Reporting for Duty

The Cubs' pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training in Mesa yesterday. It was good news for those of us enduring a cold Chicago February and even more so as a distraction from the lunatic fringe created by the Clemens-McNamee Congressional Hearings.

The media reporting on the Cubs have immediately fixed on pitcher Ryan Dempster, who thinks the Cubs are going to win the World Series in 2008. Personally, I don't really give a hoot if a player wants to guarantee victories and championships. I don't think it really does much in terms of motivating the other teams to compete even harder or puts any undue pressure on the team in question. Let's face it, the Cubs goal is to win the damn World Series. I'm fairly certain, there are a number of other MLB teams with that end in mind as well.

To look at it in more depth, Depster further stated that he he wouldn't really want to show up and work hard toward that end if he didn't believe the team had a shot. He thinks, and I agree...for now, that the Cubs are a better team than last year's version. This is not much of a guarantee and even less of a story. The bigger story would be if a key element to the Cubs organization started Day 1 by stating that he thought the team had no shot of winning it all and despite the moves to make the 2007 Central Division champions better, they were actually much worse.

Of more importance, the Cubs rumored deal for Brian Roberts is stuck in the mire. It seems apparent that the Cubbies are frustrated with how these negotiations have gone. Hendry definitely wanted to make something happen (with Roberts or some other impact player) before the season started. Additionally, Sweet Lou Piniella has stated that he wants the closer named some three quarters through Spring Training. The three contenders each present a good option, lets hope the competition is fierce and the eventual closer earns it rather than gaining the job through attrition.