Players Signed and Misc:

Nomar Garciaparra:

Nomar Garciaparra agreed Tuesday to an $8 million, one-year contract that could rise to $11 million with performance bonuses.

The Cubs also agreed to a $2.5 million, one-year deal with second baseman Todd Walker that includes an option for 2006. The Cubs' option is at $2.5 million, and Walker has vesting options at $2.5 million and $2.75 million based on plate appearances.

I feel much better with these two players coming back. They are two of my favorite players from last years team. They are both contact hitters who don't strike out a ton. If both manage to play a full season they should help cut down on the Cubs team strikeouts.

If you want it in simple terms Garciaparra takes Alou's salary and Walker takes Grudz salary from last year.

Rumor: Caught this interesting rumor from And Another Thing!

Latest rumor: Sosa and a pitching prospect to Kansas City for Mike Sweeney and Scott Sullivan. The Cubs would then flip Sweeney to the Mets for Cliff Floyd.

I don't agree with Al's response of doing this in a heartbeat. I would flip Derrek Lee instead and keep Mike Sweeney. Lee is a nice defensive 1b man but he gets way over-valued for that. His stick is nothing spectacular and I am tired of all the SO artists on this team. Mainly I never liked Derrek Lee because he hits only .267 against right hand pitching over the last 3 years.

Sweeney is another right handed hitter but hits both righties and lefties well. He is a better hitter against right handed pitching hitting at a .317 clip over the last 3 years. Our division is dominated by good right handed pitching and the Cubs need to stock up on hitters who can mash against those guys. To go along with that Sweeney will only SO 50-60 times the whole year. Sweeney is an injury risk but he is no more a risk than keeping Sosa in RF.

Now imagine for a second a Cubs lineup built around contact hitters who don't strikeout much and generally have a high OBP.

#1 Todd Walker - .280-.300 BA; .350 OBP; 60-80 SO's a year
#2 Mike Sweeney - .290-.310 BA; .390 OBP; 50-60 SO's a year
#3 Nomar Garciaparra - .300-.320 BA; .350-.360 OBP; 60 SO's a year
#4 Aramis Ramirez - .280-.300 BA; .350 OBP; 60-90 SO's a year
#5 (Who knows - Beltran/Drew/Magglio? I would have a different order for each one but all would work in the #5 spot for a default in this case.)
#6 Cliff Floyd - .280 BA; .350-.370 OBP; 80-100 SO's a year
#7 Patterson - .260-.270 BA; .320 OBP; 140-160 SO's a year
#8 Barrett - .270-.280 BA; .330 OBP; 60 SO's a year.

You flip Derrek Lee instead of Sweeney and add one of the big three outfielders, now you have a kick ass offense. I don't like the idea of trading Floyd for Sosa basically. If that is the case just give me Sosa. And in this scenario we will only have to pay money to the Royals to bring the cost down for them. If we deal Sweeney to the Mets then they will probably want some cash as well to match up the money (I might be wrong about that depending on how much is left in each players contracts). I figure if we are dishing money around to rid this team of Sosa, don't be paying off two teams when you could only be paying off one and get an upgrade offensively at 1b.