Cubbies Insider

Over the past few weeks, I have distinctly felt apathetic towards the Cubs.  They certainly have not played well enough to get me to pay attention.  But with the riveting Bulls-Celtics series and the renaissance of Blackhawk playoff hockey, I simply had my mind on other Chicago sports.  While I read just about everything the Trib has to write about the Cubs, I have kept an eye on games, but never for very long, maybe an inning or two. 

I realize their offense has gone into the tank, but it’s apparent that they miss Aramis Ramirez.  There are other problems, but there are over 4 months left and it’s no time to panic.  The Cardinals started strong but came back to the pack.  The Brewers are on a mini-roll, but they should plan on choking sooner without frontline starters.  I’ve only been to one game so far, but I hear that the collective sphincter clench at Wrigley rivals the one that began as Loney’s grand slam left the yard last October.

So, as the Blackhawks await their Game 5 fate, I can sense that the Cubs will soon work their way back into my consciousness.  I thought it’d be time for a little diary.  We come to you as the Pirates have taken a 9-7 lead, in a game that it may be good to bat last.  I turn on the TV as the Cubs go 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 6^th.  Yum.

9:28—Len Kasper eulogizes Wilco bandmember Jay Bennett, who passed away yesterday.  He fails to mention that Aaron Heilman gets ahead of the first couple of batters he faces.

9:31—Nyjer Morgan smokes a Heilman offering into deep right-center and nearly gets thrown out by not sliding.  I remember doing that once at second, in a JV game 25 years ago.  Our coach, Rusty Cavataio, met me on the infield and informed me how much my play resembled a bowel movement.

9:33—Morgan gets home to make it 10-7 as Theriot tries to make a great throw on a grounder up the middle.

9:37—B.A. Baracus himself makes his way into the booth for the 7^th inning stretch.  What do you think, he’s a bass? Tenor? Falsetto?

9:41—Freel wins a race to third for the 3^rd out force.  I have the benefit of replay to know this; Ump Tim Tschida only has his eyes and his comfy pension. Safe.  Bases full of Pirates.

9:44—No more damage as Mr. T gets jiggy with it.  Valiant attempt, with no rhythm whatsoever. 

9:51—Johnson and Soto walk to open Bot7, as Mr. T shows a giggly side that he never did on ‘A-Team’, nor in Rocky III.  Now he groans as Hoffpauir grounds into a DP.  Guess he was getting advice from D.P. Lee.  Freel sends a slow grounder up the middle, scoring Johnson.  10-8. Cubs are winning this game.

9:57—Disabled List be damned! Carlos Zambrano comes in to pinch hit for Heilman after Miles pokes a single where Jack Wilson had been before he went to cover second. 

10:04–Argh. Strike out to end the inning. You know, I have an 8-year old daughter who certainly does her share of repeating herself when she wants something; I imagine Big Z does it to Sweet Lou tenfold.

10:10—Maybe I’m not ready yet…it’s just the top of the 8^th and I want to check on the Lakers-Nuggets game.  Sigh.  I’ll check on their winning score later.

Hot Sauce

Somewhere along the line I have heard the old adage, “April showers lead to May flowers,” and I am beginning to wonder whether this will hold true for the Chicago Cubs and their “wait til next year” fans.  Obviously, the showers here are represented by the Cubs Faithfull’s tears that must be accompanying their pedestrian, at best start.  And, wins would be the “flowers” being referenced in our comparison.  Of course, tears could refer to the crying of newly acquired $10 Million Dollar Man Milton Bradley, as well, but we will get to him later in this post.

Now everyone knows that Championships are not won in April/May, but they can certainly become less likely as a result of a poor start.  With their 8-6 victory over the Marlins today at the friendly confines, the Cubs improved their mundane record to a mind boggling 11-11.  That is right folks, with all the pre-season talk of ending the Century Plus drought and being a lock to win the Central, The Cubs find themselves a .500 ball club that is closer to last than first.  Granted, they are only a game back of the second place Brewers, but they are 4.5 games behind the Division leading Cardinals.  Exactly, THE CARDINALS.  The same Cardinals who did virtually nothing during the off season and lost potentially their best starter Chris Carpenter two weeks into the year.  How can this be?  Are these not the Cubs with three #1 starters and a #2?  The same team loaded with offensive fire power from top to bottom?  Than do tell, “How can this be?????”

Now I am not much for lists, but below I will give you a list of, what I believe to be, reasons for their underachievement thus far:
1) Starting Pitching:  None of their Big Three (Zambrano, Dempster, and Harden) has an ERA under 4.50.  Historically, the early months are favorable for the pitchers as opposed to the hitters.  This cannot be a good sign for the Cubs.  Additionally, only Zambrano has made it past the sixth inning in any of their 15 combined starts.  In fact, a Cub Starter has only gone seven or more innings in 5 of their 22 games, which is putting a tremendous burden on their bullpen.  I am not as concerned about the pen and the results of this over use now, as I will be down the stretch and into any playoff run.

2) Has Anyone Seen Geovany Soto???  Last year’s Rookie of the year has been…well, a disappointment to say the least.  Soto is batting a paltry .143 with just one extra base hit and 3 RBI.  Are you kidding me???  This guy hit .285 with 60 extra base hits and 85+ RBI last summer and was being counted on for the same kind of production, at least by those who penciled the Cubs into the NL Pennant in March.  Granted he missed 5 games with an injury, but he is in jeopardy of missing some games because he is riding the pines if things don’t turn around soon.

3)  Screw Up, I mean Line Up:  Can Lou Piniella screw up this line up card anymore than he already does???  And yes as you will see, it goes beyond the usual problems I have with Soriano in the one hole, but we may as well start there.  WHY does Piniella continue to bat a 3-4-5 caliber guy in the lead off?  Aside from the fact that the guy strikes out 25% of his plate appearances, which translates into starting 1 out of every four games with nobody on and one out; he leads the team in home runs, with 7.  Yet he only has 14 RBI.  Compare that to Albert Pujols, who leads the cardinals with 8 HRS and has 28 RBI.  My Point you ask????  Simple really, Soriano would have a greater number of RBI if he wasn’t following the 8 and 9 hitters in the line up, as these spots are generally filled by the weakest hitter and the pitcher.  It seems obvious that Soriano would have more RBI opportunities if he was hitting behind better hitters, say Theriot, Fontenot, and even Fukudome thus far.  True, he really only leads off once a game, but he follows the pitcher’s spot in the order every other AB.  Can you say STUPID……Also; Derek Lee is not a three hitter.  He hasn’t had power since they started testing for JUICE, so move him out of the three hole and bat him second.  Too slow for the two hole and you don’t want him to bunt; then bat him sixth.  Furthermore, Aramis Ramirez is this team’s best all around hitter, so bat him third.  So, we go Theriot, Lee/Fontenot/Fukudome, Ramirez, Soriano, Soto/Bradley, etc….Lou needs to put Theriot, Ramirez, and Soriano in the lead off, three and clean up spots respectively, in pen and keep them there. 

4)  Off Season acquisitions:  The players acquired in the off-season, namely Milton Bradley and Kevin Gregg need to start earning their keep.  $10 Million for Bradley, is that some kind of joke????  So far, his most exciting AB consisted of the bat not leaving his shoulder and him throwing a tirade and getting ejected.  It is called Pinch Hitting, not Pinch Watching or Pinch Whining Milton.  Since then, he has spent the majority of time on the bench minding a sore groin.  Great, all that money for an injury prone whiner when we already had a left handed bat in Hoffpauir;  too bad for him that Derek Lee is such a nice guy…..

5)  Team Defense:  The Cubs, when fielding their best offensive team, have possibly the worst fielding outfield in the history of baseball.  Soriano is a poor fielder, who often gets himself out of trouble because he has a cannon for an arm.  Fukudome/Bradley are decent outfielders who are overmatched in centerfield and Hoffpauir, who’s most likely to get playing time by sticking him in right, is brutal.  Agreed, Hoffpauir may learn to play right eventually, but this should have been a priority in Spring training and/or the off season.  The Cubs knew this guy could mash, they knew they needed left handed pop in their line up, and they knew he wasn’t going to start at first, so they should have tried to get him some PT in right during Winter Ball or Spring Training.  Instead, they went out and spent $10+ Million on Milton Bradley.  They could have used that money to put towards an AJ Burnett, Brad Penny, or any number of other free agent pitchers who were out there.  I am not giving up on Bradley yet because I think a shake up in the order plus a healthy Bradley could pay big dividends.  After all, we saw how he did when he had a masher like Josh Hamilton behind him in the line up last year….He thrived on a fastball filled diet.

As I mentioned earlier, Championships are not won in April, so I am in no way giving up on this Cubs team.  I just wish Sweet Lou would pay attention to the obvious.  With the talent this squad has, a .500 record should be unacceptable and a shakeup should be the norm not the exception.  Perhaps then May will provide a bushel of Flowers, AKA Wins….

Dugout Dog

The Cubs went into Houston and opened the season with a 2-1 series victory over their Division rival Astros.
Monday’s opening game was highlighted by a strong outing by Carlos Zambrano, who pitched 6 solid innings giving up just one earned run on five hits and walking 3 while striking out six Stros.  Zambrano got the W as the Cubs were victorious 4-2 behind the offensive production of Alfonso Soriano and Mike Fontenot.  Soriano went 2-5, including a solo shot to lead off the game.  Fontenot also had a great day at the plate as he went 3-4 and scored two runs.  Kevin Gregg got his first save in a Cub’s uniform, however, he did give up a run on a couple hits and struck out none in his one inning of work.
Carlos Zambrano receives the Dog of the Day award for getting off to a good start for the season.  Anytime the Cubs give up less than 3 runs they should win, so it was extremely important for Big Z to set the tone.

Tuesday Night, the Astros got a little bit of revenge as they came from behind to beat the Cubs 3-2 in 10 innings.  Wandy Rodriguez kept the Cubs at bay for six innings, scattering 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4.  Ryan Dempster was equally as effective as he gave up just 2 ER over 6 innings, striking out 5 and issuing three free passes.  Soriano hit another solo HR, which tied the game in the top of the 8th inning.  However, the Cubs could score no more runs and ultimately they ended up in the Loss column.  Again, the starter Ryan Dempster receives the Dog of the Day award for his performance.  Without much offense to talk about, Dempster’s quality start was about the best thing the Cubs had going for them on Tuesday.

Wednesday Night was a completely different story as the Cubs bats really came alive.  The Cubs scored 11 runs on 16 hits and jumped on Astros’ starter early, scoring four runs in both the first and second innings.  Fontenot, Theriot, and Soriano all tallied two hits while Kosuke Fukudome and Aramis Ramirez each added four base knocks for the Cubs.  Fukudome receives the Dog of the Day for tallying the afore mentioned 4 hits, one of which was a HR, and scoring 4 runs in the victory.  Ramirez also had four hits and 4 RBIs, but Fukudome gets the Dog, mainly because I don’t have confidence that he will be any where near the award again this season.  Ted Lily got the W even though he gave up 8 hits and 5ER over 5 innings. 

Overall, the opening series was a success, in that, the Cubs won 2 of 3 games and that is the goal going into every series; to win more games than you lose.  However, they cannot be happy with a couple things that transpired.  For example, they need to get more innings out of their starters.  I realize it is the first week of the series, but they cannot have their bullpen pitching 11 innings every three game series.  It should not be unreasonable, with their starting rotation, to expect a couple of the starters to go deeper into games.

Dugout Dog

Schilling Retires, 38pitches.com will not set up shop @ Wrigley

Let the rumors subside.  Let the socks stay unbloodied.  Call the caterers, for there will be a retirement party for Curt Schilling, one of the best big game pitchers from the past decade.

After he and Randy Johnson willed the nascent Diamondbacks to an upset victory over the Yankee dynasty, he did the same in Beantown.  While he did not single-handedly carry the Red Sox to their much-chronicled World Series title, he was instrumental in changing the mindset of a so-close-you-can-taste-it Boston fan base.  His face, and mouth, were front and center as they trudged through their miraculous comeback against the New York Evil Empires, and swept aside the Cardinals.  His bloody sock rests worthily at Cooperstown, and his hero status in New England is Teflon-coated.

Schilling has struggled with age and injuries in the past few years, and another comeback was rumored. His return after another medical procedure was on track, and the Cubs and Devil Rays were high on his well-documented shortlist to ply his trade anew.

One of the most cited blogs around—since blogging is so relatively new, can I say ‘in history’?—Schilling’s 38pitches.com spewed forth on many things, on- and off-diamond.  His blunt assessments of A-Rod, Jose Canseco and Manny-being-Manny were only the tip of Iceberg Schilling, as he was quick to, um, cut to the quick, often without regard for tact or probable repercussions.  Some would say he used it to his advantage, testing the waters of his career path and testing the patience of his GM, managers and fellow teammates.

While his joining the Cubs would have piqued our interest, in addition to satiating Piniella’s veteran-o-phile tendencies, the chances of his actually helping were slim.  As we will likely see, the market for over-40 players—especially power pitchers north of 4 decades—will subside.  He may have won a few games, and lost a few, and he may have made a couple extra bucks for the ticket scalpers, but in the end the newsprint on his ailing body would probably have overcome that on his feats afield.  It was fun to picture Schilling’s output, on his blog and on the mound, but it’s a young man’s game, getting younger every year.

HOT SAUCE

In terms of worldwide sporting events that actually capture the attention of the entire world, we Earthlings have very little to pick over, and all have their faults.  The World Cup features a sport which many Americans vehemently detest.  The Olympics is becoming more commercial and hokey, and the underlying drug implications may never go away.  The Super Bowl only crowns a world champion for the sake of the Sports Illustrated special issue, and the Goodwill Games, alas, have disappeared along with Ted Turner.

The World Baseball Classic, with only its second occurrence, is rapidly heading to a solid third-place standing.  You’d still have a hard time finding an American who knows (or even cares) the US flaked out early in the first WBC, and an even harder time finding a Yank who can name the defending champs (that’d be Japan).  But the games have been fun to watch, certainly better than the spring training telecasts, even the do-not-adjust-your-set St. Patrick’s Day Cubs-and-Sox-in-green tilts.

In the past several weeks, we have certainly read about players who didn’t go, but what I’m hearing from the guys playing is absolutely positive.  Adam Dunn was absolutely giddy describing the playoff atmosphere (not that he’d know), and JJ Putz called his opening game save against Canada “the highlight of his career.”  Granted, he’s been with Seattle, but this was an opening round game.

Once their countries are eliminated, players are going to head back to MLB camps with amazing stories of sweet games and sweeter bonding experiences with their teams and fans.  This will make other players begin to adjust their preseason exercise routines, to ready them for the short burst of WBC before the long haul of the season. While injuries are indeed a major concern, there will be some players who will credit the early games for good starts in the regular season.  Once we have more WBCs to study, just imagine how fantasy owners will use those early, important at-bats to rate potential draftees.

Of course their can be some negatives that come out of suiting up.  Dominican Republic closer/Cubs closer-wanna-be Carlos Marmol gave up two runs in the bottom of the 11^th to finalize the DR’s come-from-ahead loss to the Netherlands, one of Europe’s top two teams (about as honorable as being named among the top two Bears QBs of this decade). As much as Ken Rosenthal entered Musberger-overhype territory by claiming Marmol had called upon an early “curse of the Billy Goat”, I don’t think it will affect Carlos very much.  It’s not his fault that his superpowered team could only muster 1 run in ten innings of an elimination game, and there’s no proof that they could have scored another had the game remained tied.  He’ll get teased by his fellow Dominicans on the team, but I think, given his earlier waffling on whether to play in WBC, he’ll be fine in the cozy confines of camp (gosh I hope so).

Hot Sauce

 Dear Santa Claus, 

I hope this letter finds you well, and relaxing someplace warm with the Mrs. (or a reasonable facsimile).  For some reason, I picture you in Florida or Arizona, perhaps getting in a spring training baseball game or two.  No worrying about naughty lists, reindeer health issues, or disgruntled elf unions, just sipping a nice cold one and getting autographs right along with the kids who love you unconditionally. 

I thought that, since you must get millions of letters towards the end of the year, it may behoove me and my wish by sending you this plea in springtime.  I’m not sure if you use a first-in, first-out policy in terms of wish lists, but an early bestowal of this gift would be nice.  Plus, by Christmas, it would be too late. 

Since my daughter has been of letter-writing age, I have implored her to avoid re-creating a list of items from the American Girl catalog or the Barbie aisle at Target.  Know what you want, know how to get it.  Simplify, simplify, simplify. 

So, here goes…Santa, all I want for Christmas is a Cubs appearance in the World Series.  I don’t need a guaranteed 100-win season, just use your twinkly-red nose to get the Cubs through the NL Central, then past Chris Young, Manny Ramirez or whatever CubKiller-to-be shows up in the playoffs.  Infuse the October Wrigley crowds with some of your patented jolly-ness, which will bring the Cubs along much better than the crush of despair that was prevalent in ’07 and ’08. 

If that happens, Santa, you can pretty much take the rest of the year off, at least as far as the North Side is concerned.   

If you can’t deliver, I understand, and would like to substitute an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle as my gift.  I promise I won’t shoot my eye out. 

Warmest, and bluest, regards

Hot Sauce 

Ahhhhh, the excitement is abound, as the buzz of Baseball once again fills the air.  In Arizona, the buzz can be found in the pop of leather and the cracking sound of a ball being launched of the ol’ hickory stick.  Back here in Chicago the talk of “this is next year” once again fills both the airwaves of sports radio and the conversations around multiple water coolers around offices all over town.  Just the other night a die hard Cubbie Blue Bleeding buddy of mine, we shall call hime Mate, was boasting of the all but concluded World Series season on the horizon.  I was quick to point out that it is only Spring Training, although at that time they were a solid 4-0 after pounding their cross town rival White Sox, which I think only added to the optimistic frenzy. 

But I have to say that I am also a tad bit optimistic about the upcoming season and playoff run.  Yeah, I know, I am putting the cart before the horse and Jim Mora is somewhere shouting “PLAYOFFS, PLAYOFFS, did you say PLAYOFFS,” in hysterics.  And, usually I would refrain from counting my proverbial “chickens”, but this team is all but a lock to win the NL Central Division for the third straight year.  I say this for no other reason than no other team in the division did anything to get better this off season.  That is not to say the Cubs made any monumental or life altering moves, but the other teams did zilch, nada, nil, nothing, zero, threw up a dud,..well you get the point.  Does any other team in the NL Central strike fear in your heart?  The cubs won 48 games against their division last year and I can’t see why that total won’t be increasing this year.  They should win 105-110 games this year barring any major injuries or collassal mental break downs, and I am talking Ankiel-esque can’t find the strike zone break downs by multiple starters. 

This is of course assuming Lou Piniella is in regular season form as opposed to his Post Season form.  How does a guy who is so “in your face” with his players during the regular season lose his backbone come playoff time????
Once again, I am hanging the success of the Cubs regular and postseasons this year to Sweet Lou.  He must be the scrappy, aggressive, irritable SOB he was as a player and earlier on in his managerial career if the Cubs are going to make this year THE YEAR.  And his first “tough sh*t if you don’t like it grab some bench space” move must be to move Soriano down in the line up.  How many times do I have to bark at Lou on this one before he pulls the trigger.  Soriano is a prototypical middle of the line up guy, not a lead off hitter.  The Cubs have a plethora of full and part time players who are much better suited in the lead off spot; Fontenot, Theriot, Miles, and Gathright to name a few.  Piniella hinted at moving Alfonso and his ego at the beginning of Spring Training, but I will believe it when I see it.  However, such a move would go a long way in restoring my confidence in Piniella and removing my name from the Sh*t Can Lou mailing list.

Dugout Dog 

“Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.” –Michael Corleone 

While Tiger Woods sets the sports world a-tizzy with his return to competitive hardball, athletes in other corners of Arizona (and Florida) have begun to play with their own, somewhat larger balls.   

For Lent, I momentarily considered giving up paying attention to spring training, which is basically warm-ups for millionaires and those who yearn to be.  And then I remembered that: Strike1-It’s baseball.  Strike2-I’m addicted to baseball.  Strike3-I’m no longer a practicing Catholic. 

I won’t act surprised that coverage of spring training has increased in recent years, but with the relative ease of getting information to and fro, we can now know what’s going on, right at our workspace. 

So, I venture online (checking Tiger’s progress first, 2-up after 2 holes) and find the box score for the game so far.  Cubs 1, Dodgers 0 at the end of the first.  Hey, the Cubs are leading the Dodgers for the first moments between DeRosa knocking one long and Dempster finally throwing a strike (which, of course, Loney knocked longer).  While I, with 39 days left until opening day and 6 months of a promising season lying ahead, shouldn’t care about this, I think I will allow myself a small smile.  

Looking further into the site, there is no actual box score, just running commentary from folks’ using their Blackberries and iPhones while at the game.   I learn that the run scored on a double play groundout by Hoffpauir, and I’m okay with that.  Micah has 40-dinger power and it is spring training. 

After a few more refreshes, I learn that the Dodgers retake the lead.  Oh, the humanity! My mind wanders to October, and wonders if the Cubs will start swinging at every pitcher’s count pitch again, and forget how to field, and has the energy been sucked out of the crowd, and…and…and I relax.  It’s just spring training. 

Breathe.  Go back to work.  Be ready for the real opening day. 

Hmm, what’s up with Tiger? 

Hot Sauce

I’m tired.  Tired of the contrite face of Alex Rodriguez on the cover of the Trib, tired of the sound bites screaming from the various web pages, tired of the quickie debates about how Hall of Fame voting should/could be affected in the years to come.  Just. Tired. 

Given the ease in which new websites can be set up, can’t we just have an online clearinghouse for all articles, news clips, blogs, emails, snarky chat comments?  For those who really want to read about the A-Rod every visit to the web, give them a place to read to their heart’s content.  And there should be another clearinghouse for the Favre ‘retirement’ saga.  Enough. 

But back to the roids…can’t we just move on, without laying blame?  It’s the owners’ fault, the players’ fault, Bud Selig’s fault, Gene Orza’s fault, Don Fehr’s fault, the media’s fault, the fans’ fault.  Fault fault fault fault fault.  It no longer should matter who the 104 players were.  It’s everyone, in and among baseball, who really belong on that list.  The man with the highest salary was caught with his hand in the ‘energy booster’ jar, and now everyone’s going to get a spanking.  The so-called ‘Steroid Era’ will just have to be a part of the history of baseball, and we all should figure out how we’re going to deal with it. 

Hall of Fame voters will debate with themselves about the merits of those tainted with alleged or actual enhancements.  Owners will either consider all the money they made to be dirty, or they will simply commingle it with their other piles of cash.  Fans will be sickened or embarrassed at past gullibilities, or more likely they will more strongly embrace the supposedly ‘clean’ near future.   

But the players themselves will have to look in the mirror and know the real truth of their complicity.  Salaries went up as the numbers—statistics and attendance—went up.  If someone is stuck at backup infielder in AA ball, it’s only natural to find a way to start, then AAA, then The Show. Human nature. 

So, let’s tackle this upcoming season with a renewed and recycled sense of spring fever.  Maybe I won’t be as tired, as I crank up the age-old debates, if we let the pastime play its way out this national funk, one game at a time, one hundred and sixty-two times over. 

Hot Sauce

You’ve certainly read the headlines.  “Pitchers and Catchers report on Wednesday” could be the news, or “Position Players to report on Tuesday.” (I certainly don’t miss “Sosa to report late…again” banners) What happens when they actually report?  Is it like going back to college after a summer spent following a Dead cover band, or a real live girl? Is it like summer camp?  Do they actually fill out an application, turn in medical forms?  Some of these guys are the most recognizable faces on the planet—at least on our slice of it—so do they just walk in, slip into their sanitaries and start playing long toss?

I can imagine there is a certain amount of excitement brewing in Mesa as players make their way to Cubs camp, Version 2.009.  Skip-to-my-Lou Piniella has already had his day backslapping pitchers and catchers and will soon be welcoming his positional players who also failed him back in October.  Is it a training session for Piniella, as well, or does he get right into managerial mode?  These are things I want to know. For example, upon seeing left-fielder Alfonso Soriano hop-stepping from the parking lot, does he take it easy with a light batch of “Hey, nice new car, Alfonso” or “Did you whiten your teeth again, Fonsie?” Or, does he risk pulling a neck muscle by trying the old “Hey, Soriano, let’s try to show some heart after your fifth spring strikeout, unlike you did it against the Dodgers.”

Do players fall into the same habits and cliques as we all did as kids in school?  We know Ryan Dempster is the merry prankster of the bunch, but is he preparing something special for the sometimes volatile new teammate Milton Bradley?  Would Demp want to tweak Milt (copyright Bob Brenly) just enough to welcome him, say with a specially tricked up Game of Life (from game manufacturer Milton Bradley, of course).  Or, does Demp try to push the envelope, and load his locker full of water bottles (which he famously threw at a fan)?

Spring training used to be mildly covered, and now it’s big media biz.  We get the injury reports and the box scores in more and more details, as more reporters head down there.  What are they keeping from us? I want more!  Give me hangover reports, commuting delays, speeding tickets, lost buses, player feuds, pill popping, picture swapping, wife swapping, sunburns, towel fights.  Gimme gimme! 

Hot Sauce