Lou Tweets about Twitter, and Who is at SS?

Today was a “Crazy Eights” type of day for the Cubs who wrapped up day 8 today in Arizona. Among the things most discussed today at camp, Lou Piniella talked about twitter, and more on the shortstop situation.

Earlier this morning, we learned that White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has a twitter account, and that lead to Lou Piniella’s morning conference call being about his social network status, and here is what he had to say.

"“What is Twitter?” Piniella said Wednesday.Informed that it was a social media outlet that gives users an opportunity to convey their thoughts in a sentence or two, the Cubs manager said: “Really? Ozzie, he needs more space than that.”Piniella said he would not consider joining Twitter.“First of all, I don’t know how to Twitter,” he said. “And second of all, I’m not going to learn how to Twitter.”Piniella does have a Facebook page with over 4,900 friends, though he doesn’t seem to know much about it.“Look, I’ve heard of Facebook,” he said. “Actually, it’s on my phone.”Piniella conceded he used Facebook recently.“But I’m really not a Facebook or Twitter guy,” he said. “I’m a prime-rib-and-baked-potato guy. I hate to say that, but it’s true.” Chicago Tribune"

So, there you have it Lou Piniella will not be following his cross-town colleague by joining twitter.

Onto more important news…

Lou Piniella discussed his plans for the shortstop position today. He said that Mike Fontenot will get the chance to be the backup short stop, as he will get the chance to prove that he can play shortstop this spring as he will see most of his time at the position during spring training.

If Fontenot is able to handle the backup shortstop role, it opens up a bench spot for an offensive player. And that vacancy would likely be filled by Kevin Millar, Brad Snyder, Bryan LaHair, Chad Tracy, or Micah Hoffpauir.

However if Fontenot can’t handle the shortstop position, look for Andres Blanco to get the nod as the backup at shortstop. Or Bruce Levine mentioned yesterday that the Cubs could try to trade for a backup shortstop during cactus league play.

Notice the name that was not mentioned as a possible backup shortstop, Starlin Castro. Lou hinted that he would start the year in AAA, but if Theriot were to suffer an injury during spring training  or early in the season, Lou said that Starlin Castro would then be called up to be the starter.

All in all it was a quiet day around the Cubs facilities, but “business should pick up” tomorrow when Carlos Silva throws for the first time, and we should get a better idea of where he is physically.