Streaks

An impressive streak was continued today as the Cubs were able to re-sign Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Zambrano to one year deals. Jim Hendry and Andy MacPhail have never gone to arbitration with any player, 20 years for MacPhail. I hope it shows the young talent that the Cubs have stand up men in the front office and don't want to see contract disputes escalate to an arbitrator.

But the most interesting part of the article on Cubs.com is this quote: "I think it'll be very interesting to see the competition in the outfield and see how [rookie] Jason Dubois comes in and competes with Todd Hollandsworth," Hendry said of the proposed left-field combination. " Compare this with Dusty Baker's just two weeks ago about the Cubs outfield this season: "Baker says the 31-year-old outfielder could play 135-140 games this season, although he hasn't topped 100 since 1997." I don't see how one guy playing 135-140 games is really competition, while the other guy sits on the bench and gets to pinch hit. So we'll just have to see. A comment on Cub Reporter (see link on right) talked about all of the great right handed closers in the National League, sans Wagner. If you think about the Cubs division, you have Izzy, Lidge, Graves and Mesa. The Cubs need some pop off the bench left-handed and it isn't going to come from Macias or Perez.

Marquette
TMJ-4 reported tonight that Chapman and Diener both did not practice tonight. Chapman was on crutches on campus yesterday, so I doubt he will be in the lineup. This is a must win for them, absolutely if they think they can make the tournament. I'll be there and give a report after the game. By the way, I heard that Crean ordered an 11:00 meeting after the UAB game, the other night. I wish all of the hard work would turn into some results for these guys.