I really wish that Cubs coach Lou Piniella would just make up his mind about what to do with the Cubs rotation and bullpen. It’s obvious the the bullpen needs to have a lot of work done with it. Both Bob Howry and Scott Eyre have been pitching HORRIBLE thus far this season. Neither have been worth the big reliever dollars that they were paid to do so last season. Neal Cotts started off really well, and has been horrible as of late. Will Ohman had rough start, but has gotten a lot better. Micheal Wuertz has a really good start, but hasn’t been as effective as of late even though his ERA is only 1 something. That leaves Ryan Dempster as the closer. He’s a been fairly effective closing out 9 out of his first 10 opportunities. The one save he did blow was a heart wrenching loss. He’s had a few problems with some non-save appearances as well.

This takes me to where Lou Pinella has been a little hairy with what he wants to do. First, they announce that Dempster is coming out of the pen to become their fifth starter, and that Angel Guzman is going to…

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In a word? No. No, he is not going to be the Yankees savior and the answer to all of their questions.

Here’s why:

The Yankees need a whole lot more help then one starting pitcher. This will give them The Rocket and Pettitte as their one two combination again, but several years later. Does these guys have same amount of gas left in the tank as they did when they last played in New York together? I don’t think so. Wang is grossly overrated, and the rest of the rotation is either injured, coming off injury, or freshly called up from the minors, including Phil Hughes, who is already on the DL after only two starts. You’d have to assume that Carl Pavano’s career is pretty much over too at this point. Sure he made an opening day start, but again has found himself on the DL. Kei Igawa has been horrible for them as well, giving a lot a taters and walking to many players. He was actually optioned back to their A league affiliated to go back and work on the basics again.

The Yankees relievers will all be totally gassed by the end of the season, if they stay…

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This week I had the chance of choosing between a few folks. Jose Capellan part of the Milwaukee Brewers organization didn’t show up to his Minor League assignment because “he thought he was going to get traded, of which he hasn’t. Also Willy Aybar of the Atlanta Braves, has been MIA for the last few days. He hasn’t reported to team meetings, or meetings with MLB Officals. He’s been indefinately suspended with out pay for the time being.

From what I’ve read, it sounds like that Aybar has had some substance abuse problems in the past. From the sounds of it his own mother and good friend Vlad Guerrero can’t get a hold of him nor find him. He started the season off on the Disabled List with some hand problems. All of this started when he failed to report to two rehab sessions. Because of these actions, or lack there of, he was suspended for three games by the team. Next, he failed to report to a meeting with manager Bobby Cox. He was the suspended indefinately following this. Finally he failed to report to meeting with the Major League Officials.

Given his past history with a substance abuse problem,…

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First, off this entry is in no way a rip on Jackie Robinson himself. I understand what’s he did for the league, how heavy of a burden it was for him to play, and how many threats he received. I’ve read many articles and books on the subject, and I caught a feature on him on Sportscenter. A lot of the threats, etc were even coming from his own teammates. Because there was no free agency “back in the day”, the other Brooklyn Dodgers players were either forced to quit, or play this colored man. On his first game that was played today, 60 years ago he was 0-3 with a sac bunt, and eventually scored the winning run. An interesting fact: Johnny Sain, the pitcher who was the starter against Dodgers, playing for the Boston Braves, at the time throw the first pitch that Jackie Robinson saw as a Major Leaguer. Sain also threw the last pitch that Babe Ruth ever saw in exhibition game during war time in the earlier 40’s.

Anyway, for those of you haven’t read much about it, Bud “The Tool” Selig un-retired his number (42) and made it wearable for this day only. This first…

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It’s time to start my “Tool of the Week” entries again. The offseason we a pretty uneventful one in regards to players acting like idiots. Manny had his usual controversy at the beginning of spring training, but as I was concentrating at getting the website back-end up dated, I didn’t have time to write an entry about it. D-Train had a pretty stupid incident during the offseason as well. But from here on out I’ll try to make as my Tool of the Week entries, as people in the baseball industry allow me to do. Heck, I’ll make co-Tools of the Week if I need to!

With out further ado, the first Tool of the Week to open the 2007 season is 4th year pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, Gustavo Chacin. He was arrested early Friday morning, March 16th. He blew blood-alcohol content of .150 and .152 with the legal limit is .08, nearly two times the legal limit.

“It’s a serious mistake and we all make mistakes,” manager John Gibbons said. No Kidding? There’s the best manager statement of the century. Is it just me that professional athletes are making more of these “mistakes” these days. Maybe it’s the fact…

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I don’t see how people can still think that Pete Rose still needs to be barred from the Baseball Hall of Fame. In a recent ESPN article, it says that Rose bet on his team every night while he was the coach of the Reds from 1984 to 1989. Because of this betting he has been permanently been banned from the game of Major League Baseball and the Baseball Hall of Fame (in separate votes). He’s asked to be re-instated but has been denied.

Earlier this week on The Dan Patrick Show, the Former Charlie Hustle admitted that he bet on his team everyday, and not four days a week. He did this because “I love my team, I believe in my team. I did everything in my power every night to win that game.” He took his love and belief of his team a little too far by bringing them into his gambling addiction. Unlike “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, who actually threw a games in the 1919 World Series, Rose never threw games. Like Rose, Jackson belongs on the same list of players that have “banned for life”. As he has said, that he did everything in his power to win…

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With the regular season drawing to a close and the Cubs being cellar dellewers in the National League, it’s time to start looking towards next season. Not to sounds like the real optimist, but the Cubs are pretty close to getting that team together for a playoff run. I think there are definately a few “ifs”, “ands” and “buts” in order for them to succeed next season.

First off, and the most important thing is the Cubs need resign Juan Pierre. Before you anybody start yelling at me for not mentioning Pie, hear me out. This was JP’s first year playing for real big name team. He came up with the Rockies, an expansion team. He next went to the Marlins, an expansion team. He had a horrible start off to the season, and he was always man enough to admit that he was not playing to his fullest. He leads the NL this season in hits and stolen bases, even after his slow start.

He also got his…

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Yesterday Kerry Wood announced that he was opting out of surgery to repair his slightly torn rotator cuff, and was just going to rehab it in Arizona. I think this was a pretty smart decesion by Wood. It’s obvious that he would just fubar up his shoulder again if he gets it fixed, and does nothing to correct his bad mechanics.

The way I see it the Cubs have a few options when it come to Kerry Wood at the end of the season. I’d say there is a 99.9% chance they will not pick up this 13 million dollar option at the close of this season. Even if he comes back as to the Cubs as a reliever, he won’t be making 13 million for the season, no chance, regardless of team. Given his success coming out of the pen last year, I think the Cubs will offer him a contract with many incentives. I’m guessing the base salary will be around 2-3 million.

Another option the Cubs have is to just let him go, pay his buyout and Wood and the Cubs will go their own separate ways. While I think this is unlikely, because Kerry Wood has publicly said…

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It was a pretty tough choice this week. On one hand you have Shea Hillenbrand of the Blue Jays demanding to be traded after an altercation with members of the team and for comments he made about the front office. Next, you have Chris Spiers of the Cubs, who was arrested for DUI early Wednesday morning.

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Excerpt from the Chicago Tribune
The Cubs coaching staff, already in turmoil over job futures, underwent a shakeup after third-base coach Chris Speier was charged with driving under the influence early Wednesday. No one was saying how long Triple-A manager Mike Quade would fulfill Speier’s duties, although general manager Jim Hendry said, “we expect [Speier] back in the near future.”

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After much diliberation, Chris Spiers wins the award of Tool of the Week. Not only is your team in bloody shambles, but know your third base coach gets arrested for DUI. I’m just not sure if things can get any worse for the Cubs this season. I think it was a pretty bad decesion on Spier’s part. Are things this bad that you need to restort to drinking?

I’m almost getting to the point where they should just hang it…

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You really can’t blame for what the National League did in the ninth. They bring in Trevor Hoffman to close out the game like he’s done 400 some odd times in the past. Unfortunately, the American League got to Hoffman, and enough for the win.

As I saw on Baseball Tonight, they were talking about hos the National League did nothing wrong, Hoffman is probably the best and most consistant closer that they had. His changeup is just devistating. The only problem was the NL had hard thrower after hard thrower, Hoffman’s stuff didn’t really seem as bad, thus more hittable. I totally agree with that. Brad Penny was really bringing it last night. He hit 99 quite a few times, and his fast ball was just overpowering. Next they switched to Oswalt, to also throws pretty hard. Next came Brandon Webb, who’s got the best hard sinker in the league.

I’m just really happy that it wasn’t a total blowout like in years pasted. I kind of expected it to be a well pitched game, which it turned out to be. I’d really wished that Zambrano and Liriano would have gotten into the game though, but you have to keep a…

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