Screw Baseball Prospectus. Screw Sabermatics. Screw ESPN’s pre-season rankings. Screw that crazy guy in the bar who says my team will suck this year. Spring Training is all about hope, not dire mutterings. This is the time of year for Royals’ fans to talk openly about winning the division. This is when the Padres look at all the young talent they brought in and say, “mmmm, maaaay-beeee.” This is the time of year where fans can be lulled into thinking that Billy Beane knows what he is doing. This is the time for Nationals’ fans to think that they have turned the corner. In fact, Nationals’ fans are already bragging about how Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez chose them (for slightly less money) over the Cubs. Change has finally, and truly, come to Washington D.C.

It is no different for Cubs and Sox fans. While none of the players are being asked to breathe through their eyeballs, it does seem that fans are breathing a little easier as reports filter out of both camps. On the North Side, a certain Alfonso Soriano looks determined to make everyone (including himself) forget last year. On the South Side, highly touted Alex Rios seems to have found his stroke and his head. Two items he clearly misplaced at the end of last season.

DAVID HAUGH at the Tribune spent some quality time at Ho Ho Kam to help catch us up to date on the Soriano saga.

One after another Wednesday at HoHoKam Park, the line drives exploded off the bat of Alfonso Soriano during Cubs batting practice.

Behind the cage hitting coach Rudy Jaramillo didn’t see a single one land, his eyes focused intently on Soriano’s hips and his words aimed specifically for his ears.

“Espidad, espidad!’’ Jaramillo repeated.

Asked later for a translation, Jaramillo explained the command reminds the free-swinging Soriano to slow down his breathing, which slows down his mind and thus his approach to the ball.

Jaramillo doesn’t necessarily have to speak the same language to connect with a hitter he mentored for two seasons with the Rangers. But, in Soriano’s case, it improves his hearing as well as his hitting.

“Sure it helps,” Jaramillo said. “I love teaching in Spanish.’’

Coming off a 2009 season marked by injury and insult, Soriano reported to spring training more eager than ever to learn.

This was no ordinary offseason for Soriano, the Cubs’ most polarizing player now that Kevin Gregg has cleared customs.

Never having rehabilitated from arthroscopic surgery, the fear of the unknown drove Soriano to work out longer and harder at the Cubs facilities in the Dominican Republic to recover from the Sept. 5 procedure on his left knee. Of course, coming off a career-worst .241 batting average with 20 home runs and 55 RBIs in 117 games, including 118 strikeouts in 447 at-bats, served as a pretty good prod too.

Whatever caused Soriano’s recommitment to conditioning, he arrived two weeks ago looking more like an NFL cornerback than an aging outfielder.

“I am 34 years old but more importantly my body and my mind feels young,’’ Soriano said.

Indeed, Soriano’s willingness to accept Jaramillo’s ways reflects a younger player with something to prove more than a seven-time All-Star. Already Jaramillo has narrowed Soriano’s stance to improve his balance and adjusted how high Soriano raises his left leg as the ball nears home plate. The average observer may not notice a thing different about Soriano’s swing but then Jaramillo has made a career of seeing the trees where everyone else sees a forest.

“The bat speed is still there,’’ Jaramillo said. “It’s all timing. He just has to gather himself and learn how to coach himself and realize right from wrong in his swing. He’s trying to get back what he had in the past.’’

Actually, since we can rule out stolen bases or Gold Glove fielding, it is fair for fans to hope that his batting is better than it has ever been before. If his average ticks up by 5 or 10 points above his career, he will be a nightmare for pitchers in the bottom half of the order. And I can assure you that that is one nightmare Lou will gladly have.

I just had a vision of Lou singing a duet with Alice Cooper for a Cubbie promotion. Hopefully that will fade after I down my breakfast beer.

On the South Side, Sox fans and team mates were trying to figure out what the heck went wrong with Alex Rios. It was almost as if he forgot how to play baseball. ‘Deer in the headlights’ described his good days. Yet, this January, he showed up at Greg Walker’s house, went to a park and started swinging. 5 swings later everyone agreed that, whatever had happened in the past, it was all better now. JOE COWLEY at the Sun Times digs a little deeper for the reasons behind the slump and the re-emergence.

On Wednesday morning, Alex Rios was grouped around five Latino teammates, holding court with the Spanish-speaking coalition.

Tuesday, it was time spent with ‘’the animal slayers,’’ as A.J. Pierzynski, Scott Linebrink and Mark Buehrle talked big-game hunting in Africa.

The day before that, Rios was hanging out on ‘’Rodeo Drive’’—a row of lockers so labeled by Matt Thornton because of their big-contract residents.

More often than not, a major-league clubhouse resembles a prison yard, segregated by color, language or culture.

The one person who has played warden, walking the yard and interacting with almost every group this spring, has been the seemingly laid-back Rios, who mostly was a loner last season.

‘’It feels more natural now than it did last year because when I came over it was just in the middle of the season or later in the season,’’ Rios said. ‘’I didn’t really know anybody, and that’s a weird feeling. It almost was lonely. Now, I feel like I’m just in a regular spring training. It feels like home.’’

That’s fine, but the Sox and their fans would rather it feel like home after Rios hits .280 with 20 home runs and 25 stolen bases and the team holds a champagne celebration in October. Then he can kick up his legs on the table and call it home.

For now, this will have to do.

‘’Changing teams in midseason, I would have to imagine, is not the easiest thing in the world,’’ Paul Konerko said. ‘’It just throws off on-the-field stuff, it throws off your personal life, just a lot of things that go on. It can’t be easy at all.

‘’And when he got traded here, it’s not like he was coming to a team that was running away with the division and you’re just added on to that. We were chasing, and so the feeling can be, ‘OK, we brought someone in, and he’s the answer for us to figure this thing out.’ That probably was put on him unfairly.’’

I can relate to that. Long ago I changed bands mid tour. The old bass player got healthy and I suddenly needed a new gig. I must have spent two weeks wandering around trying to learn songs on the fly, figure out who was who and not trip over my damn amp. Every day seemed like some weird alien adventure, and not in the fun way where you get the cool chick with the green skin who does things no man can pronounce. More like I was the appetizer in an episode of “V”. But, eventually, I got past it and ended up pulling the whole tour and seeing fun new parts of the world. It appears that Alex has made a similar accomplishment. So, good luck to him.

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