The Pitchers-
SP- #38 Carlos Zambrano (14-6, 3.91 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 188.2 IP), Bats: Switch. Throws: Right.
SP-#46 Ryan Demspter (17-6, 2.96 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 206.2 IP) Right/Right
SP-#30 Theodore Roosevelt Lilly (17-9, 4.09 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 204.2 IP) Left/Left
SP-#40 Rich Harden (10-2, 2.07 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 148 IP) Right/Right
SP-#45 Sean Marshall (3-5, 3.86 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 65.1 IP) Left/Left
LRP- #37 Angel Guzman (0-0, 5.59 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, 9.2 IP) Right/Right
MRP- #54 David Patton (4-5, 3.54 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 73.2 IP)* Right/Right
MRP- #84 Neal Cotts (0-2, 4.29 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 35.2 IP) Left/Left
MRP- #51 Luis Vizcaino (1-2, 5.28 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 46.0 IP) Right/Right
SU- #47 Aaron Heilman (3-8, 5.21 ERA, 1.59 WHIP, 76.0 IP, 3 Saves) Right/Right
SU-#49 Carlos Marmol (2-4, 2.68 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, 87.1 IP,7 Saves) Right/Right
CL-#63 Kevin Gregg (7-8, 3.41 ERA, 1.28 WHIP, 68.2 IP, 29 Saves) Right/Right
The Lineup-
LF- #12 Alfonso Soriano (.280, 29 HR, 75 RBI, .344 OBP, .876 OPS) Right/Right
CF- #1 Kosuke Fukudome (.257, 10 HR, 58 RBI, .359 OBP, .738 OPS) Left/Left
1B- #25 Derrek Lee (.291, 20 HR, 90 RBI, .361 OBP, .823 OPS) Right/Right
RF- #21 Milton Bradley (.321, 22 HR, 77 RBI, .436 OBP, .999 OPS) Switch/Right
3B- #16 Aramis Ramirez (.289, 27 HR, 111 RBI, .380 OBP, .898 OPS) Right/Right
2B- #17 Mike Fontenot (.305, 9 HR, 40 RBI, .395 OBP, .909 OPS) Left/Right
C- #18 Geovany Soto (.285, 23 HR, 86 RBI, .364 OBP, .868 OPS) Right/Right
SS- #2 Ryan Theriot (.307, 1 HR, 38 RBI, .387 OBP, .745 OPS) Right/Right
The Bench-
OF- #4 Joey Gathright (.254, 0 HR, 22 RBI, .311 OBP, .584 OPS) Left/Right
OF- #9 Reed Johnson (.303, 6 HR, 50 RBI, .358 OBP, .778 OPS) Right/Right
1B/OF- #6 Micah Hoffpauir (.342, 2 HR, 8 RBI, .400 OBP, .934 OPS) Left/Left
IF/UTIL-#7 Aaron Miles (.317, 4 HR, 31 RBI, .355 OBP, .753 OPS) Switch/Right
C- #55 Koyie Hill (.095, 0 HR, 1 RBI, .095 OBP, .238 OPS) Switch/Right
*- Minor League Stats
This isn't a Cubs season preview since I gave most of my thoughts on this team when I was busy predicting the entire league, so go read that. This is just me taking a deep breath and getting ready to watch actual professional baseball. The darkest stretch of the sports year ends tomorrow (tonight if you're watching the Braves and the Phillies, which I am). Sure, Jay Cutler spiced the last week up, but for the most part its been f*&king hard to sit there every day, scanning mlbtraderumors.com (even harder once the Peavy trade died), looking at so many spring training box scores that those worthless numbers start to seem real to you, and just waiting. Tomorrow night Zambrano will toe the rubber against Michael Barrett's best friend, Roy Oswalt (speaking of Barrett, he's on the big league club for the Blue Jays. I wish him luck.) and then for the better part of the next 7 months, you'll have the Cubs in what will hopefully be one hell of a season. Last year I gave a big windy speech and posted the James Earl Jones speech from Field of Dreams. Well, my farewell to Kyle done speech'd me out, so instead I'll just put this, and let everyone get their optimism pants on:
Make it happen. Play some f*&king Ball.
