Why waste a year stunting his development in a platoon? How is a LH'er in a R/L platoon stunting his development? It's just protecting their ass if he struggles by giving the Cubs an additional option. It's not an all or nothing as far as throwing him out there for 160 games or stunting his development in '07. A platoon is different than having a backup option. In any case, if the cubs aren't WS bound, who cares if he struggles? In a platoon, he doesn't face lefties, this will slow his development. the best way to learn to hit lefties, is to face them. CP20 - Dusty needs to go. I think we all agree this would be best for the future of the Cubs in a large number of ways. I'd like to think the Cubs would be a contender for the WS in '07. Of course, Hendry would have to improve his ability to acquire players, Baker would have to go or improve as well. You're not going to get a quality CF'er and not platoon him w/Pie if they did follow my scenario. My ideal scenario would still be... Whatever is being offered to get Pierre, use it to get Michaels, Michaels is the starting CF'er and hitting leadoff in '06. Pie does well in '06 at Iowa and gets ready for '07 in the majors. The Cubs platoon Michaels and Pie with Michaels getting scattered ABs in LF/RF and vs. various RH'ers. Pie would get the majority of the RH ABs and scattered ABs vs. Lh'ers. Ideally, Pie would get around 350 ABs and Michaels around 300. Michaels is really too good to platoon. Besides he'll cost the Cub's a lot more then Pierre.