YearofDaCubs

I honestly would be happy with that lineup and I also wouldnt care if we had Walker at 2B instead of Castillo. I wouldn't complain either way. I would like CF upgraded but I can live with Corey in the 8th hole.

The worst thing we can do is go after Soriano or Kent. Unnecessary move.

That might be true but so far he really hasn't done much for us the 1.5 years he has been here.

Murton is already penciled in as the starter in left field. Not sure about Walker's arm either. I truly believe he was signed to be traded. I think Hairston will be the supersub, and if the Cubs don't sign a centerfielder this offseason and Patterson doesn't show them something in spring training Hairston could very well be the starting CF in 2006. and people are complaining about pierre being in center for the cubs??? Just my analysis of what might happen. Of course, alot of this would depend on the Cubs signing Furcal. If they don't sign Furcal then I would bet they will surely sign a centerfielder to fill the leadoff spot. I don't think Hairston is that bad of an option to fill in, considering he makes far less than Pierre. If that is the case and Hairston doesn't produce you would have Pie in the wings, although I would hope they give him another full year in the minors. this like most things is pure speculation, but why cant the cubs sign furcal & trade cp/mitre for pierre? pierre can lead off & furcal can bat #2 moving murton down in the lineup. I dont like having two leadoff hitters in the lineup. The way I would work it is go for one of them and that's it. Trade for Pierre bring in Nomar. Sign Furcal bring in a better CF. either way i dont want any part of nomar (and hopefully neither do the cubs). Realistically speaking Nomar has been a bust for us. When he came back from injury he was on fire, but something tells me that his defense next year would really hurt this team add that to the fact of his injury history and I just don't know. I have always liked Furcal, and would love to have him as our leadoff hitter. We definitely need to upgrade our RF and possibly our CF to be even more effective. I like our options at 2B with Walker and Cedeno. I would personally start Walker and have Cedeno coming off the bench for this year and have him start next year when Walker is gone.

Murton is already penciled in as the starter in left field. Not sure about Walker's arm either. I truly believe he was signed to be traded. I think Hairston will be the supersub, and if the Cubs don't sign a centerfielder this offseason and Patterson doesn't show them something in spring training Hairston could very well be the starting CF in 2006. and people are complaining about pierre being in center for the cubs??? Just my analysis of what might happen. Of course, alot of this would depend on the Cubs signing Furcal. If they don't sign Furcal then I would bet they will surely sign a centerfielder to fill the leadoff spot. I don't think Hairston is that bad of an option to fill in, considering he makes far less than Pierre. If that is the case and Hairston doesn't produce you would have Pie in the wings, although I would hope they give him another full year in the minors. this like most things is pure speculation, but why cant the cubs sign furcal & trade cp/mitre for pierre? pierre can lead off & furcal can bat #2 moving murton down in the lineup. I dont like having two leadoff hitters in the lineup. The way I would work it is go for one of them and that's it. Trade for Pierre bring in Nomar. Sign Furcal bring in a better CF.

Murton is already penciled in as the starter in left field. Not sure about Walker's arm either. I truly believe he was signed to be traded. I think Hairston will be the supersub, and if the Cubs don't sign a centerfielder this offseason and Patterson doesn't show them something in spring training Hairston could very well be the starting CF in 2006. and people are complaining about pierre being in center for the cubs??? One reason I like Corey in CF over Hairston and Pierre is his arm. Both Hairston and Pierre have very weak arms. Right now I think Corey is probably on the outside looking in, and unless he shows some drastic improvement in the spring, will not be with the Cubs. I heard an interview with Jimmy Piersal the other day where he was saying "if" Patterson doesn't produce in the spring the Cubs will try to trade him, or outright release him. I'm not against that either, but I would like to have more production and at the very least an arm out there that people will not run on.

Their new stadium is looking pretty nice. I like the look of it.

Murton is already penciled in as the starter in left field. Not sure about Walker's arm either. I truly believe he was signed to be traded. I think Hairston will be the supersub, and if the Cubs don't sign a centerfielder this offseason and Patterson doesn't show them something in spring training Hairston could very well be the starting CF in 2006. and people are complaining about pierre being in center for the cubs??? One reason I like Corey in CF over Hairston and Pierre is his arm. Both Hairston and Pierre have very weak arms.

That would be a nice 1-2 punch. Toronto has some young players that are pretty good.

Have Furcal at SS, Giles at RF, and Walker at 2B and have Cedeno spell SS and 2B getting rid of Neifi. Bring in Fontenot to replace Macias. An upgrade in CF would be nice but even if Corey(in the 8th hole) is there I would be happy with the lineup.

Wow, what were the padres thinking. Im just gladto see some trade go down though :)

That's one reason why I question the move.

Yeah, no way you can compare Myers with Z. Myers had his breakout year this year yet he started to struggle at the end. He has a nice curveball but Z has some of the nastiest stuff I have ever seen.

I would not do it. It's hard to find MLB pitchers that can pitch in the high 2 low 3 eras. No way do we trade Z.

I never want to trade him. I still believe in him and his ability to be a great baseballer. I just hope he matures and grows into the part. Last year was very frustratiing for Cubs fans and Cory, I bet. I hope he, Murton and Greenberg come up so the Cubs fans can watch them take off. If we upgrade our lineup we can still have Corey on this team, put him in the 8th hole and still be productive.

He's right. How many TOP 100 prospects do we have? Not many. All that supposed talent but nothing to show for it.

Agreed.

The article goes on to say Dotel has begun tossing from 60 feet and expects to be ready by Spring Training. I still hope the Cubs look into him. He'd give us a formidable back-end of the bullpen. Considering the deals we gave Williamson and DempsterI'm sure Hendry at the very least will be in touch with Dotel's agent.

I never liked the move in the first place. yeah i miss jody gerut too :( I actually thought Gerut would have been a decent gamble for 2006, because his knees should be OK then. Unfortunately we needed someone who could help in 2005, and Gerut wasn't it. Nor was Lawton.

Good stuff!

I never liked the move in the first place. yeah i miss jody gerut too :( I've mentioned this before, but Jody Gerut would have been a nice player to have on the roster for '06. I don't want him starting, but he would have been crackerjack as a 4th outfielder. And as long as we are on the topic of 4th OFers, what's sad is that whenever we entertain the possibilty of acquiring some potentially useful veteran to fill out the roster, the first concern is whether Dusty will play him every day. What would Dusty do if our bench was full of rookies? He would probably go nuts. :lol:

I never liked the move in the first place.

If Guardardo files, it will bring the list of FA closers to four: Farnsworth, Guardardo, Wagner, and Ryan. You can also add potential closers such as Gordon and Dotel to that list. I think I just heard on the radio that the Mariners did indeed pick up his option today. Yup, on Yahoo as well.

He's not the answer. Hence, plan C vice A or B. There are more worse corner OFers on the market this year than there are better than him. If we don't get Giles, I can't think of a better corner OFer on the FA market. You'd have to work a trade, which is harder to do than sign a FA. The thing is Enc shouldn't be an option period. If eh is our starting RF come April we are done for.

I hate the fact that AL awards are always out before NL. Why not both at the same time?