Boxscore

The Cubs marched to spring training victory today, beating the Padres 7-3 in Peoria, AZ.

The Cubs were led in their effort by Jason Marquis, the sucky ex-Cardinal who’s having a surprisingly good spring with the Cubs. Marquis is rocking a 1-1 record and a 2.95 ERA this spring. Kerry Wood made his second-consecutive appearance, allowing one hit and striking out two in his one inning of work.

On the other side of the mound was the excellent (in an aggregate sense) ex-Cub who’s having an equally surprising good spring, considering he’s almost 42 and working on season number 22 in the majors, Greg Maddux. Alas, he didn’t have a surprisingly good game, allowing seven runs (two earned) on seven hits and two walks in four innings.

Patterson (Eric, not Corey) led things off for the Cubs going 1-for-5 with an RBI. Aramiz Ramirez contributed two RBI. Ryan Theriot brought in three runs, and Marquis himself knocked in a run to bring the total to 7.

Adrian Gonzalez hit in all of the San Diego runs and was the only Padre with more than one hit on the game, going 2-for-3 with a run scored.

The win brings the Cubs’ Cactus League record to 11-14. Tomorrow the Cubs go up against Jonathan Sanchez and the Giants at 3:05 p.m.

Didja hear about all those Cubs trashing their manager’s car as a “prank”? It was nearly Cartman-esque, but they did get him a new one to replace it, so it’s all good. While doing a cursory search for a photo, I found this shot of Cubs manager Lou Piniella and wanted to share.

So, now this post is officially NLC-related, which is my security blanket because I don’t know whether people care about these “crap going on in the blogger’s life” posts. I feel like I’ve got to hedge my bets.

The Google Page Rank here on RHM has been all over the place the last few days. If you don’t have the Google toolbar installed with the PageRank displayed, you might not be familiar, but it’s just a rank of a page based on a proprietary set of factors, such as inbound links. We’d been happily hanging around at a 6 for the last few months, which had me overjoyed. So you can imagine how the bottom fell out of my stomach when I loaded the site on Thursday to see that number cut in half.

The CTS and I did some research to show that this happens to people all the time as Google updates their indexes to discount sites that are trying to game them, and that the ranks usually come back over time. The research also told us that we ought to clean up broken links in our archives, which we have a lot of thanks to a less-than-perfectly-smooth conversion to WordPress a couple months ago.

Since then I’ve loaded the site to see the PageRank at every number between 3 and 6 inclusive. It’s still disconcerting, but at least I’m not someone who depends on their PageRank for their livelihood. It’s just a matter of arrogance, really, and an indication of our effectiveness in actually making “Javier Valentí­n” a household name.

Meanwhile, I’m hitting some information sessions about MBAs at nearby schools. If I were to go that route, I wouldn’t even be starting until the end of the year, but it’s still sorta exciting to think what a very executive tone the posts on RHM could take before too long.

On the horizon are Opening Day, our big spring-break trip to Houston, and Red Hot Mama’s third blog day. Lots to look forward to, but its keeping me busy too. Which is why you’re subjected to a post about a stupid Cubs prank and the distractions in my life written as I watch a rerun of Saturday Night Live and nudged a little, time-wise, to prevent the site from having two consecutive days without posts.

Thanks for hanging in there, and enjoy the photo.

Our Brewers preview interview was postponed last night due to our recording equipment picking up an errant AM radio station. We’ll try again tomorrow, but in the meantime, the Crack Technical Staff and I catch up on what’s been going on around the division.

Ruh-roh, Astros

• Kaz Matsui has undergone surgery to repair his anal fissure. He’ll be out two to three weeks, and will miss the opening.
• Utility man Mark Loretta will replace Matsui.

Trouble Brewers
Manager Ned Yost has interesting plans for his lineup.

• Mike Cameron will bat 2nd when he returns from his drug suspension. Yost wants Cameron’s replacement to also bat 2nd, so as not to disrupt the delicate order of the line-up.
• Yost will have the pitcher bat 8th.

Tweet tweet Cardinals

• Finally signed Kyle Lohse for 1 year and $4.25 M. What the hell happened to the consensus best free agent starting pitcher? Collusion? Backlash against Scott Boras?

Da Cubs

• Rumors that the Cubs will trade with the Orioles for lead-off hitter Brian Roberts continue to abound and be squashed.
• Kerry Wood looks to be the closer for this season.
• Ryan Dempster might not make the starting rotation.

Ahoy! Pirates

• Steve Pearce, one of the Pirates best prospects was cut and send down to AAA camp.
• Starter Ian Snell signed a long-term deal ($8 M over three years). With options, could buy out a year of free agency.

Watch out for McCarthy, Reds

• Jeremy Affeldt has been moved to the bullpen.
• Rotation looks to be Aaron Harang, Bronson Arroyo, Josh Fogg, Johnny Cueto, and Edinson Volquez

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Spring Training in baseball is always exciting, filled with the naive optimism that “We can win it this year.” It always seems the players feel that way, too, so I wonder how the marginal players deal with the cuts. It’s one thing if you’re young and a touted prospect, but to be older and hanging on for one more shot has to be hard.

No major moves have been made yet, but here’s a rundown of the cuts that the National League Central clubs have made in the past few days.

• The Astros are letting go pitchers Paul Estrada, Sammy Gervacio, Brad James, Josh Muecke, Fernando Nieve, and Chad Reineke, infielders Tommy Manzella and Lance Niekro, and outfielder Yordany Ramirez. Most of those guys appear to be younger with need of more seasoning.
• The Cubs have trimmed their roster to 42. Pitchers Juan Mateo and Jeff Samardzija and outfielder Jake Fox were optioned to minor league teams, while pitcher Ed Campusano, infielder Luis Figueroa, and catcher JD Closser, all non-roster invitees, were reassigned to minor league camp. Pitcher Shingo Takatsu was released.
• The Pirates got in on the act, chopping 12 players off their roster. I imagine that has to hurt: not being good enough for the Pirates.
• The Reds have yet to start trimming their roster. Their first round involved cutting two pitchers.Rule V pick Sergio Valenzuela was sent back to the Braves, ending a Rule V pick that everyone except apparently Wayne Krivsky knew was doomed to fail, and Ramon Ramirez was optioned to the minors.

 Just two and a half weeks until Opening Day, and most teams have rosters that are well over the 25 man limit. It seems that teams are taking longer to decide on which 25 to take this year. I find the hand-wringing over all of it a little amusing. I mean, the vast majority of the final 35 or so players all make it to the big leagues at some point. Someone always gets injured.

Until then, keep enjoying the starting rotation battles for the Reds, the closer battle for the Cubs, the 25-man battle for the Pirates, and the Cardinals ongoing search for a Scott Spiezio replacement.

I intended to do provide an NL Central injury report on a semi-weekly basis, but work and traveling to Sarasota got in the way. Of course, players keep getting injured, so there’s no real way to be “late” on this. Well, except I didn’t get to write about outfielder Felix Pie’s testicle first.

Other than Pie, the poster boy for the unluckiness that comes from being a Cub, both third baseman Aramis Ramirez and outfielder Alfonso Soriano suffered and returned from injuries. Ramirez came back Friday from shoulder tightness, springing into midseason form by sporting an 0-fer. Soriano played his first game today, seeming to have healed his broken finger magically quickly. His hamstrings, however, still need work.

For the Reds, both catcher David Ross and shortstop Alex Gonzalez are missing games. Ross’ injury is far less serious, or at least it is upon first glance. But anytime “back spasms” are a problem with a full-time catcher on the wrong side of 30, eyebrows have to be raised. Or in Javier Valentin‘s case, mustaches. If Ross doesn’t return by Opening Day, Valentin will be the starting catcher. And I don’t have a problem with that.

Gonzalez’ injury is far more serious as he’s suffering from a fractured left knee. After all his trauma with his sick son preventing him from playing last year, it doesn’t look good for the shortstop this year. He’ll be reevaluated in two weeks, so who knows when he’ll be able to play baseball again. I expect he’ll be starting the season on the DL.

In St. Louis, the Cardinals have lost one of their leading left-handed relievers through the start of the season. Tyler Johnson has been diagnosed with tendinitis and a rotator cuff sprain. No surgery is needed for recovery, just time. Which is great news for Ron Villone, who’s competing for a left-handed bullpen spot.

Also, the right elbow of Albert Pujols is apparently attached with nothing more than grit, stubbornness, and lies about his age. Pujols has a torn ligament, bone spurs, and arthritis. Season-ending surgery is required, but the Cardinals are holding it off because they obviously want Pujols to save his DL year for when they’re going to be in contention.

And lastly, Houston Astros second baseman Kaz Matsui is experiencing a spot of discomfort. He had to miss one game at the end of February and is returning from Spring Training to Houston to see a hemorrhoids specialist, hoping to speed up the healing. I guess they don’t make cushions for second base.