Both the Cubs and the Sox are firmly ensconced in Spring Training and preparing for the season ahead. Both teams are coming off of disappointing seasons. On the North Side a lot of problems were laid at the feet of Milton Bradley. Certainly he was a clubhouse cancer but he didn’t injure all those other players. Well, not as far as I have been able to discern anyway. On the South Side, they were bedeviled by two pitchers who cost them around 25 games all total. That is a lot of games just to throw away and the team could never overcome the negative inertia. More importantly, as a player, you had to feel down when you knew that two days out of every five you stood a better chance of losing than anything else. In other words, while more subtle, the White Sox had their own form of clubhouse cancer.
However, both teams displayed their own versions of baseball oncology and cleansed their rosters. For the Cubs, just getting rid of Milton Bradley made them better. For the Sox, that Jake Peavy acquisition resonated deeply. His 1.35 ERA over his last three starts didn’t hurt either.
PAUL SULLIVAN at the Tribune is down in Mesa with the Cubs and takes a look at where they are at this Spring.
Asked if the Fitch Park had changed any since he began his career in the mid-80s, Greg Maddux replied: “Yeah, the trees are bigger.”
Piniella had no news, which is considered good news for the Cubs, a franchise famous for spring training calamities, including hot tub spills, convenience store punch-outs, and even a twisted testicle over the last few years.
Piniella said he’s undecided on whether to use Ryan Theriot or Kosuke Fukudome as his lead-off man, and that both will get a shot this spring. Ted Lilly is back to normal, or as normal as Ted Lilly can be these days. “We’ve got to bring him along slowly, and not rush him,” Piniella said.
The manager also said none of the four candidates for the No. 4 and 5 spots (Jeff Samardzija, Carlos Silva, Sean Marshall and Tom Gorzelanny) has an edge, and that Angel Guzman is two weeks behind the other pitchers, and may appear in a game the second week of March.
Finally, Piniella enjoyed the sound of the ball hitting the catchers’ mitts in the covered batting cage. He had an idea for Cubs pitchers, but mentioned it only to the media.
“I would pay a catcher to make that mitt pop as much as possible, I can tell you that,” he said. “We’ve got some nice, young arms there. But, boy, that sound makes your fastball look about three or four miles faster.”
After the workout, most everyone left to watch the hockey game.
I have no idea how to make a mitt louder, but something tells me that there are blue bleeding scientists huddled in Area 51 working on just that as I type. As to the hockey game, the US beat Canada 5-3 to earn a bye and force Canada to play Germany to even get a chance at moving on. As a side note, Canada did all that it could to keep other nations from having a chance to work out in their facilities until the very last moment. That has earned them the ire of several nations. It also hasn’t helped them very much as they are in 4TH PLACE in the medal count. Korea stands a very solid chance of passing them too, so this could be one of the more embarrassing home Olympiads in history.
Back to baseball.
MARK GONZALES at the Tribune is in Glendale with the Sox at their shiny new facility. He reports that Ozzie has already made one of the toughest decisions he had to make.
Mark Buehrle and Jake Peavy were described by John Danks as staff ace 1 and 1A.
“I feel as good about our starting rotation as I’ve felt coming into a spring training,” general manager Ken Williams said Sunday after pitchers and catchers completed their first workout under soggy conditions.
Buehrle, who was named the Opening Day starter by manager Ozzie Guillen, noticed a little more “buzz’’ in the clubhouse.
The optimism is understandable. Buehrle, 30, will set a franchise record with his eighth Opening Day start against Cleveland on April 5. Peavy, 28, a two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, was 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in three starts with the Sox last September after a trade with San Diego.
Danks, 24, set career highs of 13 wins and 200 1/3 innings last year. Gavin Floyd, 27, struck out a career-high 163 batters in 2009 and is fully recovered from a sore left hip.
And Freddy Garcia, 33, the projected fifth starter with 121 career victories, limited opponents to three earned runs or fewer in seven of his nine starts after rejoining the Sox on Aug. 18.
“I like it both ways,” Williams said of adding an ace like Peavy and a veteran like Garcia at the end of the rotation. “There are given days where your No. 5 (starter) is matched up with someone else’s No. 1 or No. 2 (starter).’’
The starters, however, are mindful that credentials don’t always guarantee success. Buehrle was 2-7 after throwing his perfect game against Tampa Bay last season. Peavy will spend his first full year in a notorious hitters’ league and park.
Danks hopes to avoid circulatory problems in his left index finger that caused him to miss a start. And Floyd needs to lower a 4.89 ERA against the AL Central.
“If the season goes the way it should on paper, I might get about 15 innings this year,” quipped closer Bobby Jenks.
On the other hand, since Jenks weighed in 10 pounds under his projected weight, he will look very svelte for those 15 innings.
Nevertheless, whether it was to be Peavy/Buehrle or Buehrle/Peavy, fans knew that they were looking at two of the best in the game going back to back. That should help the mentalities of players who were used to losing 2 games straight out of every five. After that, who knows? If the Sox had just won 10 of those 25 they would have won their division last year instead of placing third. Those little things can go a long way.