MLB.com reports: "The Chicago Cubs trimmed the roster Saturday, announcing that outfielder David Kelton and pitcher Sergio Mitre were optioned to Triple-A Iowa." With Mark Prior likely to start the season on the disabled list (backdated to March 25), "Cubs manager Dusty Baker said outfielder Jason Dubois and pitchers Jon Leicester, Todd Wellemeyer and Michael Wuertz all made the big league team."

David Kelton is still on the spring roster, but the Daily Herald states definitively today that "Jason Dubois has clearly beaten out David Kelton for the last outfield spot." Nice that the player who is probably the Cubs' best hitting outfielder gets the last position player roster spot.

The final game of the spring before the start of the season on Monday. 3:05pm central start time on WGN.

CubsNet.com has added a new forum for the upcoming start of the season: Game Threads. This forum is for discussion of the current game in progress.

This is my first ever post as a Cubs blogger here at cubsnet.com. Hopefully, it will be the first of many to come.

Well, now on to the main topic: Will the Cubs Pitching Staff be able to overcome Dusty Baker's Overusage Tendencies to get the team to the playoffs?

In my opinion, no. Granted, both Houston and St. Louis are markedly weaker than they were last year. However, the gap between the Cardinals and the Cubs last year was such that the Cardinals could have lost 10 more games than they did and still have won the division. To overtake the Cardinals, the Cubs will still have to been improved over last year. Position player wise, the Cubs probably are a little better than last year since Nomar should be able to play with good health. Problem is that Wood and Prior are questionable, Maddux always has a bad start and the idea of having the likes of Ryan Dempster in the starting rotation is scary. Additionally, both the Reds and the Selig-free Brewers figure to be improved from last year, adding pressure to the Cubs.