Chicago Cubs Ticket Blog

Spring training began this week and all the team knew their places. Soriano was to play center field, Theriot was to play utilityman, and Marmol practiced around in the bullpen. That was before Lou Pinella showed up to coach. Pinella in his second year as the Cubs coach will probably not move a lot of players around in different positions. He has a history with the team now, and he knows what the players can and can’t do. He knows their strengths and can use them to the team’s best advantage.

Pinella is proud of the fact that he has an incredible amount of talent on the field. These kids were brought up to play the way he wanted them to play. Soriano will most likely be the Cubs lead off man. He is in his second year with the Cubs as well. You can’t just change up his world and what he does the coach pointed out. There are also three Japanese players on the team this year. Pinella was very impressed with them and their abilities. They have no fear and they really get out there and put forth an effort to win. They have a lot of running and hitting power and that is crucial to winning.