The only way that #1 happens is if Lee suffers a season-ending injury, and the Cubs can't work out a trade with another team for a first baseman for the rest of the season. Item #2 is possible, but not probable. I guess that makes it a "bold" prediction. Well, Lee is already banged up, and if he plays as poorly as he did late last year, I'm not sure how long Lou will stick with him, assuming Hoff is hitting. Highly doubtful though. Yeah, definitely not happening. And poor is a little bit of a stretch: he still got on base at a .361 clip last year and had a 110 OPS+. Certainly not what you want in the three spot because of the low slugging percentage (in the 400's), but not bad enough to be benched in favor of a guy who has 73 career big league at bats. I agree that DLee should get the benifit of the doubt and I truly hope he has a great year, its just at this point, I'm starting to think that his wrist injury really did have an effect on his power. Bottom line, if Hoff keeps crushing the ball, and DLee is still hitting weak grounders, how do you keep Hoff out of the lineup? Considering DLee is a team leader, former all star and still above average defensive first baseman, and Hoffpauir is a 29 year old non-prospect that never made it to the bigs before last year, I am pretty sure Lou will give Lee an extremely long rope before replacing him in the lineup.