Rich Hill has allowed an 83% (39/47) stolen base rate during his career. To help improve that, he has made some alterations to his delivery, which he will use whether or not runners are on base, reports the Chicago Tribune's Paul Sullivan.

Via The Biz of Baseball, Sports Business Journal reports that "starting this coming season news organizations will be limited to no more than 120 seconds of audio or video from [MLB] facilities. To add to that, 'with game highlights restricted only to rights holders that have a separate rights deal with MLB Advanced Media.' As further reported:

"Chicago Cubs second baseman Mark DeRosa has left spring training in Arizona to undergo further tests on his heart at a Chicago hospital," reports the AP. "DeRosa met briefly with reporters at the Cubs spring training camp on Monday and said he may consider an unspecified surgical procedure to get his heart back into rhythm." He does hope to be back on the field within a week. The Cubs are certainly losing bargaining power in a possible Brian Roberts trade with this news. We wish DeRosa the best.

If you send your kids to public school, how often are you sending them to this:

When asked about his substitute teaching experience during the off-season, minor-league baseball player Bobby Scales, currently in the Chicago Cubs spring training camp as a non-roster invitee, gave us the gist of his routine with his students:

"I'm Mr. Scales, for those of you who don't know me. Your teacher is not here today. Your assignment is on the board."

He then asks one of the students to take roll call.

He then asks another student to start a DVD.

"I'm going to be right here, reading the paper."

Says Mr. Scales about his off-season job, "It's so flexible, so easy."

Mr. Scales has been substitute "teaching" since 1999. During that same time period, he has played 871 minor league games without touching a major league diamond.

As a die-hard, slightly biased, and at times bordering a naive cub fan, I have asked myself “why would my hopes for this club really be more than a pipe dream”? Family and friends have teased me for many years about my eternal optimism for “the cub’s chances” every year. Is this year any different? I believe there are three reasons why they are in fact a club destined to go deep into the playoffs and possibly the Big Game!

Marlins ballpark agreement reached (Sarah Talalay, Sun-Sentinel.com, 2/16/2008) (link via RealClearSports)

The Baltimore Orioles are going to give former Cub Scott Moore a look in the outfield as a way of bolstering his chances of making the team, reports the Washington Post. The Orioles acquired Moore in the ill-fated Steve Trachsel trade.

Lots of notes from the first day of camp, from the Chicago Sun-Times and MLB.com:

Jason Marquis, Jon Lieber, Ryan Dempster, and Sean Marshall are battling for the final two rotation spots, after Carlos Zambrano, Ted Lilly, and Rich Hill. One gets the impression that the best of the four--Marshall--is the least likely to get a job.

The Cubs won't take any action against Aramis Ramirez for being "dedicated entirely" to his cockfighting roosters when he is home in the Dominican Republic. "It's understanding and respecting what's acceptable in their culture,'' said Oneri Fleita, player development director and head of the Cubs' Latin American operations. ''We tend to think we have all the answers in our country, but there are people in other parts of the world that think their [customs] are better than ours.'' Moral relativism is alive and well in the Cubs front office.

"Piniella said former Notre Dame football star Jeff Samardzija, who pitched his first full season of professional ball last year, will get a longer look in camp this year and could be ready to make his major-league debut this summer if his progress remains on pace." Samardzija pitching for the big league club this summer would be a miracle.

Angel Guzman might be pitching off a mound by July. Guzman almost became the Cubs' closer last May before going down with an elbow injury and having Tommy John surgery.

This is a good sign: "Eric Patterson was one of the early position players in camp. He has spent most of his Minor League career as a second baseman but will get some playing time in the outfield." That's a good sign because the last we heard from Patterson was that he was being demoted to double-A from the big league club for showing up late to the park last September. (That demotion resulted in Sam Fuld's promotion, which resulted in this, and after this, has Fuld fighting for the starting centerfield job this spring.)

Kevin Hart didn't have a job this winter other than working out, so he learned to cook mashed potatoes.

2008 Chicago Cubs & White Sox Preseason MLB Baseball Schedule on WGN 9

http://wgntv.trb.com/sports/wgntv-cubs-sox-preseason-schedule,0,1522783.htmlstory

CHICAGO CUBS 2008 SCHEDULE (Spring training and regular season) Includes broadcast dates for Comcast, WGN, WCIU and some ESPN and Fox National games. Subject to change as always...
http://chicago.comcastsportsnet.com/team-cubs-sked-08.asp

Comcast Sports Chicago - daily listings
Programs to look for include: SportsNite, Chicago Tribune Live, Cubs Pre-Game Live, Cubs Post Game Live...
http://chicago.comcastsportsnet.com/tv-listings.asp

WGN TV NEWS Sports Reports
http://wgntv.trb.com/sports/

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The Wolf Report looks at previous Japanese players who have come over to MLB and surmises, from that history, that Kosuke Fukudome will have somewhere between a 740 and 780 OPS in 2008 for the Cubs. (Hat tip: The Cub Reporter.) See also here for tempered expectations.

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