Cubs quotations

From the Daily Herald:

"I don't think that was our problem last year," Lee said of bad
chemistry. "I just think we didn't play good baseball, and the injuries
mounted up on us."

Woah, Woah, Woah! Slow down there, Derrek! I realized you were one of the last team members to make it to Arizona so you might have missed the welcome packet, but please take a look at it, particularly page three on "Talking to the Media" and the subsection on "Discussing 2009":

"All employees of the Chicago National League Ballclub are required to discuss the improved clubhouse chemistry of the team in 2010 because of the departure of Milton Bradley. Whenever asked about the 2009 season and what went wrong, please direct all responses to a difficult clubhouse environment and if possible mention Milton Bradley by name. Eachy mention of how fun it is to have Kevin Millar around will earn you an extra $10 in per diem money."

One of our trusted readers tells us that he heard on WGN radio that Lou Piniella has decided to bat Kosuke Fukudome leadoff until Alfonso Soriano is back...or until Lou changes his mind again. I would assume that Jim Edmonds would get the bulk of the work at the five spot from now on, at least versus righties.

I also wanted to share this story that another reader found via the Sun-Times:

Mark DeRosa interrupted Matt Murton's back-in-the-big-leagues news conference Tuesday with the question most people want the answer to:

''Will you stop hitting swinging bunts and start driving balls out
of the ballpark with your quads the size of bricks?'' DeRosa said,
grinning. ''Let's ask the real questions. You going to hit some home
runs?''

Replied Murton: ''Why not?''

That's the even bigger question -- the one probably most responsible for keeping Murton in the minors longer than expected.

 That is the million dollar question with Murton, now isn't it?