Where will the Cubs finish?

The Cubs are being projected as finishing anywhere from second to fourth in the NL Central, with the St. Louis Cardinals being favored to finish first.

While the Cards will be pretty good, I just don't see their pitching staff being good enough to carry them to the postseason.  The Cubs, on the other hand, will have an excellent pitching staff, assuming Lilly comes back healthy.  Also, the Cubs added a real hitting coach in Rudy Jaramillo, while the Cards added a new hitting coach themselves in the form of Mark McGwire.  I have very strong misgivings regarding whether McGwire will be a good hitting coach for the Cards.  First, he's new to the position, whereas Rudy Jaramillo is a seasoned vet at hitting coach.  Jaramillo should have a positive influence on Soriano, for one, having worked with him very successfully at Texas. 

Second, McGwire was not a contact hitter.  He was a power hitter, who used steroids to add more power.  So why do we think someone who needed juice to help him hit homeruns, who never hit for average, is going to make a good hitting coach.  The best hitting coaches are not power hitters, they are contact hitters ... folks who had to learn how to hit to make it to the show because they couldn't just rely on their power to get them there.  You can't teach power, you can teach hitting.  But unfortunately for the Cards, I'm not sure if McGwire knows how to truly hit.

But, time will tell.  I may be wrong about McGwire just like the pundits may be wrong about where the Cubs will finish in the standings.

Two more Cactus League teams come out against Cubs' tax

The Oakland A's and the Texas Rangers join the growing list of Cactus League teams who oppose the proposed surcharge to be added to the price of all Cactus League spring training tickets to finance a new park for the Cubs. 

“The Rangers join the other clubs in the Cactus League in being opposed to this proposed legislation. It would result in higher ticket prices for games in Surprise, which is certainly neither in our fans nor the Rangers’ best interest. We hope that the Cubs will stay in Arizona but not at the expense of Rangers’ fans,” said Rangers vice president John Blake.


“We are opposed to a ticket surcharge on tickets for games played at Phoenix Muni,” said A’s spokesman Bob Rose.


The A's and Rangers join the Chicago White Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks in opposing the bill.