Notes from the Soap Box

Kevin Millar does everything off the field the Chicago Cubs need in the clubhouse. He keeps his teammates loose. He entertains them when the team bus breaks down and reminds them baseball is just a game. Millar has lived up to his reputation in his short time with the Cubs. He has said and done everything the Cubs expected off the field.

Millar has outperformed expectations on the field this spring. He has listened to Rudy Jaramillo and has hit the ball. After nine games and 15 at bats, Millar is hitting .333/.545/.600 with seven walks, a double, a home run and three RBI.

Several of the veterans are "rooting" for Kevin Millar to make the team and the feeling is Millar could break camp on the Cubs roster. But when the games actually count, can Kevin Millar help the Cubs win games?

Be very, very quiet ... Jim Hendry and the Cubs are sleeping. While most of baseball is attempting to make their clubs better for 2010, the Cubs, so far, have not addressed their biggest needs or their number one priority this winter ... dealing Milton Bradley.

It is only December 17 but at some point, Jim Hendry must begin scratching items off his to do list. Granted the Cubs re-signed John Grabow and hired Rudy Jaramillo but unless taking Mike Parisi in the Rule 5 Draft was one of the Cubs' goals this winter ... then two down and several more to go.

Congratulations to the New York Yankees on their 27th World Series Championship. The 2009 season ended exactly one month after the Cubs campaign came to an end ... Warm up the oven, it's time for the Hot Stove Season.

The 15-day free-agent filing period begins on Thursday ... teams have exclusive negotiating rights for the next 15 days in order to try and re-sign their would-be free agents. The Cubs are expected to re-sign John Grabow to a contract at some point over the next two weeks and a day ... but Rich Harden, Kevin Gregg, Reed Johnson and Chad Fox are expected to reach the open market. Johnson might return while Harden, Gregg and Fox will likely have another team in 2010 ... and beyond.

Will the surgery on Ted Lilly's shoulder change Jim Hendry's approach this winter? Will the Cubs offer arbitration to Rich Harden and/or try to re-sign him? Or will they begin the season with a rotation full of question marks?

One of our regular readers and contributors to the site, Jim Kneisley, sent me an email recently with a view of the current state of professional sports teams and their players. For fans of professional sports, this could be a thought-provoking topic ...

The Cubs will spend their day off after salvaging the last game of the series in Los Angeles eight games back of the Cardinals. With a quarter of the season left to play, Lou Piniella's crew begins an important 10-game homestand on Tuesday ... three against Washington, three against the Mets, three with Houston and the makeup game versus the South Side on September 3.

While the Cubs take a break, the CCO rambles a little ...

There are 11 days remaining before the non-waiver trade deadline and it's that time again at the CCO. Grab your GM hat, as always make sure it still fits and let's play, 'If You Were the Cubs GM...version 20.09'.

You may or may not know the drill by now. The CCO's long-running debate topic made its debut in 2005, then again in 2006. And to prove we could dust off a reader favorite we trotted it out twice in 2007 and once again in 2008. So as the trading deadline nears ...

What would you do to improve the team if you were the general manager of the Chicago National League Ball Club Inc.? But like always, it is not as easy as it sounds ... there is a twist.

While many will focus on the next three games with the White Sox, and rightfully so, the Cubs begin a very important stretch of games on Tuesday night. Lou Piniella's crew begins a string of 23 games in a row without a day off and between Tuesday and the All-Star break they will play 27 games in 27 days that concludes with a day-night doubleheader against the Cardinals on July 12.

The Cubs figure to be without Aramis Ramirez for a majority, if not all, of the games leading up to the Mid-Summer Classic. The Cubs are 30-30 after 60 games but the next 27 days will have a huge impact on the remainder of the season ...

Many questioned the signing of Milton Bradley when the Cubs made the deal official on January 8. The Cubs were looking for a way to balance out their lineup and were willing to take a risk on a player with all of the talent to take them to the next level, but with a history that might not let that happen.

Bradley made all of the right statements before, during and after the Cubs Convention. It appeared he had finally taken the steps in his maturation process to become the baseball player that many always thought he had the ability to be...especially after his 2008 season.

The Cubs spoke highly of Bradley throughout the winter and repeatedly told the story of how he courted the Cubs and even Jim Hendry made a big deal about pointing that out back in January.

Spring Training began and other than a delay at the beginning of an extremely long stay in Arizona, Milton Bradley hit the cover off the ball and appeared to be on the right track to helping the Cubs win games when the year began.

Once the season started Bradley did not hit, then the injuries started piling up, seemingly one after the other. And the fears that the oft-injured Milton Bradley would spend most of the year in the dugout started to be realized.

After 54 games the Cubs are not playing good ball, despite being two games over .500. The Cubs once high-scoring offense has gone south due to several factors and one of them is Milton Bradley. As was pointed out over the weekend, individual numbers in the game of baseball can be blown out of proportion, but it is the team's win-loss record that matters at the end of the day.

Before the season began most, if not all, thought if the Cubs were to win their third consecutive Central Division title they would need Carlos Zambrano to step up and lead the starting staff. Zambrano did his part on Opening Day in Houston and pitched a very good game...and more than earned his first career victory on Opening Day.

With the question marks around Rich Harden's health and Ryan Dempster's ability to repeat his performance from a year ago, Lou Piniella and Jim Hendry need a big year from Zambrano. While Big Z has made only three starts, his performances have been inconsistent at best and very reminiscent of the second half he put together last season.

When you hit a certain age, like I have, the Christmas season and birthdays do not have the same excitement as they might have at one point in time. However, no matter how many years pass and how many things change around me, the one constant for as long as I can remember is the feeling I get on the first day of the baseball season.

Is it the longing for the past? I don't think so. But what is it? Why is one day so much more special than the others?