Chris Carpenter Says His Elbow Was Fine When He Was Traded and Other Bullets

Late night watching the Final Four with friends plus baby duty this morning = late Bullets.

  • The man at the center of the latest flap about the Theo Epstein compensation – the primary piece of compensation, himself, Chris Carpenter – says that his elbow was fine when he was traded by the Cubs to the Red Sox. “I felt great coming into spring training,’’ he said, according to Nick Cafardo. “I felt really good. Just after the last outing, it kind of flared up a little bit. I told them and got an MRI and they looked at it and saw three big bone spurs. It hasn’t bothered me. I felt really good coming in here and I was excited for the season. It’s just kind of unfortunate this happened right now.’’ Carpenter, who has had to have elbow surgery to remove the bone spurs, isn’t going to pitch for a long time, and the Red Sox have been hinting that they’d like to compensated further.
  • Bruce Levine thinks it’s time (finally?) for Bud Selig to step into the Theo Epstein compensation absurdity and end it. Bruce’s suggestion is that the Cubs write the Red Sox a small check for their Chris Carpenter-related troubles. If that small check is for more than $5, I hope the Cubs aren’t interested. And, if they do write a check, here’s hoping they tell the Red Sox where they can deposit it.
  • Bryan LaHair was a late scratch yesterday, and it sounds like it was a bit of lower back pain that kept him out. It doesn’t sound serious, but you never like to hear about back issues – they can linger.
  • Dale Sveum says he’s ready for a season of the Chicago media – the frequently repeated, frustrating questions he’s likely to face. “I don’t think anybody says they like it,” he said. “But it’s not like I dread it …. When you have a lot more people, you’re going to get more frustrating questions and questions that are second-guessing you on a daily basis. I haven’t been in that hot seat yet …. You try to answer the questions. You don’t want to ramble on about it. I don’t want to give up too much stuff.”
  • Sveum is still trying to explain away the unique challenges presented by a season at Wrigley Field. First it was the day games, and now it’s the antiquated, cramped player facilities. And his explanation sounds familiar. “We searched a lot of little places [around Wrigley to place batting cages/hitting areas] and there was just nothing where you could get a full swing unless you went out on the concourse,” Sveum said. “I think most of that stuff is a little over-rated, too. This game went on a long time without batting cages and flip screens and all that. Sometimes when you get ready, you dry swing and you’re doing it visually. It’s nice to have, don’t get me wrong. We will here in a couple of years.”
  • Sveum ranks as the second worst manager in baseball! Actually, it’s just because, in Nick Cafardo’s rankings, the freshman managers always come at the bottom. At least Sveum is ahead of Robin Ventura.
  • In the same article, Cafardo notes the rumors about Marlon Byrd we’ve been hearing for a while. In short: teams are still asking about him.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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