DeRosa signs

Derosa just signed with the Cubs

I'm not super-wild about this signing, though I don't think it is a bad one per se. It might end up being a deal for the Cubs in the long run, with the way the market may be working out this offseason. DeRosa would be a great #2 hitter, and could maybe leadoff, though I would prefer Soriano or Roberts in that position if we get one of the two of them for CF. So this is my new expecation of our starting lineup for next season

CF Roberts/Soriano/Matthews/Pierre/Pie
2B DeRosa
1B Lee
3B Ramirez
RF Jones
LF Murton
C Barrett
SS Izturis

B Blanco
B Theriot
B Pagan
B Moore/Cedeno
B Bynum/Cedeno

Trade Bait (for pitching)
Cedeno
Jones or Murton - if we can sign C Lee or Drew

Sigh of relief, rumors

Phew. Ramirez just re-signed with the Cubs. All the indications I had been seeing seemed to imply that he was going to bolt for the fat cash waiting for him in this weak, weak free agent market. Now that they have this settled, the Cubs can focus on what they need: pitching.

As poor as the offense was last year, on paper the current projected lineup (assuming we don't sign ANY starters) would probably be

2B Theriot
SS Izturis
1B Lee
3B Ramirez
RF Jones
C Barrett
LF Murton
CF Bynum

1 Zambrano
2 Hill
3 Miller
4 Prior (?)
5 Marshall

Clearly there are some holes here: notably in center field and in the back end of the rotation. I figure the Cubs will make plays at Soriano, Pierre, Matthews, and Dave Roberts and will hopefully and up with one of the latter three.

As far as pitching goes, I don't know if the Cubs will have a shot at the 'premier' free agent pitching. Conventional wisdom seems to be that Zito will go to the Mets, Matsutaka to the Sox (or Mets), Schmidt to the Mariners, and Moose to the Yanks. They might have a shot at Schmidt, or Zito if the Mets end up getting Matsuzaka. I think they'll end up grabbing one or two second or third tier starters. The main canditates I can think of are people like Lilly, Eaton, Wolf, Maddux, maybe Gil Meche. If they end up getting 2 FA pitchers, the Cubs will have to decide what to do when Prior gets back, as the rotation would consist of Zambrano, Hill, Miller, FA1, FA2, Prior. Maybe one of the FAs could be a swingman like Rusch was?

The other big rumor that I'm excited about is that Carlos Lee is apparently quite intereseted in playing for the Cubs. Apparently he wants to stick it to the Sox for trading him a few years back. He would be a GREAT pickup for the Cubs, and would also free up Murton as trade bait for another starting pitcher.

As far as trade bait goes, potential players the Cubs could move (in order of appeal):
Murton
Marshall
Miller
Pagan
A. Guzman
Prior


Based on this (and a little wishful thinking), I'm going to take a stab at the eventual cubs opening day roster/lineup.

CF Roberts
2B Theriot
1B D. Lee
LF C. Lee
3B Ramirez
RF Jones
C Barrett
SS Izturis

B Blanco
B Pagan
B Murton
B Cedeno
B Bynum

1 Zambrano
2 Hill
3 Wolf
4 Miller
5 Prior/Marshall/Free Agent

CL Dempster
S Howry
S Eyre
B Wood
B Ohman
B Aardsma
B Wuertz

Also, Grady Little is an Idiot

The Dodgers are getting smoked by the Mets, in no small part due to Little's gross mismanagement of his bullpen. He keeps bringing in shaky former starters when he could be bringing in his successful relievers, who are used to pitching in relief and healthy. He's just doing it to spite my pick that the Dodgers would sweep the Mets. Whoops.

Okay, I'm an idiot

So I had the playoff matchups wrong in the AL. Let's fix this with new predictions (along with new info about the teams)

A's over Twins in 4
Yankees over Tigers in 4
Dodgers over Mets in 3
Padres over Cardinals in 4

LCS
A's over Yankees in 7
Dodgers over Padres in 6

WS
A's over Dodgers in 5

Comments:
With Santana losing today, the Twins are in deep, deep trouble, especially against Oakland's potent rotation. The Mets are similarly in trouble, as it seems 3 members of their intended playoff rotation is injured in some way or another and can't start game 1 (Pedro - out for playoffs, El Duque - some sort of strain, Glavine - not ready yet). Their pitching is just a mess.

Playoff Predictions

So I was pretty wrong about my preseason playoff predictions. Here are the current matchups:

Yankees-Twins
A's-Tigers
Mets-Dodgers
Cardinals-Padres

Here's how it should beak down
Twins over Yankees in 5 (Santana wins 2 games)
A's over Tigers in 4
Dodgers over Mets in 4
Padres over Cardinals in 4

LCS
A's over Twins in 6
Dodgers over Padres in 7

WS
A's over Dodgers in 5

My computer lives!

My computer's power supply finally crapped out last weekend, so I've been waiting for UPS to deliver the new one that I ordered. Now it's all installed and things are back to up and running. Woo!

You're on Notice!