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mrschroeder08 partyvancaptain pee_callus25 Tags 2010 Preview 5 Million Dollar Black Hole AAAA Aaron Heilman Aaron Miles Alfonso Soriano Andres Blanco Angel Guzman Aramis Ramirez Arizona Diamondbacks Atlanta Braves B.J. 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The final roster is set, and while the 24th and 25th spots will not make or break a season, I am encouraged by the thought process we saw the Cubs use in awarding the spots. Tyler Colvin will probably not be the next big thing. Even this Spring, his inability to take a walk speaks to his lack of patience. But you cannot deny that he had a great Spring and has definitely done what needs to be done to be a big league player. He bulked up, he raked in Arizona and he showed some of the promise that made him the 13th pick in 2006. He is blocked from a starting job, but he will get plenty of time to play. I am hoping he can show a little more plate patience. If he does, he could pry the right field job away from Fukudome, contacts be damned. Chad Tracy is not a great player. Heck, the last few years he doesn't even qualify as good. But he needed to make this team. The way I see it, bench players should ideally be able to add a different look to the lineup and be versatile. You need to have a viable backup at as many positions as possible, ESPECIALLY those with injury prone starters. As much as many people want to blame the 2009 catastrophe on Milton Bradley primarily, the fact is the third base fiasco had more to do with it. Aramis went down, and suddenly the Cubs had no where to go. Fontenot? That meant playing Aaron Miles at second every day. Ryan Freel? Farney would have made a better option. Bobby Scales? Scrappy, yes, but not an everyday third baseman. And so we come into 2010, and it ends up being Chad Tracy vs. Kevin Millar for the final spot. All indications were Millar would make this team purely because of his personality. The thinking would be to fix the main cause of the 2009 collapse, bad chemistry. Meanwhile, they would have totally ignored one of the BIG causes of the collapse. Millar can play third in the same way Mike Fontenot could play third. He would have been sorely out of position there, and if Aramis goes down again (a fairly likely occurance), you are living 2009 all over again (though with 254% more laughter!). By the way, if you think the Cubs will miss the humor Millar brings, I will remind you that Ryan Dempster is supposedly a very funny, loose guy. Let him deal with chemistry issues that ultimately do not matter. Back to Tracy. He has not been an everyday third baseman since 2006. Mark Reynolds muscled (almost literally) the job away from him. UZR pegged him around an average third baseman in his Arizona years (8.1 in 2776.1 innings), though he hasn't played it much since 2007. Offensively, he isn't anything to write home about. In fact he rated at a -0.1 WARP in 2008 and 2009. In other words, he is pretty much THE replacement player they talk about in sabermetrics. Still, he is young enough where you can feel like he will at least stay at that level and possibly get better. Millar's production is only going to go down from the -0.5 WARP he posted in 2009. Bottom line: the Cubs actually made a solid baseball decision. It is only on the final roster spot, which ultimately means nothing, but still. I really like that they are at least making the right decisions. If they can start applying this to bigger, more important decisions, well... I can dream. Posted in: Tyler Colvin, Chad Tracy, Kevin Millar After a robust 2.5 month offseason, Blue Ivy is back and avergae as ever, and I could not be more psyched. Alright, I could be tons more psyched coming into 2010, but I do think the Cubs have a better shot than many are giving them. I think Soriano still has a little more left in the tank, maybe not five years worth, but some. I also think Soto and Zambrano will return to a better form this year. Obviously there are too many questions, especially revolving around pitching, to feel very confident. This should be a fun, if not up-and-down, year. With that said, I did not comment on a few of the acquisitions made by this team in 2010 (and New Years' Eve 2009). So I will do that now: 1) Marlon Byrd. For what was available, this was an OK signing. I do think it is a year too long and a couple million too much, but when we are dealing with the size of payroll the Cubs have, that is nitpicking. The key with Byrd is to temper expectations. He will be an adequate everyday center fielder. To expect more is setting yourself up for disappointment. Like I said before, there were not many in house candidates, although I do like the weight Tyler Colvin has put on. 2) Xavier Nady. I am iffy on this, and wonder if a Jonny Gomes would have been a safer route. It is coming out that Nady will not be available for full time work until June. Which of course begs the question, is 4 months of an outfielder coming off Tommy John worth 3.3 million. Of course, he was signed to be a platoon player, so this hardly makes or breaks the team. If he comes back and is his old self, he will be a solid contributor. Still, I worry he may not be his old self. If nothing else, Nady was a Cubs killer, so at least the Cubs won't have to face him. 3) Chad Tracy. I like this one. It is very low risk and low price for a left handed stick, who has proven he can hit, and can backup third and first. He is actually younger (by a couple of months) than Micah Hoffpauir, but has a track record of success, including a 27 home run, .911 OPS 2005 season. Granted, that is five years ago, and injuries have slowed him to a point where he was only able to get a minor league deal. The thing is: he is versatile, somewhat proven and not exactly old by baseball standards. The question this Spring for Tracy is whether he can regain some of that 2005-2006 form, or if 2009 has indeed shown that Chad Tracy is done. If it's the latter, the Cubs don't set themselves back at all, and if it's the former, they made a great find. I am rooting for the former. 4) Kevin Millar. Heh, heh. Again, low risk, so I cannot say it was a bad signing. On the contrary, any minor league deal has the chance of helping (albeit remote). There are differences between Millar and Tracy though that make me a bit less optimistic about this deal paying off. Namely he is 38, so his decline is likely to continue, while Tracy is 29 (30 in May). Also he is right handed. And while that is not the be all end all, I think that gives Tracy an added dimension that Miller cannot bring. I will say this though, Miller is clearly a fun guy. He was the emotional motor behind the 2004 Red Sox team. I don't know if that is worth a roster spot, but if he can earn it this Spring, great! Bottom line is out of Hoffpauir, Millar and Tracy, I only see one making it. Overall, these four signings are not going to put this team over the top. In fact, only three will probably be with the team in Atlanta on Opening Day... maybe even only two. Obviously, once again, and this is not any breaking news: the key to this season are the players who vastly underachieved in 2009. If they continue to underachieve, than even Kevin Millar and Chad Tracy will not be able to salvage 2010. Posted in: Offseason, Marlon Byrd, Xavier Nady, Chad Tracy, Kevin Millar | ||