He’s Baaa…aaaack!

Welcome back to the leadoff spot Mr. Soriano.  Good to have you back.

It was exciting to see a lineup today with what could potentially be our starting 1-4 hitters come the regular season.  I’ve been concerned about how quickly they decide to bring Soriano back because of his injuries and it will be interesting to hear if everything is still a go after playing today.  I can’t imagine his finger is 100% so soon…but then maybe a player of Soriano’s caliber doesn’t need to be 100% to serve his team well.  No errors in the field and a successful day at the plate (2 for 4 with a run and an rbi) was a great way to get back into the swing of things.  I really like what Theriot’s been doing in the lead off spot lately but he didn’t even play today so  where to bat the two didn’t really come up and since it appears Soriano isn’t moving from the leadoff spot regardless, its a moot point.  Still no sign of Derosa and I’m not sure when he’ll be back but man did Fontenot have a day.  Flashing that glove all over the place in being a part of 3 double plays on the day, he also got a hit and an rbi in today’s 4-1 (ss) win over the D-backs.  In the other game the Cubs lost, but again, just another case of the 8th and 9th innings blowing up in our face with guys who are still a couple years away more than likely from really contributing.  With Soriano back it will be fun to see the team getting closer to the true ’08 lineup as we go through spring training.

Lieber had me eating my words a bit today.  I don’t foresee him making the rotation come opening day…I truly feel it will be Marquis and Dempster rounding out the five.  However, Lieber had quite the day today throwing 4 innings with 4 strike outs and giving up 2 hits.  I have no problem being wrong with my starting rotation prediction if someone throwing like that ends up being the guy I’m wrong about.

While I’m not going to really say anything about the Wrigley name and marquee issue today (I’ve said enough lately and anyone who’s read this blog knows how I feel about it) I will say this…did anyone else expect Mr. Cub to be more traditional and passionately attached to Wrigley than what his ‘company man’ answer shows in this video when asked by the press about how he feels about the chances of Wrigley being renamed?

On a lighter note, I found some cool things while cleaning out some stuff today…a couple old Starting Lineup figures and my old electronic Talking Starting Lineup Baseball game.  That thing was awesome…even better, it still works!  National League vs. American League.  "It’s at the track…It’s at the wall…Gone, Goodbye, a home run!"

Classic.