Jim from TP. Why are you so ready to get rid of Barrett. The best hitting catcher since Piazza. A guy who has improved dramatically from last year pn defense and in a added bonus the guy speaks spanish fluently. In a game like baseball that is a huge advantage. Getting rid of Barret would be the dumbest move we could make in the offseason. Get rid of the best part of our sad offense??????

Nathanael,

I would love to have Soriano (probably more in the OF than at 2B, due to defense). However, there is no history of the Cubs paying top dollar for a healthy free agent, in his prime, coming off a good year. Is Soriano worth more than Paul Konerko? Yes, in my world. So that means he will cost the Cubs more than Derrick Lee, and would be the highest paid player on the team. Hendry won't do that...I wish he would, but he won't.

Jim(from TP),

Agree that Murton needs to be given at-bats.

Don't see Dusty sitting a veteran (Jacque Jones) so that he can see what Pagan can do...if anything, Dusty will cut into Murton's time to with Pagan. I don't agree with this, but, dude, Dusty plays all his guys!

I agree that LF and 2B are the biggest question marks, and oddly enough they may not be addressed as Hendry may just go with Cedeno and Murton.

If the young kids pitch well, Hendry is going to have some hard decisions to make (hard for him, not for me): Does he stand pat in the field, and trade for a premium pitcher, or does he stand pat with the young pitchers, and trade for a premium 2B/LF?

Hendry could conceivably add to the starting rotation and to either the 2B/LF positions, but I don't see this as being a likely scenario.

The pressure will be on Hendry to do something, as he can't just return all the same guys and tell the Cubs Faithful that everything is better now...especially if Dusty is still managing!

Don't be surprised if Hendry touts his "offseason moves" as:

resigning Pierre

restructuring Aramis Ramirez's contract

signing Zambrano to a long-term deal

Although these 3 moves don't add anything new to this club, Hendry will point to these as "successes" in his offseason...I guarantee it!

jim,

I would like Zito, too...but I don't believe Hendry will pay his asking price. More likely, he would trade for an above average pitcher...a #4 type of guy.

I agree on your bullpen completely!

I don't want Brenly either...Girardi would be nice, or someone like him, that expects no excuses from his team.

Sadly, Jim Hendry loves his pitching coach. So I think we are stuck with Larry "By God, Throw a Towel!" Rothschild for at least another year. But I agree with you...more pitchers have failed to develop, or regressed, during his watch, than have improved.

I would be happy with the lineup if we got two starters for the rotation. I think Marmol and Marshall need some more time to learn on how to pitch at the big leagues. They both are very impressive. Big-Z, Prior and Hill. Then go out and get a Zito. We still need to figure out if Miller will be ready to dominate next season. We should definetly sign Woody. Let him go to the bullpen and add to the strengh of our team...

Aarsdma

Erye

Howry

Dempster

Wuertz

Woody

maybe Ohmen

I think that Murton will be a very good player. Only giving him one year is not enough. The Mets waited 3 on Reyes. Look at him now. Muton will be a everyday player and he will be much better defensivly now that his bat is coming back to him.

Cedeno is a gamble. Moving to second will only make him better defensivly but will he hit in the .290's? Can't have two infielder that can't hit.

The Detroit Tigers went from a 100 game losers to 100 game winners with basically the same exact team except for two or three players. Will a new manager be the fix?

Only way I want Dusty to go is if I know that we can get Giardi. I don't want Lou Pinella or Bob Brenly. They are not the answer. Let them stay in the Booth. I do think that it is time to clean out some of the other coaches. We need another hitting coach and another Pitching coach. I have never been happy with what Larry Rothchild has done. Not one of the prospects has come up and stayed up. Marshall doesn't count. Where is Guzman?

Jason B:

For the remainder of the season these are must do's:

* Play Murton in LF, Platoon Jones and Pagan in RF. We need to see more of Murton and decide if he is the answer in Left Field. If he is the answer, great. If not, they better pony up for Carlos Lee or Soriano. We know what we are getting from Jones, no mystery there. I also like Pagan but only as a 4th outfielder.

* Not that they have much of a choice, but keep troting out the young pitchers. I have been saying this for awhile, Zambrano is you #1 Ace! Prior is your #5! Hendry must identify #2 thru #4. I would like to see Hendry acquire two starting pitchers for next year. I think Hill, Marshall and Marmol should battle it out for one spot. My belief being that if a starter goes down you will have a reliable arm in reserve. The days of Prior and Wood headlining the rotation are over.

If the Cubs decide Murton and Cedeno are not the solution, they along with Michael Barrett are their most valuble trading cards. I know Barrett is solid

hitter at a position usually considered for defense but he could bring the most in return. As I see it,

the Cubs are set at:

1b (lee) SS (Izturis) RF (Jones) C (Barrett)

Presuming they accomadate:

3b (Ramirez) CF (Pierre)

Leaving LF and 2B your area of concerns.

IF, they fail to land Lee and/or Soriano they will have to make some deals. I wouldn't mind seeing some of the possible, available players via a trade in a Cub uniform:

LF Carl Crawford, Adam Dunn, Chone Figgins

RF Austin Kearnes, Willy Mo Pena, Casey Blake,

2b Marcus Giles, Orlando Hudson, Adam Kennedy

3b Eric Chavez, Hank Blalock, Adrian Beltre

ss Miguel Tejada, Bill Hall.

C Mike Matheny, Brian Mccann

I read today that Joe Girardi and Jeffrey Loria got into it the other day. Hmmmmm. I am still leaning toward the Baker bunch being shown the door on October 3. Only recently has this guy shown the passion and strategy to win.

Steve,

Good points across the board. I don't see them keeping Murton as a reserve. I agree with the idea, but teams tend to view prospects as either starters or tradebait, and their reserves tend to be acquired with the "mindset" that they are coming in to be reserves. Maybe this is done to avoid the player becoming vocally unhappy, or maybe to spare management/scouts the embarassment of having their competence questioned everyday that the prospect is sitting on the bench and not starting.

I don't know what Dusty will do, or what the Cubs will do. Hendry only has one more year left, and GMs don't usually sign managers for longer than they are around. Would Dusty sign just for 1 year? I doubt it. That may give Hendry an easy out...he offers the 1 year, and Dusty declines, and then he tries to coax Girardi from the Marlins. The Girardi angle became interesting this week, when he and the owner supposedly got in a heated 90 minute closed door conversation with the team. Funny how an owner of a $15 million payroll club can bust the chops of a rookie manager who has his team grossly over-achieving, yet the Cubs can never say a bad word about Dusty!

Mordecai,

Agree on the Barrett switch to OF idea...may be a good move, but only if the new catcher is truly a defensive gem, but still has a bat...and those guys are rare (which is why I like Jason Kendall).

I agree that while the young pitchers all look promising now, can you really gamble all will work out next year, or do you go out and land a proven starter. I think if the rookies finish strong, especially Hill and Marmol, that Hendry may very well go with Prior, Zambrano, Marshall, Marmol, and Hill in the rotation. Hendry can do this if he has Wood/Miller as fallback starters, as well as Dempster (Aardsma/Wuertz/Howry could move to the closers role, and possibly Wood...freeing up Dempster to start).

Chad,

They have to resign Pierre, and he is definitely worth it. The most hits in baseball, besides Ichiro, over a 5 year period...that is proven and consistent talent! His runs scored, ability to cover large gaps in the OF, his stolen bases, and his great no-excuses attitude are all worth the money. Just as centers are overvalued in the NBA draft compared to off-guards, so are quality leadoff men like Ichiro, Furcal, and Pierre undervalued compared to "sluggers" like Richie Sexson, Shawn Green, JD Drew, and others. Every year in the NBA teams draft 7-foot losers, yet the superstars are always the guards like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Dwayne Wade.

Don't fall in love with Pagan...please!

That is like falling in love with Todd Hollandsworth. Seriously. Pagan is a good backup...don't project a 1/3rd of a season for an unproven talent into a career. The Cubs make that mistake often enough as it is!

What about Soriano? Why does no one ever mention him? He has a great bat, great power, great speed, and is not a defensive liability in left. Also, since the Yankees traded for Abreu, they no longer have room for Soriano, making the price to sign him much less than it could have been. What do you think? Pierre, Jones, and Soriano sounds like a solid outfield to me.

What about Juan Pierre?

I would love to keep him. He has a great attitude and is now playing great as well. But the local papers said that he is in line to double his $5.75 million salary in FA. Is he worth that?

Could Pagan play CF and use the $$$ at another need position?????

I don't have answers...just questions.

Baker has had to go with a youth movement despite his obvious preference for veterans. The results are not yet in, and won't be until mid-2007 at the earliest, but, boy, these kids look good. I'd hate to see Cedeno or Murton go, but we clearly need at least one proven starting pitcher. We just can't depend on 4 youngsters in the starting rotation next year if we expect to win. A package of Murton or Cedeno and one, maybe two, of our rookie starters should be sufficient to trade up to a star-quality left fielder or catcher. Add in Jacque Jones and you might land a Tejada or an outfielder with that level of talent.

I see the weak spot for next year to be starting pitching. Sure, there is more than a glimmer of hope with the staff we have now, but it's too iffy, just like our team at the beginning of this year. The Cubs seem to be the leading exponent of Murphy's Law: whatever can go wrong, will go wrong. Defensively, we need an upgrade at catcher. Perhaps the best solution is to work Barrett at left field in the spring and try to land a good-field, fair-hit catcher without giving up too much young talent, then concentrate on trading for or free agent signing a quality starting pitcher like Zito.This presupposes Barrett is competent in LF, which isn't that big a stretch, given his bat and tenacity. For heaven's sakes, let's not mess too much with our relief pitching; that is clearly a strength.

The big question is did we get the 2004 Izturis or the 2005 Izturis? In 2004 Ceasar was fantastic. He won a gold glove and batted .288 and swiped 25 bags. In 2005 he was pretty unproductive and got hurt. If he returns to form we have really found something.

Cedeno...well, I like Cedeno and if can adjust to playing second he could really thrive there. I think that the shorter distance to first should cut down on those throwing errors quite a bit. He does have incredible range too. I would like to see money spent elsewhere. I have to believe that Ronny will figure it out at 2nd and be much improved defensively. We'll have to see if his bat comes around though. Ronny was red hot in winter ball and last year with the Cubs. Weather or not he can find that stroke consistently remains to be seen.

Murton is a little more difficult because he is not a great defender nor does he show the potential to be one. If he gets consistent playing time and stops pressing he's going to hit in the .290's. In time he could become a 15-20 HR player too. But how much time will that take? I see Murton as being a great bench player. Like a Todd Hollandsworth kind of guy. Someone who can come in late in the game and get a clutch hit here or there. I don't know if he'll ever turn the corner and become a solid option to start every day.

We need to add at least one quality-starting pitcher to the mix. We'll see which kids emerge to claim a spot as this season wears on. If we could acquire a left fielder and a starter in the rotation, we'll be in really good shape next year.

Oh, yes and let’s not forget...A NEW MANAGER. I have noticed that Dusty seems to have awakened from his slumber. He seems to have had a clue the last 2-3 weeks. But 2-3 weeks of managing doesn't exactly do it. The Baker Bunch needs to be replaced. There is hope for 2007. Bring me a trophy Mr. Hendry.