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Notes: Saturday pivotal outing for Prior
Maddux comes home; Hawkins has Rothschild's confidence
By Carrie Muskat / MLB.com
The Cubs will wait until after Saturday's session before determining if Mark Prior will open the season on the disabled list. (Matt York/AP)
Cubs Headlines
LAS VEGAS -- What Mark Prior does on Saturday in Mesa, Ariz., will have a significant impact on what happens on Opening Day.
Prior will throw about 70 pitches for the Triple-A team at Fitch Park on Saturday. The Cubs are hoping they can pencil him in as the fifth starter. He's been slowed because of inflammation in his right elbow, and has pitched more in simulated games than Cactus League games.
However, if Prior needs more time, he could be placed on the disabled list. The team has the option of backdating the 15-day time period to March 25. The Cubs are leaning toward starting the season with 12 pitchers, and don't need a fifth starter until April 12.
"He stressed he doesn't want to go on the DL," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said of Prior. "His body is responding accordingly. He's doing pretty good.
"A lot depends on [Saturday]," Baker said. "[Saturday] is big, not only for him, but for us."
Cubs pitching coach Larry Rothschild said he'll wait for the report from Saturday's session before deciding the next step.
"When he's ready, he's ready," Rothschild said. "If he gets through this, everything is positive."
The Cubs have 28 players on the spring camp roster, including 14 pitchers, and need to get to 25 by Opening Day. If Prior is on the DL, the Cubs could carry an extra reliever. The starters have not been able to go deep this spring.
Can jobs be won or lost this weekend?
"It's not set," Baker said of the Opening Day roster. "We've still got to decide on four or five guys. We figured it'd go down to the wire. You've got roster problems, you've got options, you've got out of options. There are different variables in there. It's not etched in stone really."
Homecoming: The last time Greg Maddux pitched at Cashman Field was either for Las Vegas Valley High School or for an American Legion team. He couldn't remember exactly.
"I threw hard back then," Maddux said, laughing.
Las Vegas is Maddux's offseason home, and Friday felt like the offseason.
"I got up to play golf, picked my kid up from school," Maddux said.
His wife, Kathy, bought a block of 20 tickets for friends and family for the Cubs' final exhibition games at Cashman Field.
"She was like Ticketron this month," Maddux said.
News and features:
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• Cubs notes: Saturday pivotal outing for Prior
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Info: Schedule | Ballpark | Tickets
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The series was a hot ticket in Vegas, with the ballpark selling out in one hour. When some seats on the small outfield berms were made available, they sold out in half an hour.
Maddux and his son, Chase, played catch on the field before batting practice began on Friday. He was asked if he'd like to see Las Vegas get a Major League team.
"I'd love to see it," Maddux said. "It's a great city. I know the players would love coming here and playing here. Whether the city would support it or not, I don't know. I would. I'd be one of them who would. I'd love to be able to bring my son to a game here. I'd love to be able to get in a car to go to a game instead of a plane."
"It's always nice to come to Vegas," Baker said. "Vegas probably likes seeing us, too. There are probably some guys dropping some money here. It's nice to come here because it's still Spring Training, but it's a different setting. Who knows, this might help baseball come to Vegas when they see the support of the people who have been lobbying for a team for a long time.
"I'm sure they've got plenty of money around here to build something nice," he said.
Someone tried to get Maddux to throw out one of the ceremonial first pitches for Friday's game. He politely declined.
"I get to throw enough pitches off the mound," he said.
Maddux, who has 305 career wins, will start Game 2 of the regular season Tuesday against Arizona. How much longer can he go?
"I'll get ready to pitch Tuesday and go from there," he said. "I've been on extra credit for five or six years now. Hopefully it'll keep going. I still enjoy it, I love going out there, I love coming to the park every day. As long as I'm good enough to do it, that's how long I'll do it."
Closing in: LaTroy Hawkins will open the season as the Cubs' closer, and Rothschild said he was encouraged by the right-hander's spring.
"For the most part, I thought LaTroy did a pretty good job [last year] until the very end," Rothschild said. "You know LaTroy's going to go out there and throw strikes with good stuff. The slider's been real good and this isn't the easiest place to throw sliders. There's a lot of good signs with him.
"I don't think you do what he's done the last three years without having confidence in what you're doing," Rothschild said. "Whether it's to get three outs in the ninth or five in the seventh and eighth, you have to go into the season believing he's the right guy to do it."
Home away from home: Jerry Hairston Jr. checked the lineup for Friday's game and saw something missing. There was no designated hitter.
The Cubs were the "away" team on Friday, and had to play by American League rules. Hairston wanted to know simply because then he'd put on the right color pants -- white are home, gray are away.
"I've done that four or five times this spring," Hairston said about double-takes this spring at the Cubs' lineup, looking for a DH. Must be all those years with Baltimore.
Scott McClain was added as the Cubs' DH on Friday.
Extra bases: The Cubs close the Cactus League season Saturday against the Mariners at Cashman Field in Las Vegas. The game will be broadcast on WGN-TV. ... The Cubs open the regular season Monday on the road against the Arizona Diamondbacks. "April 4, it starts all over," Baker said. "It starts for real." ... Nomar Garciaparra's brother, Michael, is a shortstop in the Mariners' system, and made the trip to Las Vegas. He could play Saturday. The younger Garciaparra was projected for one of the Mariners' Class A teams.
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