Notes From the Last Day at Fitch Park

• Jeff Samardzija will start the first game of the Cactus League on Wednesday.


• Sean Marshall will pitch on Thursday and Ted Lilly on Friday.


• Each starter will go 2 innings the first time around.


• Mitch Atkins will pitch the 3rd and 4th inning against the Dodgers on Wednesday.


• Rich Harden is a week to 10 days behind the other starters.


• Carlos Marmol has decided to stay out of the WBC.


• Carlos said he couldn't sleep last night trying to make up his mind.


• Ryan Dempster has not being throwing to hitters due to a stiff neck.


• Big Z and Lilly will get tuned up with sessions VS hitters on Monday.


• The Cubs will take 4-5 regulars to the 2 games series in Las Vegas against the White Sox.


• Lou has finished one Tony Dungy book and is reading the second one.


• Today was the final day of practice at Fitch Park. The Cubbies will move down the road to HoHoKam tomorrow to practice before the games start on Wednesday.


• Samardzija is working on his change-up.


• There are only 2 Japanese reporters in Cubs camp, both are watching Ken Kadokura.


• Zambrano's eye will be examined next week.


• Carlos told Bruce Levine that his shoulder is ready to go.


• According to Carrie Muskat, AL managers have contacted Lou about using a DH during the Spring games at HoHoKam. Lou said "You'd like to think that you give yourself a competitive balance, you don't want to just go out there and play. Sooner or later, you have to start worrying about winning some baseball games."


• Derrek Lee looks like he is in even better shape this Spring according to Mike Huang.


• Lee hit a few dingers in live BP.


• Soto ripped several line drives off Chad Gaudin.


• Jake Fox was working out at 3B again today. He smacked a few fast balls in live BP off Marmol.


• Soriano's bat looked even quicker today according to Huang.

Lou Piniella with Dan Roan on WGN:

• The first week or 10 days we'll be seeing a lot of the young kids playing.


• Zambrano will probably pitch the 6th game of the spring.


• Lilly will join team USA after his start on Friday.


• Lou stated again that there's going to be a packed camp with no place to send anyone until the minor league camp begins.


• Sweet Lou said that Samardzija is not in the mix as the closer. Either Gregg on Marmol will pitch the 9th. He said the biggest job in camp is to find out who else can pitch in late relief besides Gregg and Marmol.


• Lou said that the only thing wrong with Soriano as a lead off man is that he isn't running as much any more.


• Piniella mentioned looking at Miles, Kosuke, and Fontenot in the lead off spot, but he assumes that on Opening Day it will be Soriano hitting first.


• He said that the Cubs have a real nice combination of speed, power, and left handed hitting.


• The key is keeping this team healthy.

Lou's leaning toward this batting order according to Cubs.com:

1. Soriano

2. Miles

3. Lee

4. Bradley

5. Ramirez

6. Kosuke

7. Soto

8. Theriot

In my opinion I'd rather see Theriot hitting second and Fontenot in the line-up at 2B.

Bruce Levine joined Waddle and Silvy today:

• Bruce doesn't think Marmol should be worried about his position on the team, but Carlos wants to work on new pitches.


• Levine says that 1 or 2 bullpen spots are up for grabs, but the positions of the bullpen pitchers will be interesting to sort out.


• Samardzija want desperately to be a starting pitcher.

The Cubs will be at HoHoKam tomorrow!

First Spring Training Game Wednesday VS LAD
@ 2:00 CT on WGN Radio.

Cubs Chat on this blog tomorrow @ 7 PM CT!
Be there with all your Cubs questions and comments!

I'll keep you posted.