Cubs Bench finalised, not good.

I love the Euro spelling in the headline. Cheers Tonk!

Yes. HJE is nothing if not Cosmopolitan.

I do appreciate the additional writings of Mike and Tonker. It keeps my work day moving. Can’t wait for March 31st.

I have no idea why I capitalized the “c” in cosmopolitan.

I must be thinking of my favorite magazine.

I don’t even notice, most of the time. Occasionally I’ll chuck in an extra ‘u’ here and there and have a little chuckle to myself, but I’d like to think that we’re just one big happy Global family, Yanks and Porridge Wogs alike.

Other than Ward, I think this bench is kilometres away from being legitimately finalised.

Well, some of these guys have been hitting this spring. Whether these trends continue (ayyy!) is something that remains to be seen. But yeah, it’s kind of a thin - and fairly inexperienced - bench for a team that wants to win a World Series.

Hank White? A Stiff??? Nyjer, please.

I think I’m gonna join Jon in remembering the constant state of flux that was the Cubs’ active roster last season.

Reed Johnson is a solid, hard-nosed, scrappy player. If his back is healthy, and Jesus still loves him, then he can hit close to .300 with a little bit of pop, and he can run like the wind and catch every ball hit within 0.14 Kms of him. So if Felix Pieshot or the Fuck Me? Fuck Me? Fuck You! Dome struggles, look for Lil Speedy Reedy Johnson to start for yous guys.

Tonker, I hope your brother is a better fielder than Ward…Ward’s booty is so big, Sir Mix-A-Lot hit on him

Yes, this bench does not inspire confidence, aside from the man-beast that is Daryle Ward. I think we’ll be missing Thunder Matt this year. I’m sort of flummoxed by his demotion to AAA. I’d gladly have him in the lineup over either Fontenot or Cedeno. I understand we have to have a backup catcher, thus Hank White is in, even though Koyie Hill probably would be a better choice at this point. Or Jake Fox. Blanco’s cool, though, and Soto’s gonna catch almost every day anyway, thank God. Cedeno would make a better speed bump than a ball player and Fontenot has one month wonder written all over him, despite being surgically separated from The Riot. Reed Johnson sort of makes sense, as Thunder Matt doesn’t have the defensive skills for center field. How many fucking infielders do we really need? Together, Cedeno and Fontenot make almost one complete ballplayer. I say fuck both of them, give the job to Eric Patterson, and give the other spot to Ginger. He deserves it.

I’ll go on record as not understanding the Murton hate on some of my favorite Cubs blogs. The guy hits well for average, has some pop in the bat, runs the bases well and works the count. Oh, and he’s in his mid-20s and makes barely more than the league minimum. You don’t want a guy like that on your bench, uh, why, exactly? As for his defense, it ain’t great, but it’s a damn sight better than half the clowns we’ve had patrolling out there the past five years.

I’m not arguing the guy’s an All-Star, but you can’t make a credible argument that Cedeno or Fontenot are better options for the Cubs’ bench. Nor Reed Johnson, who is virtually the exact same player as Murton. Except, you know, older, fatter and slower. Yay?

My little brother wouldn’t know a baseball mitt if you smacked him round the head with one. He is, however, a trained killer. So he’s got that going for him, which is nice.

Territorial Army, Tonk?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/theoffice/gareth/

Yeah, I don’t hate Murton. His defense is not good, but he puts together a decent at-bat more often than not, which is refreshing for a guy in a Cubs uniform. Unfortunately for him, he’s the only redhead (other than fucking Dempster) to play the part of the redheaded stepchild.

Which leads to the obvious question: Why the hell ISN’T Dempster the team’s Official Red-Headed Stepchild? Does he have blackmail photos of one of the higher-ups?

I think the reason Matt gets so little love from Hendry et al is because he’s the anti-Cub, at least at the plate. If Fukudome’s as patient as they say, it’ll only be a matter of time before he’s ostracized as well. for some reason, taking pitches seems to be a crime on the Northside. I know that’s why Dusty hated Thunder Matt’s ass. I’m sure he would have liked to have seen Murton add strikeouts for the sake of being ‘aggressive’. God help you, Joey Votto. I think they both need a trade to San Francisco. Bruce Bochy would probably cream his jeans to have Murton.

140 meters seems a bit far. Most of us do have some difficulties with the metric system, but it did give us the wildly popular 9mm bullet and two-liter bottle. Personally, though, my favorite unit of measure is still the Imperial Pint.

Did you imply someone was slower than Murton?

I’m not Murton hater, but Johnson has more fielding versatility, has batted lead-off before (for long stretches) and most likely doesn’t run the base path like it’s a Slip N’ Slide.

Nice instructions on how to get Ward out of the way

I don’t get the putting in Murton over Fontenot… I mean, I understand Ward. He’s a above-average hitter and good at pinch-hitting (it seems). I understand Blanco: okay stick, okay defense, no one else, and, er, a veteran. I guess you need a back-up for your worst player/position, so there’s Cedeno. Then, Johnson, I’m okay with. He’s the back-up center-fielder they were after, I guess. Ideally, I’d prefer putting, against left-handers, Fukudome at CF and have Murton play RF, but that probably won’t happen. So, Johnson will be the de facto alternate CF option. But I still don’t get Fontenot. Can’t Cedeno, Theriot and DeRosa all play an “acceptable” SS and 2B? Why the need to add Fontenot to the shit-party? Besides, Ward and Blanco can play 1st. I assume the concern is that on off-days for Ramirez you would have essentially no back-ups for 2B, SS and 3B. But who are the back-ups in the outfield if, say, Soriano has a day off? Ward (maybe DeRosa, but then the previous problem arises again)? Seriously? Maybe the Fontenot move just seems to add more positional depth, but, honestly, Fontenot will only be played at 2B, anyways (Lou didn’t like him at SS last year). So, it seems more just that Fontenot got in over Murton more for just the player that he backs up then the versatility he has himself–DeRosa can play more positions then Fukudome, so freeing him up every once in a while lends more freedom. That seems like a pretty insignificant difference, especially so when it may be the cause for having a lot weaker bat join the bench instead of a legit bat. Of course, these reasonings are all hypothetical. Anyway, I sure hope Lou makes some changes, like he, so refreshingly, is pretty good at…

If Murton’s as professional at bat as you say he is, isn’t there some sort of improvement program he can undergo while riding the bench that would improve his defense?

Surely there’s someone in the Cubs organization that can teach this young man how to patrol the outfield. After all, he could become the second ‘Death to Flying Things’. For some reason, I seem to remember the first one played in the MidWest, back in the early years of the 20th centur, but my geography has never been very good.

Lou’s pretty good at making adjustments. Murton will be up soon enough. Lou’ll soon find out that having 35 2B on the bench instead of 36 would be advantageous for winning games.

Yeah, I like Murton, but it’s clear that Lou preferred carrying extra infielders (lack of confidence in Theriot as the starter? But then why hit him leadoff?) to extra outfielders, since we’re down to four (although DeRosa and Ward can both be stuck in right in a pinch). The bench was based more on defensive positions than hitting, it seems. I think we’re going to see Murton on another team come season’s end.

For the record, as much as I like Murton, his OPS+ in his only full season was just 104. That’s above average but considering that Soriano put up a 123 last year it’s obvious that Murton was not the long term left fielder for this team, and he doesn’t seem to hit as well off the bench as he does when playing every day.

Ha! No, although he did start out in the Terrys. He’s been a professional soldier for eight years now, though, and would shoot you up the face with a gun for suggesting that.

If he’s shooting anyone up the face, I hope he’s using a gun. Otherwise such filth should really be confined to the Shoutbox.

Despite my moaning, I was thinking on the way home from work this evening how nice it is that we can afford to spend time worrying about whether Murton or Cedeno makes the bench. You don’t have to go too far back to find a year where we had far, far, far more pressing problems to worry about. Admittedly, the 2008 rotation could either be fine, or fucking terrible, but all in all I’m all right with the Cubs’ roster this year. That, I don’t mind telling you, is a refreshing change.

I love Gareth’s description of the TA from that link:

“A lot of people think that those in the Territorial Army are not real soldiers. We are. We are well trained, highly disciplined fighting machines ready for war. We’re just not available during the week.”