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You do need 7 avail. starters w/2 of those able to be somewhat productive as injury replacement, one of those (Rusch) would be in the bullpen as a long reliever/swingman and the other would be in the Iowa rotation. I still feel at various points, that each starter should skip two starts during the year by Rusch during the dog days of Summer and to get them ready for the stretch run. While Rothschild (not Baker) should use his eyes to monitor the pitcher's fatigue, around 110-115, they should put serious thought into who'll be ready from the pen.

Who said that it wouldn't help having an improved offense? For the Cubs, their success will likely be determined by the health of their rotation and bullpen. If they have same pitching results as last year, any offense improvement might get them to 81-82 wins instead of 79. To ensure better health, they have to do a better job of putting the pitchers in the position of most likely to stay healthy. That includes monitoring workloads better (with the rotation and pen), Rothschild has to do a better job of fixing faulty mechanics, etc. Chalking up most pitching injuries to bad luck is just the same as blaming it on the goat.

I think that Pierre makes them at least average, but I'm not sure if it makes them a lock to be above average. No matter what, this season comes down to pitching. If they have good starting pitching, they can get away with having a league average offense. If they have injuries and erratic performance from Wood and Prior, respectively, and Maddux continues to stagnate, we will finish .500 unless EVERYONE on the offense has a career year. My personal preference would have been to make sure your offense is a lock to be top 5 in the NL, and that way you can offset the inevtiable injuries/ineffectiveness of at least one of your starters. But that's not how it worked out, so we'll see what happens. You really can't prepare for injuries to a rotation besides acquiring a swingman, which is suited for someone like Rusch. What you can do is be careful with your starting pitchers and not overwork them leading to fatigue and eventually injuries. That's even before considering the possibility of a fluke injury like Prior or Lieber spraining his ankle crossing home.

I should also include Valentin from Cincy and Freddy Sanchez from Pitt.

Good move by Cincy naming Krivsky the GM, he's waited for quite some time and should do a good job building that team from the btm up. Obviously, the payroll will make it more difficult.

1)Harang-Cincy 2)C. Wilson-Pitt 3)Thompson-STL 4)Lane-Hou 5)Wise-Mil

I have no idea why anyone would spend 60.00 for those bleacher seats, I prefer the Mezz or UD box for that cost.

Also, despite the injuries to Walker and Sanders, STL still had an overall .834 OPS in LF and a .795 OPS out of RF. If you bet that Encarnacion will get one and Bigbie/Taguchi/Rodriguez will get the other, I hope you get odds that would pay you plenty for that minor miracle.

The injuries they had to the position players was not too far out of the norm, I expect there will be some decline offensively, but moreso I don't see STL leading the League in ERA again.

I think they've had better luck with signing international FA position players than HS position prospects. Of course, much of that is negated by not knowing how much value an Interional FA has. You assume a hitter like Mallory has a higher value simply b/c he was drafted, but w/out full disclosure of signing bonuses it is very difficult to get a gauge on a player unless they are already rated high or the rare case of someone like Joel Guzman who gets the early bidding war. I'd like to see some more conservative picks early on as well. If they're scouting a HS position prospect like Dopirak who probably had his raw power rated as a 7, if they see a power hitting collegiate who maybe ranks in the 65 range for power, but has shown some advancement at the plate vs. more experienced comp., they should consider going after the college player. I have no problem with the drafting of Corey and Kelton, either. I do think under Hendry they have had more success with collegiate position players (none selected in the 1st as Hill was the highest) than HS position players. Much of that has to go to Swoope. Players like Cedeno, Murton, and Pie give me hope, but it addresses the same questions as far as drafting HS position prospects. I do believe in a balanced approach starting with a BPA philosophy. That is an interesting question you raise as far as Wilken, will he be the primary cross-checker on all highly slotted picks? If it sub-divided as I suspect, will those cross-checkers be from the Hendry/Stockstill regime or will they have been brought in/schooled by Wilken? I wish I could answer those, but I haven't been aware of much turnover between the cross-checkers, area scouts, or even the bird-dogs. I assume most of the scouts still remain and have been influnced by Wilken to some extent.

I would advise not calling anyone an idiot, being civil goes very far on this board, not being civil leads to a shorter stay. A well coached team with focused players does not fall into those traps and are strong enough to avoid losing focus or pressing after a slight losing streak. The Yankees have been extremely successful over this last decade with expectations higher than any of the Cubs have likely experienced. How were they able to handle the pressure? Besides being extremely talented, they are very focused and that starts from the manager on down. If a team can't handle the expectations of being the favorites and fail to execute b/c of that, they are soft. I just feel that once injuries occured to the rotation and the bullpen, they were not good enough to make the post-season.

They'll leave some payroll avail. for mid-season acquisitions, I think they can add one or two more players under about 5 mil and still have room for the deadline.

I'd feel much better about Jones if he could pop out an .803 OPS against LH'ers.

I'm not a fan of this, I doubt this impacts the Cubs' players in any way shape or form. If they play tight during the season b/c of expectations, that leads me to believe that they're soft. Championship teams believe they can win from the get go, regardless of expectations. If the '04 Cubs choked the last week of the season b/c of expectations, this entire roster and staff would need to be demolished and rebuilt. I don't buy that they choked b/c of expectations, just became fatigued and slumped at the wrong time.

I viewed it as humor, not playing for his next contract. He's an older pitcher who has to take better care of himself to get ready for each year. Nolan Ryan had to work much harder in the off-season compared to when he pitched with the Mets. Him improving his conditioning program has nothing to do with him being "lazy" his 1st two years of the deal. I think he's in very good shape, you don't pitch the amount of games and IP at his age he does w/out being intelligent and in shape.

Having him hit a limited amount of LH'ers, would boost his numbers as well. In fact, with his improved apporach at the plate, as well as being healthy and facing a limited amount of LH'ers, he would have a decent chance of being above .850 again. If he faces a full season of LH'ers, he'll probably be around .790-.800, his career OPS is about 50 points higher against RH'ers than his overall OPS.

At this stage, you might be able to lock Hidalgo to similar deal as Marrero rec'd with the Rockies. If it takes 1 mil to get someone like Hidalgo, go for it. They need a RH'ed bat off the bench w/pop, it is a gamble, but it shouldn't take more than that.

Hidalgo would be a nice fit as a RH'ed bat off the bench or platoon against LH'ers.

It also depends on who is hitting and starting at 2B, if Perez is the starting 2B and hitting 2nd for some reason I can't think of, any improvement on offense will be severely restricted. The Cubs will have to avoid severe regression from Lee & Barrett, as well as the health of Ramirez/Walker and avoiding Soph. slumps from Cedeno and Murton. I still think the offense would get a good boost if they platooned Jones, but that doesn't appear likely. I assume they'll score more runs, just how much and how well they are able to spread the wealth is another story.

The Cubs OPS proved to be a poor indicator of run production, their standard deviation on offense was off the charts last year. You typically want a higher deviation from your pitching staff, give a week's schedule worth of runs allowed (1, 1, 10, 2, 10, 2) you'll likely win 4 of those 6 games. Less deviation will gives you more a dramatic bell curve (4, 5, 3, 6, 4, 4), even though both staffs allowed 26 runs over the 6 games, the 1st team has a better chance of winning more games than the 2nd team. Offensively, you want less deviation; using the same example (1, 1, 10, 2, 10, 2) you'll likely only win 2 of those games. Score (4, 5, 3, 6, 4, 4) and you have a much better chance of winning 3 or more of those games. The Cubs had a slightly higher OPS than STL... Yet, STL scored 3 runs or less in 49 games, while the Cubs scored 3 runs or less in 76 of the games. Almost half of the games the Cubs played, they scored 3 runs or less. 101 games of 4 runs or less for the Cubs .

Pujols is a good defensive 1B, he has good range for a 1B and will show a good glove, he had a down year defensively last year. He shifted from the OF to 1B b/c of the arm injury and not an overall inability to play the OF. Had his throwing ability still existed, he would've remained a corner OF'er. But, he's below Lee and Helton.

I think Rozner has had a very relationship w/Maddux over the years and it translates into his articles. There's nothing that Maddux has done that would leave a sour taste in any of the writers in the city, Rozner has developed a friendship w/him. If that friendship gives the potential reader greater access to him, then I have no problem w/Rozner writing about Maddux in the manner that he does (which is favorable).

http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/rozner.asp?id=151838 He's never been about velocity and he'll be in better shape hopefully as his conditioning pays off. I think you'll see the 15 or so wins and the ERA in the low to mid 4s. I just wish some of his mechanics could rub off on the Cubs.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060208/SPORTS/602080391/1002/SPORTS It looks like it is getting closer to Mr. Sosa goes to Washington. Not a good stadium or division for him to hit in.

Which team do you see that being? I think you'll see a battle between ATL & NYM for the title, I'm picking the Braves despite Mazzone leaving and not having a closer to start the year. If there is one team that would likely find a closer candidate in-house, it would Atlanta. They do have Levine out of NCST. It is a great luxury to have youth and the progression that follows as the main concern about the position players, most teams it's a lack of talent or in the case of the Cubs, it's players rebounding, health, and lack of regression. If the youth of ATL cont. to progress as they should, they'll likely have the highest amount of wins in the NL.