Chicago Cubs vs. Pittsburgh Pirates Preview

At last, we've made it! Even though the weather forecast is iffy, even though spring training games for the Cubs were shaky, you've got to be excited for Opening Day. Here's today's lineup:

Fukudome RF, Castro SS, Byrd CF, Ramirez 3B, Pena 1B, Soto C, Soriano LF, Barney 2B, Dempster P
I like this -- moving Geo up. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see Soto hitting fifth against LHP this year.

Pirates lineup:

Tabata LF, Walker 2B, McCutchen CF, Overbay 1B, Alvarez 3B, Doumit C, Jones RF, Cedeno SS, Correia P
As I have done on occasion in the past, I exchanged five questions with our SB Nation Pirates blogger Charlie Wilmoth. My answers to his questions are in this Bucs Dugout post. Here are my questions and Charlie's responses:

Q. The Pirates were 10-5 against the Cubs last year, including five wins at Wrigley -- when they only won 17 all year on the road. How did they do this and can they do it again?

A. I don't know. It's strange. The Pirates even won three games against the Cubs in May with either Brian Burres or Charlie Morton on the hill, back when Morton was in the midst of a cataclysmic breakdown. I have no explanation for that.

Q. Of Pedro Alvarez, Neil Walker and Andrew McCutchen, who has the biggest upside and who will be the biggest star, and why?

A. I'll go with McCutchen. There's every possible indication that in the next few seasons, he'll make the leap from being a very good player to a big star. He has a broad base of hitting skills, he's very athletic, he never gets hurt, he's already a good hitter, and he's entering his third year in the league. That doesn't mean he'll actually do it, and he's good enough already that it might be hard for him to improve vastly in a single season, but his upside is enormous.

Alvarez has enough power to bring light to a small village, and he a great draft pedigree. But strikeouts are always on the verge of eating him alive, and he goes through stretches where he looks clueless and flails at breaking balls down and away. I think he did a nice job adjusting down the stretch last year, though, and he put up big numbers in September, so there's hope for a breakout this year. Walker had a solid rookie season last year while learning a new position on the fly, but I'd put him significantly behind McCutchen and Alvarez.

Q. Who's going to come out of nowhere to be an impact player for the Pirates this year?

As a Pirates fan, I enthusiastically embrace the premise of the question (that there will, in fact, be an out-of-nowhere impact player this year), but I'm not sure who it will be. James McDonald was brilliant after being acquired in the Octavio Dotel trade last summer, and his season might have looked even better if departed manager John Russell had done a better job removing him from games when he got into trouble. There's always hope for Charlie Morton, who has excellent stuff and has pitched well this Spring using a sinker that former pitching coach Joe Kerrigan had him stop throwing last season. Rudy Owens is another starting pitcher to watch - he'll start the season in Class AAA, but he has the polish to pitch pretty well as soon as he arrives in the bigs. In the bullpen, Chris Resop could emerge as one of the Pirates' better relievers.

Q. What can the Pirates do to return to contention? Are they on the right path?

A. A few years ago, when Dave Littlefield was running the Pirates into the ground, it seemed like all the fans complained that the deck was stacked against the Pirates financially - as if giving Dave Littlefield a $100 million payroll to work with would have been anything other than setting money on fire. Now the Pirates are actually run reasonably well, spending tons of money on amateur talent and avoiding complicated contracts at the big-league level, and it seems like many of the fans have swung in the opposite direction, complaining about the management and ownership at every possible opportunity.

Dave Littlefield aside, the deck is stacked against the Bucs. Some of their financial records were leaked last year, and what they revealed is that while the Pirates aren't losing money, they aren't making much of it, either. It's going to be really hard for them to even have an average major-league payroll for more than a year or two at a time. With some caveats, I would say that the Pirates are on the best path they can be on right now given their financial situation and the talent that exists in the organization. Will that be enough to make them a contender? Maybe. Maybe not.

Q. What's it like rooting for a team that's had as many bad years as the Pirates have in a row? Does it get depressing? Do you see any hope for the future?

A. I'll resist the temptation to note the irony of a Cubs fan asking me this, because whatever problems the Cubs have, they're nothing compared to those of the Pirates. Yeah, it's tough. In the early part of the 2000s, I tried to force myself to become a fan of a new team - the A's, the Red Sox, anybody. That didn't work, so I started a blog. By the time the Littlefield years got really absurd, I had built up a small readership, and if I hadn't had those couple hundred readers a day, I probably would have quit, because there are only so many ways to say, "The Pirates played like a Little League team today," or to ask the eternal question of whether Dave Littlefield is evil or merely stupid. Yeah, you can use humor and sarcasm, but that stuff gets old really fast when the team you love is circling the bowl.

Now the Pirates do still play like a Little League team sometimes, but at least I don't have to ask the evil/stupid question about the Bucs' management, and there's actually a lot of interesting stuff going on down in the minors where there was practically none even a few years ago. That's the sort of thing that sustains me right now. It isn't much, but it's enough.

Why the Phillies Will/Won't Win the East

As any Yankees fan can tell you, the problem with sky-high expectations is that they leave you with only two possible outcomes: satisfaction or disappointment. If, like me, you feel that a large element of a baseball fan’s joy is the game’s potential to surprise and delight--to give you more than you might reasonably hope for--the idea of "World Series or bust" might not seem all that appealing. Our surprise and delight came on that December night when the rumors gave way to fact that Cliff Lee once again was a Phillie; but as soon as he signed, the story of the 2011 season transformed into "World Series or bust."

Now, my belief is that any predictions made when it’s consistently 40-50 degrees but with warmer weather presumably on the way, about which two ballclubs will be left standing when the thermometer returns to that range on a downward trajectory, are an affront to the baseball gods—whom we’re trying to appease, after all. So I’m not going there. But it feels a bit safer, and probably more interesting anyway, to speculate on which teams might play into October. And maybe the exercise counters that expectations problem; it wasn’t so long ago that most of us would have been beyond thrilled with one division championship, so the idea that we’d shrug the Phillies’ fifth straight NL East title like we’re entitled to it doesn't, and shouldn't, sit very well.

Minor Moves and Rumors ... Just Another Day in the Cubs Off-Season

The Cubs have been extremely quiet so far this off-season, with a few small exceptions, but Bruce Levine and Bruce Miles feel that will change in the next couple of weeks.

The Cubs announced another minor league signing on Thursday.

According to Bruce Miles, Jim Hendry inked Brad Snyder to a Minor League deal that includes a non-roster invitation to Spring Training. Snyder joins Bryan LaHair, Scott Moore, Scott Rice, Bobby Scales, Angel Guzman and Jim Adduci on the list of players that will be in camp on minor league contracts this spring..

The Cubs tendered contracts to all six of their arbitration eligible players on Thursday, and signed Jeff Baker to a one-year deal, avoiding arbitration with their infielder. In the process, the Cubs increased their payroll by around $13 million according to Bruce Levine.

The Cubs have "in the area" of $121 million committed to 15 players and Jim Hendry "will have to find a way to pay ten other players on his 25-man roster, and 15 more in the minor leagues with $12-$14 million." Levine speculated the Cubs' payroll will be between $135-$138 million, down from the $144 million spent in Year One of the Ricketts ownership.

Jim Hendry lost out on one of his favorites when Adam Dunn agreed to a four-year, $56 million contract with the White Sox. Dunn wanted to play in Chicago a couple of years back ... The Big Donkey got his wish, just two years later and on the other side of town.

Here is the rest of the update, including more from the rumor mill. Cross Erik Bedard off Hendry's wish list, and possibly Jeff Francis. Jim Duquette and Kevin Kennedy spoke highly of Carlos Pena ... and could Paul Konerko end up on the North Side?

Cubs Legend Ron Santo Dies At 70

Cubs Legend Ron Santo Dies At 70 :As posted earlier this morning in the fanshot section by BCBer BrooksMarlin, former Cubs third baseman and longtime radio broadcaster Ron Santo has died at the age of 70.

According to the Chicago Tribune website, Santo went into a coma on Wednesday and passed away on Thursday night.

For those of us who grew up in the era when Cub icons Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, Fergie Jenkins and Santo led the team achingly close to the World Series we all wanted -- and still do -- this is tremendously sad news. Ron Santo played baseball with passion and skill; he was the best third baseman of his era and in 1966 and 1967, arguably was among the top players in the game at any position.

He did all of this while suffering the effects of juvenile diabetes, which he kept secret from all but a few close friends and teammates until 1971, when it was revealed on Ron Santo Day at Wrigley Field on August 28. Traded away when the team was broken up, his heart appeared no longer in the game. His talents faded after one sad year with the White Sox, he retired after 1974.

Sixteen years later, he became the Cubs radio color commentator, first with Thom Brennaman and then Pat Hughes. His style was unique -- it wasn't for everyone, but you could tell with every game that his passion for the Cubs as a broadcaster and fan was the same as it is for every one of us. He exulted in victory, was crushed in defeat. And during this time, he suffered health problems including the amputation of both his legs. As shown in his son Jeff's fine documentary "This Old Cub", he faced these things with unfailing good spirits. I say with no hesitation that I admired Ron Santo for his play when I was young, and then again for the way he faced life's adversities. The Yiddish word for this kind of person is "mensch." Ron Santo was, without a doubt, a mensch, a wonderful human being. I finally did meet him briefly in the press box in Mesa last March, when I was speaking to Pat Hughes about the article he wrote for last year's Maple Street Press annual. Ron was kind and gracious, as was Pat, who always had gentle good humor with Ron. It was a broadcast team that felt like family.

There is absolutely no question that Ron Santo should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame a very long time ago. He is one of the five or six best third basemen in baseball history. Santo mentioned many times that he did not want to go into the Hall posthumously, and I hope the Hall voters now respect his wishes.

They ought to be ashamed, every one of them, for not giving this good man and great player this honor while he was still among us. When Santo's No. 10 was retired on Sept. 28, 2003, he told the sellout crowd at Wrigley, "This is my Hall of Fame." The Cubs and Cubs fans knew how to honor one of their own, even when those in Cooperstown who should have known better failed. During the 2003 playoffs, when Santo was too ill to broadcast, the players hung his No. 10 jersey in the dugout, a sign of how much respect everyone -- and I mean that literally -- had for this man.

We are sad at the passing of Ron Santo today, but don't let your sadness take away your fond memories of this fine man. Smile when you think of his empassioned "Oh, NOOOOOOOOOO!" when Brant Brown dropped that ball in Milwaukee, or if you remember home runs he hit when he was playing, or the love of the Cubs he brought to every single radio broadcast he made.