Just whom do Cubs fans fear? Pirates?
Not a game has been played, and already Cubs fans are afraid.
I hear it. I see it. I smell it. I'm just not sure I understand it.
True, your team isn't perfect. It's not even great. But guess what? There's no such thing anymore.
Nevertheless, the Cubs have months and months left to bring in Jake Peavy and plenty of time to get better in other areas.
In the meantime, if you insist on fearing the National League's Central Division, maybe this will help a bit.
See, the only team last season that sniffed the Cubs was Milwaukee, which finished 71/2 back be- cause of CC Sabathia and his 11-2 record, 7 complete games and 3 shutouts.
Sabathia's gone, Ben Sheets and Salomon Torres have departed, and their big addition was Trevor Hoffman.
You're worried?
Houston finished 11 games off the pace and their big-name pickup was Mike Hampton, who hasn't had a great year since the turn of the century.
St. Louis was 111/2 behind the Cubs, and they pretty much sat out the winter, while losing a bullpen and adding shortstop Khalil Greene.
Dusty Baker had Cincinnati within 231/2 games of the Cubs at season's end, so the Reds brought in Willy Taveras, who will help the offense, but they also lost Adam Dunn and Junior Griffey.
As for some very good, young pitching, they still have Baker managing the staff, so that's all you need to know.
That leaves Pittsburgh, which hasn't had a winning season in 17 years and came within a mere 301/2 games of catching the Cubs last season.
Barry Bonds still was in Pittsburgh and 70 pounds lighter the last time the Pirates were competitive, and yet their biggest off-season move was that they didn't fold the franchise.
If you can name their manager, you deserve a medal. If you can name their starting rotation, you deserve a Powerball jackpot.
So, as you see, the Central remains an absolute joke, and the Cubs even in their current form should have no concerns about the division.
As for the rest of the National League, the Phillies should be tough once Chase Utley is 100 percent, but repeating is difficult and that will be their toughest foe.
The Mets, even with an improved bullpen, still look mediocre, the Marlins did nothing, and the Braves didn't do enough.
The Dodgers lost Derek Lowe, and even after they sign Manny Ramirez, they'll need some young pitching to come through in order to compete with Arizona, which should rebound from an ugly second half and look more like the team that beat the Cubs in 2007 and got off to a great start in 2008.
A couple of good clubs out there, sure, but no one loaded up over the winter like the Yankees, and it still appears to be a fairly wide-open NL.
Yes, the Cubs have some injuries waiting to happen and some issues to overcome, and being the Cubs, of course, there are always tragedies around the corner.
But there's nothing to fear out there but Alfonso Soriano's glove itself.
Block busting
Not exactly Amare Stoudemire or Chris Bosh, huh?
The Bulls managed a slight upgrade of their roster Wednesday, and at least with Brad Miller it guarantees them a body in the middle next season.
But the real news would be if they could move Larry Hughes or Kirk Hinrich and immediately bring in a monster.
They did get rid of Andres Nocioni's contract, and Miller's money comes off the books along with Hughes' deal after 2009-10, so that's just in time for the summer of Bosh, Stoudemire, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James.
Bearing down
Hard to understand why the Bears didn't offer Mike Brown a minimum-salary deal that included incentives and an unofficial chance to be part of the coaching staff.
He's smarter than any other player on the team, and smarter than any defensive coach the Bears have had on the staff the last couple of years.
If he decides he wants to, Brown probably could make the transition to coaching quickly, and you sense he'd be a great one.
In any case, what harm would it do to have him around next year, teaching younger players, even in a reduced playing role?
Condolences
To the family of Wolves broadcaster Billy Gardner, on the recent passing of his father, William.
Blind ambition
Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel, on Bud Selig con- sidering record-book asterisks: "I've got a better idea. Why not just put an asterisk on Selig's entire reign as the overseer of the sport. * Baseball presided over by clown commissioner whose head was in the sand the whole time."
Best headline
Sportspickle.com: "Yankees set preliminary date for next spring's steroids apology press conference.''
And finally -
Seattle Times' Dwight Perry: "NASA announced that two big communications satellites collided 500 miles over Siberia. Both were reportedly homing in on the whereabouts of Mark McGwire."
brozner@dailyherald.com