Blanco, Colvin

Some people have argued that the Cubs, knowing Castro is the future shortstop, should have moved Theriot to 2B this year and played Blanco until Castro was ready. You can certainly make a case for this plan, but it was always a non-starter for the Cubs because they will rarely if ever carry a guy who is really good at one aspect of the game if that aspect is defense. They will also consistently overvalue even mediocre hitting even when those players play defensive positions like 2B or SS or CF.

Which is why, I guess, Jeff Baker will make the team and probably platoon with Mike Fontenot at 2B even though he has shown virtually nothing in spring training to justify the move, is weak defensively, and is likely to be superfluous once Castro arrives on the scene. It is not a big deal, and certainly the departure of Blanco is not a major event, but it is still probably not a wise choice. You wonder if the Cubs couldn't have dumped Baker on the Rangers now, as they are looking for a utility guy who can play the corner positions as well.

I'm glad to see that Tyler Colvin has done so well in spring training and has really played himself into a roster spot. Finally some of these draft choices are starting to pay off. Hopefully, at least. Of course, it does expose another serious weakness in the Cubs management style, in that good teams know when they have a good thing coming along and plan accordingly. The Cubs have, instead, made another unnecessary free agent acquisition in Marlon Byrd. Now Byrd is not a bad player, but, as I have pointed out in earlier posts, he is not a really good one either, which Colvin has the potential to become.

In a just world, Colvin would be the everyday CF, or at worst a platoon player with Byrd. Unfortunately, Byrd doesn't hit lefties very well, so there is a bit of a logjam developing. To make a difference, Colvin is going to need to get between 300 and 400 at-bats, largely at the expense of Soriano and Byrd, which means the team is spending upwards of $20 million to keep a kid with lots of promise on the bench. In any case, the outfield now seems pretty well set with Soriano, Byrd, Fukudome, Nady, and Colvin. They could decide to retain Fuld at the major league level, but because he is primarily a defensive player, they probably will not.