Odds and Ends

This is shaping up as another rather blah off-season for the Cubs who seem content to rest in mediocrity.  They signed their only free agent, the mediocre middle-reliever Sean Camp who had an up season at age 37 last year.  He's cheap and expendable, but the history of guys like this is to follow a good season with lots of appearances with a truly awful year when they cannot get people out at all.

The Cubs did pick up Donner Navarro as a backup catcher.  This is a good signing.  He can hit in a backup role and he will not embarrass his team defensively.  They also unloaded the useless Jeff Brigham for a Rangers prospect in Barrett Loux.  Loux has been hurt nearly his entire career, but could be a good starter were he to remain healthy.  He went 14-1 at AA last year.



For all the talk of pursuing starting pitchers, the Cubs have been pretty quiet.  I'd like to see them go after Brandon McCarthy for one.  He has a lot of upside if he has recovered from his freak injury last year.

I was a little sad to see Bryan LaHair released to play in Japan.  I never thought he got a fair shake with any of the teams he played for.  When the Cubs decided he could not hit left-handers, he seemed to lose his mechanics altogether.  I wonder why they never tried him at third base.

The Cubs really need to rethink their strategies with respect to free agency.  The market has become both more rational and more irrational.  By that I mean the impact or potential impact players are usually higher risk guys who sign long-term for exorbitant prices.  The rest of the market is usually composed of mediocre role-players, David DeJesus types or worse, players around whom winners are not typically built.  Fewer players with exceptional talent who are eligible for free agency the first time are hitting the market because they are getting locked up in longer term extensions.

The real values in terms of impact players increasingly come from foreign leagues.  On this topic, the Cubs are apparently one of several teams to make an offer to the Japanese closer Kyuji Fujikawa.  This guy is very good and would be a great acquisition.  In the process, he would free up Carlos Marmol to move back to setup or for a trade.

Now if only they could dump Alfonso Soriano.