2009 Cubs:  Offense

The Cubs have more holes and more options with the offense than they do their pitching staff. Let's just go around the diamond. Geovany Soto had an outstanding rookie season that's sure to get him the Rookie of the Year Award. Not that it means anything about Soto's future, the last 2 Cubs to win the ROY haven't gone on to as much as Cubs fans had hoped. Jerome Walton won the award in 1989 and was never the same after 1989. He wasn't even good. Kerry Wood won the award in 1998 and missed the entire 1999 season before a career that's been filled with injuries resumed in 2000. The injuries pushed him to the bullpen. There's no reason to expect Soto not to produce in 2009. He won't be as good as he was in 2008, most likely, but he'll still be very good. The question with this position is the back-up spot that Henry Blanco has had for a few years. The Cubs hold a team option on Blanco for $3 million or they can buy that out for $300,000. I just don't see the Cubs exercising this option. $3 million for a back-up catcher is a lot of money and the Cubs could use some of that money elsewhere. Blanco is as good a back-up catcher as there is in my opinion. I expect the Cubs to buy him out and then try to re-sign him for 1 year $1.5 million. Should they do that though? A back-up catcher isn't going to get much playing time since he most likely can only play that position. Maybe 120 or 130 plate appearances. I'd like to see the Cubs pass on Blanco and have a spring training battle for that spot on the roster. Welington Castillo is as good a defensive catcher there is in the minor leagues and he even started to hit a little bit this season as he reached AA. Let Castillo and Koyie Hill and some other catcher you bring to spring training battle it out. If the race is even, go with Castillo. 1st base could be interesting this offseason if the rumors of the Cubs being willing to trade Lee are true. The odds are that the Cubs would acquire a 1st basemen via trade if they did trade Lee. Teixeira is a free agent, but he's going to get $20 million per year for too many years. Adam Dunn can stand in the vicinity of 1st base, but probably can't play it. After that, Hendry would have to get creative to fill a hole left by trading Lee. I'm not against doing so as long as I don't hear even one time about the possibility of Micah Hoffpauir taking over the position full-time. That would be a disaster. Odds are the Cubs won't be able to find a suitable replacement for Lee so they'll hold onto him. Who plays 2nd? DeRosa or Fontenot? I guess that will depend on what the Cubs do in RF. Either is more than capable of playing 2nd and DeRosa can play some RF as well. Could Theriot be moved to 2nd? That's my guess. The Cubs went really hard after Rafael Furcal 3 winters ago and I'd be surprised if they don't do the same this year and end up getting him this time. I don't think the Cubs go into the 2009 season with Soriano leading off so one of the positions they are going to want to fill as much or more than any other is the leadoff spot. Furcal is a free agent and despite the injury to his back, appears to be capable of producing at a high level for at least a couple more years. Acquiring Rafael Furcal wouldn't mean that Ryan Theriot goes to the bench as many of us hope. It would mean he'd move to 2nd base and either DeRosa would be traded or he'd play every day. Fontenot then becomes either a player whose probably too good to be a bench player or trade bait. While it is true that Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso Soriano are lazy, I've been told by a reliable source that they are working hard on becoming less Hispanic. That bodes well for them. We know that Felix Pie won't be given the job in CF and odds even if he won it in spring training, he'd be benched the first time he went 0-4. I think Pie is traded because it's just not likely the Cubs are going to carry him on the 25-man roster next year. The only problem with trading him is that every other team knows that too and won't be willing to give up anything of consequence for him. So the Cubs either include him in some larger deal or they lose him at the end of spring training. I don't see any other realistic outcome here. Reed Johnson returns for the Cubs and as of now is penciled in as the starting CF. The Cubs will find someone, anyone, who can either platoon with Johnson or play full-time. Kosuke Fukudome more than proved he's worthless at the plate. Think Neifi Perez and then think of any hitter you thought that wasn't even as good as Neifi. That's Fukudome. But the man can play some defense. I think in the end Fukudome moves to CF where his bat will still suck, but it's at a position you don't need as much offense from and he'll play some stellar defense. He'll swing and miss while spinning out of the box a few hundred times. While I think moving Fukudome to CF is actually a pretty good fit, and the easiest fix possible, I'm not sure he'll stick in CF through the entire season. It took seemingly forever for the fans to turn on Fukudome even though it took them 3 at-bats to boo Jack Jones, but they have turned on him. He got one of the loudest boos in the postseason when he came up to bat (he hadn't even batted yet!). People know my opinion on those who do that shit, but there's nothing you or I can do about it. Cubs fans will continue to be idiot, assholes whether I like it or not. He's going to get treated like shit next season by the fans and one has to wonder what's in his best interest. I can't imagine it's playing at Wrigley Field. I didn't do this for the pitching last night, but had meant to. So I'm going to do a separate post with the 2009 Marcels projections and maybe we can get an idea of how many games the Cubs will win with the roster they currently have.