first home run too,

must be something wrong with Cactus League stats.

Either that or Sean Gallagher has more pull than any of us would suspect.
Just got the funniest mental image

of Sean with that horrible Gameday photo screaming “this never happened” on his way back to the dugout to some poor guy keeping score in the stands

Lou appears

to have gotten through to his “star” players. A double by Lee and now a homer by Soriano. Way to go guys.

Against the KC Royals.
good point
Ahhhh, I see.
yeah..not so fast..
The Shark is in the water.

The Shark is in the water!!!

Merrillville Indiana!!!!!
what are they talking about now?
Palos Heights Illinois!!!!
I'm sure Royals tickets are going fast,

all the winning they’ve done in recent years.

be nice.
Couldn't help myself....
Wrigley wasn't exatcly overflowing during the 70's my friend.
True, the fans come out of the wood work when teams win.
Except maybe in Tampa.
When the Marlins are in the playoffs

I always joke that everyone in their sell-out crowds “went to every game this year. Seriously, man!”

Usually teams see a noticeabl uptick in attendance

the year after they make the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Rays the economy may not make that possible as Florida seems to be one of the hardest hit states.

talking about "knuckleheads in the White Sux front office"

for scheduling a night game in early April.

The Shark coughs up run.

4-1 Cubs

why is mr t punching a shark?

and why can’t i stop watching!

Maybe the shark was attempting to sell drugs to kids
I pity the fool who can't throw his breaking pitches for strikes!
me thinks you are sporting a Mr. T obsession
Hey - Mr T. is left-handed!

Get ’er done Jimbo…

I was really

hoping he’d do better than he has this spring.

eh.

if he’s working on pitches, it makes sense that he’d get hit a lot.

I hope that's it.
Yeah, he's been a little wild.

He wasn’t horrible, though. Didn’t sound like the Royals hit anything all that hard.

I think Koyie Hill

is going to win the back-up catcher job.

I think age is definitely in his favor.

Unlike today's radio announcer.
Hill's never going to Cooperstown though

Whereas Denny Matthews has already been inducted.

Zing...snap...pop
Yeah, Bako's really in the twilight of his career

And Hill’s done some good work behind the dish in ST.

The Game is at the plate.
Have I missed anything?

I was watching some show about a gas platform in the middle of the ocean, solely because it was in HD.

Chag Sameach to any fellow members of the tribe that are out there…

Cubs on first and second with one out.

4-1 Cubs.

Happy holiday to you!

I'm not sure what the Cleveland emblem has to do here

But it’s a sox fan. You don’t know any better.

Easy ...

… it was a “tribe” joke.

BTW... "member of the tribe"

referred to other Jews.

Isn't this the image that Native American Activists are offended by?
And once again...

I’m not sure what that has to do here other than the use of the term ‘tribe’ which is pretty stretching.

And for the record, it’s mainly those outside of the tribes that are most offended by these symbols. A lot of the tribesmen themselves consider it an honor.

Not really stretching it, especially if you're a member of the Cleveland Indians' marketing group

" Are You in the Tribe? " is the marketing slogan to their fans this year.

Too late. He just whiffed.
too late

the Hoff goes down swinging

Waited too long

Micah K’s

Damn work is getting in the way
i usually hate strappy shoes

but those are really cute.

Sorry, didn't notice the shoes
End of 3, 4-1 Cubs
The Shark feeds!

Three up, three down!

Shark with a K!

Good flick

“Front, bow. Back, stern. If ya don’t get it right, squirt, I throw your a** out the little round window on the side.”

Ha ha...not bad.
Thanks...

…been working on learning this freeware program (since pirating Photoshop would be wrong, hahahaha). Slow going, but it gets a little easier every time.

GIMPing along?
Exactly.
I use it, too

If you’re used to Photoshop, the transition can be a little frustrating, but they keep dropping in good features with every new release.

What's it called?
GIMP
Hey, hey, hey!

Al clearly has a no name-calling rule! You guys don’t have to gang up on me like that.

(Thanks, all. I may have to check that out.)

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program

GNU

is not Unix.

GIMP

Its pretty nifty.

It had been so long since I used Photoshop (1996) that I had a hard time at first.

Hooray for online help.

shark seems to be settling down

i hope he gets another inning. and another thing i hope is that lou has not made a decision on our 5th starter because for the most part they have been near equal

uh....no.

Marshall and great outings each time out have probably set him apart. 4 innings, no runs yesterday.

Heilmann hasn’t given up a run in his two outings. They are clearly the frontrunners.

lou's not dumb

theres a lot of spring left. he won’t make a decision so early. he may be leaning or have a gut feeling about the way to go, but nothing written in stone with 20 games to go before anything even needs to be decided.

Yeah, I think Marshall is clearly in the lead.

Heilman’s making things interesting. Samardzija is probably still ultimately ticketed for Iowa.

I agree that the odds seem to favor Spellcheck

ending up in Iowa to work on building 3 good pitches (he seems to be at 2+). At 24 years old, there is nothing wrong with at least a half season or more in Iowa for Spellcheck to grow in confidence and improve the control of all his pitches.

LBR!!

Double
5-1

LBR is like RBI backwards.... only not.
lower case L
Z was being sarcastic

take nothing literal here, things will go much smoother. :-)

Yes. Sorry.

Better?

He's having a good game.
End of four.

5-1 Cubs

Is Spellcheck gonna get another inning?
I say yes.
3 quick outs for the shark
i sure hope so
top of the 5th has been over for a while.

I think he threw about 6 pitches

All right, kids

I gotta go schmooze a customer at the Hawks game. Have fun, y’all.

have a good time.

Good to see ya back around here. :-)

8928e084a788bca0672ceb8167876f09

Two pics = double for Hoff

YES! YES! YES!

Two pictures, two bases!

two pictures = a double
Hoff with a double
He just keeps on hitting
Thanks to us.
I don't believe there was..........

an Erin factor last year when he hit .342

Small sample.
Beats D Ward at .216 in 102 AB..............

small sample but ugly….so I guess we’re better off with Micah off the bench subbing for Lee, PH, and RF as starter. Agree?

It Worked!!
just wait until the regular season when the rest of us pull out our Geo pix
Hey, whatever works.
:-)

I miss Geo.

That never gets old.

If Hoff makes the team

even google will run out of Erin Andrews pictures.

You would think.
Yeah, we may have to figure out where she's making a personal appearance.

And take some pictures ourselves.

Nah, I have a bunch from my personal collection
BCB will just have to hire a 24/7 photographer to follow her Erin around
I'll do it!
Hey!

I think as site proprietor, I should be the official EA photographer.

Can your ticker.........

take it?

But of course!
IF?????

For sure

I have to head to the house

asta la pasta

Bye bye burrito.
Gregg makes quick work of Royals.

Middle 6, 5-1 Cubs

Hoe-Chay-Ver?

That’s how you pronounce that guy’s name?

I thought they were saying "Coatshaver."
Did Shark

go 5 innings today? Or was there someone between him and Kevin Goggles?

I thought Shark went two.

Gaudin started and went three…I think.

Gaudin 2, Shark 3, Gregg 1 (so far)
Ah, OK.

Wow, Shark pitched pretty quickly.

he's no

Steve Traschel.

Ok

Thanks. For some reason I thought Shark started. Kinda busy at work so haven’t been able to hang on every inning. He (Shark) did give up that run, yes??

Yeah.
K

I think I’m caught up now.

Waddell in to pitch.

I saw him pitch on Saturday. Don’t know much about him, but I thought he had LOOGY potential.

Probably at Iowa.

If he pitches well enough there, he might be in line for a callup.

I'm out

Hope this game doesn’t get any m ore interesting. Bye!!

have a good evening!
who is singing today?
Stretch time: still 5-1 Cubs
LBR home run!!!

Man, save some for the season, Mike!

I think he will.

Remember, sneaky power.

I really like LBR.
At this rate, he may win the second base job outright.
If he can hit lefties.
Yeah, that's the key.

He’s been great defensively from what I’ve seen/heard.

I think he did a good job against a lefty starter over the weekend--no?
me too, sue, me too
Caridad attack!
is this game

on the radio?

Royals radio.

Not Cubs radio.

What happens on April 7th and 8th

When the Blackhawks play at the same time as the Cubs?

I don't know but I'm having a fun time imagining Santo calling a Blackhawks game...
I really have no idea what's going on, Patrick.

They didn’t play this way in MY day.

What?

Do you think it’s too fast for him?

Awwright, let's get the puck out of here

I’m sorry Ron, you did say “puck”, right?

Of course Patrick, what’d you think I said? heh heh heh…

Either the apocalypse or free tacos for everyone.
sounds like the state of our economy
Farnsworth on the mound!

Somebody racky-tack that guy!

Oh, boy, it's time for Farnsworth!

LOL, nice. Saw that in the Flickr group earlier.
Thanks.

I have a lot of free time on my hands some days.

No EA image = Hoffpauir K

Book it.

Bako owns Farnsworth
Farnsworth just gave up hits to Miles and Bako...

…and walked Slappy Joe. I love this guy.

So he clears the bases
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Bases-clearing triple for So Taguchi!!!!

So I take it things are going well?

I’ve been in Sioux Falls working 18-hour days the last two days – I miss anything?

9-1 Cubs

Let’s see…Soriano homered. LBR homered. Gaudin, the Shark, Gregg and Waddell all pitched prety well. It’s been a nice clean game for our guys.

Well that sounds positive

Though hearing that Mount Lou was starting to percolate was entertaining.

He's SO Taguchi......

Sorry…..(hangs head in shame :)

Somewhere, a Royals fan puts on his rally cap.
Cubs win!!!

Charlie is a Cubs fan!

Just in time for me to leave work!

Peace out, y’all!

Later on, Daver!
Cubs Win!

the missing Beatle!
FACT: Milton is a better drummer than Ringo.

(FACT.)

That's great!

Nice W today. A lot of good things to take away from today’s game.

That was DLee's first RBI today?

Let’s hope he gets going. Four weeks to go. No time to panic.

As Lou said in his interview the other day: time for these hitters to get into good habits. Today was a good start!

Ok we beat the Royals in Spring Training

It is all better now.

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