I honestly don't know who comes up with these rumors that are trumpeted in the daily press. Maybe these guys just make them up. Or could it be that Hendry and Piniella are even less competent than we thought?
The latest ones are the Cubs are pursuing Jose Contreras and Jermaine Dye. Contreras admits to being 38, hasn't had a decent year since 2006, nor a complete year since 2007. Even the White Sox gave up on him. The White Sox also gave up on Dye, who has had a nice career, but at 35 looks to be on the down side. Although he can no longer play the outfield and never was a gold-glove candidate to begin with, he is projected to platoon with Fukudome in RF and also DH even though the NL only uses a DH in road inter-league games. Duh?
OK, just sign Reed Johnson already. He is a legitimate platoon player, and he can actually catch the ball. That would give you solid defensive outfield backups with him and Fuld.
On the subject of Piniella, he does make, in his own labored way, an interesting point. The Cubs managed to win 83 games last year despite having Ramirez and Soriano on the DL for significant periods, the injury to Ramirez actually mattering a lot, and all kinds of distractions with the addition of Bradley. So maybe the core of the team isn't all that bad, especially the pitching, or the division isn't all that hard to win.
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