6/04/2004 10:19:00 AM by Rob

This week's poll

Well, if this were "Millionaire", and I was asking the audience, I would just be fucked, wouldn't I?

Absolutely no clear cut winner on what is going to happen on the future of left field. The last-place entrant is "signing a middling free agent, a Reggie Sanders-esque figure", which is precisely what actually DOES happen throughout Cub history. The signing of Alou, himself, is one of the 2 or 3 biggest Cub free agent splashes ever. At the time, he was coming off of some big AssTroll years.

Left field is an important position, usually one of the major offensive positions, especially in the NL. It is the last place to try to hide someone who is, um, defensively challenged. You have the DH in the American League, and LF is the closest NL equivalent. Well, that, and first base, but we have the Great Derrek Lee holding that down.

And, BTW, I'm not going to rant about DLee. He is doing PRECISELY what I thought he would. Have a big game every now and then, save several errors, and in the end, his "fantasy stats" won't be bad. But he has never been an impact player. I never was a Choi fan, and I am similarly bolstered by his low average stint in F-L-A.

It's time to start trading, boys. The offense is not pennant-winning caliber. It isn't early anymore, the return of Gonzalez and Grudzelanek isn't going to mean much, and even Sosa himself isn't enough to turn this around. It's time for the end of Baker's Dozen, it's time to get some hitters in here to help Alou, Ramirez, and (gulp) Hollandsworth?

It's time to make some decisions about the glut of street-legal fish swimming around the AAA-back of the ML bullpen pier. And if your decisions include preserving the status quo at closer, in the name of Joe-Blow Borowski, you better get some last-of-the-ninth thunder to bail us out of the games that this Sopranos character blows for us.

I never thought I would write this, and I'm NOT saying this is the answer, but how badly DID Kenny Lofton torch the bridges? Would some nails, KILZ, and Bondo fix the thing up to where its presentable enough to hold weight?

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