State of the Cubs Lineup

The Cubs just finalized their 40-man roster for the Rule 5 draft. With moves starting to happen around the league with free agent signings and trades, here's what we have right now.

C- Geovany Soto
1B- Derek Lee
2B- Mark DeRosa
SS- Ryan Theriot
3B- Aramis Ramirez
LF- Alfonso Soriano
CF- Felix Pie
RF- Matt Murton

Bench-
Daryl Ward 1B
Ronny Cedeno SS
Mike Fontenot 2B
Omar Infante 2B/SS
Eric Patterson 2B/OF
Sam Fuld OF
Angel Pagan OF
Henry Blanco C
Jake Fox C

You'll notice a couple fielders that you either don't know, or that saw limited or no playing time last year. This is because for the Rule 5 Draft, you have to move everyone up to the 40-Man Roster that you want to save. The Rule 5 Draft is where teams can poach other teams' minor leaguers that have not been saved. I won't get too complicated, but basically if you poach someone, then you have to keep them on the roster for the entire next year or give them back. This means that for the most part, the Cubs believe these guys are (or within the next year or so will be) pro-caliber players.

I think this list illustrates that the Cubs really need outfielders (as I've said before). The infield depth is solid, with plenty of backups. It goes without explanation that the anchors are D.Lee and Aramis Ramirez. Both are amoung the best at their position in all of baseball.

I'm not entirely sold on Theriot. He hit great for a while, but a .266 average to end the year is not all that useful. He needs to prove he deserves to be there, otherwise we have a plethora of other Mendoza Level infielders who could step in. DeRosa was good last year. His line was 293/371/420. That's almost an .800 OPS. You've gotta keep that guy in the lineup, which is why he played every infield position along with some outfield last year. You aren't sure what you have with Soto, but he sure tore up the minors last year (Pacific Coast League MVP) and looked good in his cup of coffee at the bigs.

Shortstop and the glut of 26-year-old middle infielders are my concern (as it was last year). Some of those guys are going to play in Iowa next year, there's just not enough room. Especially since Lou had good luck with veteran guys off the bench (I would look for us to acquire another one go to with Ward). Of the people currently on the roster, I expect Fuld, Pagan and Patterson (Corey's little brother) to start in AAA (and Fontenot unless they move Infante).