Signing pitchers like it's 1999

The Cubs have made a couple moves lately. The most recent was bringing back Jon Lieber to my Cubbies for a 1 year deal. Last year they had Steve Traschel (and smartly let him walk this offseason) and this year they sign Lieber? Our pitching staff wasn't all that good back then. Back when we had both of those guys, Kyle Farnsworth was a starter! Do you remember that? Me neither. Bringing those guys back on the wrong side of 37 might not have been a good call. That being said, a lot of people think we can use some extra help at the end of the rotation. I disagree. I think Marshall can be as effective as Lieber, but I guess we'll see.

The way I see it, we have 7 starting pitchers now: Zambrano, Rich Hill, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis, Sean Marshall, Ryan Dempster and now Jon Lieber. I'm hoping we make a move to ship one of these guys out for something decent. My choice would be to let Dempster and /or Marquis walk. I would hope you could couple them with Matt Murton and get something decent back. Maybe a shortstop? I like Murton, but we have both corner outfielders locked up until 2011 (and Soriano beyond that). I think Murton can start in leftfield for someone. We just don't have the room. If you can't play him, get something for him.

Another recent move was letting Mark Prior go to the Padres in free agency. I have to say I'm upset about this. I think they should have dumped the cash in good faith and tried to keep him around. You know he's going to bounce back eventually. Maybe not to the same form, but the guy's a good pitcher. I think that's one they will regret.

Gotta love the bat flip!

His swing really resembles Godzilla (H Matsui). I love how he keeps his hands back. If our outfield is Soriano, Pie, and K-Fuk, we might lead the league in assists because this guy has also got a hose. Here is a video with some sweet highlights and a weird ass rap song in the background.

The Leadoff Man

The glaring problem with the lineup posted by Tim is that there is no lead-off hitter. With the current roster, I would probably have the K-Fuk hit leadoff, DLee hit 2 and Soriano hit 3rd. The problem with this lineup is that it probably pisses off all 3 guys, but I think it makes the most sense. If other players are an accurate predition, K-Fuk is probably going to turn into a gap hitter with few ding-dongs. DLee did the same last year. So having them one-two seems ideal to me. However, it presents the problem of Soriano, whose numbers just go to piss outside of the leadoff spot. It scares me that we are paying this guy so much money when he has 115 home runs in the last 3 years, and only 41 have not been solo shots. This takes into account almost 2000 at-bats! Not a small sample size!

So this all leads to the point of the post. The rumors are that the Orioles are going to have a fire sale, and one of their high-paid guys is Brian Roberts. We would probably have to throw them a bone like a Felix Pie and/or Sean Marshall, but with Roberts, I think we would have a championship quality lineup. Of course, their president is none other than Andy Mc"Fail", who is probably still buddies with Jim Hendry. Ironically Andy always said that he would bring a championship to Chicago. Now he finally has a chance that he is working in the American League!

How Would Harry Say It?

Kosuke Fukudome is a Chicago Cub. I only wish Harry Carey was still around to butcher a name like that. In the only significant acquisition so far this offseason by the Cubs, they signed right fielder Kosuke Fukudome. Kosuke is a 30 year old, 6'0", 187 pound, right-handed throwing, left-handed hitting, on-base machine. He comes in as a free agent from the Nippon Professional Baseball League. Early reports are that he was signed to a 4 year, $48 million contract.

Here's what I wrote about him a month ago:

A career on-base percentage of .400 and slugging of .550 are both awesome. Obviously he won't put up numbers like that in the MLB, but an OPS of .960 last year and 1.100 the year before is pretty stellar. Some of that should translate. The Cubs need guys who can get on base and Fukudome is one of them.

The Cubs have been obsessed with finding a left-handed hitter (rightfully so, [haha, get it? Right fully?]). There really aren't any others available via free agency. The big 3 of Rowand/Jones/Hunter are all rightys. I know Lou wants a lefty to break up the Soriano/Lee/Ramirez combo. I think Fukudome projects to a perfect 2-hole hitter. He has a little power, but mostly doubles power (think D.Lee-type power from last year).

There has been talk that he can play Centerfield, but I haven't seen much about it. Probably not the best of ideas. That leaves Felix Pie as the everyday Centerfielder. I don't really like the sound of that. There has also been a lot of talk about getting the switch hitting second baseman Brian Roberts from the Orioles. I've always liked the guy, but DeRosa looked great last year, posting a 800 OPS from Second Base. There was talk they'd move DeRosa to the outfield if they brought in Roberts, but now I don't see where you would put him. DeRosa would need to be a corner outfielder. He doesn't have the speed/range to play center.

Right now the lineup looks something like this:

Position	Name (Bats)	AVG/OBP/SLG
LF	Alfonso Soriano (R)	299/337/560
RF	Kosuke Fukudome (L)	294/443/520 * in Japan
1B	Derrek Lee (R)	317/400/513
3B	Aramis Ramirez (R)	310/366/549
2B	Mark DeRosa (R)	293/371/420
C	Geovanny Soto (R)	353/424/652 * in AAA
SS	Ryan Theriot (R)	266/326/346
CF	Felix Pie (L)	215/271/333 * in 177 AB

SS Update - Astros Save Cubs from Themselves

The Cardinals have signed Cesar Izturis and the Astros have signed Kaz Matsui, effectively saving us from ourselves. I call this a shortstop update, because I think that's what the Cubs would have asked Kaz to play. Also there is the Cardinals news. The Cardinals move isn't as big of a deal because the Cubs would not have brought Izturis back for another round in Chicago. However, it has interesting implications because it likely means they will not be offering David Eckstein arbitration. That would be a great pick up for my Cubbies if they don't feel any of their young players will be solid starters this year. Eckstein has some injury issues, but having backups like Theriot and Cedeno might be an optimal situation for taking on that risk. The upside is high.

Also, by the Stros signing Matsui, the Cubs dodged a horrible-contract bullet. Indications were that Hendry wanted Matsui, luckily they didn't spend what the Astros did. Early comments on the hot stove blogs are that the signing is an early favorite to be the worst of the off-season. The Astros reportedly gave Matsui (whose mediocrity I've discussed previously) 3 years, $15-16 million. Wow.