Spring Training Update: We’re all “Smiley” in Arizona

The focus of camp today, was all on Emailin Caridad, as he is basically locked in as one of the bullpen relievers for the Cubs this year.

It all started last year when Esmailin Caridad, AKA Smiley, finished out the last couple of months of the season with the Cubs.  As in 19.2 innings pitched Caridad posted an ERA of 1.42, leaving many to wonder if he is the right handed set up guy the Cubs are looking for.

So far, Caridad has followed that up by being nothing but impressive in all of his workouts in Arizona. The thing that impresses many about Caridad is his power arm, and his confidence. And that type of attitude could be what gives the Cubs the confidence to install Caridad as the right handed setup man.

For some reason or another, Caridad really reminds of Carlos Marmol when he first came up. As he sort of came out of nowhere this spring, but posses a powerful arm, with an even better personality.

Other Notes from the Day…

The chances of Kevin Millar making the team out of spring training appear to be improving on a daily basis. The 38 year old veteran has been working at third base and first base this spring, as well as being a favorite among teammates. He and Carlos Zambrano, who already expects Millar to make the team, have a secret post home run hand shake.

Pitching coach Larry Rothschild spoke today about the status of Carlos Silva. He says that while Silva has looked good on the mound, but the Cubs still told him to loose about 10-12 pounds.

Ted Lilly returned to camp today after missing the past five days due to flu like symptoms which he called “definitely a setback”. This now insures that Lilly will not be ready to go by opening day, as he already was behind the other pitchers due to his off-season shoulder surgery.

And news related to myself, I now will contributing to hotstove.com on an occasional basis. I will be submitting articles regarding  MLB news and notes, and other baseball musings I find interesting. But Don’t worry Cubbies Crib is still is my first and highest priority, I will only post about the Cubs on this site and not on the other one, and will go into much more detail as well.