There were some concerns expressed on the radio show about players' health and the pen. I'm guilty of that too--so we all are ready for real action to replace getting too full of the possible negatives--most of which won't happen. Now this on a slow news day:

More than one aging Cubs' fan grew up in La Porte, IN. Alan Barcus and I drank our "three score and ten" age toasts to each other and the Cubs. Al is a literally amazing Cubs' fan. He wrote "You're My Cubs" along with a couple thousand musical commercials (like "Rattle rattle thunder clatter boom boom boom...Call the CarX man." He was a marginal (he will kill me) baseball and football player, and his mother insisted that he spend a lot of time with the piano, cello and trumpet. At Indiana State, he discovered that he was a gifted long distance runner, and he now is in the ISU Athletic Hall of Fame with Larry Bird among others.

He led his jazz group for years at the Playboy Club and took up basketball. At 65 and beyond he "only" got good enough to be the starting point guard on the Chicago Masters basketball team (competing with former NBA guys) that won a few national and international seniors' championships. He is a close friend of Joe Mantegna who co-produced "This Ol Cub." A year or two ago he recorded a CD of his original music called "Don't I Know" that gets regular play and kudos on Rick Kogan's WGN show "Sunday Morning Papers". "You're My Cubs" is cut 16, and I understand it still gets regular play during Cubs games. Google Alan Barcus to hear the song or learn more about Al.

It's not "special" that the The Faithful are sprinkled with some senior guys who are wondering where their get up and go has got up and gone. Just call us the Old Faithful (and that includes Gramps).

How serious are classmates Al, Lloyd, a couple of other Jims and I about the Cubs? I put together (an almost doable) plan to buy the Cubs from the Trib. Lloyd insisted that he be GM, Al had to be manager, and both then decided that I could not play first base a couple of innings a week. So I told them to go screw themselves. (I'm now preparing strategies for Mark Cuban--whether he wants them or not.) Cheers to The Faithful and the Cubs. Let's Play Ball!

I enjoyed the podcast, and you guys brought up a bunch of interesting points.....ESPECIALLY the one about DeRosa....and while I am not exactly a Brian Roberts fan...I can understand the acquistion now, with the uncertainty of DeRosa's health...I mean, who knows, maybe it's really deteriorating? After all, he's had this irregular heartbeat before, and last year, he had that strange vision problem in Texas. Is he a risk? Certainly, at this point. But is he really more of a risk than steroid/HGH/who knows what else abuser Roberts?

IF Hendry even mildly entertains the idea of trading Ceda away, then he wears the crown of Captain Dumb Ass of the century. Ditto thinking about Veal in the deal as well. The most we should be giving up is no more than three of the following: Marquis, Marshall, Mateo, Gallagher, Fox, or Kroeger. I wouldn't even trade Cedeno away, unless Cintron proves he's recovered from his injuries, as that would leave us with only Theriot there.

I think we have to start looking at some of our hard-throwing guys like Marmol and Ceda in the rotation. While many might disagree with that, as it potentially weakens our bullpen, especially in the case of Marmol---we still have Petrick and others that could help out. I firmly believe that young pitchers have a dramatically greater chance of success if they start in the pen rather than in the rotation.

We have Zambrano, Lilly, and Hill as the ONLY starters that we can count on. Why isn't Hendry concerned about this? From everything I've heard, he seems to think that we have as surplus of starting pitching.....As I said before, I guess if that means Larry, Moe, and Curly (Dempster, Marquis, and Lieber), then I guess we do, but are you SERIOUS?!?!?! All three of them have had limited to no success as starters, and we can expect ERA's in the 4.75-5.50 range with ALL three. Is that what we really want....even from our last 2 spots? maybe our 5 spot, but CERTAINLY not both spots.

As I've said before, I'd try to offload Marquis, Dempster, and Marshall, and get whatever I can for them. If Lieber proves he's ready in the spring, then I'd give him a shot at the 5 spot. Dempster is a basket-case, and never has done anything----all you need to do is view the video with Kevin Millar where he's ripping Dempster's prediction...and while it's a humorous video as Millar is a goofball anyhow----everything he says about Dempster is true, especially Dempster trying to make a career out of his career year of 2000 where he was an all-star and a starting pitcher that year, and his only one of 6 years as a full-time starter where he had an ERA under 4.....At 31 years old, you don't start learning new tricks and getting better, unless you were associated with Brian McNamee or Greg Anderson. Lieber's historical stats aren't very pretty either. Ditto Marquis. Marshall is too similar to Hill and Lilly. I believe that if you have three or more lefties and righties in a rotation, they CANNOT be similar each other, especially if they're back to back in order. A good rotation for this year might look like this: Zambrano, Lilly, Gallagher, Hill, and Lieber.

Anyway, that's enough of a ramble

As most of us probably have seen, there's a lengthy and encouraging story on DeRosa on the Cubs' site. He's gone to Chicago where a battery of doctors hope to enable correcting or quickly treating the "irregular" heart problem he's had since age 16.

As Brian and Shaun mentioned on the radio podcast, MacPhail may see DeRosa's health as additional leverage in a Robert's deal. I too want to keep Ceda, but Cedeno will likely have to be in the deal.

That was a strange story about Ascanio. Poor guy. That never would have happened if Farnsworth had been in that store with him.

The Farns would have performed a perfect form tackle on the assailant, and then proceeded to "ground and pound" him into submission.

I miss The Farns. And apparently we need to bring him back. Not to pitch, but for "security purposes". He's the Chuck Norris of Major League Baseball...

I admit, I am disturbed by this DeRosa/Heart issue.
First:

* He was taken to the Hospital due to a rapid heart rate on Saturday.

* Then, he was released from the hospital

* But no, he actually stayed overnight for more tests and precautionary reasons, then released Sunday Morning. The Cubs then said he will be back on the field Monday.

* But no, he was flown to Chicago on Monday to see a Cardiologist to take more tests on Tuesday.

* Then, there is talk about outpatient Surgery.
with the "He should be back on the field next Tuesday."

Anyone see the disturbing trend? Each update on him gets more grim. I really hope this Roberts deal gets done quickly.

Hey Jim, I agree with ya. Sound like Prior or Wood or slip over to the Cards site and they're saying the same thing about Carpenter and now Clement. I just hope we don't get too nutzo and give away too much for Roberts. Don't we have a guy named Fontenot? I don't like LSU since I'm an Arkansas guy, but I love the Riot...

You love who, Herman? I think I like this guy. =) Sorry, had to. Another great podcast.

My dad had an atrial arrhythmia last summer, and my sisters and I had to take him to the ER. It all seemed really scary at first, but all they did to fix it was change the dossage on his medication slightly. He was fine within a day or two.

Doctor's orders were to "take it easy" for a few days. It all sounds exactly the same as DeRosa, so I don't think there's anything more to it than what we're reading. He should be just fine already, but taking a few days off as precaution.

Aaron, that is a good point testing Marmol and Ceda in the rotation. I remember when Marmol first got called up, he had one heck of a first start. Also, isn't Ceda a starting pitcher and they were moving him to the bullpen? I would think we can put one of the two in the rotation. I would also like to see Hart get a fair shot at a rotation spot. Now with Ascanio and Lahey, I think we have some more depth in the bullpen.
After reading all of the reports on how our pitchers are doing this spring, I am really excited about all of our young guys coming up.
Can't wait for the games to start!!!