The team is set....

But are they ready to go? With the signing of arbitration eligible players Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Zambrano they team that will be competing next season is nearly set. With only a few pitching spots up for grabs I'm going to take a look at what I believe the batting order should be in a bit. Aramis got $8.95 million for next season while Carlos (or Victor if you read the cubs.com homepage - that naerly made me wet myself) is going to get nearly $3.76 million. This marks the 10th straight offseason that the Cubs had arbitration eligible players who did not go to a hearing, a pretty remarkable feat in this day and age. Hendry has stated all along that he wanted to sign Aramis to a one year contract before his arbitration hearing and then open up negotiations for a long term deal.

The Cubbies also signed former Cub Dave Hansen to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. The roster for position players is pretty much set for next season and Hansen's primary use is a pinch hitter so he'll have a hell of a time making the 25-man out of spring training - unless people get hurt. I think my favorite moment of the new Dave Hansen era in Chicago is going to be when he finishes that first bag of ranch seeds during a split squad game in Tucson.

Well on to my batting order for next season. I placed these guys based in part on where I think they should hit and where they have had the most success over the last three seasons. So here it is with the splits(AB, BA, HR, RBI,OBP) players three year total numbers in that batting spot(name, position, batting side):

#1 - Jerry Hairston Jr./LF/R - Had a .378 OBP last year which has risen each of the last three seasons, 25+ SB-man
#2 - Todd Walker/2B/L - 528/.295/12/74/.347
#3 - Nomar Garciaparra/SS/R - 1270/.312/53/222/.355
#4 - Aramis Ramirez/3B/R - 831/.285/29/135/.331; hit .408/.447 OBP last season
#5 - Jeromy Burnitz/RF/L - 601/.268/34/114/.339; Don't look for these numbers this year
#6 - Derek Lee/1B/R - 848/.282/50/136/.369
#7 - Corey Patterson/CF/L - 136/.324/8/28/.384; SB numbers are way down at this spot
#8 - Micheal Barrett/C/R - 542/.244/19/65/.310; hit .280/.327 OBP last season in 8-hole

If one thing is true, this is one of the most balanced lineups the Cubs have put out in a long time. Although I put together this lineup based on how each player does in a specific batting position, I would have to say that I would switch Todd Walker and Corey Patterson in the lineup to see how Cpatt can handle the 2-hole with one more year of maturity at the plate. The team really needs his speed at the top of the lineup as Walker brings next to nothing in that catergory. In the lineup above however, everyone is at the position in which they have historically performed the best (minus Micheal Barrett who plays better in the seven spot).

There were some trends I noticed while looking up those numbers that were encouraging and concerning. Encouraging: Corey Patterson's walk rate. In the last three years he has gone from a walk ever 32 plate appearances, to every 23 PA, to every15 PA last season. Now if only he can drop that strikeout total. Encouraging: Aramis Ramirez's decreasing strikout rate and increasing walk rate. Up till last season Aramis struck out every 6 PA, last season it was every 9.6 PA while his walk rate before last year was every 16.8 PA but fell to every 12.15 PA. Hopefully this trend continues after he signs his coming anticipating extension. Discouraging: Derek Lee's declining walk total. He's gone from 98 to 88 to 68 the last three seasons. Getting on basemore more will really help Barrett and whoever else bats behind him (Burnitz/Patterson/Walker).


On the Bench the Cubs will have (with pinchhitting numbers from the last three seasons):

Henry Blanco/C/R - 1 hit in 5 AB; Will be Maddux's valet next season
Jose Macias/3B,2B,OF/S - 25 hits in 97 AB; 2 HR
Nefi Perez/SS,2B,3B/S - 14 hits in 41 AB
Todd Hollandsworth/LF,RF,1B/L - 17 hits in 52 AB; 3 HR
Jason Dubois/RF,LF/R - 3 hits in 14 AB

Not a bad bench, but they lack someone with the ability to steal bases as a pinch runner. This is something Hendry will need to find during the year so they have one come crunch time in September and October.


- The Cubs announced that individual game tickets go on sale Feb. 25th for those of us that don't have seasons. Here's the schedule for everyone to peruse.