Ah. Depending on how much he'd take, I'd go for that. I prefer him in the rotation over Dempster. I'd be interested in Lieber as a non-roster player, and perhaps if we trade away a couple of our other staff candidates. But barring a trade, I'm not sure I'd be interested in giving him a guaranteed contract that locked him onto the staff regardless of performance. Barring a trade, we've got 10 roster locks at present: Dempster and Marquis (unknown roles), Z, Hill, Lilly, (3 certain starters), Wood, Howry, Marmol, Wuertz, Eyre (5 certain relievers.) Ten roster locks leaves two open pitching spots. Current 8 candidates: Marshall, Hart, Gallagher (rotation candidates), Cotts, Pignatiello (lefty relief options), Lahey, Ascanio, and Petrick (righty relief options). (Am I missing somebody else?) Unless the staff gets thinned via trade, I'd be hesitant to sign Lieber and reduce the number of open spots to only one. I think there's a good chance that at least two of those 8 candidates will be more preferable on the staff than Lieber. Also, Lieber has made only two relief appearances since the Cubs acquired him in 1998. Not sure how interested he'd be or how well suited he'd be for a relief role, in the event that two out of Marshall/Gallagher/Hart/Marquis/Dempster outpitch him for a rotation spot. I have the same kind of concern with any of these lightning in a bottle suggestions (Colon, etc..) I don't want to guarantee any of them a spot on the roster, in case they aren't any good and some of our own guys step up nicely. Marshall and Gallegher are probably both gonna be dealt before the season. Dempster has vaule to teams as a closer or back end of the rotation starter. Also there has been plenty of whispers about Hendry trying to find a taker for Marquis.