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It's time for Monday morning quarterbacking on the Cubs.
Who stays? Who goes? Cubs general manager Jim Hendry needs a budget first, which means the parent Tribune Co. has to finalize the ownership situation and hand the keys to the Ricketts family, which is waiting for approval from bankruptcy court and Major League Baseball owners.
Hendry will be on the lookout for a leadoff man. If the Cubs can't find one, Lou Piniella could use Ryan Theriot or Kosuke Fukudome there. The problem, though, wasn't the No. 1 spot in the order. Nobody drove runners in. The Cubs finished with a .241 average with runners in scoring position. Only Arizona was worst in the National League at .240.
No one expected Geovany Soto to hit .218 after batting .285 in 2008. Alfonso Soriano was bothered by a sore knee and notched a total of 20 homers and batted .241. Cubs second basemen hit a combined .254.
"We need to get better offensively, obviously," Hendry said Monday. "We need our own good guys to play better. There's no reason why they shouldn't. It's not like a guy's hit the end of the line, and he's too old to perform. [Derrek Lee] is still the oldest guy on the team, and he's performing at a magnificent level.
"If we've got five or six guys that were bad, three or four of them have to play [better]," Hendry said. "That will take care of a lot of problems."
Piniella mentioned he'd like more speed. However, in 2008 when the Cubs won 97 games and the NL Central by scoring 855 runs, they had Mark DeRosa and Jim Edmonds -- not the fastest guys on the roster.
"If you could add a couple players, you'd love to," Hendry said. "But some of those components don't grow on trees."
Looking ahead to 2010 after finishing this year second in the NL Central at 83-78, Hendry has a few items on his to do list:
• The Cubs will try to move Milton Bradley and the $21 million he's still owed. They've already been contacted by a few teams interested in acquiring the switch-hitting outfielder.
Bradley, who began the season with a .280 average, was coming off a .321 season in Texas. Hendry had decided Bradley was worth the gamble and the biggest concern was his health, not his hitting. When Bradley got off to a slow start, batting .118 in 14 games in April and then .243 overall in the first half, he never recovered.
Bradley finished at .257 with 12 homers and 40 RBIs in 124 games, missing the final 15 contests when he was disciplined on Sept. 20 for detrimental conduct. All Bradley may need is a bigger clubhouse and he could return to form.
• Rich Harden is one of four free agents on the Cubs. The right-hander has posted back-to-back seasons of 140 innings, and went 9-9 with a 4.09 ERA in 26 starts this year. He finished second on the team with 171 strikeouts, the kind of numbers good enough to garner multi-year offers. However, the Cubs -- whose payroll is not expected to increase -- most likely can only offer a one-year contract. And that would depend on how much money Harden is looking for.
Among the other free agents -- John Grabow, Kevin Gregg and Reed Johnson -- only Grabow has had preliminary talks about staying. The Cubs would like to keep Johnson, but that depends on his salary demands. A fractured left foot limited the outfielder to 65 games this year.
• If the Cubs can keep Grabow, Hendry won't be looking for pitching. The bullpen is in good shape with Justin Berg, Esmailin Caridad, Angel Guzman, Aaron Heilman, Carlos Marmol, Sean Marshall, David Patton and John Stevens in the mix. The Cubs also are high on lefty John Gaub, acquired from Cleveland in the Mark DeRosa deal.
• Hendry does not have a list of candidates for the hitting coach vacancy, but will interview Dave Keller, the team's Minor League roving hitting instructor. On Sunday, Von Joshua, who took over on June 14 for Gerald Perry, was told he would not be retained on Piniella's staff for 2010. Joshua was offered the option of returning to the Triple-A Iowa staff. |
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