Brian: I guess the Cubs need space on the 40-man, so these two get pushed out. I'm a bit surprised that Smyth didn't get claimed off of waivers, but he's not much of a prospect now after a pretty bad year in Iowa in 2003. But he is left-handed, and that usually counts for something.

With Frese off the roster, I guess Ronny Cedeno lays full claim to the void left by the recently departed Augie Ojeda. Frankly, I miss Augie already.

Christian: What's weird is, they really didn't need space on the 40-man. With these two gone, there are currently 33 people on it. And, for some reason I thought that 40-man rosters had to be set last week in advance of the Rule 5 Draft, but obviously not. These two guys are now eligible to be drafted, I guess.

Poor Augie. I predict he will be embraced by the lovely folks of the upper Midwest. If he works real hard, he could be the next Jay Canizaro!

Brian: And he's been claimed by the Twins. So Augie's gone for now. But somehow, some way, I doubt we've seen the last of him ....

Christian: Given that Dusty was never going to play Choi, I like this trade. Lee is a very good hitter (264/353/467 career, 271/379/508 in '03) and plays Gold Glove-caliber defense. Plus he plays every day, which means there's no need to keep Randall Simon around. The role of back-up first baseman can be played by someone inexpensive, like Phil Hiatt or Dave Kelton.

Lee is arbitration eligible, and figures to make about $7M if it goes that far, but I imagine the Cubs will try to get him signed to a longer-term deal before they have to offer him arbitration. If the Cubs can get him locked up for 3-4 years at $5M per, they'll have a nice cornerstone and bopper in the middle of the lineup.

I like it.

Brian: I'm not going to say that Lee isn't a good player, but he's not as good as Choi can be. Sure, we can say that Dusty would have never played Choi anyway, and that this makes practical sense in light of that ... but that's just using their own idiocy as an excuse. It's very depressing to think that this team will be unable to make sound baseball decisions for the forseeable future because their manager is a likable moron.

Brian: The Cubs have placed five players on the 40-man roster:

OF Jason Dubois
SS-2B Ronny Cedeno
IF Brendan Harris
P Renyel Pinto
P Carlos Vazquez

Theoretically, it's important to keep Dubois from being exposed to the Rule 5 draft, since a) he was actually selected by Toronto in last year's draft, but was returned, and b) he had a killer stint in this year's Arizona Fall League, slugging .717 and being named the league's MVP. A team that was serious about player development would find a place for him in the majors this season, probably on the bench. I doubt that will happen, though, so while I agree with this move 100% on the merits, nothing is likely to come of it.

Harris is more or less the same story. He had a decent, if underwhelming, season for AA West Tenn this year. He did show doubles power and OK plate discipline (51 in 435 AB), though, and may develop into a good offensive player if some of those doubles turn into homers. Problem is, he probably can't play second base (he had 17 errors at third this year), and with the acquisition of Aramis Ramirez, Harris doesn't really have a position. If I were him, I'd learn to catch.

The other three players I've never heard of. According to the press release, Cedeno is a 21-year-old middle infielder and spent the season in A Daytona. There he hit .211/.257/.295, and committed 29 errors, mostly while playing shortstop. As if the Cubs didn't already have Nate Frese on the 40-man, they've now added a guy that makes Augie Ojeda look like Cal Ripken.

Pinto might have something. In 19 starts for Daytona in 2003, he struck out 104 in 114.2 innings and posted a 3.22 ERA. Not too shabby, and I can see why the Cubs would want to shield him from the 40-man ... if they were Cincinnati. I just don't see what good he does the team to be actually on the roster. He's likely not going to pitch for the team for at least 2-3 years, he's not a top-level prospect, and as I've noted before, the Cubs already have so many young pitchers on the roster that they're losing flexibility when there's an injury on the big-league club. If Hendry gets around to doing any deals this winter, I'd expect Pinto to be included.

Vazquez is a similar story, but I don't think he's as good of a prospect. The press release hypes the fact that he only gave up 5 homers this year for Lansing, but neglects to mention that he only struck out 87 in 137.1 IP, while walking 47. There's just nothing special there.

Brian: Clement may be just a bit pricey at $6 million, but not too much. Besides, the Cubs didn't really have much of a choice. He may have slipped a bit this year from his 2002 performance, but there certainly aren't any guarantees that the Cubs could have found a better pitcher on the free agent market. He'll fit just as nicely into the 4th starter spot in 2004 as he did in 2003, and he should put up a season pretty similar to his last two even if 2002 was his high-water mark.

I'll be honest, I like Matt Clement. In a very real way, he's the perfect representative of how far the Cubs have come in the last few years. For most of the last decade, Clement would have been considered the Cubs' ace, easily in many years. He's better than Frank Castillo, Kevin Tapani, and Steve Trachsel. He's even better than Jon Lieber. Sure, he can be scary to watch against left-handers, and his control can be spotty at times. But he's become a damn fine pitcher, and it's remarkable that he's only the (distant) fourth best on the team. I'm happy that he'll be around another year.

Christian: Yeah, good signing, if a bit pricey. The key to this Cubs team remaining competitive is keeping the pitching staff together. Clement is the #4 right now, and if Prior, Wood and Zambrano stick around the Cubs will have the luxury of an above-average pitcher in their #4 slot. Improvement by Clement (or, more likely, improved consistency) could move him up the ladder, and allow the Cubs to trade one of their pitchers to address another need.

Discuss this signing on The Cub Reporter

Brian: Hallelujah. This doesn't mean that Karros is gone, but it's good to know that Jim Hendry isn't stupid enough to give him $9 million.

Karros was a nice story for the first 4 months of the season. Playing mostly against left-handed pitchers, he put up some of the nicest numbers in his career, culminating with a .362/.400/.536 July. Then Choi got benched, Karros got more time against righties, and his numbers plummetted. He ended up with a remarkably unremarkable .286/.340/.446, which doesn't even begin to tell the story of his season:

Karros, v. righties: .246/.286/.397
Karros, v. lefties: .366/.441/.545
(Oops, I had these switched originally, but they're correct now - BCC)

If the Cubs want to resign Karros for cheap, and work him in another (very strict) platoon, I guess that wouldn't be so bad. But he should never again be allowed to face another right-handed pitcher. Seriously. But, given that this was not a new trend, and given that Dusty gave Karros twice as many at-bats against righties than lefties anyway, I'd just as soon let Karros take a hike.

Guthrie was moderately useful, but no more than dozens of other relievers. As an aging LOOGY, he'll find a spot in Tony LaRussa's bullpen with any luck.

Christian: Hey, I'm back! Didja miss me?

Glad to see Hendry make the right choices on these two. One source tells me that, media blitz to the contrary, Karros wasn't all that happy in Chicago. Plus, he thinks he can snag a starting job somewhere (maybe even back in LA), so I don't think he'll be back in a Cubs uniform next year.

As far as Guthrie goes, yeah, he's totally replaceable. In today's (post-new-CBA) baseball economy, it doesn't make sense to offer more than an NRI, or maybe a one-year deal, to a middle reliever. So I'm happy that Hendry didn't make a Remlinger-sized mistake here.

Quick takes on the other moves: no surprise that Sammy declined to leave, and no surprise that Alou exercised his option. Here's hoping the Cubs can move him -- maybe they can ship him to San Francisco to play right field for his dad.

Brian: As much as I like Sammy, this move isn't really exciting for two reasons. First, it comes as no surprise - despite his 539 homer advantage, Sammy had only a slightly better chance of being offered $33 million by another team as I did. Second, and more important, is that there are real reasons to wonder just how good Sammy will be over the next two seasons.

We heard a lot about how well veteran players had done offensively under Dusty Baker with the Giants, but Baker seemed to have the opposite effect on Sosa:

Sammy, 2002: .288/.399/.594, 5.40 AB/BB, 11.35 AB/HR
Sammy, 2003: .279/.358/.553, 8.34 AB/BB, 12.93 AB/HR

Even ignoring the drop in power, it seems clear that Dusty's "aggressive" batting philosphy took its toll on Sammy's numbers. I would have thought that Sammy would continue to be useful for a high OBP even after his power declined, but now I'm not so sure. Perhaps Sammy was pressing to make up for the time he lost due to injury and suspension, but this is an alarming decline nonetheless, concentrated as it was in the second half.

Practically speaking, though, if Sammy had left it would have left the Cubs in a real bind. They certainly don't have anyone better ready to take over in the minors, and decline or no, he still figures to be better than anyone readily available through trade or free agency. He figures to be grossly overpaid, but hey, what's Wrigley Field Premium there for if not to lighten the load?