Sunday Morning Rockpile:

Clint Hurdle seems about ready to switch Helton and Holliday in the lineup for the regular season: "It's growing on me," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. Being the consummate hitter and always in training, Matt Holliday is ready for any move.

In somewhat related news (if you want to think about how this affects Holliday's future), Miguel Cabrera's reportedly signed an eight-year, $153.3M contract extension with the Tigers. Anyone think he could have gotten a few more millions if he opted for the open market when the time came? Update [2008-3-23 15:14:15 by Russ]: It's actually a seven-year, $140M extension.

Speaking of the regular season, it's around eight days away (if you want the exact time you can look at the redesigned official site with its now prominent countdown clock). Troy Renck's article about the Rockies being "an underground band even after their smash hit" also clues us in on which pitchers the Rockies will face in the season-opening series against the Cards: Adam Wainwright (who just signed a four-year extension with the Cards), Kyle Lohse, and Todd Wellemeyer. Wainwright's no surprise as La Russa basically decided he'd be the Opening Day starter at the end of February, and Loshe signed with the Cards not too long ago, but appears ready to go. The regular season is only eight days away. Or two if you play for the Athletics or Red Sox and play two games in Japan this week.

The Dodgers and Padres played exhibition games in China last week. A reader over at Lone Star Ball lives in China and wrote about his experience at one of the games.