Thurston should play everyday!

LOL. As a cubs fan I can’t wait to see this “team”.

TLR would love to have a 26-man roster. Someone has to go and I have a feeling it will be barden or thurston.

Not exactly murders row.

Hmmm ok Votsy, when was the last time Cubs were in or better yet won a World Series??? Yeah that’s what I thought.

Votsy, I feel the same way about the Cubs. Milton Bradley? Yeah, that’s the key to the World Series. Jokers.

Cubs fans are really good at getting excited about predictions!
I remind you:
When Wrigley was built there were flag poles built for all of the World Series pennants that they were going to win. The rusted away without ever having anyting WS pennants on them!
In it’s first season Busch Stadium III had seen more World Series victories than Wrigley Field has ever seen!
When the Cubs last won a World Series human flight had not yet happened.
While I know that all Cubs fans know these facts, it is fun to remind them every now and then.

Votsy… as a Cub fan, you should keep your comments to yourself until your Cubbies win as many championships as the Cardinals. If they could even win one this century that would work. The Cards only missed the playoffs by a few games last year with no Carpenter and an injured Wainwright. Face it, Derek Lee is no Pujols, Sandberg was no Ozzie, etc. Your comments are out of pure jealousy. At last count, it is 10 chamionships to 2. let’s see how many World Series games are played in Wrigley this year, then run your mouth.

Honestly, let people discredit us. I think playing without the pressure to perform to the nation’s highest expectations allows us to fly under the proverbial radar. Let the laughable cubs think they’re all high and mighty only to falter yet again, which truly makes me laugh out loud (sorry, I don’t subscribe to the inane texting acronyms, Votsy. We Cardinal fans are a lot more classy). I know what you’re thinking, Votsy, WTF right?

Freese had a .910 OBP in 2008 but only a .306 AVG? That would mean that he walks in over half his plate appearances, doesn’t it? Seems a bit high.

As long as they can stay healthy, I figure the Cards will do fine. This roster gives the Cubs plenty of room to underestimate us, and when you underestimate a team, you tend to lose.

First off, Votsy, STFU, secondly, even though there are several major question marks with this roster, I am feeling optimistic about World Championship 11 in October!

David Freese’s OBP was wrong in the original posting of this graphic. His correct OBP is now posted. The original percentage of .910 was his OPS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage). We regret the error.

I am not trying to play the race card and I wish the Cardinals well but what is up with the lack of African-Americans on the Cardinals’ roster?

Be careful what you wish for, Votsy. The Grubs might have a good regular season, but the Cards know how to win in October, when it matters most. The Flubs have had almost as many October three-and-outs as the Rams.

Maybe not murders row, but with Schumaker at 2B and Greene back to his old self, the lineup looks pretty strong to me.

Why is there never more than 1 black guy on the Cardinals roster? Look back through the TLR years and this becomes obvious.

Cubs win a world series, that set of words can’t even be said striaght with out making me LOL.

Seriously…Sorry Chubbies, not now, not in the next 100 years…

Go Cardinals!

For all the Cubs fans flapping their gums-
Do you know what God said to the Cubs?
Don’t do anything until I come back.

I can’t wait to see what we do when we go to an AL park with this line up.

Shumacker
Rasmus
Pujols
Green
Ankiel
Ludwick
Duncan
Molina
Freese

If Freese comes anywhere close to .260/20/70 the Cards will be good.

You could’ve listed Pujols and……..well, just Pujols and we’re already better than your Cubs, Vots.

Votsy-

do us all a favor and go read on teh Chicago Sun-Times website about how your little cubbies will choke once again this year regardless of your team or payroll. I do pose a questions to all cubs fans…..why waste your money and time all season to have a good record to watch the same idiots blow it in september, and October if they are luckey…

Just a question from a curious cards fan……

There’s the obligatory racial comments! The Cardinals dont like black players but have no problem with hispanics I guess…

Take a look at the percentage of african americans on MLB rosters before you start spewing verbal vomit…its around 10 percent…youve been waiting all winter to make that comment pathetic

Votsy-

I’m sure you’re enjoying all of the attention from your post, but go look at your team’s lineup.

Soriano…can’t hit a curve ball, can’t stay healthy
Lee…hasn’t played a full season in over 3 years
Ramirez…hot/cold/really cold…repeat
The rest of your outfield…I’ll take the Pirates over Chi-town

Pitching Staff…
Zambrano…headcase, with a bad arm
Lilly and Dempster…overachievers will come back to normalcy
Harden…When was the last time this guy pitched a full sea…oh never

You traded away a big part of your team in DeRosa, and your apparent closer to be, couldn’t even win the closer job…

How do the experts pick this team to win 96-100 games…they didn’t improve their team at all…and yet they are going to improve record-wise.

go Thurston!!!!

Looks like a good young team, maybe some “Whitey ball” this year. Oh I give a week before Milton Bradly and Zambrano get into a fist fight in the dugout.

Oh, Lord, I am so glad the play dates are over and the real partying can begin….

“Let’s Fly!”

Long Life Cardinals Fan…Always and Forever, but looking at this roster, I know Votsy is not the only Cubs Fan smiling from ear to ear. Pitch around Pujols and this team is 500 at best. I think the opening day roster last year looked better than this group. It’s time to start spending some money and getting good players in here. The National League Central is too competitive now and we are wasting good productive years from Phat Albert, by surrounding him with a bunch of average players…

I have to be honest here. While I am very optimistic that this team could be outstanding, we easily have the odds stacked against us or maybe even more so to fall. This team can easily tank as it could soar. First off, Carpenter is not a sure thing until we get past the All-star break and he is still on the mound every fourth day. Lohse looks like he has sunk back to mediocrity after signing an inflated contract last year. Wainwright is a solid starter but is still unproven whether he is the “stop-gap” pitcher that is required at the top of a rotation. Wellemeyer and Piniero are gonna give you pretty much what they do every year. What scares me about the line-up is, while we have nights where we score 15 runs, we also have too many nights where we can’t push one across the plate. Duncan has to be given a short leash. If Ludwick comes back down to earth and can’t protect Pujols, there goes our season. Who will protect him? Duncan or Ankiel can’t. Glaus won’t be back until after the all star break. I hate to say it but unless management pulls a big bat around the trade deadline, I don’t think we will have what it takes to be consistent. Rasmus, from what I’ve seen, doesn’t have what it takes to make a huge contribution this year. Adding another consistent bat would take the pressure off of everyone else in the lineup. I’m not reading into the hype just yet. All things said, I’m not the manager and love to be proved wrong! Go Redbirds!

This is in response to MissouJosh. How many Afican-American players are on the Phillies roster or the Tampa Bay roster. The Cardinals have very few African American players in their minor league system. Are you saying there is no African American talent out there? (Ryan Howard Local product). Tony LaRussa will only have a limited number of black players on his teams. Check the numbers over his tenure in St. Louis. I bet its less than your 10%

Ah, Votsy… We can’t all spend tons of money on big name talent, get all the hype just to get bounced in the post-season. Have fun living in the “100+ years era”!

Cubs breath….if Carpenter is back, we can’t wait to extend the jinx for your type…..

Anyone derailing good baseball talk with racial commentary should be banned.

The number of black players is down all over the league. This is a trend that has been slowly taking hold for several years now.
I think Tony wants guys who can play, period. Black, white, latino, whatever.
The Careds have had a black hitting coach for almost 10 years now.

P.S. if you “don’t want to play the race card” as your post stated, then why did you? The truth is, most blacks do want to play the race card, because it’s what’s gotten them anywhere in life. I’m sick of it, and most people I know are sick of it too. It’s stale and divisive to our society.

I’ll bet He doesn’t own any black dogs either… i think there must be a conspiracy here somewhere. Let’s spend more posts talking about it instead of enjoying the optimism that opening day is 3 days away!

You’d think that after getting swept in the playoffs the past two years that Cubs fans like Votsy would have learned to keep their mouth shut by now. The arrogance and levels of stupidity they constantly display is a never ending source of amusement. How did all that crap such as ‘This is the Year’ and ‘It’s Gonna Happen’ work out for your pathetic team? That’s what I thought ………

I think the team looks good.

With David Freese in there, we have five everyday players - Big Al, Yadi, Schu, Luddy, and “Mister” Freese - that could end up hitting .300 this year.

Carp and A-Dub appear to be back, which could make for a solid 1-2 in our rotation.

We also have four guys - Big Al, The Natural, Luddy, and Dunc - capable of hitting 30 home runs or more. If “Mister” Freese can hit MLB pitching as well as he hit AAA pitching, can he make for the lack of production at the Hot Corner caused by Glaus’ absence and make it #5?

If “Mister” Freese pans out at Third, will anybody even miss Troy Glaus?

With 5 Saves, a 1.46 ERA, 18 K’s in 12.1 IP, and developing a second pitch this Spring, I’d say that Jason “Popeye” Motte more than earned the closer’s job.

Meet the St. Louis Cardinals: quite possibly the whitest team in Major League Baseball.

It’s not a black/white thing, either. There’s minimal Latino representation, too. (According to the Wall St Journal, roughly 30% of major leaguers are Latino. The 2009 Cards are dragging that figure down.)

And not that it matters, but I’m white. So I’m not playing any “race card,” just calling it as I see it. This is a very non-diverse team, particularly compared to others in the majors. Is that intentional? I’m not jumping into that debate. I’ll just say it’s curious.

dudes… TLR’s hitting coach is black, his third base coach is latino and possibly in line to be the heir of the dugout. Our best player is Latino. TLR loves him, adores him really. Sure, it may be curious how undiverse we are but it should stop there. TLR has nothing to do with that. I’m sure Tony just publicly stated he wanted Fuentes to hide his racism. YA RIGHT. Tony doesn’t sign the players, he plays what he is given. We used to have an all black outfield with gant lankford and (???) was it Brain Jordan? I can’t remember. but my point is made

It should be an interesting year. Tony and Duncan will earn their money if they are able to have a sucessful season with this group but as we all know Tony has done it before and can do it again. It is good though that at least one Cub fan has discounted us already and this comes from a team who is starting their second century without a world series win.

Votsy; It sounds like you are counting your chickens before they hatch. Out of a 162 game schedule, I’ll give you 50 games in the win (hatched) column and 50 games in the loss column. That leaves 62 games left to see how many games the Cubs can nurse into the win column from the hatchery. Now it is safe to say that the Cards will be 50/50 with 62 birds to nurse out of their hatchery. So many variables come into play such as the injury factor as to who can hatch the most chickens. If my birds stay healthy, I’ll take their talent, enthusiasm, energy and will to win to keep pace with the small bears outstanding talent. But it is too soon to count the chickens as the games have yet to be played. I do know this though. Pride comes before a fall. There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance and it’s harder to stay King of the Hill than to conquer it. The Central Division will be eyeing the Cubs because they are the favorites. That can only keep that pack humble and hungry to take the Cubs down. So beware Votsy. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!

Jimmy - you’re not “just curious,” you’re a racist. Anyone with a brain bigger than an apple seed is logical enough to know the demographic rates of blacks in this country, and the percentage that choose to play football and basketball over baseball, and THEN, can equate how many black players that leaves to choose from.

…I guess Mike Anderson is racist as well. One white player that he didn’t recruit.

Sometimes you have to illustrate absurdity with the absurd.

Pay no attention to the morons in the Fukudome jerseys. So the Cub’s all of a sudden have a tremendouse lineup? Probably the softest hitting middle infield in the NL. Ramirez will drive in 120 and Lee will prove yet again, that he never belonged in the conversation for NL MVP. He will hit 20/80 at best. Bradley will either implode or get hurt. What, do you want to tell me how Fukudome will hit 25 HR’s this year? Not quite, another check gone bad in Chicago. Pitchers will figure out Soto and the bench just isn’t that impressive. Figure in one injury at least for that pitching staff, and I would label this team overrated. Gregg will blow his fair share of saves and Marmol is on his way to Tommy John surgery. It’s gonna be another 100 years folks…

I’ve been trying to figure out how the Cubs manage to blow it in the postseason every time they get there, even though they have talented players. It can’t be the players themselves for a century–they’re all different; can’t be the managers for a century–they’re different, too; ownership and owner’s philosophy has differed over the last 100+ years, too, so what is it? Where is the “smoking gun”? Oh, maybe it’s the fans, who every year build up these ridiculous expectations, go around spewing their braggadocio, and put a ton of pressure on their teams. I say this somewhat tongue in cheek, but seriously, you gotta wonder if the fans don’t just spread bad karma for their team every year spouting off the kind of garbage that Votsy spouted (and far worse).