Smart decision by Harden...wouldn't do
to get hurt in his last game before free agency.

While I like Harden's stuff, In my opinion, we should let him go.

It will be interesting to see if the Cubs risk arbitration on him...for the picks....I think he'd accept it...and get 10 mil.

If JH resigns him for more than one year
,,,it will be another bad move.

I'm recalling that the Cubs could offer Harden a contract but not arbitration--and preserve the draft picks should he sign elsewhere. I could be totally wrong on that, and I don't have time to research it.

How about our man Jeff Baker and his continuing impressive performance--.329-4-19 in 170 AB's with the Cubs and .306 for the year. Last night, a two out, 9th inning homerun to win the game. Where do we play him?

The question reminds me of one faced by Sister Ruth in a small Bronx parish home that was in foreclosure. She made it to the final round of a NYC quiz show and a chance at the $200,000 grand prize. With the sweat beading on her blessed forehead, she managed to name the 5 Boroughs of NYC. She answered question 2 by naming Lou Gehrig as the "Iron Horse". She was deeply troubled on the final question, which, if answered, saved the home for her and her associates.

The question was, "What were Eve's first words to Adam?" Clearly, perplexed and running out of time, she mumbled to herself, "Boy that's a hard one." And the emcee shouted, you got the answer Sister Ruth. The parish home is saved!"

My take on the hard question concerning where Baker plays is a question. Why not second base? Especially if we can spend for only one stand-out addition. Those bucks could go to upgrade another position.

That's good, JimK, real good...Baker has been nothing short of an impressive surprise. He has earned a spot on the roster and shot for 2B, but I don't think they can settle on him.

Here's an interesting twist in Lou's message: ''If you looked at our situation, you'd have thought, 'Yeah, left-handed, ideally,''' Piniella said. ''But what happens is that sometimes that player isn't available or doesn't fit into the scheme of things, and you pass up on a good right-handed hitter. To me, the best thing that we could do is add a legitimate RBI bat to the middle part of the order.

Adam Dunn, anyone?

the whole column is here: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/1789910,CST-SPT-cub25.article

We need a RBI guy, no doubt about it. I am not sold on Baker, although his performance seems promising I would look else where. Are pitching was strong this year thanks to Wells. Hopefully that will continue, but we need to score runs!

I do not think we need to offer him arbitration at the risk he accepts it for 10 mil. I would not mind having him back but it would have to be for far less than 10 million with his injury history. i think we should have dealt him at the deadline while he was pitching good and actually had value to some contending teams. This guy is a closer or 8th inning guy waiting to happen. his body just does not hold up for 30 plus starts over a full season even at 5 innings per start.

Would the Cubs ever consider moving Soriano back to 2B? I know that Fonzie is a defensive liability whereever he plays.....the question is would he be less of a liability at second? He may be. If he goes back to 2nd and Bradley is released/traded, we would have 2 OF positions open. (Kosuke would play RF or CF) If we could land a run-producing outfielder and get DeRosa back, that would be sweet!

I'm not impressed with Harden at all this year. Even in his good starts, he'd last about to the 6th inning, because of high pitch counts. His arm appears to be fragile, even though the guy is probably the most athletic player on our entire team.

But, for about 5 innings, the guy can be pretty dominant. Even when he struggles, he seems to limit damage via the strikeout, and he happens to be the only starter that can do that on a regular basis.

The problem here is, who do you replace him with?

Lilly will be 34 years old next year, and is already ailing this year with knee and shoulder issues. Zambrano has been hurt, as well as mentally absent at times. Dempster has been inconsistent, and Wells will be going into his 2nd season, with the league having a complete season's worth of scouting on him, so I expect a drop-off there.

I would venture a guess that our rotation will be:
Z
Dempster
Lilly
Wells
Gorzelanny

*Samardzija, Jay Jackson, Casey Coleman, Andrew Cashner, and Chris Carpenter will all likely battle Gorzelanny for the 5th starter's role. The guess here is Gorzelanny will likely be unseated by Samardzija, if only because the Cubs need a return on their investment.

The logical thing to do would be to capitalize on Lilly's extremely high value right now, and insert the 7 years younger Gorzelanny into his slot, and re-sign Harden. Am I wrong? I mean, even if you extend Lilly next season, he's maybe got 1-2 good years left, whereas Gorzelanny has a lot of time to figure things out.

What do you guys think?

Also, RE: Dunn...I'd trade for him in a heartbeat:
.278 avg, .408 OBP, .551 SLG, 27 doubles, 38 hr, 103 RBI, and 111 walks to 167 K's

As I said on the show last night, I'd much rather go into next season with Soriano at 2B, and a thumper in LF that you can bank on 30-40+hr, 90-100+RBI every year, because it makes 2 positions instantaneously better offensively, which is what we need next season. As Neil said, if you do that, then you absolutely must go after a good defender at SS that can also hit.

My dream list for trades next season would be: Dunn, Yunel Escobar or Alexei Ramirez, and Carl Crawford. The Braves probably won't trade Escobar, but the White Sox might entertain moving Ramirez.

If you get Dunn, then you can afford to give a young guy like Colvin a full-time shot in CF, and if we got Crawford, we'd just throw him in RF or LF, and switch Dunn to either spot, and our defense wouldn't suffer very much. We'd be strong with ARAM, Escobar/Ramirez, and Lee in the IF, and Colvin and Crawford in the OF. The only question marks become Soriano at 2B and Dunn in RF/LF. Right now, we have Theriot, Fontenot/Miles, Soriano, and earlier before the suspension, Bradley as question marks defensively.

You'd have to think that some of these pitchers that are clearly blocked to the MLB level for the next several years, or some of our position talent like Tony Thomas, Clevenger, Colvin, etc., could be moved in deals for Crawford, a shortstop, and Dunn. Crawford would like take Colvin, Castro, and a pitching prospect, and I'd do that in a heartbeat. Alexei Ramirez would probably take 3 pitching prospects, especially relievers for the White Sox to entertain, and Dunn would likely take 3 prospects as well. If we trade Lilly, Theriot, Soto, and others that don't figure into long-term plans, then it's quite possible we might not even need to trade our own prospects...we'd just flip the ones we got in those trades.

Fact is, this is so easy to do now, considering the Nats are trying to start over, the Rays have been rumored to be higher on Desmond Jennings than even Crawford, and you know that Kenny Williams won't sit tight this offseason, so these guys are ripe for the trading, aren't they?

I just cussed, because a lengthy submittal was denied because the time limit had expired. I don't know if work like that can be saved while signing in again but let me know how if there is a way.

I started with the idea I had a trade to announce later (LOL). First I reacted to Lou's request for a middle of the order hitter with the comment we've heard that before. I chose to put that in a two year (transition) perspective so we could grow four or five of our own prospects. I wanted any new hire to be capable of 4 or 5 years work as we transition beyond Lee and ARAM.

The dream-like candidates are Handley Rameriz or Robinson Cano. The former, if possible at all, would take Wells and Guzman plus three top prospects. The latter would take Z in a multi-player deal for both sides.

More realistically, Brad Hawpe or Seth Smith could be our guys. Hawpe, 30, has two years left on his deal at $7 mil and $10 mil, and Smith is still earning minimum. Hawpe has had a poor second half, but has always hit well. He's likely a .295-28-95 guy for us. Smith has hit .298-15-53 in only 372 AB's, and is likely a .310-22-95 hitter for us. The Rockies continue to have mutiple, talented outfielders and budget constraints. Ready pitching like Gorzelanny and Gaub and a prospect like Flaherty or Carpenter could get the job done.

Recognizing that some of the prospects are named twice, I came up with this Bradley trade for consideration. The Rangers get Bradley and $6 mil of cash in 2010 and 2011 plus Gorzelanny, Caridad and Carpenter. The Cubs get Millwood's $12 mil for 2010, 23 year-old slugger Chris Davis and #7 prospect, 20 year-old Robbie Ross (LSP).

The Aaron favorite, Davis has hit 19 HR's in the bigs this year (with a .219 BA) and 6 HR's at AAA (with a .300 + BA). He is a gold glove calibre 1st baseman and a highly competent 3rd baseman. I would have him at AAA for a good part of 2010 to work on his BA and reducing his SO's. My gamble is that he would do that (since he's only 23 and is an athlete). He could replace either Lee or ARAM--and both could be gone after 2010. Ross was in the short season, NW league this year, but he appears to have the makings of a 2-3 starter in three years--and he is a lefty. Details to follow.

Our defense was horrenedous this year, and now you want to put Dunn in LF and Soriano at 2B ? LOL.

That's the worst idea I have ever seen.

We would have to score 8 runs a game just to be competitive b/c the defense would be so bad.

How can anyone legitimately say to put Soriano at 2B ? That is a complete joke.

and don't get me started on Dunn.