Notes from Day 2 in Mesa

• Rich Harden said that he is coming off his best off season ever.
• Harden spent most of the winter in Mesa working with Tim Buss.
• Bruce Miles reports that the locker rooms in Mesa were packed on Friday with media and players.
• Harden threw off flat ground today.
• Lou hopes Rich will start 32 games.
• The competition for back up catcher is wide open between Paul Bako and Koy Hill.
• Another facial hair update from Bruce Miles: Chad Gaudin has a massive goatee.
• Kevin Gregg threw today.
• Bruce Levine reports that Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez will sit out the WBC. It seems like the only Cubs will be Marmol, Soto, and Kosuke.
• Speaking of Kosuke, he worked to build his core this winter.
• Harden is aiming for 25-30 starts.
• Dempster joked about his "bold prediction" that he made last year. He made a new prediction, "I boldly predict that we're going to have a breakfast spread tomorrow and peanut butter and jelly for lunch, and I'm pretty sure that's going to happen."
• When asked about Jake Peavy, Dempster said, "I don't want anybody to replace anybody on this team, because they're all great."
• Lou Pinella has indicated that Sean Marshall is the favorite to win the 5th starter's job.

I'll have more tomorrow.