Howry to the Cubs?.....

There are some strong rumors that the Cubs are about to ink thier second reliever of the offseason, signing right hander Bob Howry for around $12 million over three seasons. There is nothing confirmed for this right now but it seems as though the deal will be completed and announced sometime in the next few days.

If this thing does go through it will be the second former White Sox pitcher the Cubs will have signed this offseason, although this one may turn out to be better than the previous. Howry was a good reliever for the White Sox till he started having elbow problems in 2001. From then till he had his surgery in 2003 he had problems as his numbers went up across the board. However when he returned and pitched for the Indians he regained his previous form.

Throwing a slider, splitter, and fastball which can touch the mid-90's he yields a low BAA while walking very few people. The only troublesome stats were a career groundball to flyball ratio of .82 and a drop in his k/9inn ratio of around 1.6 from his career marks. All in all I think this will be a better signing that Scott Eyre as Howry can be the actual set-up man the Cubs need while Eyre can fall back to the role that best suits him as left-handed specialist (although he's still way overpaid for that).

When the Howry signing become official the Cubs bullpen will shape up as:
Dempster
Howry
Eyre
Williamson
Ohman
and two spots between Novoa, Wuertz, and any minor leaguer who steps up in spring training.

Not too bad, and much better than we appeared to be last season, with actual defined roles and everything!!!



Obligitory Brian Giles Plea....

If we get Brian Giles then maybe all of Cubdom can get the raunchy taste that was Jer-O-my Burnitz out of thier mouths, i heard Giles tastes minty fresh!