The Giants and Brewers were tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 9th. Prince Fielder was at the dish, and then this scene ensued:

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?content_id=6511913

As if the Brewers jersey untucking after wins wasn’t enough of a joke. Listen, I am all for a little bit of cockiness in baseball. Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano certainly do their part, but Prince took it to a whole new level last night. One thing I admire about baseball over any other professional sport is just that, it’s professionalism among their athletes. Sure, we have the never-ending steroid saga, but you rarely hear about players choking their girlfriends/wives, getting arrested for DUIs (insert Tony LaRussa joke here), dog-fighting (I don’t need a link), or any of that other garbage that goes in the NFL. The NBA isn’t very professional either – take a look at Kobe Bryant’s past or this photo of Allen Iverson. The NHL has guys like Sean Avery. Similar stuff happens in baseball, but you definitely don’t hear about it as much – and it doesn’t create month long feature blocks on SportsCenter. I know what Fielder did wasn’t anything as profound as any of the incidents I just referred to, but it’s a clear example of a non-professional. It wouldn’t have made much of a difference to me, but it’s not like the Brewers moved into first place with that win – in fact, they are 11 games out of any playoff contention at all. Had they been in the heat of a pennant race, perhaps Prince’s actions are justified a bit more, to some.

Fielder’s Brewer teammate, Ryan Braun is just as guilty of this stuff, just look at his parade around the bases last September in a game against the Cubs. [Cub fan bias]Someone should have told him Bob Howry was on the mound and that C.C. Sabathia wasn’t gonna be able to pitch every game of the NLDS.[/Cub fan bias] They learned that soon enough anyway, I suppose. Fielder’s antics are reminiscent of an NFL endzone celebration, something that their league is trying to restrict, and certainly, baseball doesn’t need that garbage either. Lets not just dismiss the fact that this isn’t Fielder’s first act of havoc this season. Remember his trip into the Dodgers’ clubhouse after they were blown out in L.A.? Perhaps that is a whole other blog entry though.

So before you tell me that Fielder’s antics were equal to every other act of cockiness in the league, find me another photo in the history of baseball with anything resembling this scene at home plate and I’ll take it all back:

Didn’t think so. Sure, Soriano waves his hand in front of his face (which is really just more stupid than anything else), Zambrano is basically the definition of cocky, but this hurts him more than helps most of the time, and Aramis admires his home runs (him and also Albert Pujols, Manny Ramirez, and a lot of other great sluggers throughout baseball history), but they don’t do what Fielder did. Some of the Giants players publicly spoke out against the charade, and some Angels players even are speaking out about it. It’s good to know that players of other teams don’t approve. Maybe it’s just immaturity; it’s easy to forget Prince is only in his 3rd full MLB season, so hopefully sooner or lately he’ll learn. Hopefully he deservedly gets one in the backside whenever the Brewers and Giants hook up again – and if he decides to charge the San Francisco clubhouse this time, there’s probably no hope left for him anyway.

Mike

Could the Cubs 5th starter not even be on the roster or any other baseball roster for that matter? Out of nowhere on Sunday, free agent Curt Shilling came out and said that he would love to pitch for the Chicago Cubs or the Tampa Bay Rays. He says he would love the challenge to help either one of the teams to win the World Series.

Shilling know’s what it takes to win in the playoffs and especially the World Series as he has led the Diamondbacks to a World Series title in 2001. Three years later he helped Boston break an 86-year championship drought as the captured the World Series title in 2004. He won a second ring with the Red Sox in 2007 also.

Shilling says he will know in the next couple of weeks if he will come back for the 2009 season. He missed all of 2008 after having shoulder surgery. So you have to think, would a 42 year old Curt Shilling be the best option for the Chicago Cubs and the 5th spot in the rotation? I say hell yes as long as he would give the team a discount for a one year deal.

I haven’t had a lot of time to write over the weekend as far as spring training games, but the Cubs are now 3-1. They have also signed Corey Koskie to a minor league deal. Koskie has told the team he would goto Triple A Iowa for at least 30 days if he does not make the opening day roster.

Reports yesterday were that Rich Hill was close to being traded to Baltimore for a player to be named later. Although nothing is yet official, it appears Rich is out of options with the Cubs and is indeed being shopped.

The Chicago Tribune reports that the Cubs are “working on a deal” while the Seattle Post Intelligencer is reporting that the Mariners have interest and could send a major league pitcher the Cubs way in order to make room for further signings. Of course, the Cubs just traded with both Baltimore and Seattle, giving up once top 10 prospects Felix Pie and Ronny Cedeno.

Hill had a promising 2006 and 2007 racking up 17 wins between the 2 seasons combined but started having command control issues in early 2008 and then struggled to find the strike zone even in the lowest levels of the Cubs’ minor league system. This news, especially his low value in the possible return from Baltimore, is extremely disappointing because just last offseason, Pie, Cedeno, and Hill would have been plenty to land O’s 2B Brian Roberts.

Ok, so we haven’t started the makeover on the blog yet, however I had to get this news posted tonight. I just heard on ESPN1000 and Bruce Levine said that Jason Marquis will be traded to the Colorado Rockies while the Rockies will be sending the Cubs reliever Luis Vizcaino. The Cubs will only eat $1 million of the Marquis contract so that is a good thing.

It sounds like the team will now sign Milton Bradley to play right field. They are able to do this since they moved Marquis’s contract.

And get this, Levine said that talks with the Padres are once again on for Jake Peavy? Say WHAT?!?! I wish this would just happen or not happen. To make that happen however the Cubs will probably be trading Mark DeRosa in the next three to four days. DeRosa is a fan favorite so it will be hard to see him go if it does happen.

Let’s all set back and see what happens. Look for the deals about Marquis and Bradley to be announced in the next week.