Baker's The Man

Well, it's finally official that Dusty Baker will be the next manager of the Cubs, after he agreed to a four year deal worth somewhere between 14 and 16 million. Since it got done quickly and they aren't releasing the financials, my guess is that MacPhail didn't dig very much deeper at all, but rather relied on Dusty's lack of leverage and the many positive aspects of this job (Prior, Wood, Clement, etc). It's nice to finally have this done so that the offseason work can include a manager who really needs to be a part of the process, and rightly so.

The other interesting aspect of things this morning is the rumor that the alleged six player trade between Colorado and Florida may be expanded to include a third team so that Mike Hampton would waive his no trade clause. Even though he was 7-15 with a 6.15 ERA this year, Hampton has said he will not play in Florida and has a short list of teams that he would accept trades to, including the Astros, Cardinals, Braves and Cubs.

At this point, it's still a real longshot that Hampton would come to Chicago, but any deal that does happen would certainly involve Todd Hundley, given all the talk about trading one bad contract for another. Still, I'm not sure that a contract with two years and about 12 million left on it (Hundley) is anywhere near as bad as one that has 5-6 years and 80 million dollars left on it. If Hampton starts pitching like he did 2-3 years ago, maybe it's worth it, but that risk is very very high.

Anyway, I doubt much will happen in the next few days as Baker will likely need some time to settle and talk with the rest of the Cubs front office about their direction this winter.

Notes

- Baker has said that he might live in former manager Don Baylor's condo until he and his family settle on a place. Does anybody else find this weird? I mean, Baylor and Baker are buddies and all, but it must be a weird feeling for Baylor to watch the Cubs spend all this money on a friend of his to try and do the job that he originally failed at... maybe Baylor is more humble than I thought.
- Baker has also said he'd like to bring in Shawon Dunston (bring back the Shawon-O-Meter!) in some capacity, probably more as a coach than a player.
- The Mets have offered Tom Glavine a 3 year deal worth somewhere near 31 million. Yikes. I like Glavine and all, but not at his age and for those prices. I look for him to have a pretty major dropoff, if not this year, then the next.

Baker?

The Cubs and Dusty Baker appear to be very close to a deal where Baker would manage the Cubs for 4 years and get somewhere between 14 and 16 million. Last night, during a radio interview, Baker's agent Jeff Moorad, put some pressure on the Cubs to "dig a little deeper." At first, my reaction was "What sort of leverage does Baker have? Nobody else has a managerial opening at this point and how likely is it that Baker would agree to just sit out the season?"

Then word leaks that the Mariners will announce Bob Melvin, aka the Cubs #2 choice since the season ended, as their new manager, effectively ending whatever extra leverage having other options gave them.

Still though, I always hate it when agents, players, coaches, front-office types, go to the media in order to put some pressure on the other side. Allegedly, Andy MacPhail was pretty frustrated with the process and refused to be interviewed, and I can't really say that I blame him. He's been meeting with Baker and Moorad pretty much on and off since Monday and all accounts have been that they have had good, productive meetings, covering everything from the farm system, baseball philosophy and day games at Wrigley. Goodwill was built. Then when the time comes to talk money and they aren't right on the same page at the beginning (who is?), Moorad goes running right to the media.

I have to say that it sounds like his tactics have worked, and if I'm Dusty Baker, I guess I'm glad that he might squeeze an extra million out of the Cubs. But what happened to the goodwill? How difficult would it have been for Moorad to put the pressure on MacPhail himself instead of running to the sportsradio guys?

I know that it's the way things work these days, and I know that if I were an agent, I'd probably do the same, but I also find it to be somewhat disheartening. Does this sound right, Jeff? "Yeah, Andy we love you. Yeah Andy, Dusty wants to be a Cub. Yeah Andy, we know there's nowhere else for him to manage so we really want to work things out here. Dusty loves the Cubs! BUT, you're gonna have to "dig a little deeper" in order to sign him. Never mind that we have zero leverage and that I made up this"mystery" team..."

Update: Cubs general manager Jim Hendry returned to Chicago Thursday night after the GM meetings in Tucson, Ariz., and did not expect an announcement on Baker Friday.

Back to Miller

It's pretty unclear what Cub GM Jim Hendry's intentions are regarding Damien Miller's role on the club next year. One of the quotes I talked about yesterday left the impression that he still might make some moves at the catching spot before spring training but then today I also see that Hendry said this to the Arizona Republic:

"We're trying to change our whole makeup and attitude," said Cubs GM Jim Hendry, who believed Miller would catch "100-plus" games. "Certainly he is a first good piece of the puzzle in the off-season."

Now that could be pure speculation on the part of the reporter, or it could have been a slip by Hendry, who does not seem to want to admit to the Chicago sportswriters that he might be done trading for or signing catchers for the offseason. I wouldn't at all be upset if he was, but that quote makes my initial impression that they won't go after Ivan Rodriguez seem a bit more likely.

Lieber Update

The right-hander was examined Nov. 4 by Dr. James Andrews, who performed the surgery, and has increased his workload with his physical therapist. Andrews reported to Cubs trainer Dave Tumbas that Lieber's motion was full and he had excellent strength.

Notes 'n Stuff

- I see that former Cub Jeff Pico will be the pitching coach for short season Yakima (Diamondbacks) this year. I always have a soft spot in my heart for sinker ballers...
- The Cubs re-signed LHP Phil Norton to a minor league deal. Norton missed last season with Tommy John surgery but always had a real good curveball. He's got a shot at being the second lefty in the pen if he's healthy.
- Juan Cruz is pitching winter ball, and that worries me. Oneri Fleita says he's not worried because his pitching coach down there won't over-use him, but I wonder if Fleita even remebers what happened to Jeremi Gonzalez...
- Sadly, my former high schoolt teammate Ben Ford signed a AAA contract with the Twins (Rochester). It would have been a real thrill to see him in those pinstripes at Wrigley, but maybe he'll get it turned around for the Twins.

Please drop me a line if you have any comments, reactions, questions, suggestions, whatever.

Cubs Deal For Miller

The Cubs made a trade for a catcher today, effectively ending any speculation that they would pursue Ivan Rodriguez on the free agent market (or so I thought). In a deal with the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cubs received catcher Damien Miller in exchange for minor league players David Noyce and Gary Johnson. The Dbacks had been looking to trade Miller and his arbitration eligible salary (speculation puts it at around 3.5 million) and make room for youngsters Rod Barajas and Chad Moeller.

Cubs GM Jim Hendry said "He's an above average defensive guy and he's caught two of the best pitchers who ever pitched,'' referring to Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling.

Update: Hendry also adds: "It's still a long way from spring training. But when you have a chance to pick up someone like this, you make the deal." So, this still at least allows for them to pursue IRod or even re-sign Joe (I hit .200 just like Hundley but everyone loves me, heh heh) Girardi (hey let's get a few more mediocre catchers).

Noyce and Johnson are the kind of fringe minor leaguers the Cubs are famous for receiving in prior trades. I can recall getting Matt Pool from the Rockies for Frank Castillo; Frisco Parotte from the Yankees for Rey Sanchez, heck even Noyce came over from Florida in the trade for Henry Rodriguez. Noyce, 25, had a nice ERA at AA West Tennessee this year, but he's a soft tosser who doesn't project to add much velocity and may have hit his ceiling in AA. Johnson seemed to fall out of favor the past year after posting solid numbers in '01 and '00. He's a decent hitter without much pop who can play any of the outfield positions, but at age 26 is on his last legs in AA. Numbers:

Miller: .249 with 22 doubles, 11 homers and 42 RBIs in 101 games
1st half: .263 / .355 / .469 (.824) 200+ at bats
2nd half: .205 / .293 / .329 (.622) only 73 at bats

vs. Left: .275/.394/.451(.845)
vs. Right: .238/ .314/.427 (.741)

Johnson: .257 with six homers and 45 RBIs in 121 AA games
Noyce: 3-2 with a 2.72 ERA in 53 relief appearances at AA.

Neither Johnson or Noyce was on the 40 man roster and to be brutally honest (apologies to their parents) they will not be missed. This, despite Joe Garagiola's attempts to make it sound like they got some quality players in the deal: ``Noyce is a big kid who has shown durability and effectiveness,'' Garagiola said. ``Johnson is a really good defensive outfielder who we think can become a good offensive player.'' For the record, notice he did not say that Noyce throws hard. I'm also not sure of the sanity of those who think Johnson can become a good offensive player, but oh well. The spin cycle is part of the process, and I can remember Ed Lynch being proud of landing Frisco Parotte because "he throws the major league average." He conveniently failed to mention that Parotte couldn't get anybody out in low-A ball, just like Garagiola doesn't say that Johnson only hit .257 this year.

Now the question is what happens to Todd Hundley? Rumors have been rampant that a deal with another team for another bad contract is in the works, but it's also possible that the Cubs are comfortable with some sort of Miller / Hundley platoon. At least Miller fits the defensive catcher bill better than .210 hitting Joe Girardi and with his L/R splits he might make a decent platoon player with Hundley. We'll have to see. Look for my "In Defense of Todd Hundley" column in a few weeks to see why Todd should play more.

I've finally stopped being lazy and gotten around to putting this thing together - something that I've been meaning to do for a long time. I realize that nobody will ever read this other than my dad, but that's fine for now (Hi Dad). It's actually been shockingly easy to set this up so hopefully that means I'll continue to write and update as things happen.

I hope to have a number of weekly Cub-related columns here, including:

- Monday Morning GM
- Transaction Guru
- Minor League Update

I then hope to fill in the gaps with enough frequent but probably inconsistent (frequently inconsistent?) articles and digressions on all sorts of stuff.

Topics I'll be writing about in the near future:

- A suggested off-season blueprint for the Cubs

- A fan and former player's case for baseball (reaction to Bob Costas' book which I just read for the first time).

- Four years down the road - an early take on baseball's economic and labor issues
- Related: A Lone Wolf in Defense of the Owners (is it really possible?)
- Related #2: He Might Look Like it, but Bud Selig is NOT the Devil

- Which is a better seat at Wrigley -- The Bleachers or Behind Home Plate?

- A Cubs Top 30 Minor League Prospects along with comparisons to other Cubs Top 30 lists

- "In Defense of Todd Hundley"

- Why Cub Beat Reporters are Incompetent -OR- Barry Rozner hasn't been right since the Reagan Administration

- Bridging the Gap: Old-School Baseball Analysts ("I don't care what the numbers say, give me a guy who I know can play!") and numbers driven analysts ("He might be 42 and weigh 290, but he can still hit and draw walks") (Working title)

- Other suggestions? Write to me at bfsbaseball@yahoo.com