The Curse of Wrigley Field

The free agent market just got more interesting and the Cubs just got a whole lot worse.  With Derek Lee on the shelf in most of 2006, the Cubs offense was Aramis Ramirez.  He’s now decided to opt out of his contract, which will save the Cubs $22.5 million (with potentially another $11 million with an option in 2009) and test the market.  Ramirez will top a weak crop of third basemen but he’ll also be one of the top free agents out there.

For Cubs fans, the team now has to find a third baseman IF the Cubs decide they can’t afford Ramirez.  Regardless, they’ll have to pay more then they initially thought or be out a huge power bat.

Lou Pinella stayed with the Cubs organization for a couple of his recent hires.  New third base coach Mike Quade was the manager for the Cubs’ Triple A affiliate (Iowa Cubs) and the new bullpen coach, Lester Strode, has been the Cubs’ minor league pitching coordinator for the past eleven years.  The other hire is the first base coach, who will be Matt Sinatro.  Sinatro was Pinella’s bullpen coach at Tampa Bay.

The Cubs look to improve their pitching.  Duh.

The Cubs new bench coach will be Alan Trammell.  This wasn’t Pinella’s first choice but he’ll have a guy with big league managerial experience to help him out in the dugout.  Of course Trammell’s claim to fame is that he’s the guy managed the 119 loss Tiger team back in 2003.

Here’s an update on how the Cubs’ prospects are doing down in Arizona this fall.  Sounds like Jacob Fox is having a pretty good run lately.

I touched on this yesterday, but I would have rather seen the Cubs go with Joe Girardi.  Regardless, Lou Pinella is the man so we’ll see how this works.  He’s the most high profile coach to take the job since, well, Dusty Baker and we’ll see how Pinella does with a decent payroll.

I’ve said this before, but I think Joe Girardi is the man for the job.  Lou Pinella is a good coach, but he won once, and he won that early in his career.  I’m a what have you done for me lately kind of guy and I like the job Girardi did in Florida this year despite a pretty hostile working environment.  It looks like Bob Brenly and Bruche Bochy are also being considered so we’ll see what happens here.

As expected, Dusty Baker is gone.  I’ve said this before, but he didn’t do a bad job.  He took us closer to the promised land then any other coach but I think his time just ran out.  Also gone is the team’s President, Andy MacPhail.  He could never do what he did for the Twins (two World Series) so we’ll see what happens.  Joe Girardi should be looking for a job and I think he’d be a nice fit.

During the offseason, I’m going to be doing some play profiles of the first Cubs World Series team back in 1907.  This will lead up into a 1907 Cubs Championship diary similar to what my brother did for the 1906 White Sox at Black Sox Blog.  And of course hopefully the Cubs will give us something to talk about during the off season.