Hey, remember the Cubs?

I've taken a little bit of a break from the Cubs lately, as basically there has been absolutely nothing going on. And as exciting as nothing can be, I just haven't really cared much. But, it appears as if something may actually be happening again. That's right, I've got speculation!

But first, this weekend was the Cubs Convention. I of course have never been to this, as sinking that much money and being around that many crazy Cubs fans unless it's in Wrigley Field. Plus, I also would get really bored standing around in line all the time. But, I was reading up on it at Goat Riders of the Apocalypse, and I saw one really awesome thing from the Q & A sessions with Lou Piniella and Jim Hendry.

In response to the insinuation that Rothschild deserves blame for the failings of the pitchers last year, Piniella responded with: "You can't blame a pitching coach for that. You can't blame a strength coach for that. You can blame a manager if he allows a guy to go out there and throw 100, 145 pitches consistently, and all of a sudden he breaks down, and that won't happen."

Then, later, Hendry said "[Larry isn't responsible] for who comes in in the seventh - that's the manager's call."

Goatriders goes on to question why we retained Dusty Baker as manager, but that's beside the point. The point is that, finally, someone is willing to pin blame on someone who actually had the most responsibility for the sucktitude of the pitching staff and all of the arm problems over the years. Imagine if, say, Mark Prior hadn't been rushed back from injury, or Kerry Wood hadn't been rushed back from injury, and once back they didn't throw so many pitches.

I remember a post I made a while ago in response to an article in the Tribune about how so many pitchers had gone on the DL this past season. I believe it was right after Carlos Marmol went on the DL. Dusty was quoted as saying something about the problem being that the pitch counts were too high. But he refused to accept responsibility in setting pitch counts or anything. Also, Marmol would have been an obvious one to need a pitch count because he used to be a fucking catcher! It's common sense, something obviously lacking under Dusty Baker.

So, this could be yet another positive of bringing in Piniella as our new manager. First, pitch counts. This will be especially important with our young pitchers. I'll admit that I was pissed off about the low pitch counts that Kerry Wood had imposed on him during his rookie year. But, in hindsight, think about if he'd had those low pitch counts and didn't end up requiring surgery any of the times he's had it. Or at least one of the times. Imagine what kind of pitcher he could have been if Dusty had kept a closer eye on what was going on. And also consider how lucky we are the Zambrano's arm hasn't fallen off.

In addition to that, hopefully Piniella's rules will force the pitchers to work closer with Rothschild. I'm not expecting Rothschild to be a savior or anything of the sort for terrible pitchers like Jason Marquis and, well, Jason Marquis, but at least maybe the young guys can learn a little something. And if they can't learn from Rothschild, maybe at least Rich Hill can help them. I also want to point out that it can't be a bad thing that Piniella speaks Spanish.

Now for the rumors that have recently started swirling. Well, recently in some cases. First is that Cliff Floyd is, a month later, still close to signing with the Cubs. Apparently he's also gotten some interest from a couple other teams. He's probably just waiting for an offer from the Cubs, and if he doesn't get one, which he probably will, he'll move on. I'm hoping it's been made pretty clear to him however that he'll only be a fourth outfielder. Of course, I'm fine with having his bat on the bench, but I'd prefer our fourth outfielder to be, you know, a good fielder as well. I guess you can't have it all though. It seems as though Piniella likes Murton, so it's at least good to know that Jones shouldn't steal too many AB's from Big Murt.

One crazy rumor is that the Cubs may have had discussions about bringing in J.D. Drew. His deal with the Red Sox still hasn't been finalized, and maybe he's getting sick of waiting and not getting the money he thought he would get. At this point I think we could bring him in for maybe 2 years. That would allow us to get rid of Jacque Jones.

Speaking of the Jacque, I've read various things about him being ok with staying in Chicago, even though it was reported earlier that he wanted out. So he may or may not be on his way out and he may or may not want out. But, Soriano has given his approval for a move to CF, so we could either keep Jones in right or move him to center, whichever works better. I personally think I like Soriano a little better in right, but I don't really care a whole lot. I just want the season to start.

Speaking of, less than 1 month until pitchers and catchers report. Awesome.