Off-Season Shopping List

The odds of trading Sosa are slim to none. With Magglio Ordonez and J.D. Drew both available this off-season why would a team trade for Sosa and his $17+ million dollar salary?

Now if someone was stupid enough to do that, I would be all for signing Magglio Ordonez and J.D. Drew. Because I don't think we have a shot in hell of getting Carlos Beltran.

But I fully expect Sosa to stay and the Cubs actively looking for a LF replacement for Alou.

Left Field - Who do I want? Magglio Ordonez. Yes he is a right handed hitter, and Drew is a left handed one but Mag's hits righties just as good as lefties. He is the type of hitter the Cardinals have in their lineup. A right handed batter who feasts on right handed pitching. When Sosa leaves/retires you can move him to RF, until then a worthy LF replacement

Typical Cubs move? Jermaine Dye. He has never been the same since his knee injury in the playoffs a few years ago. He is the perfect reclamation project the Cubs like to sign. They could probably sign him for around 5-6 million and pray for the best. The old "lightning in a bottle" trick the Cubs are famous for.

SS - Who do I want? Nomar Garciaparra. Renteria is a nice consolation prize but Nomar is the better offensive player. The only question with Nomar is can he stay healthy? What worries me about Renteria is that his OBP may flatten out. He had 2 good years of .360ish OBP and then he dropped to .327 this year, and only has a .345 over his career. Nomar is keeping his up around .360 on a consistent basis. I don't want another SS who cant get his OBP above .350.

Typical Cubs move? Christian Guzman. In an effort to get a left handed batter and some speed at the stop of the order the Cubs would pay him on the cheap, around 3-5 million to continue posting .260ish, .300 OBP seasons because he is only 26 and is bound to break out at any moment. Mainly because he is a switch hitter is why the Cubs would want him, imagine the possibilities!

2B - Who do I want? Todd Walker. We deserve to find out what he can do over a full season hitting #2 or #3 in this lineup. He only had 372 AB's and drove in 50 RBI. Grudz had 257 AB's and only had 23 RBI. You tell me, who was better for this offense?

Typical Cubs move? Todd Walker. He is here, wants to be here (I think) and is cheap. But for the sake of argument if the Cubs had to look elsewhere who would it be? Jeff Kent if the Astro's don't resign him. He is 36 years old which means the bottom is going to drop out sooner rather than later. Plus it fits perfectly in the Cubs mentality of passing on a player when he isn't too old yet and then waiting until he is too old to sign him.

Bullpen - Who do I want? No one. All that minor league pitching talent with virtually no room for them to make the major league roster. I am sure we have one decent closer that is undiscovered down there. And please god don't say Ryan Dempster should be our closer. Houston retools its bullpen with minor league talent nearly every year, why cant we?

Typical Cubs move? Troy Percival. He will bring that winners mentality and be able to show of his shiny World Series ring and tell the team the way it should be done. Reality is Percival is getting old quickly. He is not a long term solution and might not even be a short term solution. Again he is 36, the bottom will fall out sooner rather than later.

There are not a whole lot of fixes that are available this off-season. I fully expect the Cubs to field the same team they have over the last 2-3 season offensively. A poor one. A trade could shake things up, but that would mean Sosa or Lee would be moving. Everyone else has little or no value and others are untouchable.

But hey if I was being crazy I would offer Kerry Wood, and Derek Lee to Texas for Francisco Cordero, Mark Teixeira, and Chan Ho Park. Yes I know Park sucks, and he makes 13+ million a year, but you have to offer to take that bloated worthless contract off there hands if your handing them the salaries of Wood and Lee in exchange for cheapies like Teixeira and Cordero.

Solves the closer problem, and a left handed bat problem. I like Wood alot, but I am trying to make the team better over all, and I am trading from a position of strength because of our minor league pitching talent. It has been proven you can win a 100 games with 2 very good starters and 3 mediocre ones if you have a good offense. I am more than willing to go with Prior and Zambrano leading the way and filling in with whatever after that, provided it fixes the problems this team currently has that are it's Achilles heal. But that is only if I was crazy.