great show guys...couple comments:

1) a.
Hoffpauir would be best in an everyday role, and Lee has had a HUGE decline the past 3 years, the likes of which we haven't seen with many players his age. Hoffpauir deserves a shot. Lee, I really can't say that he ever "deserved" a shot to begin with. He is essentially the right-handed version of Mike Jacobs...you know, the player that the Marlins practically gave away to the Royals. Lee has exactly one 100 RBI season, and just three 30+ home run seasons in 12 years. Mike Jacobs already has one in 4 years...but I'm not really comparing the two players. Fact is, Hoffpauir has proven he deserves a shot, and Lee has turned into a glorified singles hitter at a premium power position. First basemen on good franchises---ones with money, average 30+ home runs and 100+RBI. Hell, our own division has Fielder, Pujols, Votto (in the making), and Berkman already in it, with Adam LaRoche not too far behind. I'm just not too sure we can keep a guy like Lee who K's about 120 times, and is nothing more than a 20 hr, 85 RBI guy at this point for $12 million per year.

1) b.
It is definitely true what was said on the show that Lee ain't going anywhere unless his quad injury starts flaring up.

2) I've given much thought to the Soriano situation, and I've waffled back and forth on this, admittedly, many different times. I still think he's a poor leadoff man, and more teammate---Sammy Sosa-like...but, as a former pitcher, I would dread facing a guy like him to start a game. You can't even really get into a groove, knowing that he could take you deep, or for extra bases on your very first pitch. You have to be locked in right away to avoid that, and that's really hard to do when warm-up pitches can never simulate real game energy and it's psychologically a lot different with a batter in the box. Theriot would be my prototypical leadoff hitter if he could ever figure out how to not get caught stealing, and Fukudome would NEVER be my choice for the 2 hole. Are you kidding me?!? Your 2 hole hitter almost always should be a mirror image of your lead-off man, with high OBP, and can make good contact. Fukudome is anything but that guy, and never was even in Japan. He's always been a high strikeout guy, and middle of the order type of hitter....which brings me to my next point...

3)If you bat Soriano first, then you MUST bat Lee or another high OBP guy 2nd, and I would never put Bradley there with Lee's power outage. The reason for this move is if Soriano bats first, he almost always hits for extra bases (in fact, almost every year, nearly half of his hits are for extra bases) if he doesn't strike out. This means that your two-hole hitter must be able to drive him in from second base, and Lee would make more noise than Theriot, and has more power than Fukudome to keep it going for the 3 hole hitter, which should be Bradley, because he'll make solid contact, and is also an extra base threat, which leads to more opportunities for ARAM. After ARAM, I'd put Fukudome, then Soto, then Fontenot, then Theriot for the same reasons listed above...it just makes good sense...but if Lou continues to put Lee in the 3 hole, and he doesn't have an extra base threat before him, then the same damn broken record will play this year, with even more double plays.

4) It has become abundantly clear that Cotts, Gaudin, Vizcaino, Samardzija, and Guzman have pitched their way off this roster.

5) It has become abundantly clear that Gregg, Marmol, Heilman, Waddell, Patton, Chad Fox, and Caridad pitched their way onto the roster, but only Gregg, Marmol, and Heilman will likely break camp with the team.

6) If Gaudin, Cotts, and Vizcaino are on the team at the same time this year, we're in for a WORLD of trouble.

7) Jake Fox is like Casey McGehee...all he needs is a chance to play an everyday position, and he'll excel. Neither play exceptional defense, nor do they have extremely gaudy stats, but they'd both be excellent additions to any team's bench and/or emergency starter at all corner positions, and even behind the plate. McGehee, like Fox, absolutely tore up the Cactus League this spring.

8) Why is Hendry still employed? Moreover, why is Littlefield or Lynch still employed by the team? All have been colossal failures with developing young talent for our team...save for when Hendry was in a farm director position and we had several highly rated prospects...but why is it that he's still employed if he not only can't identify top talent, but he can't hire people to develop top talent, and he goes and releases and/or loses top talent by releasing them or through Rule 5. So far, we've had a most abysmal offseason organizationally. We've lost Veal, a former 2nd round pick, Harvey (1st), Grant Johnson (1st pick in draft that year for us), and Pawelek (1st). We've also gotten rid of Hill, Pie, and Cedeno, all former top prospects, and just recently let go of Campusano and Roquet for nothing. In the last few years, we've basically let Corey Patterson (1st), Mark Prior (1st), Nolasco, Dopirak, Petrick, and Luis Montanez, and gotten next to nothing in return for these once top prospects. Some like Petrick, Prior, and Dopirak had injury concerns, but for the vast majority of these players, they just didn't get good coaching. It's particularly damning when guys like Dopirak (who landed with the Blue Jays and returned to form, clubbing 29 home runs and 100 RBI last year), Montanez (coming on with the Orioles), Veal (likewise with the Pirates), and others start coming into their own with other organizations, and we lose them for nothing. Yet when once in a lifetime players like Josh Hamilton fall into our laps, Hendry still doesn't notice the talent he has.

It's unbelievable to me how an organization can overlook the one thing that other teams have already figured out...an organization like that Cubs that has the obvious resources to do whatever they want, and they still can't figure it out. The Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, and others have found that developing your own, and mixing in with veterans works best. All of the small market teams must do so by default, because they lack resources to buy their talent, and they already have a leg up on the Cubs.

Do you guys realize that Colvin and Vitters are pretty much our only hope to salvage something out of the last few drafts. Hell, we have deserving guys like Hoffpauir and we still can't find at bats for them. Jake Fox put it best when he said position players come to the Cubs knowing that the team lacks patience that they'd otherwise get with another team. Therefore, top prospects like Corey Patterson, Eric Patterson, Murton, Pie, Guzman, etc. live in fear everyday that they'll never see the light of the day in the majors if they struggle one week with the Cubs. That's not a good environment to develop players.

Sure, the Yankees took their lumps last year, and so did the Marlins, but those teams will come out better next year, because their young players got valuable experience. Ditto the Cincinatti Reds.