Bartender Banter: Things Shaping Up

Well there's only about a week left of Spring Training and the roster is pretty much settled, save for a couple of spots. According to this article on the Cubs official site, Lou says there's one spot left in the bullpen and one spot left on the bench. The last remaining bullpen spot looks to go to either Kerry Wood or Angel Guzman. This will probably hinge upon whether Wood is healthy or not.

The final bench spot will probably go to Ronny Cedeno. That's fine I guess. As long as we're not relying on him as an everyday starter he should be fine.

Lou also has said that the 5th spot in the rotation is not "100 percent decided", leaving the door open a crack for Mark Prior to take the spot over Wade Miller. Two weeks ago this decision probably would've been a little easier to make, but Prior actually showed some signs of life yesterday, throwing 4 good innings and even hitting the low-90's on the radar gun. So much for writing him out of my life. I guess I'll prepare myself for more disappointment wrapped in a thin candy shell of optimism.

Strictly For My Ninjas
Yesterday, the folks at Goatriders linked to this fantastic article discussing Ryan Dempster training to be a ninja. Check out his quotes.

"You have to (learn) how to throw a throwing star and nunchucks and all those kinds of things..... Obviously you've got to do martial arts and learn how to be really quiet, which is a tough task for me because I talk a lot...... It's pretty cool. I wear the outfit around the house and try to sneak up on people...."

This further proves that Dempster would be a pretty cool guy to hang out and have a beer with. It also gave me inspiration to bust out a new shirt at the Thunder Matt store. You didn't know we had a store? Yeah, neither do most people. Although last time I checked someone besides me actually bought a Thunder Matt shirt. Our best seller remains to be the Rick Astley shirt. If I ever see a person wearing that shirt, I'm not sure if I'll approach them or quickly walk the other direction.

AL East Preview to come later today, which can also be translated as tomorrow.