Free Agency Fever-- Catch It!

Ok, I promised Spot a while back I would respond to his post about free agency, and who the Cubs need. Sometimes who you need depends on what’s out there; for a great player you can find a spot.

With Ryan Dempster out in free agency, it is a given that we will sign someone. It could be him coming back, or it might be someone different. So starting pitcher is one place we can bring in a big name. Some have thought we should get a closer; I don’t think the real reason Kerry Wood is leaving has anything to do with his injury history. It’s about Carlos Marmol. This guy from Florida is just insurance, if Marmol doesn’t work out or he loses his confidence.

The only place in the lineup we could fit anyone is the outfield. We could pick a center fielder, or a right fielder, if Hendry is ready to give up on Fukudome. With the money we are paying him, that might not be possible.

We might also not be the players we are hoping to be: with our economic implosion, Sam Zell, who shockingly still owns the Cubs, can pretty much forget $1 billion. As for Mark Cuban, I think baseball doesn’t want him. By baseball I mean Bud Selig. Such a shame. But Zell has been a decent owner; he’s let Hendry do his thing, and make big signings. Zell, better than the Tribune, understands that great teams make a higher profit, period. If we can’t get Cuban, I’m happy to stick with Zell.

Spot’s recommendations:
Francisco Rodriguez
Mark Teixeira
Eddie Guardado
Adam Dunn
Manny Ramirez
CC Sabathia
Mark Mulder
Mark Prior

Ok heres my take on this list:
I left off Kerry Wood. I’m still a little sad about this, and I’m worried about the way Marmol is at his worst in October. Does he not like cold weather? But K-Rod won’t be here, and we don’t have a closing spot for him. Teixeira, same problem. Eddie Guardado would solve our LOOGY issue nicely; with only Neal Cotts to rely on as a lefty reliever here (I think that Sean Marshall will go back to starting) this is a real need. Hendry may have called Guardado already. If we shifted our entire outfield around, we could get Adam Dunn. It would be a bad defensive outfield though. Here is how we do it; Dunn in left, Soriano moves to right, Fukudome takes center. Fukudome can handle center, though hes borderline, which makes him bad to put next to Dunn. But Soriano would make a good right fielder, if he can handle Wrigley’s sun during day games. Hmmm. With Manny Ramirez, we could just put him in right. He played right field before, with Cleveland. He is an underrated fielder, because he looks so awkward out there. But the truth is that he gets it done. It’s just not pretty. Can we afford CC Sabathia? What are we waiting for? These last two: Mulder and Prior. Their careers are probably over, but why not let them find out in Iowa? Prior especially deserves to be paid for his time, because he messed up his career trying to take us to the postseason, in 2004 and 2005, when he should have been treated conservatively.

Here are my thoughts on some guys Bill didn’t recommend that I do recommend:
Sean Casey - this could be the bat to replace Daryle Ward off the bench.
Jason Varitek - aging catchers who slow down too much to play every day make excellent backups. If we are going to win this thing and Reverse the Curse, we need guys like Varitek, who have rare experience in curse-reversing (see 2004 Bosox).
Sal Fasano -- did you know he went to Hoffman? Graduated in 1989. I remember him. That’s totally worth a contract. I’m not kidding. Henry Blanco might not be back by the way, so we have an opening.
Kyle Farnsworth -- you know you miss him. Also with Kerry gone just one 2003 Cub around isn’t good enough. Bring back Kyle!
Freddy Garcia -- we should give him a deal to see if he has anything left.
Bobby Abreu -why not stick this left handed hitting OBP guy in right and move koseuke to center? With the pressure off him Koseuke will probably be awesome. He definitely tried too hard in the second half last year.
Carl Pavano - see Freddy Garcia. Also, if we had him, we would 2 guys from the Marlins that beat us in the Bartman game, and only one of the players we lost it with. Derrek Lee, remember, was a Marlin. It was his triple off Farnsworth that opened the gates of hell.
Frank Thomas -- just to DH at the Cell in interleague. Bwahahahaha.
Randy Johnson -- seriously, we could have The Big Unit. What are we waiting for? He still throws hella hard.
Corey Patterson - yes, I’m checking to see if you’re still reading this far.
John Smoltz - no, I don’t really think so. But here, I have to point out that Glavine, Maddux, and Smoltz are all free for the taking now. Maddux looks finished. But, hmm… Smoltz? I think we do need to bring in one of these rehab cases and see what happens. The upside to Smoltz is real good.
Brian Fuentes - a proven closer. Would make an excellent left handed guy; the only option better than Guardado here.
Glendon Rusch - see Corey Patterson, above. I might as well just do it again with LaTroy Hawkins and get it over with right now.
Brad Penny -- just two years ago, he was an all-star. He didn’t hurt his arm; he just had other problems. This may be the best option as far as a FA pitcher, other than Sabathia.
Pedro Martinez - he’s no longer the dominating Pedro of the mid90s. That was the best pitcher I ever saw, along with the Greg Maddux of that time.

Ok that’s it for now, and Im still not done going down the list. More to follow.