Happy New Year you Hammerheads. Two of most Cubs fans wishes for the new year have finally happened. Marquis is jettisoned a mile high to the Rockies and the big left handed banger has been signed to patrol RF for the second year in a row. Of course this year we signed a player who has actually hit MLB pitching, and boy has Milton Bradley hit MLB pitching by putting up the highest OPS in the American League last year.
Many have decried the signing of Bradley due to his checkered past but Bradley is only 30, can still play defense at no worse than a league average level, and is a stud from either side of the plate.
Marquis departure was purely a salary dump and the Cubs cleared around $5M as a result. The Cubs did acquire L Vizcaino, a RHP pitcher that has never been anything better than average if that, but like I said, this freed up payroll to go after Bradley. Marquis was probably one of the better 5th starters in baseball but at almost $10M was a no brainer to move when a younger LHP Marshall that costs zip, will probably be better than Marquis and give the Cubs a second lefty in the rotation.
All in all, a good day for the Cubs who have implemented many of the priorities this off season by balancing their predominant RH lineup and becoming more athletic. I think they could still upgrade the bullpen with another LHRP, but I'm more than willing to go to war with this new version in 2009.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment