I don’t think any of the noise coming out of the Cubs Convention is real news, but rather fodder for us fans to talk about and keep our interest up over the dark days of winter. Despite news reports, Dusty Baker has not really decided who will bat where in the line-up, who will start in left, or who the closer will be. Those decisions will be made at the end of spring training, and any talk about it now—even from Dusty—is just speculation.

That pretty much covers what has come out of the weekend Cub fest, apart from the intensifying Sammy Sosa saga, which hasn’t advanced much except for references to some kind of tropical Sammy Summit that may or may not take place between superstar and management prior to spring training. There were also allusions by Dusty Baker to clubhouse “snitches” last year who talked too much to the press, helping to create the perception of the team as, well, unbalanced. I wonder who the so-called snitches were, and whether they are now off the team (Bako? Goodwin? Mercker?), or whether they are current roster players who have since been chastised by the boss.

I’ll paste newspaper links from yesterday and today below anyway, because along the way, the above speculation and non-news is accompanied by quotes from a variety of Cubs, former Cubs and coaches on hand for the convention, and it’s interesting to see how the different players handle the Sammy question and the clubhouse question.

Sun-Times
Prior realistic about what Cubs lost in Alou and Clement
Three-way meeting in the works (from Sunday)
Hendry still has high hopes for Farnsworth (from Sunday)

Herald
Sosa issue remains distraction for Cubs
Cubs fans go easy on Hendry, Baker (from Sunday)
Top closing candidate: Dempster (from Sunday)

Tribune (Reg. Req.)
Chemistry lesson for Cubs?
Conventional wisdom: 2004 troubling (from Sunday)
Mess needs spring cleaning (from Sunday)